WordPress 101: Everything You Need To Know

Have you come to the conclusion that you must obtain more information with regard to a blogging platform that is used by most bloggers? If so, keep reading. This article will provide you with information on what is one of the most popular blogging platforms. Read this article to find out how you can use this platform to make blogging easier and more efficient.

Make sure you have a unique template for your WordPress blog. Though it is less time consuming, your site will blend in with other blogs. Creating a site that showcases the uniqueness of your business is critical.

TIP! Don’t choose a design that’s identical to what others that have a WordPress website use. Though it is less time consuming, your site will blend in with other blogs.

Be certain your WordPress design is different from other ones. This may be tempting since it’s a time saver, but users will not be too impressed with your effort. You want your site to stand out from others.

Become familiar with the tools available to use with WordPress. It’s important for you to understand what the different features do and how each option improves your webpage. That will help you with formatting.

TIP! Become familiar with the options and tools that are at your disposal when you blog with WordPress. One great tool is: Kitchen Sink.

Make sure you use “title” and “alt.” text when you are uploading images in your posts. Both allow you to add more keywords to your page, which effectively increases your page rank.

Use Alt and Title tags. This adds searchable text to the posts. This is good for SEO, and it allows people who have disabled images to know what the images are about.

TIP! Utilize Alt and Title. This lets you add text to your posts.

WordPress is great for adding video elements to blogs. Spending a little extra time preparing your website will save you time in the long run. The majority of web surfers are visual in nature. Using video is a powerful tool because it allows you to express your thoughts visually.

With WordPress, users can easily have video blogging on their site. It might require a little extra effort, but it’s definitely worth it. Video blogs are perfect for Internet users who are visual. Videos can teach people much better than words can.

TIP! WordPress allows for simple video blogging. The time spent in preparation is time well spent.

Take special characters out of your URLs for your blog posts. This can hassle those search engines, so the characters are best removed. You can also make the URLs shorter so they do not overwhelm your visitors, so just use the keywords.

Make a schedule for posting to your blog. You will increase your motivation if you know exactly how long it’s been since your last post. In fact, to save even more time, you can create a week’s worth of posts at once, then schedule WordPress to upload them for you automatically.

TIP! Make a schedule for your posts. By developing a schedule, you will remain motivated.

Your post will automatically appear chronologically, unless you stipulate otherwise. If you want to rearrange the list, you’ll have to change the date first. The date is always on the top, right-hand corner of every blog post. Click the date, make the necessary modification, then save. This procedure will change its position.

Eliminate comments and content that fail to add value to your site. You want to make your site as user-friendly as possible. One great plugin to help remove spam from your site is Akismet.

TIP! Clean up comments and content that is worthless to your site. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts.

Improve your position in the SERPs by spending time posting your pictures correctly. Use the title tags and alternate tags to include keywords. If your readers “pin” you on Pinterest, that title will automatically show on their screen.

Let your users easily share your content via email. This is important for sharing purposes as well, as many users may not be able to access Facebook or Twitter at work but may want to share your articles with friends. Set this up using a WP-Email plugin.

TIP! Make sure users can email themselves any of your articles at any time. This is a good way to share, especially with those who are not using Facebook or Twitter.

Ensure that users have the ability to email your posts to themselves. This is critical when it comes to sharing too, because those who do not have access to social media at work may still want to send your articles to their friends. Utilize a WP-email application to ensure this happens.

Don’t use “admin” for your username. Doing so can make your site vulnerable to bot attacks. Using these usernames can put your site at risk. Look at your users page and delete any usernames that are “admin” or “administrator”. Choose another username.

TIP! Avoid using a username such as “Admin”. Using a username like admin or administrator ups your chances of being hacked.

Incorporate targeted descriptions in your site. People will first see these through the search engines. This gives them great significance. You can use SEO software called Scribe to get more control on these elements in your site. Carefully editing these items can lead to greater web traffic.

Don’t share your WordPress passwords with anyone. In addition to that, you need to get your plugins from reputable sites and you need to go over reviews prior to installing them. If your site gets hacked or has malware, you can lose everything you have worked so hard on.

TIP! Do not share your password. On top of that, only download plugins from sites which are reputable and check the reviews before you install anything.

Make sure you maintain an organized media library. Uploading images without thinking of organization can cause havoc to your site. Instead, create folders and place your images in the appropriate folders. In time, when you wish to go back and find something, it will be easy to do.

Always organize your media library. Uploading images straight into the library is certainly appealing, but it does not take long for chaos to set in. Start off with a good folder structure and stick to it. Further down the line when you need to find the image, this will make things easier.

TIP! Keep your media library organized. Sure you can just throw images in there, but it may become overwhelming pretty quickly.

Keep your plugins updated. These are a great tool that will make your website more powerful. But just like regular software, they get updated. If you do not keep your plugins current, you might miss major upgrades or discover faulty ones.

Do not use an old version of WordPress. Updated versions will give you more security. Malware is often able to infiltrate WordPress sites that do not have the latest updates. To keep your site secure, use the newest version of WordPress.

TIP! Only use the most recent updated WordPress version available. Updates often contain security patches which eliminate any vulnerabilities.

Only install the plugins that you really need. It’s cool and fun to use plugins, but the more you install, the longer it will take your users to load your site. The web site will load more slowly and affect your search engine rank. Optimized websites will almost always rank better than slow-running websites.

Do not use the drop-down menu to find a post header. Use the keyboard shortcuts. There are six different options for adding a header to your post. If you frequently use headers, this saves lots of time.

TIP! If you’d like to choose a header, avoid a drop-down menu. You can use keyboard shortcuts.

Never use an outdated version of WordPress. With each update, new security patches are rolled out. You can be at risk for malware if you use an old WordPress iteration that hasn’t been updated. To keep your site secure, use the newest version of WordPress.

When searching for plugins, check their reviews. Keep in mind that any programmer can make a plugin. You should be careful with any plugin you are installing. Plugins with several downloads and high ratings are usually safer.

TIP! When searching for great plugins, make sure to read the reviews. It is possible for anyone with programming knowledge to create a plugin.

Make sure your blogs are backed up. This is an important step in ensuring that you don’t lose your entire blog. Use a plugin like Xcloner to help you with the process. Use whichever plugin or website you feel comfortable with to keep your blog backed up, however make sure you use more than a single location. It would be a shame to lose your whole blog.

If you are looking for a host for your WordPress blog, choose one that has installation tools that can install WordPress for your with just a click of a button. That way, you will avoid a great deal of trouble that comes with creating a database on your own. With a single click, you will receive a blog domain, as will the associated database.

TIP! Make sure to pick a WordPress host that allows you to click a button in order to install it. You can spare yourself a database creation in doing so.

Schedule your postings in advance of when you want to publish them. This allows you to post any time of the day, even when you’re not near a computer. Visit the “edit” screen and find the “publish” box. There should be an option for immediate publication. If you decide to schedule the publishing of your posts, you need to use military time. Then you just select “okay.” Check “Schedule For” and press “Schedule.”

Highlight any comments the author makes to a blog post. Sometimes, the comments section becomes a place to ask questions. Any responses made can be missed or overlooked because of so many comments. It would be wise to make the author’s comments appear in a different hue. This will make them stand out and be recognized easily.

TIP! Consider highlighting comments made by the author of a blog post. You will find a number of questions and even insights from readers in the comment area.

Nobody needs to approve comments manually anymore. You can use the plugin Akismet to do that work. You can set up notifications for comments, but manual approval usually deters commenters. You aren’t saving much time this way.

Write a tentative plan before starting your WordPress blog. Write down a to-do list for your site. Do this and you’ll save time trying to add the things you forgot later.

TIP! Draft an outline of your potential site before you attempt to create it with WordPress. List all that you wish to accomplish with your website along with what readers should get from it.

Armed with this new information, you can use WordPress as the powerful blogging tool that it is. For a positive blogging venture, keep in mind what you have gleaned from this article. Making use of this information will result in handsome rewards for you.

“Read more” buttons can help. Not everybody wants to see a blog’s front page full of text. Let visitors read more by clicking if they choose. Without that, your blog may appear cluttered and uninviting.

TIP! Incorporate a “read more” link if you want to save space. Don’t make people look at a wall of text on your home page.