Even the most knowledgeable WordPress guru makes mistakes or forgets something when it comes to creating their WordPress site. Even silly, basic, you should know better mistakes. So know that you are not alone.
Today I m going to address five common mistakes or missteps that people make when working on their WordPress site.
Don t Forget Basic Plugins
The number of plugins available on WordPress are staggering. How do you know which ones are right for your site Customizing your site can come later once you have everything up in running. In the meantime, if nothing else use these four basic and essential plugins:
Spam is the bane of blogging. It will bring down your website rankings and tarnish your reputation in the Internet world. The job of Akismet is to keep your spam count at zero.
You want search engines to find you. The Google XML Sitemap plugin will help search engines like Google, Bing, etc. to better index your blog.
Contact Form 7 enables you to manage multiple contact forms and allows for customization.
Quite simply the All in One SEO Pack will automatically optimize your WordPress blog for search engines. Who doesn t want that
Load these 4 plugins now!
Why Aren t You Using a Web Analytics Program
Once again I m going to make an assumption and assume that you actually want people to come to your blog. Interact. Perhaps make a purchase. Web Analytics are critical to ensuring that your blog/business is working the way you want. Simple Google Analytics is the way to go. Itmonitors your website traffic and tracks keywords that lead users to your website. Not installing a web analytics program is not option. Do it now.
Don t Forget Mobile Devices
Essentially everyone has a smart phone and for many people it s their sole source of information and entertainment. So it s critical that your site renders decently in your reader s mobile browsers. For this I recommend using a plugin like WPtouch.
Why is Your Permalink So Ugly
Quite simply permalinks are the permanent URLs for blog posts. And you want to keep it that way. It s the way another blogger can refer to your post or how you might send the link of your post to someone in an email.
But permalinks are kind of huge and search engines don t love them. This is why it s highly recommended to change your permalink to a pretty permalink. Why One of the main reasons to change your permalink structure is to get rid of dates. Content should be considered timeless. Noting a date makes it, well dated. People are less apt to click on a search result that s two years old. Even though that very post may be the answer they seek.
The most solid Permalinks are ironically “hackable.” This means that you may modify the link text in your browser to navigate to another section or listing of the weblog. This is how the default Permalink to a story might look in a default WordPress installation:
/index.php p=423
What is the p mean Why 423 That’s why you want your permalink to be pretty. It should make sense and not be full of confusing characters.
This is an example of a “Pretty” Permalink:
/archives/2003/05/23/my-cheese-sandwich/
Makes much more sense doesn’t it The URL includes the posting date and the title. Also you can essentially assume that hacking the URL to be /archives/2003/05/ would provide a list of all of the May 2003 listings.
Where Do I Begin
Keep it clean, think about what you absolutely need and forget the rest (for now) in other words, don t cram your site with so much information that your reader runs away screaming. While this may seem rather obvious, it s a mistake you really want to avoid. I know that you have so much information to share with the world. Thing is you don t have to share it all at once. Give your readers a reason to come back. Don t distract them with a cluttered sidebar, too many ads or widgets.
Simply follow each of these recommendations and it will make your life so much easier. Better to get ahead on potential mistakes than to discover them later. Good Luck!
