3
Need Assistance Understanding Wordpress? Try These Idea! WordPress is the most popular blogging website for a reason. The program is easy to use and provides so many options for making your blog stand out and look just the way you want it to. However, you need to know how to use the site to get the most from your experience. Follow the simple tips below to make WordPress work for you. Add page numbers at the bottom of your comments section if you have a very active community. This is important as it will allow your users to be able to sort through the material and information easier. Make sure that the page numbers are easy to see for the viewers. Remove unnecessary content and delete comments that fail to add value. Your website will be user- friendly for the people who view it. One great plugin to filter spam is Akismet. Encourage your users to share your site with their friends, family and loved ones on the top social media sites. Twitter and Facebook are the most optimal sites that come to mind, as this can get your name across to millions of different people. A social sharing plugin can be used to facilitate this. Get rid of extraneous characters from URLs. This can hassle those search engines, so the characters are best removed. Use keywords and short URLs. You can improve your search engine rank by spending a few extra minutes with your pictures as you upload them. Putting in alternate text and title tags is crucial. If someone "pins" one of your images on Pinterest, your title will be what shows up on their blog. Make use of a landing page. Instead of coming directly to current posts, users will pass through this landing page first. You can use this for a variety of reasons, whether for promoting a product or promoting yourself. Many themes feature a landing page; however, there are also paid options. If you haven't customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn't actually benefit you or your visitors directly. 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 http://www.lynda.com/Developer-training-tutorials/50-0.html in order to rank your site appropriately. Optimize your photo size before uploading them to your WordPress media library. Photos should be no more than 10 to 15 kilobytes in size. A website is no place for a multi-megabyte sized photo. It'll slow down your website, which may cause some visitors just to surf elsewhere. Take the few minutes it takes to downsize that photo.

Need Assistance Understanding Wordpress? Try These Idea!

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Need Assistance Understanding Wordpress? Try These Idea!

Need Assistance Understanding Wordpress? Try These Idea!

WordPress is the most popular blogging website for a reason. The program is easy to use andprovides so many options for making your blog stand out and look just the way you want it to.However, you need to know how to use the site to get the most from your experience. Follow thesimple tips below to make WordPress work for you.

Add page numbers at the bottom of your comments section if you have a very active community. Thisis important as it will allow your users to be able to sort through the material and information easier.Make sure that the page numbers are easy to see for the viewers.

Remove unnecessary content and delete comments that fail to add value. Your website will be user-friendly for the people who view it. One great plugin to filter spam is Akismet.

Encourage your users to share your site with their friends, family and loved ones on the top socialmedia sites. Twitter and Facebook are the most optimal sites that come to mind, as this can get yourname across to millions of different people. A social sharing plugin can be used to facilitate this.

Get rid of extraneous characters from URLs. This can hassle those search engines, so the charactersare best removed. Use keywords and short URLs.

You can improve your search engine rank by spending a few extra minutes with your pictures as youupload them. Putting in alternate text and title tags is crucial. If someone "pins" one of your imageson Pinterest, your title will be what shows up on their blog.

Make use of a landing page. Instead of coming directly to current posts, users will pass through thislanding page first. You can use this for a variety of reasons, whether for promoting a product orpromoting yourself. Many themes feature a landing page; however, there are also paid options.

If you haven't customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that aredoing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually wantvisitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar andremove anything there that doesn't actually benefit you or your visitors directly.

Images make your blog look beautiful; however, the images can also help your site rank higheramong search engines. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add keywords to your title tag andalternate tags. Both of these tags should contain precise keywordshttp://www.lynda.com/Developer-training-tutorials/50-0.html in order to rank your site appropriately.

Optimize your photo size before uploading them to your WordPress media library. Photos should beno more than 10 to 15 kilobytes in size. A website is no place for a multi-megabyte sized photo. It'llslow down your website, which may cause some visitors just to surf elsewhere. Take the few minutesit takes to downsize that photo.

Page 2: Need Assistance Understanding Wordpress? Try These Idea!

The only way to learn Wordpress is by practicing it. You can sign up for a free account inWordpress.com and start experimenting with its multitude of features. Change images, backgroundcolor, font sizes, etc. The more you get your hands on it, the more comfortable you will feel aboutusing it.

Sticky the posts the you want to stay at the top of your page. If there are posts you want yourvisitors to see first, sticky them by going to the 'visibility' option on the 'edit posts' screen. Choose tosticky the selected messages to the first page, and that is it.

If you are new to WordPress, explore the dashboard of your WordPress installation asap. It may feeldaunting the first time you see that dashboard, but with just a little time you'll get it down. Don't beafraid to type in a few test posts and pages to see how things work.

You can easily get rid of external text formatting in WordPress. You may need to copy text fromWord. Many times, it inserts characters that don't display properly, even with "Paste from Word"option. Select the "Show/Hide Kitchen Sink" option to show another row of buttons. Highlight theproblematic text. Click on a button called "Remove Formatting" to fix it.

Before you start creating your WordPress site, draft a plan. List your goals and what you thinkreaders want to know about. That way, you can build the site around what you want to accomplishinstead of doing it the other way around.

Remember that social media is integral to the success of both blogs and websites today, so youshould install social networking plugins which allow you to share your content through youraccounts. Facebook Connect is one example of an excellent tool to use to repost your content to yourFacebook account.

If you want to customize a Wordpress template by editing the stylesheet, you should create a childtemplate and make your edits there. If you alter the original stylesheet, these changes will be wipedout if the template ever gets updated. When you make changes in the child template instead, yourchanges will stay intact through any updates.

You can make sticky posts in WordPress. These are the posts you may want to show above otherposts no matter the date. There are a couple ways to do this. You can go to "Edit Post," and"Visibility." Click "Edit" and "Stick this post to the front page." The other way to do employment in

Page 3: Need Assistance Understanding Wordpress? Try These Idea!

west sussex this is by going to "Posts," "All Posts," and "Quick Edit."

Evaluate plugins carefully before you install it in your Wordpress account. Plugin creation is notregulated, and anyone in the world with the right skill can create a plugin and make it available tothe public. To make sure that the source is reliable, read the reviews and pay special attention to thenegative comments.

It is important that if you're serious about blogging, then you really research all there is to knowabout WordPress. Anything about blogging can become confusing or appear to be hard, butknowledge is your key to success. Just by reading this article, you have taken the first step tobecoming a great blogger.