Is your WordPress blog struggling to gain readers? Considering starting a blog but aren’t sure how to get started? To have a successful blog, you must work hard and know what you are doing. Read this article for a few tips on starting your new blog.
Choose an interesting and unusual design for your WordPress blog. Since it potentially saves you time it can appear like a good idea, but it won’t provide users with a great first impression. Create something that shows your unique flair.
If your post has a long title, clean up its permalink. For instance, “Ten Ways Smart Parents Can Tame Their Children” would come across as a cumbersome, long URL. Use just your keywords and improve your search engine rankings.
Become familiar with the options and tools that are at your disposal when you blog with WordPress. Use the Kitchen Sink icon to see all the extra things you can do with your blog. Using this will help you better manage any formatting issues.
Learn what you can before installing WordPress. The more you’re able to do in advance, the more you’ll be better prepared when you start. Search engine optimization is another thing you want to be concerned with.
When you are set to post, set a schedule. Doing this provides you with the necessary motivation to make your posts. You can even create a week’s worth of content all at once and tell WordPress when to post it to your blog.
Posts are filed chronologically by default. Change the dates to rearrange the posts. To do this, locate the date in the upper right corner of an open post. Change the date by clicking on it, and be sure to save the post in the right order.
Are you getting as many comments as you’d like? If that’s the case, it may be hard for you or your visitors to sift through those numerous comments. Consider a page number plugin to simplify this. Navigation will be significantly easier, and the site itself will appear far more organized.
Security is essential for WordPress users, so make your password is kept confidential. Also, only download reputable plugins and check the reviews before installing them. Otherwise, you are vulnerable to hackers and malware.
Update your plugins regularly. These plugins are very important for your site. They are updated, like any other software. If you skip over these updates, you’ll miss important updates. Worse, you could be operating with certain bugs in your current edition.
Don’t manually approve every comment. Akismet is great for this. Make sure that “manual approval” does not have a check mark beside it so that the comments go up automatically. If you do not do this, you will waste lots of time.
It can be difficult to keep up with scheduled blog posts. It is possible to write posts in advance and have them post according to a pre-arranged schedule. You can find this option when you open a new page to post. This will reduce your stress of getting the content out on time.
Don’t use that drop-down menu for post headers. Take advantage of keyboard shortcuts instead! To use, simply use CTRL and the numbers 1 through 6. This can save time if you frequently use headers.
Read user reviews of any plugin before you download it. Remember, these plugins can be created by anyone who knows how to program. It is important not to use plugins with lots of problems and reported issues. Look for plugins that are highly rated and that have been downloaded many times.
Simple Click
If you need a WordPress blog host, only choose from those that feature a simple click function to install WordPress. This saves you the frustration of creating a separate database yourself. With a simple click, your host will be able to create your blog domain and your database.
Be sure to let people comment about your blog posts. This builds a community and gives you more information about your readers. You can get plugins that let you approve comment before they show up.
Blog Authoring
Blog authoring tools are very valuable. Are you not pleased with WordPress’s dashboard? Try a blog authoring program like Windows Live Writer. There are a lot of tools that work well with WordPress and make blogging more efficient. Experiment with different programs to find one that will work well for you.
Consider highlighting comments made by the author of a blog post. Comments are often filled with questions and concerns. Highlight author’s comments to avoid having the answers and responses get lost in the many comments. Make sure to highlight author commentary in a contrasting color. This way they can be found and recognized with ease.
Before you begin creating the WordPress site, make a plan. Write down everything you want your site to do and what you want to convey to readers. This will give you a clear picture of what you want your site to look like from the get go.
Don’t forget about the “Read More” option. Visitors to your blog do not want to be confronted with a vast block of text. Let visitors read more by clicking if they want to. Doing otherwise can leave your blog cluttered and uninviting.
Make good use of images when you blog. Remember that many people only look at the pictures and never read the words. Your own blog can have just that much more oomph. Improve your website’s standing on search engines by using alternate text and title tags on images.
Now that you’ve come to the end of this article, you understand how WordPress works. Start you blog today with the tools, tips and tricks you just learned. Your site will gain traffic. It will also be a lot more user friendly. Keep this page bookmarked so you can look back to it. Implementing these specific suggestions is going to help you improve your blog.