WordPress is an incredibly useful platform. You can perform tasks with your blog that you never dreamed of and WordPress’s tools can inspire your creativity. Read this article to learn about WordPress and how it can work for you.

Clean up long post titles as you construct the permalink. For instance, an overbearing or difficult URL would be along the lines of “Top Tips For Parents of Unruly Children.” Choose something simpler like “intelligent-parents-manage-children”.

Choose a website design that is individualized for your WordPress site. Though it is less time consuming, your site will blend in with other blogs. Your site should be unique and reflect your personality.

Get rid of special characters in the URLs of your WordPress blog posts. Special characters make it more difficult for search engines to index your site. You should also shorten all URLs so that they aren’t overwhelming to anyone coming to your site, so only include the key words.

If your title is long, clean up your post’s permalink. For instance, if you have a long phrase in a URL, that can seem very long. Be sure to select only the keywords from your long titles to create your permalinks.

Unless you dictate differently, your posts always show up in a chronological order. Rearrange your list by changing the date. In order to do that, open one of your posts and you will be able to see the date at the top right hand corner. To change the posts position, click the date and change it.

Become familiar with the tools available to use with WordPress. For example, “KITCHEN SINK” gives you more format options on posts. Your admin pages will also have a “SCREEN OPTIONS” tab. This can control many different formatting elements.

Improve upon the greeting you’ve put on your landing page. Not only does this personalize your website, it welcomes guests based on how they found your blog. This will make things look less robotic on your webpage and can be accessed with the WP Greet Box plugin.

WordPress is something that people can use to get video blogs onto their sites. Spending a little extra time preparing your website will save you time in the long run. The majority of people that use the internet are extremely visual. Videos can teach people much better than words can.

Use targeted titles and descriptions. These are the first impressions that your readers see. That heightens their importance. Use Scribe, from SEO software, to exert greater control over this on WordPress created sites. This allows you to attract additional viewers by editing the items that appear on your pages.

Gather as much information as you can before installing WordPress. It’s best to start WordPress when you have an understanding of how it works and a general idea of which plugins will work best for you. Learn about SEO, creating effective content, and using WordPress and its many features to help ease your workflow.

Only install the necessary plugins that you need. Plugins can add a new dimension to your website, but they also increase the time it takes for your home page to load. This has a negative affect on your traffic and your search engine rankings. Slow websites tend not to rank as well as ones that have been optimized for performance.

Special Characters

Keep your WordPress website updated. There are security patches included in updates that will eliminate any vulnerabilities. Hackers seek out older versions of WordPress to find a security crack. To keep your site secure, use the newest version of WordPress.

You want no special characters visible within your URLs. Special characters annoy search engine spiders, so it’s best not to have any. While utilizing keywords, make sure you keep those URLs short as well.

Always make a backup of your blog. This has to be done regularly. In WordPress, you can use a plugin for this, such as Xcloner. Be sure to back your blog up in multiple spots. It would be pretty depressing to lose your blog.

You may invest lots of time editing your WordPress site only to get the idea that none of it was saved. This is probably not true. To address this issue, try clearing the cache of your browser. Press and hold the Shift key when refreshing the browser for changes to show.

You can schedule blog posts using WordPress. You can have a post added to your blog at any time, and you don’t even need to be near your computer. Just have a look at your EDIT screen. Here you will see the PUBLISH box. Directly beneath this is the notation: PUBLISH IMMEDIATELY. Enter the time you want the post published. This should include the day, month, and year. Click OK. When the dialog for schedule comes up, look it over and press “Schedule” if everything is correct.

Improve upon the greeting you’ve put on your landing page. That can be more personal for your visitors, since you can craft a message based on how they were able to find your blog. That will make things seem less formal on your site, and can be arrived at with the Greet Box plugin.

You no longer have to approve or disapprove comments manually. Instead, let Akismet perform that job for you. Make sure that “manual approval” does not have a check mark beside it so that the comments go up automatically. If you don’t, you’re wasting time.

Don’t use “admin” for your username. Using a username like admin or administrator ups your chances of being hacked. That’s a security risk. Delete usernames that appear with “administrator” or “admin” on your user pages. Choose something else.

It can be difficult to keep up with scheduled blog posts. You could write your content in advance and just specify the day and time of posting. When you click to start a new post, you should have the ability to schedule it some time in the future. Therefore, write away and get everything taken care of ahead of time.

It is important that you securely store your password. Your plugin choices should be from reputable sites. Otherwise, your site may run into a virus.

If you’d like to choose a header, avoid a drop-down menu. Use keyboard shortcuts instead. Press down the CTRL button, followed by a number ranging from one to six. This has the potential to save you lots of time if you make heavy use of headers.

Organize your media library and keep it that way. While uploading images randomly to the library is tempting, chaos can set in. Start out with a good system of folders and be sure to file your images correctly. You will be glad you did this when you are searching for a particular image at a later date, as it will be far easier to find it.

Read user reviews and feedback of plugins while searching for them. Keep in mind that anyone with coding ability, good or bad, can make a plugin. You do not want to use a plugin that has many reported bugs and flaws. Highly rated plugins with lots of downloads are generally safe.

Be sure to always use the most updated version of WordPress on your site. Updates have security patches which eliminate vulnerabilities. You can be at risk for malware if you use an old WordPress iteration that hasn’t been updated. So, you should keep your WordPress program updated to minimize security breaches.

Is WordPress clutter bothering you? Get rid of some boxes on your page. Look for your “Screen Options” at the very top of the page. Click the “Screen Options” button for a handy drop-down menu you can use to enable or disable your boxes.

You no longer have to manually accept comments. Akismet is a helpful plugin that you can use. Allow comments to post without having to have approval in order to simplify things. You aren’t saving much time this way.

If you are searching for a WordPress host, select one that has a user-friendly control panel with a one-click install of WordPress. This can spare you the hassle of creating a database of your own. The host will be able to create your blog’s domain as well as it’s database with a single click.

Do you want to be able to post without issues? You can create a post in advance and then schedule it to be posted later. When you click to start a new post, you should have the ability to schedule it some time in the future. Write when you’re in the mood and take care of future posts.

Even though a plugin isn’t free doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth using. Think about whether the plugin is a good value given the time it may save you. If it gives you a lot of features for little money, it is worthwhile if you have more free time.

There is a good reason WordPress is so popular. As you’ve just seen, there are a myriad of things WordPress is capable of. Understanding how to utilize WordPress will improve the quality of your site. Use what you’ve just learned to do that.

Use a second folder that contains a duplicate database to test changes to your site without having them go live. This will ensure that your site is not negatively affected by any changes you make.