If you plan to start a Wordpress blog, make sure that you offer readers more than just content. Even if you say many useful things, it may be quite difficult to engage readers with text. It would be a great idea to implement videos and pictures since this is a great attention grabber.
If you are new to WordPress, make sure to keep your sidebar simple. Make sure that it only has the essentials. Your visitors shouldn't have to weed through a ton of ads and banners to find the links they want to click on. Try removing the items in Appearance & Widgets that don't contribute anything to your cause or business.
Allow all of the users that visit your site the ability to comment using Facebook. This is a very important tool that will get your name across to hundreds of thousands of people. The Simple Facebook Connect plugin can be used if you want to install this feature on your site.
Always upgrade WordPress as soon as possible. Hackers will target WordPress because of the large amount of users. Updating WordPress as soon as updates are available can be on of your most valuable security tasks. The longer you wait to update, the better opportunity for hackers to get into your business.
Make sure social media marketing you have a landing page. This will ensure that visitors arrive at a specific page instead of directing them right to your most recent posts. A landing page will help your site gain an air of authenticity and helps it to look a little more professional than it would have otherwise.
Only use the most recent updated WordPress version available. Updates contain security patches that eliminate vulnerabilities. Your site is more vulnerable if you use an old version. So, make sure you're installing all updates that are rolled out.
Keep close track of visitors to your blog. This is the only way you will be able to improve it to please your reader more. Free WordPress bloggers can use Jetpack stats to do this. Both free and paid bloggers can use Google Analytics. Be sure to make good use of both services if you can because they offer slightly different advantages.
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Help users easily send articles to you when they want. This is a good way to share, especially with those who are not using Facebook or Twitter. Take advantage of WordPress email plugins for this purpose.
Make sure that you keep any plugins or themes you are using on your blog up to date. Exploits and general weaknesses in the security of a plugin or theme are almost always found eventually. Updates will keep them running smoothly and securely, but it's important that you remember to keep them updated.
If you want a post to stay at the top of the page, there is no need to set it's date way in the future any longer. Instead, go to the post and click on Edit under Visibility. Choose the option which allows you to make the post sticky and enjoy!
Differentiate the look of your WordPress blog. It may be tempting to just roll with the standard WordPress themes, but you'll look like many other blogs out there. Consider a few other themes. Even install them so that you can preview them with your current crop of content. It can make all the difference to audience engagement.
Always back up your Wordpress files and database regularly. Although your website has backups, they may not do backups as frequently as you would like. You can find plugins that can make the back up process much easier. When you have your files and database backed up, you can easily restore your site if anything happens to it.
If you have made a mistake in spelling of a name in multiple posts, or just want to change a certain word across your site, use the Search and Replace plugin to do the job for you. The time it takes to do this manually is horrific, so instead let the plugin get it done.
To keep tabs on comments, you don't need to visit each post separately. Instead, use your dashboard's comments section to see what has been posted recently. You should check this page daily so that you know what people are saying and can reply if anyone requests more information or asks a question.
There are a variety of blog authoring tools; check them all out. Do you dislike the dashboard at WordPress? Try an authoring program for a blog like the Windows Live Writer. There are a lot of tools outside of WordPress that work well with the platform and are very efficient. Try some, and see which you like best.
If you just want to dabble in Wordpress without installing it on your web hosting account, consider opening an account with Wordpress.com. You will get a subdomain to the Wordpress domain, and your blog is hosting by Wordpress for free. This is a good way to get your feet wet into blogging.
The plugin Broken Link Checker makes finding broken links on your site an https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer/ easy task. Why don't you want broken links? They make your content appear dated, and that can lose your reader's interest. When you update or remove broken links, they'll never realize how old your posts might be.
As you are learning how to customize a Wordpress template, choose a template that is highly flexible and which is updated constantly. Current updates means that the developers are active in improving the template. If you choose a high-quality template for your foundation, you will practically have unlimited choices in how you can customize this into your own unique design.
We hope you have gained a greater understanding of WordPress thanks to this article. The number of people who use WordPress yet understand very little about it is staggering. Use the tips you've just been given, and you can't go wrong.
