10 WORDPRESS Tips You SHOULD KNOW
WordPress is a pretty incredible tool. After learning the WordPress tips I'm about to share with you (plus a few other things), I've been able to build an online business that reaches thousands of people each month and generates tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.
If you're a WordPress newbie, I was in your shoes when I first got started. At the beginning of 2012, I'd never heard of WordPress before. And when I did take a look at it, I was initially turned off and preferred the drag and drop options of other content management systems (a la Weebly and Wix).
I soon found out that those platforms were ok for beginners who wanted to simply put up a basic blog, but as I started learning, I quickly outgrew the basic setups that were so appealing.
If you want the ability to completely customize your website, if you want to sell products and do any e-commerce whatsoever, or if you want to use the platform that powers some of the most popular websites in the world, you'll need WordPress.
And, in the 6.5 years since I got started online, I've built dozens of websites and designed hundreds (if not thousands) of landing pages and sales pages.
My goal with this post is to share the top 10 WordPress tips you should know based on my experiences. These WordPress tips will help you look more professional, help you have better SEO, and will even help you make your site more secure.
And there's a video!
Related: 8 Tips for New Bloggers
10 WORDPRESS Tips You SHOULD KNOW
1: Update Your Permalink Structure
The first thing I do on any WordPress website is to update the permalink structure to use “sitename.com/sample-post.”
Having the title of your post or page as the slug in your URL is good for SEO.
Related: How to Make Money With Your Blog
2: Create Customized Sub Menus
I'm embarrassed to say, but it took me for-ev-er to figure out how to create sub-menus. If your menu is too complicated, people can't find what they want. If it's too simple, your visitors will never go where you want them to go.
3: Easy 504 error fix
One downside to WordPress is that you can easily break things and cause 503 or 504 errors. These errors, while they break your site and make it inaccessible, however, are easy to fix.
I show you how to fixe 50x errors in the video, but simply delete your .htaccess file using your favorite FTP software, and voila, you're back up and running. Just log back in to your WordPress Dashboard, re-save your permalink structure and you're good to go.
4: Preview Changes Before Publishing
Before publishing any post or page, I preview what it will look like. I read through the text, I check fonts and headings, and I look to make sure there are no walls of text or other formatting issues.
If you don't like what you see, your visitors won't either.
5: Use the Google Authenticator
After getting 250-300 hack attempts every day, I finally stopped blocking individual IP addresses and started looking for a better solution.
With the Google Authenticator plugin and the corresponding app on my phone, I ensure that nobody can access my Dashboard but me. A free and highly secure solution to a common problem!
6: Pretty Links
I've talked about the Pretty Links plugin for WordPress several times, but I'll do it again.
Using this plugin, you can take all of those long, impossible-to-remember links, and make them short and sweet. Watch the video to see how it works, or click here – https://www.ellorywells.com/amazon.
Related: How to Get Started With Affiliate Marketing
7: Optimize Your Images
Do you have the need for speed?
Well, even if you don't, your website visitors do. Typically, if a website doesn't load in 3 seconds or less, people will just close their browser, hit the back button, and go somewhere else, taking their money with them.
Use tools like Kraken.io and ThriveThemes to make your website significantly faster.
HINT: If you use a theme from ThriveThemes, you can turn on image optimization so all new uploads are optimized automatically!
As I suggested in the video, you can download FileZilla here for free.
8: Set a Featured Image
Your featured image is what shows on social media sites when you share the URL of your posts and pages. A featured image often provides the first impression of your website, and it is a major determining factor as to whether or not people will click the link you just shared.
Related: 3 Tools to Make Your Website Look More Professional
In the video, I show you how to set your blog's featured image as well as how to change the image shared on Facebook etc.
9: Quick Edit Posts and Pages
Need to edit your posts and pages but don't want to open the whole editor?
WordPress has a built-in “Quick Edit” feature that'll allow you to edit the title, slug, author, and even the categories and tags of your content without having to open the full-page editor.
10: Use Yoast
If you want to master search engine optimization, you need to install the WordPress plugin Yoast SEO. If you're paying someone to do your SEO for you, you need to install and learn how to use Yoast SEO.
After you install Yoast SEO, you'll get an SEO grade for every post and page on your website. I don’t get a green grade for every point on the checklist, but I do get a green grade for every post overall.
Learn More: If you enjoyed this post, you might also really enjoy my 8 Weeks to Exit training program that goes in-depth on how to use WordPress to build your online business. Click here to learn more.
Summary
I hope these 10 WordPress tips help you start, build, and grow your online business and make you feel like you've got an awesome website. If you'd like a little help, or if you'd like my team to build an amazing website for you, click here to visit my business website!
If you have an awesome WordPress tip, share it below!