WordPress has over 50% of the market share when it comes to content management systems.
It can take a while to start understanding WordPress, but our goal is to get you on the right track. WordPress can be an invaluable tool for you in your business when you know how to use it properly.
Continue reading this article to learn more about WordPress, and how to use it like a pro.
1. Choose a High-Quality Host
Before you try to do anything with your self-hosted WordPress site, you'll need a host. The quality of the host you choose has a lot to do with how your site functions.
If you choose a host that serves your site slow, or if the servers go down a lot, it will be hard to work on your site. Not only will it be hard to work on your site, but it will provide a bad user experience for your website visitors. A poor host for your WordPress.org site could also spell disaster for your site SEO.
2. Watch Demos for Various WordPress Themes
Before you choose how you want your WordPress website to be designed, view different WordPress theme videos. The theme you choose has a lot to do with how your website is going to function, and how it is going to look.
If you aren't comfortable setting up your own theme, there are people that can take care of it for you without breaking the bank.
3. Know How You're Going to Use WordPress
There are different ways you can use your WordPress website. You might choose for it to be a one-page landing page, a portfolio of your work, a simple blog, or a full-blown site.
How you'll use the site has a lot to do with what you need to do to set up your WordPress site. The more complicated you want the site to be, the more things you'll have to learn to do for the WordPress site.
4. Learn How to Compress Images
One of the things that can slow your site down and cause performance problems are images. Learning how to compress images, or buying a plugin that will automatically compress images for you will make a big difference in how your site operates.
5. Keep Your WordPress Up to Date
WordPress is constantly updated to make it better and to keep it secure. You may not notice any changes when you hit the update button, but that is usually because there is an important backend update.
Before you update your version of WordPress, back up your website in case anything goes wrong.
6. Edit Your Permalink Settings
What are permalinks? Permalinks are what you see in the browser bar when you're on your site. It's your website link that comes after your domain name.
You can go into your settings and change the format to anything you want it to be. Some people like to have the date in their URL, but the best practice is to have your post name as the permalink.
Ensuring this setting is right before you start creating content is important. As you're gaining an understanding of Wordpress, you'll see its very SEO-friendly and user-friendly.
7. Be Proactive With WordPress Safety
If you think your website is too small to experience a cyberattack -- think again. Even small businesses come up against attacks that can cripple their business and get them into trouble for not protecting their customer information.
You can increase the security of your WordPress site by downloading plugins, keeping your WordPress version up to date, using secure passwords, and not giving out your information will help you keep your WordPress site safe.
8. Use Feature Images
Featured images are the images that you see at the top of the post. You can choose not to use feature images, but featured images are a good way to get people's attention when they click on the post.
When you're in the content editor, you will see an option down the side of the page that allows you to upload a feature image. Some themes will allow you to change the positioning of the featured image, which is why it is important to choose the right theme for your needs.
9. Input Alt Text
When you're adding your featured images or other images on your WordPress site, you should use relevant alt text. Alt text is the text that shows up when an image doesn't load.
Not only does the alt text tell people what the image is on the page, but the image can give clues as to what the page is about. Using relevant alt text can help search engines determine what keyword to rank your WordPress page for in the search results.
10. Look At Different Plugins
Once your WordPress site is up, you'll find there are almost a limitless number of plugins you can use to for virtually anything. If you want to improve security, check analytics, add sliders to your site, and more -- you can.
You can find the different plugins in the dashboard of your WordPress site, or you can Google and see what plugins come up. You can download the plugin from the site and upload it through the plugins page.
You're a Professional at Understanding WordPress
With the above WP tips, you now have a greater ability for understanding WordPress. Using WordPress like a pro can help you open up new possibilities and make your business look professional online. WordPress works wonders when you work it!
Do you feel like you need more help with your business and other WordPress.com tech issues? Our site is full of articles that can help you as you're learning more about WordPress.org and other issues.
Browse our site, find your favorite business section, drop a bookmark and come back soon to learn more about WordPress website development and blogging. Visit the Web Dev section of our site right now!
