Best 25 WordPress Tips & Tricks From the Professionals

George Brown, Chicago WordPress Expert

I find that the toughest thing for most businesses is taking the first step. They’re concerned about getting it wrong. A wonderful thing about WordPress is that it just takes around 15 minutes to set up. I tell my students, mess up your website at least 5 times the first day. It will do 2 great things. First, it will teach you how to uninstall and reinstall WordPress so you aren’t terrified of it. Second, it is going to teach you that no matter what you do, you could always start again. And the majority of the time, the next iteration of your website is going to be better.

David Gafford, Fusion Creative

WordPress (WP) may be quite a fabulous platform to design your next site, and success is largely determined by the subject that you choose for your design. In choosing a WordPress theme, we recommend having a peek at the Avada theme or Divi motif for those that are looking to begin with their first site. If a sales funnel and direct capture is very important to your company, Thrive themes are tough to beat. Whatever theme you decide to go with, be sure to take the time to do the research to discover which one best meets your needs. You will not only need a motif with fantastic features, but one that has got support and will probably be accessible for several years to come.

Read Fit Small Business’ roundup of those 15 finest WP topics for novices .

Tom Todd, t2websites.com

Be sure you have a WordPress theme that seems good on smartphones. More folks are seeing websites on mobile devices now versus desktops by more than 10%. Many free WordPress topics that are reactive have formatting issues in the mobile view. In case your cellular view doesn’t look great, consider using a WordPress cell plugin. WPtouch Pro is considered one of the greatest plugins since you can create a dedicated cellular site using one of seven customizable themes.

Nate Finch, Finch Professional Services

One of the reasons WordPress is so popular is its accessibility and demonstrated ease of use. You can be up and running in 5 minutes, and if you are fast with the keyboard, you can have your first blog article or”About Us” page up in a second five minutes. The WordPress admin area is pretty intuitive, but after the first hour, you may find yourself asking more,”How do I…?” questions. This is natural and normal, and you need to understand where to go to acquire the very best, up-to- date information.

If you like construction, you should look at WP 101. It is paid, but well worth the price. They keep their courses updated with the most recent versions of WordPress, and there are many distinct levels you can jump right into: Basics (if you are only using WordPress for an informational website), Standard (if you would like to dig right into Yoast or WooCommerce), or Ultimate (if you would like to dig into customizing your motif with Beaver Builder or setting up Gravity Types ). WPBeginner is another great resource if you are just getting started. It’s free of charge, and you can check out their WordPress Basics playlist here.

Ilya Poltavets, OnlineMoneyz.com

WordPress can seem very complex when you’re just beginning, therefore it’s very important to keep it easy. There are so many plugins, themes, and cool features available that you might feel like you’re missing out, but ask yourself this:”Will this cool new thing help me move my business forward?”

Most frequently, the response to that is no. Rather, Concentrate on getting the fundamentals right:

• Get a well-made, optimized theme that looks great on both mobile and desktop. I enjoy Divi, Thrive Themes, or anything from the Genesis theme guys.
• Install the minimal number of plugins required to make your website work well:
  • Yoast SEO — all of your SEO needs
  • some type of caching plugin. I recommend WP Super Cache, but all of them work fine.
  • Akismet Anti-Spam if you are going to get comments on your website.
  • And Jetpack from WordPress.com for All Your other needs. (This one may be a bit bulky so turn off all of the qualities you do not use).

Jordan Harling, Roman Blinds Direct

Prior to starting your WordPress site, you have to comprehend the basics of on-page search engine optimization (search engine optimization ), usability, and hyperlinks. If you do not, then you are likely to have a significant headache down the line. Each of these may be easily edited through WordPress, but you might also need to install the Yoast plugin to make the process a bit more compact.

• Slugs — This is the bit at the conclusion of your page (or article ) URL which follows your site name and structure. Make sure this signifies what your page is about and prevent any”stop words” (a, and, the, of, etc.). You want your URL to seem as clean and enticing as possible.
• Links — Anchor text is the text that is actually connected, you want to make sure this is related to the page you are linking to as that information is used by search engines. Do not use”to see more blinds click here”. Connect the words you want to rank for in Google, such as your name or your products –“View more Roman Blinds.”
• Meta Descriptions — as soon as your website comes up in a Google search, this is actually the tiny snippet of text which appears below your listing. Make it unique, enticing, and relevant for your page, so individuals are invited to click.
• Alt Text — After you upload an image, you’ll see that the’Alt text’ option. This is where you can enter text that will be shown if your image can’t (for instance, if a browser has pictures disabled). Websites with completed alt text are favored by the search engines and rank higher in searches.

Doing these few steps will go a long way towards helping your site ranking in Google.

Cassie Bottorff, Fit Small Business

For the most part, formatting your pages and posts can be readily done in WordPress’s Visual Editor (or your theme’s equal ). However, what about when you will need to delve into the technical side of things, and tweak several HTML/CSS? You may realize there are particular bits of code you use frequently, and memorizing them in their entirety–and of course accurately typing them every time–can be quite tedious. I’ve saved a great deal of time by producing a simple Google Doc using a listing of my most often used strings of templates, code for tables, etc.. Doing this helps ensure that the code is accurate over and over, producing your site clean and consistent over time.

Donna Duncan, B-SeenOnTop LLC

It may be a good idea to seek advice from an search engine optimization expert before any coding begins.

A respectable search engine optimization specialist can work with you to determine the best website structure, WordPress theme (template), plugins (added features / functionality), and web hosting company to make sure your site, once built and established, is robust, protected, fast, scalable, and optimizable without unnecessary rework or cost. You can save a great deal of time and frustration by ensuring these choices are made in the preparation phase with the understanding of how search engines work.

For simple sites, follow Fit Small Business’ step by step instructions on building a WordPress website.

Travis Bennett, Studio Digita

One of the most essential measures with your site is having an effective backup. If you are making adjustments to a live website, you may use a tool such as UpdraftPlus to have a backup within your dashboard, and restore the changes in one click. In addition, I recommend setting up BackWPup to have an off-site backup on a regular schedule. In that way if you ever get rid of access to your own backend, you have got everything you want to restore your site.

Ahmed Khalifa, IgniteRock

The Yoast SEO plugin is a popular WordPress tool that manages your website’s technical optimization needs. It is designed to allow you to know what you have to do so that your site performs well in searches. Many people get paranoid about getting the little green light when using the Yoast SEO plugin. But don’t, because:

1) It is dependent upon your own’Focus Keyword.’ Picking the incorrect one can mislead the”traffic lights” emblem.

2) You should only stick to the recommendations by Yoast as a guideline as opposed to a must have. If you end up after each and every point simply to get the green light, you might wind up getting content not making any sense because you’re composing for the device (Google) and not what things…the users.

Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat

One of the best suggestions I can give any WordPress user is to use an expert WordPress hosting system. Platforms such as WP Engine will offer a quick, secure hosting environment using a staging site and automated backup and point-and-click revive. This is 90% of the WordPress headaches taken care of.

In case you’ve got to self-host, then there are some key factors: maintenance upgrades of WordPress, plugins and themes; daily backups and a disaster recovery and restore procedure; safety tracking; speed and performance tracking; and of course, SEO and the way your site is accessible and understandable from search engines.

As a small business owner, you need to concentrate on running your business — WordPress headaches are the very last thing that you want to address, so use a fantastic quality hosting environment which will aid with security, upkeep, and SEO. Outsourcing these vital areas to the experts will save you untold time and headaches and likely cost significantly less than your java bill per month.

Gregory Golinski, YourParkingSpace

An excellent tip for WordPress users would be to bring a surveys and quizzes plugin to your website (my favorite is Social Polls by OpinionStage). It permits you to create fun little quizzes that could pop up on your site. People love quizzes and surveys, and it is a great way to let people interact with your site.

This plugin also offers different choices to receive Facebook Likes or gain Twitter followers, or to sign up for your email newsletter. For instance, you can set this up so that your visitors must join with their email to observe a quiz or survey’s results. This sort of plugin is quite helpful because if your customers interact with your website and enjoy it, they’ll return for more. Polls are also a excellent way to find out more about your customers’ needs and habits.

Ben Taylor, HomeWorkingClub.com

You can tell when there are updates available in the icon near the top of your WordPress dashboard. Updates for plugins have been published very regularly and are often especially to spot new security vulnerabilities. Hackers can and do strike sites which have not been updated — but thankfully the process of installing them is almost effortless — just be certain you have backups and that you check your website works properly afterwards.

Sam Warren, RankPay

Instead of a particular tool or process, I would recommend the following for any newcomer to WordPress.

Get your hands on a web site that’s been set up and installed on WP. It does not need to be fancy, just a simple templated site will serve your purposes. You should be in a position to buy a website through Flippa for around $20.

Then dive in and begin tinkering. By experimenting with an present website, you may quickly learn what each feature and function works in WordPress. It’s possible to see what tweaks aid, which ones throw a monkey wrench into the works, etc..

Nothing can match hands on learning. So roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty before creating your first WP website.

Christine Kilbride, Sagefrog Marketing Group

Removing pages or altering URLs without applying a redirect is a common error amongst people brand new to using a content management program. Input the Eggplant 301 Redirect plugin. This instrument is easy to use for WordPress novices and a quick way to reduce pesky 404 mistakes (that’s the error page you see when seeing a broken URL). Just enter the URL extension of the unwanted or old page, then enter the URL of the webpage you would rather direct to. Should you make a mistake, simply hit the”X” next to the divert you wish to get rid of.

Another important tip is to understand the construction of your website template. Typically, people confuse”posts” and”pages.” For example, blog templates normally have both. The webpage should stay the same, while blog updates must be uploaded in the kind of a post.

William Gadea, IdeaRocket LLC

If you’ve got a WordPress site, various kinds of pixels and tracking codes will permit you to collect data on how your site is performing — things like conversion data, number of visitors, etc.. To do this efficiently, it’s smart to use a plugin such as Tracking Code Manager. Rather than mucking around in numerous pages of code (and risk messing up something ), this plugin lets you insert your code in one location, and it will populate to all your pages. It is really a must-have!

James Stoney Burks, Total Funnel Digital Marketing

Image sliders/image carousels — Don’t use them! You can’t depend on users to click through the slides or be patient enough to await the carousel to operate through all the slides. In addition, these components can slow page loading times, which not only result in a poor user experience but also negatively impact conversions, lowers the ordinary time on page, and will boost bounce rates.

All of these metrics variable into search engine optimization, so webpages with sliders often rank lower in search engine results, making it harder for the viewers to find your company. If you absolutely cannot avoid using sliders/carousels, try to limit them to three slides, as studies show user interaction severely drops off following this amount.

Alex Shultz, BMarko Structures

When you’re building a website, security must be your #1 priority. It is an unfortunate truth that there are malicious people out there. It follows that no matter how much traffic your site gets, sooner or later, someone will attempt to hack on it.

Generally , WordPress is a safe and secure platform. So how can hackers access your website? The answer is simple: human error. Too many WordPress admins choose insecure passwordsand they end up paying for it if their website is hacked.

Rather than employing a single word or phrase, ensure that your password has numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and special symbols (such as %, $, &, etc.) Then, use Password Safe to encrypt your password and keep it safe from hackers.

Andrew Graham, The Kratom Link

Utilizing Yoast’s bulk editor, you can quickly update title tags and meta descriptions for your entire pages or blog posts. The alternate is going page by page updating them. This tip will save you a great deal of time.

From the main navigation at the backend of WordPress (on the left), click SEO>Tools>Bulk Editor. From here, it is possible to filter through webpages and articles quickly by copy/pasting or composing in the brand new title tags or meta descriptions for each page on your website.

William Swift, Ohmatress.com

My tip is about guarding your WordPress site from spam comments. Not long after I built my WordPress websites, they have been soon ruined by tens of thousands of spam comments which hurried daily to my site. Fixing”Opinion Settings” to”must be manually approved” did help but not much because it was still very bothersome to delete thousands of pending spam comments daily. I tried with a couple of anti spam plugins in my WordPress blog and ended up with one named’Anti-spam.’ It’s simple, clean, and totally free. Simply set up and activate it, and you will not see just one spam comment again. Highly suggested!

Sophia Lemon, Photography for Ridiculously Joyful People

As a small business operator, I have not trusted another platform to encourage my business other than WordPress. I have been very fortunate to have worked in web development before starting my photography company which has enabled me to conduct my site 100% by myself. I have a few simple tips which can help small business owners seem totally put together online. Here they are:

1. Buy a professionally constructed theme like Enfold. Use their templates as a wireframe for your website and fill it with your own text and images to make it resemble a completely customized website. A fantastic motif like Enfold is reactive, so your website will look perfectly on mobile in addition to a desktop . You may find more professionally developed topics for absolutely affordable prices at ThemeForest.
2. Use a plugin such as Pretty Links to make brief, branded URLs which you may use in your societal campaigns. Https://wordpress.org/plugins/pretty-link/
3. Each of your well-developed plugins and WordPress themes are going to get an option to export your settings. Whenever you have your website set up how you like it, export these settings and store them in a folder for later. If your site needs to crash you’ll have an easy backup of those settings which will save you a considerable hassle!

Pooja Krishna, Maroon Oak LLC

One of the best WordPress tips is to keep your website user friendly — A key success factor is that the user should have the ability to browse your site intuitively. So request users of different technical abilities to check it out . A well designed website invites visitors to click on multiple pages, but also lets them find the answers they search right away. Rule of thumb — any webpage or significant link should be reached in two clicks or less!

Publish your main message’above the fold’ — many users do not scroll past the top screen on a phone or background computer, so ensure that your key content is set right upfront. When there’s more content, put in webpage jumps (just a simple code). Say you offer a lot of options on a webpage, such as multiple blog articles or 50 product images. Make sure that you create link shortcuts directly on top (i.e. posts by class or alarm clocks by function, etc.).

The secret to a fantastic website is mapping out a very simple menu, navigation, and site architecture. Online customers have a tendency to move quickly to other websites should they find browsing around it is a little too complicated, so keeping your menu simple and clean helps your viewers readily find what they want and remain longer on your own page. Even search engines such as Google rely heavily on your site’s structure so as to position content, so the simpler it is, the better for your industry. This manual describes how WordPress’ Yoast plugin requires the guesswork out of making your website’s structure.

Greysi Gonzales, Senior Web Developer, 9thCO Inc..

When it comes to your page load time, every moment counts. A slow page speed not only hurts your search engine rank, it also results in less traffic and fewer conversions. So how can you speed up your WordPress site? Here are four tips to consider:

• Conduct some research and find a great hosting provider that doesn’t use shared hosting.
• Reduce the file size of images.
• Install a Lazy Load plugin so images out viewport (visible portion of web page) will not be loaded until the user scrolls into them.
• Eliminate unnecessary mess and plugins to maximize your homepage.

Doing these few things can help you drastically reduce page load time and boost your total site functionality.

The pictures you add to your site can go beyond simply being pretty images. WordPress permits you to add a title tag with its picture title field that appears when your audience hovers on the picture, and an alternate text label is created when you make use of the alternative text fields. This latter feature displays the text in cases where your images are unavailable or when your viewers uses an assistive device for viewing webpages. Both the name tag and alt text are great opportunities for SEO. Make sure that the key words you utilize compliment your company brand and help explain to your readers what your site is about.