Have you ever wanted to start your own blog? Do you worry that the software is just too difficult to use? This is far from true. By using WordPress to blog, almost anyone can start their own blog within a few minutes. Keep reading to learn more about this powerful program.
If you are doing a WordPress blog for professional or search engine optimization purporses, don’t let WordPress actually host your blog. Put your blog on a different host and then just use the WordPress application there. Blogs at WordPress’ website are sometimes deleted for being too commercial or deemed spammy in content.
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.
Make sure that all of the information on your site is current. This is very important as viewers will tend to veer away from your site if it is outdated or pointing out very old information. Spend time each week getting rid of the antiquated material on your website to improve how it looks.
When you are done with your site, check out how it looks from a visitors standpoint. Did you get across everything that you wanted? Go to your site from someone else’s computer to get their point of view and write down the changes that you will need to make to continually improve the aesthetics.
Get familiar with the tools on WordPress to help you blog. Use the Kitchen Sink icon to see all the extra things you can do with your blog. Use this section to change many of your formatting elements.
Take the time to learn about WordPress before beginning to use it. Adequate planning will save you time in the long run. Learn about SEO, creating effective content, and using WordPress and its many features to help ease your workflow.
Create a members only section to your website to make it more exclusive to the people who visit your site on a daily basis. This will allow them to actively engage in discussions with other members who have the same level of intensity. This will develop a solid bond between your top visitors.
If you haven’t customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn’t actually benefit you or your visitors directly.
Make use of a landing page. Instead of coming directly to current posts, users will pass through this landing page first. You can use this for a variety of reasons, whether for promoting a product or promoting yourself. Many themes feature a landing page; however, there are also paid options.
Always use targeted titles and descriptions. As a visitor arrives at your page, they will see both of these things almost immediately. This makes these aspects very important. To get more control over such things on your own WordPress site, consider using Scribe software. You will be able to edit them to your heart’s content and draw more people in to your pages.
Use a security plugin. Keeping your blog secure is important, and there are plenty of plugins out there that promise to do just that. Try a plugin you feel you can trust. Wordfence is a good choice. It offers a firewall, does virus scans, blocks any malicious networks, and is free.
Don’t use the drop-down menus to create a header. Use the keyboard shortcuts. Press CTRL and the numbers one to six for the various headers. This is a much quicker way of doing things.
Sticky the posts the you want to stay at the top of your page. If there are posts you want your visitors to see first, sticky them by going to the ‘visibility’ option on the ‘edit posts’ screen. Choose to sticky the selected messages to the first page, and that is it.
Are the pictures on your site too big? Or, are you concerned that your visitors cannot see them clearly? Click on “settings” and then on “media.” You will be able to adjust the default size of your pictures. Spend a little time playing around with this to see what suits you, and your site, the best.
Now that you have read this article, you can see just how easy it is to start blogging with WordPress. If you want, you can start your own blog within just a few minutes. Once you master the basics of WordPress, you can start to share your writing with the whole world.