5 WordPress Tips Every Webmaster Needs to Know
More than 500 websites are being built on WordPress every day. This platform powers 14.7% of the top 100 websites across the globe. On average, 17 new posts get published on WordPress every second. In a month, WordPress is searched on Google more than 37 million times.
Choosing a nice template, choosing a WordPress host, and hitting publish isn't enough if you want to build the right site. Although web content management systems (WMCS), such as WordPress, offer resources that work to make setting up your site easier, pre-planning still plays a crucial role in the creation process.
I wrote the guide primarily to help WordPress beginners, but some of these tips are often overlooked by experienced users.
1. Pick a quality theme
The options are seemingly endless when it comes to picking a WordPress theme. You can browse for options from the WordPress theme directory.
However, too many people make the mistake of rushing when they pick a theme. That’s not going to benefit you at all.
There are tens of thousands of themes out there. Not all of them are offered directly from the WordPress theme directory.
Resources like ThemeForest have nearly 46,000 themes to choose from. In order to get a quality theme, you might have to pay. It’s not a huge expense, and most themes are reasonably priced.
Your theme should also be based on the type of website you have. For example, the best WordPress themes for blogs will be different from the best ecommerce WordPress themes.
That’s why you should always look at the live demos of themes. It will give you a chance to try a theme out before you install it. This way you’ll be able to get a better idea of the look and feel of a theme from the user’s perspective.
It should go without saying, but you need to make sure that any theme you install is mobile-responsive. Themes are useless if they can’t be displayed properly on mobile devices.
2. Use Custom Permalinks
Back in the day, WordPress’s permalinks, by default, use the “plain” permalink settings which looked like www.example.com/?p=123.
This was bad for both SEO and UX.
Thankfully, if you’re installing WordPress today, it now defaults its permalink settings to “day and name” option which looks like www.example.com/2020/01/01/sample-post.
This is way better. But here’s the problem: the date is included in your permalink.
This could cause issues such as visitors thinking that your post is outdated after some time has passed. It could also be an issue if you’ve recently updated your content, but your permalink still displays the old date.
The solution is to use the post name permalink option.
To set this, go to Settings > Permalinks and select Post Name.
This option is the best for SEO purposes.
3. Install Google Analytics in WordPress
Google Analytics is one of the must have tools for WordPress site owners. It allows you to see where your users are coming from and what they are doing on your website.
The best way to install Google Analytics is by using the MonsterInsights plugin. You can insert Google Analytics code into your theme files, but this code will disappear when you update or switch your theme.
For detailed instructions see our step by step guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.
4. Reset WordPress as If It’s a New Install (Using WP Reset Plugin)
If you’re building a site, if you’re a developer or even if you’re a writer who writes articles about WordPress, you may find that you need to get a fresh install of WordPress every now and then to test different things from scratch.
This can be time-consuming, especially if you need to do multiple fresh installs on a regular basis.
But you don't have to perform a full install every time you need a fresh install of WordPress!
There’s a plugin called WP Reset that will let you reset WordPress as if it’s a fresh installation.
To use this plugin, install it, then, go to Tools > WP Reset.
Once you’re on the page, go to the Reset tab and scroll down to the very bottom. You will see a box where you need to type the word “reset” to use the Reset Site button to reset your site.
This will now reset your installation as if it’s a brand new installation of WP.
5. Password Protect WordPress Admin Directory
WordPress admin directory is where you perform all administrative tasks on your website. It is already password protected as users are required to enter username and password before they can access the admin area.
However by adding another layer of authentication, you can make it difficult for hackers to gain access to your WordPress site.
Here is how to enable password protection for your WordPress admin directory.
Login to the cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. Under the security section, you need to click on the ‘Password Protect Directories’ icon.
Next, you will be asked to select the directories you want to protect. Select /wp-admin/ folder and next create a username and password.
That is it. Now when you try to access your wp-admin directory, you should see an authentication required box like this:
0 Comments