Want to learn how to use WordPress? People worldwide have discovered how powerful WordPress can be to create a website. It really isn’t hard to learn. Amateurs and pros use it. Review the information that follows to get great advice on becoming a WordPress master.
Remember to make your sidebar as concise and clean as possible. You don’t want it to be full of 100 links, ads and buttons. Instead, only put what is important in your sidebar and, if you need more links, put them into submenus which appear when the user mouses over your main menu.
Enable different types of avatars on your website. This will make your site very fun and friendly for the users who visit it. Also, it will allow you to get across your personality in a better way. To find this component, visit the discussion area on your dashboard under settings.
Most templates come with a landing page built in, so make use of it. This stripped down page allows you to focus their intention on exactly what you want them to look at, be it a sign-up form or a “Buy Now” link. This ensures they take the actions you want them to.
Review your content for irrelevant material and remove it. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts. Akismet is one of the better plugins for filtering out spam.
Be sure to choose unique, difficult to hack passwords and keep them secure. It doesn’t matter if you are a free WordPress blogger of a paid, self-hosted WordPress blogger: it is important to keep your passwords strong and secure. In this way, you will not have to waste valuable time cleaning up sabotage and changing passwords. This will help ensure that your blog is a success.
You can insert media into your posts just by pasting the URL where you’d like the media to appear. For example, paste in a YouTube video just by putting the URL within the text where you want the video to play. Be sure that the URL doesn’t turn blue – if it does, highlight it and click the unlink button.
If you upload changes to your WordPress site, but they don’t appear to have taken effect, try to refresh from a clear cache. Hold shift as you click the reload icon in your browser, or hold shift-ctrl-r at the same time. This will give you a clean version of your site which should be updated.
Use targeted titles and descriptions. When prospective visitors use search engines to find your pages, these are among the first things they see. Therefore, they are vital. To have more control over these items on your WordPress site, you can use the SEO software, Scribe. It allows you to edit these parts of your pages to get even more traffic.
Take the time to log out of your site every once in a while. Go back and look at it as a visitor. Doing so could allow you to see something that you are missing when you are logged in as an administrator. This step will not take very long, but it should set your mind at ease that everything is functioning the way that it should be.
Remember that social media is integral to the success of both blogs and websites today, so you should install social networking plugins which allow you to share your content through your accounts. Facebook Connect is one example of an excellent tool to use to repost your content to your Facebook account.
If you are new to WordPress, explore the dashboard of your WordPress installation asap. It may feel daunting the first time you see that dashboard, but with just a little time you’ll get it down. Don’t be afraid to type in a few test posts and pages to see how things work.
Use WordPress to schedule your blog post’s publication dates ahead of time. You can schedule them to auto-post any time you like, even if you’re away from your computer. Find the Publish box in the Edit screen. Click “Publish Immediately” under that. Use military time to input the times, days, months and years you want your content published. Press OK. When the screen that says ‘schedule for’ pops up, choose it and click on ‘schedule’ if everything is right.
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.
Once you have the hang of WordPress, you can then create a professional-looking blog you can be proud of. It does not take that much to get started. You can look up tips online or in print to help you make a great website. So, take advantage of it.
