9 Essential Tips for Working in WordPress

If you're just getting started with WordPress, I know it can be intimidating at first, and we understand because we have all been there, so we come up with some of the best recommendations for you to get started. These tips for working in WordPress will help you make the most of this application and set up your site for success. Let's get started!

• Step 1: Get to know your dashboard!
• Step 2: Use Posts for Blogs and Pages for Static Content
• Step 3: Spend time on your titles
• Step 4: Don’t break the (copyright) law
• Step 5: Tighten up your images
• Step 6: Streamline your sidebar
• Step 7: Avoid plugin overload
• Step 8: Update to avoid a possible crash
• Step 9: Back up your website
• Summary

Step 1: Get to know your dashboard!

• The WordPress dashboard is the first screen you see after logging in, and spending a few minutes playing dashboard detective can help you grasp how WordPress is arranged.
• The main menu on the left allows you to make articles and pages, adjust the layout of your website, and manage users and settings. At the top, you'll find your name and a few fast links. Clicking on your name allows you to preview your website. Clicking on "Coming Soon Active" takes you to a page that arranges some of the navigation options to help you get started.

Step 2: Use posts for blog content. Use pages for static content

• Posts - These work well for blog formats. They’re easily shareable, searchable, and easy to leave comments on. You can schedule posts to go live on selected dates and times, and when they publish, they’ll appear on your site in reverse chronological order (newest first).

  For more information, you may check this article: WordPress: Creating, Editing, Removing Posts.

• Pages - These work well for content that won’t change much, like your About page, Contact page, and sometimes a home page or portfolio pages. Pages can be displayed in your top navigation and menus.

  For instructions on how to create one, please refer here: WordPress: Adding a Page.

Step 3: Spend time on your titles

Your post and page titles help your audience make a split-second decision about whether to engage or not, and your titles show up in Google search results and shared posts. Create titles that are:

• Engaging - Grab their attention.
• Insightful - Let your audience know what they’ll learn and what’s in it for them.
• Clear - Let them know what the topic is. Include relevant search terms, but don’t keyword-smash, and never bait-and-switch.

Step 4: Don’t break the (copyright) law

Using copyrighted media without permission is against the law. When it comes to words, images, and music, know the rules. Only add content and media to your site if it fits into one of these categories:

• You created it yourself.
• You have express permission.
• It is available for free use under the public domain.

Step 5: Tighten up your images

• Compress - The images you upload to your website should be well under 1MB—this reduced file size makes a huge difference in how fast your site will run and how much storage space you’ll end up with. It’s an extra step, but it doesn’t take long (just upload, compress, and download the final version). Kraken.io, ImageResize, and Optimizilla are a few of the free online tools you can use to compress images.

  For additional details about this, please see the article about Image Optimization.

• Resize - After you upload an image in WordPress, you can edit the image and resize it to fit whatever your page or post needs. WordPress lets you flip images, mirror them, and scale and crop. If you want to know how to add images to your site, please see WordPress: Adding Images.

Step 6: Streamline your sidebar

It's easy to jam a lot of widgets into your sidebar, but if you have too many, they can detract from the information you truly want your visitors to interact with. If your sidebar appears to be overloaded, navigate to Appearance / Widgets / Sidebar and reduce the number of widgets. Ruthlessly. If your key CTAs (calls to action) are located in the sidebar, consider placing the most crucial one at the bottom of your content to encourage readers to read all the way through. Experiment to discover how streamlining affects your traffic.

Step 7: Avoid plugin overload

Yes, there’s a plugin for that. But that doesn’t mean you need it. Installing too many plugins or low-quality plugins can slow down your website. Reliable plugins will be compatible with the latest version of WordPress and will have good reviews, support forums, and frequent updates. One plugin to consider at the beginning is for SEO. The most popular is Yoast—it will make sure you’re following good SEO requirements, like keyword density and meta descriptions.

You might also want to consider a security plugin (Sucuri Security, WordFence, and Defender are popular and free) and a spam-blocking plugin (Akismet, Anti-Spam Bee). Add plugins one at a time to make sure they work well with others, and remember to deactivate and uninstall ones you decide you don’t need.

Step 8: Update to avoid a possible crash

When you don’t update your WordPress and your theme, you open your site up to security attacks. And when you don’t update your plugins, they can crash your site. Turn on automatic updates through Settings / General, or check every few days and update them manually under your WordPress dashboard.

Step 9: Back up your website

Backups are important. Not only are there hackers and outages, but also user errors (overwrites, unintentional deletes at 2 a.m., and so on). The simplest approach to ensure that you are backing up your website is to automate it with a plugin. Jetpack is now included in Bluehost plans and has a plethora of features, including daily backups, a contact form, a mobile theme, security, and quick image loading. BackUpWordPress, UpDraftPlus, and WordPress Backup to Dropbox are all free, or you can pay for a premium plugin. 

Summary

By following these tips for working in WordPress, you'll be well-prepared to navigate WordPress, maintain your site's performance, and keep it secure, from navigating the dashboard and using posts vs. pages to optimizing images and limiting plugins. You'll also now understand what is the importance of regular updates, streamlined sidebars, and automated backups. These tips will help beginners like you to create a secure, efficient, and user-friendly WordPress site.