WordPress is a popular blogging tool for a very good reason. The ease of use and versatility of WordPress is simply unmatched by anyone else. If you want to have a successful blog, then WordPress is a great step to take. Read on for some useful information to use this platform for your needs.
Remember to make your sidebar as concise and clean as possible. You don’t want it to be full of 100 links, ads and buttons. Instead, only put what is important in your sidebar and, if you need more links, put them into submenus which appear when the user mouses over your main menu.
Make sure you’re taking time to get familiar with the tools and other options you can use when you do some WordPress blogging. For example, “KITCHEN SINK” gives you more format options on posts. Your admin pages will also have a “SCREEN OPTIONS” tab. Use that to control all kinds of formatting elements.
Gather as much information as you can before installing WordPress. The more planning you do ahead of time, the better off you will be when you begin. Find out more concerning search engine optimization, well-written content and the nuances of WordPress so you have an easier time building a blog.
Make a schedule when you wish to start posting. You will increase your motivation if you know exactly how long it’s been since your last post. You might want to create posts up to a week ahead of time, then set the posts to upload on a schedule.
The URLs of your blog posts should not have special characters. They make life hard for search engines when they spider the site, so get rid of them. You should make your URLs shorter and only use keywords.
If you haven’t customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn’t actually benefit you or your visitors directly.
Download Akismet immediately with a fresh WordPress install. Akismet is a plugin for WordPress that basically blocks spam comments as they come in. If you don’t have it installed, you may be inundated with tons of spam. You’ll need to get a free key from the Akismet website to finalize the install.
Be sure to choose unique, difficult to hack passwords and keep them secure. It doesn’t matter if you are a free WordPress blogger of a paid, self-hosted WordPress blogger: it is important to keep your passwords strong and secure. In this way, you will not have to waste valuable time cleaning up sabotage and changing passwords. This will help ensure that your blog is a success.
Organize your permalinks. You need to make your links easy for the search engines to find your important information. You should learn proper SEO to do this. In the meantime, you can use WordPress’s included permalink form to clean up links before publication. Cut words down to only the most important ones. Also, try cleverly adding your keywords to your descriptions.
When looking for a template, look for one that has the basic layout and design that you desire for your site. This way, you would not have to customize it too much in order to give it the look that you want. This will cut down on your site development time.
Use the scheduler tool to schedule the publishing of your blog posts. You can schedule them to post at different times, and you don’t have to be around a computer. Go to your Edit screen and locate the Publish box. Click “Publish Immediately” under that. If you decide to schedule the publishing of your posts, you need to use military time. Click OK. Check mark the “schedule for” option, and then hit the schedule button if it is correct.
Some visitors may want to share one of your posts with friends or family members through their email. Unless you have a plugin in specifically for that purpose, the user may not find the process very easy. Therefore, install one ahead of time so that your visitors are not frustrated.
Want to create a new link in your post? There is no need to click the link icon any longer. Use ctrl-shift-A instead to start the link creation process using the keyboard and not the mouse. When you create many links within your content, this can shave time off the creation process.
Use the platform for a while, and you will be hooked for life. To really take advantage of WordPress, use the above tips. You will have a professional blog or site before you know it, freeing you up to communicate more with your visitors.