WordPress has been the choice of more than 70% website owners, with a world of customization where you have the freedom to make anything of your website no matter what the type of website you want, is what makes WordPress the most preferred choice.
Once you have started with WordPress, the journey of creating websites and customizing it will be a joyful ride with numerous options to choose from.But don’t get carried away with it, you should be aware of what you are doing with the features.
I have listed some beginner’s tips to consider before diving into WordPress which will help you be on the right track on making a fully functioning and elegantly manageable website.
Tip #1 Wisely choose your plugins
Downloading plugins isn’t a competition and you are not in the game to win. Plugins are very essential for your website especially when your website needs a lot of features and options. But plugins should be downloaded wisely and use only the ones which are actually helping your website and contributing to improving your website rather than sitting there and doing nothing.
Even your theme has some functions and there are many functions that can be possible with simple codes. So it won’t be necessary to download such complex plugins which can affect your database and create leggy websites. If the purpose can be fulfilled with themes and simple shortcodes, it wouldn’t be wise to reach out to heavy plugins and rely on them.
Tip #2 Get Rid of Inactive Plugins
The plugins which you are not using on your website on a regular basis can be a serious threat to the security of your website and its database. So it would be better to remove them entirely from your WordPress. Inactivating won’t solve the problem as it can be susceptible to malicious software even though it is inactive so removing them is the only solution. Keep track of which plugins you have installed in your website and which ones you are not using at all.
Tip #3 Looking Beyond the Content
We totally agree that content is king and is a key traffic generator of any website. Creating great content for a website is the best start. Another important thing is the ranking. Google Search Engine Ranking is a very important factor, your content can be extraordinary but it needs to be seen by relevant searches.
The Yoast SEO plugin will help you get your posts right for search engines. Submitting sitemaps can be another way for Google to find you and it makes it a little easier to rank your website on its search engine. With Google Analytics you can track website data and traffic to get a clear insight about your website statistics. You can use the Google Search Console to understand how your website is interacting with Google search engine.
Tip #4 Customize Child Themes not the default themes
Never tamper with the default themes while making changes. You should always work with a child theme to make any kind required changes. By doing this, the theme update won’t lose the customization.
Tip #5 WordPress Errors
You will be likely to run into different kinds of issues like database errors, white screen death and a lot more with WordPress. With a very huge community of WordPress, users who have faced any problems have posted its solution which can be easily found online.The basic troubleshooting solutions can be easily found on the internet. All you need to do is stay calm and look for appropriate solutions to the type of solution you are looking for.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t end with this, there are much more factors to consider and pay attention to like backing up all important data, building email list from the very first day, using categories and tags for posts for pages, changing their meta description and headings in terms of SEO, optimizing the website for better performance and speed and much more.