Using WordPress To Blog? Here's What You Should Know

Have you ever read a great blog and wished that you could be a blogger? Do you worry that the software would just be too complicated to use? If so, you need to learn about WordPress. This powerful program is so easy to use that anyone can start blogging in a few minutes.

Make sure you have a landing page. This will ensure that visitors arrive at a specific page instead of directing them right to your most recent posts. A landing page will help your site gain an air of authenticity and helps it to look a little more professional than it would have otherwise.

WordPress is great for adding video elements to blogs. Although this may take you some extra preparation, it is definitely worth it. Most Internet users are very visual. Videos offer perspectives that written content cannot, so they are quite helpful.

Enable different types of avatars on your website. This will make your site very fun and friendly for the users who visit it. Also, it will allow you to get across your personality in a better way. To find this component, visit the discussion area on your dashboard under settings.

When you use different tags for the topics on your blog, keep in mind that these are strictly for searching the content on your blog. These can’t be used by search engines. If you want your pages to be searchable on Google, you have to install an SEO type plug-in such as Headspace.

One reason WordPress is so great to work with is that its plug-ins offer a dazzling array of functions. Be that as it may, you want to be careful when selecting plug-ins. Don’t just start downloading them willy-nilly. Begin with the essential plug-ins: WP DataBase BackUp, All-In-One SEO Pack and WP Optimize. Choose others with care to get precisely what you need.

Moderate comments and content that add nothing of value to your blog. This keeps the site easily usable to the honest viewers. The plugin “Askimet” can make the process of identifying spam quite easy.

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.

WordPress has many keyboard shortcuts which make working with posts a snap. For example, ctrl-c allows you to copy text, while ctrl-x lets you cut it. Ctrl-v will paste it somewhere else. Ctrl-b is bold, ctrl-i is italic and ctrl-u is underline. These basic keyboard shortcuts will save you a lot of time if you memorize them.

You are unable to change the images sizes yourself if your site has its own gallery plugin. The gallery plugin automatically sets the sizes of the images, and you don’t actually have any control over this. If you really need the image sizes changed, ask your developer to help you change the settings.

Be sure to always use the most updated version of WordPress on your site. These updates can fix certain issues with WordPress, including vulnerabilities. Malware is often able to infiltrate WordPress sites that do not have the latest updates. Install all the updates to keep your site secure.

Include your SEO-based keywords in the titles of your posts. In fact, make them the first few words of the title. For example, if your key phrases is “best pizza in Toronto”, you could create a title such as “For the Best Pizza in Toronto, Only Spring Water Will Do!”

If your have opened up your WordPress blog for comments, be sure to monitor and moderate the comments. You do not want any inappropriate comments to appear on your blog that can be offensive to your readers. When you moderate incoming comments, you can delete spam and anything that you do not want to display to your readers.

If you find that writing new posts is cluttered and confusing because of all the stuff on your page, clean it up! Use the Screen Options link to choose what shows up on the composition page and what remains hidden. Many of your plugins may add content you don’t want, so remove it there.

The Relevanssi plugin allows you to search your logs to find out what your users are interested in reading. Why does this matter? When you have writer’s block, you can check out the results it provides to know what you should be researching and posting about on your site.

Now that you have learned a bit more about WordPress, you should realize just how powerful a tool it can be. There is no reason not to start blogging right away by using this information. Keep it in mind so that you can make your blog a must-see destination on the Internet.