If you plan to start a Wordpress blog, make sure that you offer readers more than just content. Even if you say many useful things, it may be quite difficult to engage readers with text. It would be a great idea to implement videos and pictures since this is a great attention grabber.
Keep your permalinks clean and understandable. That means you should look at the permalink box every time you put up a new post. Does the title in the URL make sense? Does it help from an SEO standpoint? If not, click on it and alter it until it is perfect.
WordPress is something that people can use to get video blogs onto their sites. It might require a little extra effort, but it's definitely worth it. Most Internet users are very visual. One powerful tool is video because it can convey messages more clearly than the written word.
Posts are filed chronologically by default. To rearrange your list, you need to first change the date. Do this by opening a post. You'll see the date in the top right. Click the date, edit it, and save it to reorder its position.
Use the "ABC" button to spell check your posts before they go live. Many people overlook this ability, but Wordpress can spell check your work for you. This ensures that you continue to give off a professional look with your posts and yet you don't have to use a separate program to do so.
Images make your blog look beautiful; however, the images can also help your site rank higher among search engines. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add keywords to your title tag and alternate tags. Both of these tags should contain precise keywords in order to rank your site appropriately.
The greeting appearing at the head of the Wordpress website page should be very engaging. You will be able to understand how your user located your blog, and this will provide your user with a more personal experience. That will make things seem less formal on your site, and can be arrived at with the Greet Box plugin.
Know that you can write posts and send them in the future via WordPress. All you need to do is change the post from "Publish Immediately" to a specific date and time in the future. This way you can write posts and have them set up to go out even while you are on vacation!
When you are choosing a Wordpress template to use, pick something that gets frequent updates. You do not want to use a template whose creator has abandoned updates because sometimes you have to address security issues. A creator who is proactive in updating his template will give you a better product.
Make sure that you have the most recent version of any WordPress plugins you use. These are great for adding one-of-a-kind power to your site. They are updated, like any other software. You must be sure to install updates so that you don't miss important upgrades. Additionally, sometimes plugins stop working if they are not updated regularly.
Never forget to properly setup your WordPress page's timezone. Under the General Settings page, take a moment and make sure that your timezone properly represents where you reside. This can be very important as the times and dates are published along with your posts. Not having the proper date stamp can leave you in a time warp.
If you want to have a landing page as the front page of your site, you will first need to create a "home" page and then a second page for your blog. Next, go into Reading Settings and click the static page radio button. Choose your home page for the front page and your blog page for the posts page.
Use the Comments tab in the Wordpress dashboard side bar to keep tabs on who is posting what on your site. This will save you the hassle of getting an email every time someone says something in reply to a post. In the end, you just don't have time for that!
Always back up your Wordpress files and database regularly. Although your website has backups, they may not do backups as frequently as you would like. You can find plugins that can make the back up process much easier. When you have your files and database backed up, you can easily restore your site if anything happens to it.
Use the Easy Tweet Embed program to create links for readers to tweet the content of your posts to their followers. It does the work of creating the tweet content for you, so you don't have to manually create it every time you draft a post, saving you a ton of time.
Plugins
Look into other themes for your WordPress blog. Sure WordPress comes preinstalled with a few excellent themes, but there are many more options out there. Many are free and then there are premium themes as well. These premium themes are very well designed and let you add more advanced aspects to your blog with ease, such as e-commerce plugins.
Do not forget about Facebook. Visitors to your site should be able to leave comments or register with your site through their Facebook account. There are plugins that will help you getting things rolling on your page, and they are easy to download and use. Since so many people are on Facebook, it is important to ensure that your page incorporates the social media site in some way.
Keep your plugins updated. The plugins are what makes WordPress so great. But like anything else related to the computer, updates are necessary. Failing to maintain current updates may cause you to miss important changes that keep the plugin working well.
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.
Read user reviews and feedback of plugins while searching for them. Anyone who can program can make their own plugin. Check the reports on issues, flaws, and bugs. To help protect your site only use plugins that you have researched with a lot of downloads and high ratings.
If your WordPress site is running rather slowly, consider adding in a caching plugin. These plugins speed up page loads by caching pages that are rarely changed. This means that your site can increase in speed by 20% to 30% just with the plugin installed. There are a few different options, but W3 Total Cache is very popular.
Evaluate plugins carefully before you install it in your Wordpress account. Plugin creation is not regulated, and anyone in the world with the right skill can create a plugin and make it available to the public. To make sure that the source is reliable, read the reviews and pay special attention to the negative comments.
If you aren't using a plugin anymore, deactivate it, but also consider deleting it. Even in a deactivated state, your WordPress website checks on that plugin upon page load which actually slows down your site. Instead, delete those unused plugins completely. If you've got a lot of them, you may see a nice uptick to your site's speed.
If you want to spice up your comment section, consider plugins which allow you or your readers to customize their posts. For example, Gravatar allows them to choose their own avatar to appear next to their posts, meaning that their content can easily be picked out across all Wordpress sites.
Make sure you existing plugins are compatible prior to upgrading. If you are using plugins that are critical to the proper operation of your site, it may be best to put off installing the WordPress upgrade until the bugs are worked out. If you fail to wait, some important plugins and widgets may lose usability.
It may be that you have been a long-time Wordpress user who thought you already knew everything there was to know about it. However, the above article has likely demonstrated the fact that there are many great things you may not have realized about Wordpress, which you can start putting to use right away. Best wishes as you keep improving your online presence.