WordPress is responsible for a substantial portion of the Internet. Why? Because it is a robust, versatile, and user-friendly website-building platform. If you’ve never used WordPress or built a website before, you might feel overwhelmed, as WordPress’s most enticing feature is how easy it is to use. It’s something that almost everyone can do.
With over 46 million downloads and 74 million websites powered by WordPress, make it the most popular content management system (CMS) on the web. There are 29,000 plugins and hundreds of free themes in the WordPress.org database, which doesn’t include themes and plugins sold externally.
While the tips below may appear to be exclusively for new content managers and WordPress developers, the truth is that every web developer can profit from the advice, even if you just use them as a checklist.
With that in mind, below are some WordPress CMS tips for you.
1. Explore Themes Until You Find the Perfect Match
After you have sorted your hosting, you will need to consider how you want your site to look. Your WordPress theme, which serves as the foundation for your website’s style and design, will come into play here. To make theme picking easier, avoid time-consuming trial and error by watching theme demos.
WordPress’s rich collection of over 8,000 free themes is guaranteed to have many options that capture your eye. Some will also be adjustable, allowing you to tailor them to your preferences.
Read the reviews and make sure it’s mobile-friendly, or you will have trouble afterward. Also, while a theme with many bells and whistles may look enticing, it can slow down your website. Pay attention to functionality and site loading speed more than the appearance of a theme.
2. Optimize WordPress SEO
What good is a well-designed, fully-functional website if no one can see it? That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in, as it can help you rank higher in search results, increasing your visibility. Unfortunately, SEO can be difficult for novices, so install a plugin unless you want to hire someone to do it for you.
Although several WordPress SEO plugins are available, Yoast SEO might be the best option. It is the most popular WordPress plugin in its category, with over five million active installations, so it must be doing something well. What can Yoast, an SEO plugin, do for you? It may ensure that your site’s content is relevant and searchable, allowing you to attract more visitors and climb the search engine rankings.
3. Pick WordPress Plugins Carefully
Over 58,000 plugins are available for WordPress, allowing users to extend the website’s functionality. You can use plugins to add live chat, contact forms, and other features to your site. While this sounds fantastic, there is a problem with plugins: They can cause your site to slow down and compromise its security. As a result, just install the necessary plugins.
Also, read reviews before installing them to guarantee they work well and are secure.
4. Regularly check for WordPress updates
How do you ensure your website is up to date and safe from hackers? By routinely checking for updates and installing them, you may avoid problems with an outdated website. Your WordPress dashboard will show you any new updates. After clicking “Update now” to receive the latest versions of your themes, plugins, or WordPress itself, you should be good to go. Back up your site before and after you upgrade to be secure.
5. Compress Media to improve website speed
Nothing is more annoying than a good-looking website that takes forever to load. A quick-to-load website can improve the user experience and prevent visitors from becoming frustrated. Furthermore, search engines value on-site speed. So now, how do you increase your speed without sacrificing too much?
Reduce the file size of your photographs and videos by compressing them. Use a compression tool like ImageResize to do this operation quickly.
6. Optimize Your WordPress Security
What steps can you take to make your WordPress site as safe as possible? Do the following, in addition to doing frequent updates, which we will explain later: Obtain an SSL certificate to encrypt data passing via your website. Google likes it because it makes visitors feel safe. SSL certificates are available from Bluehost and other hosting companies. Regularly back up your site with a plugin like UpdraftPlus if something goes wrong. Depending on your package, some hosting companies will even do it for free.
Install a trustworthy security plugin with scanners, firewalls, and other features to protect your site. WordFence is a popular WordPress security plugin.
7. Keep it clutter-free
Have you ever been to a website with so many banners, advertising, and widgets that you felt overwhelmed? If that’s the case, you have undoubtedly avoided returning since clutter creates an unpleasant user experience. Scrutinize your pages to prevent this problem. Are there too many widgets in your sidebar and footer? Then eliminate them.
8. Integrating Google Fonts into the Core
Typography is necessary for conversion optimization. As a result, businesses and bloggers are always looking for ways to improve it. However, WordPress lacks a feature that allows users to select their font without having to download an additional plugin or dig into the code. How is that possible?
Well, setting up the Google Fonts plugin isn’t tricky. However, having a feature like that embedded into the core eliminates the need to consider the additional burden of another plugin.
9. Use Right WordPress Permalinks
Permanent links on your WordPress site, such as those for the main URL, individual blog entries, and so on, are known as permalinks. While WordPress generates permalinks for you, you can modify them to make them more SEO-friendly. Go to the Settings area of your WordPress dashboard in order to do it. To improve your SEO, choose Permalinks and use the Post Name setting.
10. Include image titles and alt text
Images on your site are visible to visitors but not to Google. That is why it is critical to include titles and alt text in your photos so that Google understands what they are about.
Your image’s title and alt text do not have to be long. Just make sure they are detailed and, if feasible, include keywords to describe what the image reveals. Assume the image will not load; a visitor could still figure out what is intended to be there with the correct title and alt text.
11. Bonus: Monitor Your Comments (or switch off the comment section)
Comments sections are an excellent way to encourage interaction, which can develop into a full-fledged community of visitors who return to interact. However, some comment sections can become inundated with spam or other nonsense, which you should avoid.
Use the WordPress admin to keep your comment sections under control. Under Settings, go to the Discussion section and moderate the comments to your preference.
Wrapping Up
Try these tips, and do not forget to test your website’s speed before and after implementing them. You will be surprised to learn how much simple modifications can improve the performance of your WordPress CMS. Your material is your most valuable asset; therefore, make sure you protect it. This entails creating a backup of your data so you do not have to start again if your blog goes down. If you do not back up your content, plugins, and affiliate links, getting back on your feet may take some time.
Great topic, please keep it up I really enjoy reading these type articles.
Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed reading it, especially because it addressed my problem. It helped me a lot and I hope it will help others too.