Wordpress 101: Everything You Had to Know

WordPress is an extremely popular blogging tool these days. It is making an impact on the Internetmarketing world like no other. Learning more about WordPress may seem difficult at first, but withthe right knowledge, it will become easier. Read this excellent WordPress advice to use it to youradvantage.

Create smart URLs! Don't use a lot of keywords in the URL, and keep the whole thing simple andstraightforward. Avoid excessive verbiage. You want to create smart permalinks that are easy to lookat and easy to understand. This helps make your blog more user friendly and comprehensible.

Be sure to add an author biography to each blog post on boards where many bloggers are posting. Inthis way, each blogger gets proper credit and it is easier for readers to know who posted what at aglance. Furthermore, readers will tend to stay on your page if they can get all the information theyneed in one place.

Blog post URLs should not have special characters in them. These characters negatively affect how asearch engine crawls and indexes your content. You should also shorten all URLs so that they aren'toverwhelming to anyone coming to your site, so only include the key words.

When you are done with your site, check out how it looks from a visitors standpoint. Did you getacross everything that you wanted? Go to your site from someone else's computer to get their pointof view and write down the changes that you will need to make to continually improve the aesthetics.

Remember to make good use of the footer area at the bottom of your WordPress blog pages. In thisarea you can include additional information about yourself and/or your copyright. You can also add alink to another page if you wish. Different themes give you more use of this area, so choose yourthemes carefully to maximize the value of your page footers.

When you are choosing a Wordpress template to use, pick something that gets frequent websitedesign alexandria va updates. You do not want to use a template whose creator has abandonedupdates because sometimes you have to address security issues. A creator who is proactive inupdating his template will give you a better product.

Make sure that your wordpress site loads as fast as possible for your visitors. This is vital, as a sitethat crashes or takes too long will discourage your users from visiting it. A fast site will put yourusers in a good mood when they come there on a daily basis.

Take the time to log out of your site every once in a while. Go back and look at it as a visitor. Doingso could allow you to see something that you are missing when you are logged in as anadministrator. This step will not take very long, but it should set your mind at ease that everything isfunctioning the way that it should be.

Always organize your media library. Uploading images quickly is tempting, but this can turn into ahuge mess. Start out with a good system of folders and be sure to file your images correctly. You canthen find pictures you wish to use later much easier.

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 whatremains hidden. Many of your plugins may add content you don't want, so remove it there.

Use images properly on your WordPress site. They can add everything from beauty to interest toyour pages. Use their alternative text tags and title tags properly. Don't settle for genericdescriptions. You need to make them specific so that your visitors know exactly what they are. Thisalso helps them figure out what your site is about.

To keep tabs on comments, you don't need to visit each post separately. Instead, use yourdashboard's comments section to see what has been posted recently. You should check this pagedaily so that you know what people are saying and can reply if anyone requests more information orasks a question.

Think about scheduling post publishing in advance byusing WordPress. You can schedule them to post, even ifyou aren't around. Just have a look at your EDIT screen.Here you will see the PUBLISH box. Click "PublishImmediately" under that. Insert military times. Also, makesure you include years, months, and days. Press OK. Checkthe Schedule For screen and choose Schedule.

Some visitors may want to share one of your posts withfriends or family members through their email. Unless youhave a plugin in specifically for that purpose, the user may not find the process very easy. Therefore,install one ahead of time so that your visitors are not frustrated.

Did you spend a lot of time making changes to your blog, only to check it out and see none of thechanges http://www.pbhs.com/ took effect? Do not fret, you just need to clear your cache. Find outhow to clear the cache on the browser you are using, clear it and the changes should show up.

Try several different tools to author blogs. Are you unsatisfied with WordPress's dashboard? Try aprogram such as Windows Live Writer. A lot of tools are out there that are WordPress compatiblebut far more efficient. Try some, and see which you like best.

Are the pictures on your site too big? Or, are you concerned that your visitors cannot see themclearly? Click on "settings" and then on "media." You will be able to adjust the default size of yourpictures. Spend a little time playing around with this to see what suits you, and your site, the best.

Keep in mind that you don't personally have to work alone on your site. You can hire someone or geta volunteer that saves you your own time on the project.

Now that you have read this article, you should have a better understanding of how WordPressworks. Whether plugins or security, you can learn a lot. These ideas give you a great starting point.Use this article for reference when verifying you have properly implemented these tips.