Blogging is one of the most popular ways to express yourself online. With a blog, you can share your ideas and insights with the whole world. One of the most popular blogging platforms is WordPress. If you are interested in learning more about this powerful tool, the following article can help.
Remember to make your sidebar as concise and clean as possible. You don't want it to be full of 100 links, ads and buttons. Instead, only put what is important in your sidebar and, if you need more links, put them into submenus which appear when the user mouses over your main menu.
Pay attention to your footer. The bottom of your page does not just have to be wasted space. Instead, put in an important link or work in a few words about who you are and what you do. You could even use the footer to tell visitors a little more about the site itself.
It is easy to do video blogging with WordPress themes. It may take more effort, but it's worth it. A lot of Internet users respond well to visuals. Videos can convey things words cannot, so they are very useful.
When you use different tags for the topics on your blog, keep in mind that these are strictly for searching the content on your blog. These can't be used by search engines. If you want your pages to be searchable on Google, you have to install an SEO type plug-in such as Headspace.
Download Akismet immediately with a fresh WordPress install. Akismet is a plugin for WordPress that basically blocks spam comments as they come in. If you don't have it installed, you may be inundated with tons of spam. You'll need to get a free key from the Akismet website to finalize the install.
Make use of a landing page. Instead of coming directly to current posts, users will pass through this landing page first. You can use this for a variety of reasons, whether for promoting a product or promoting yourself. Many themes feature a landing page; however, there are also paid options.
Be sure to choose unique, difficult to hack passwords and keep them secure. It doesn't matter if you are a free WordPress blogger of a paid, self-hosted WordPress blogger: it is important to keep your passwords strong and secure. In this way, you will not have to waste valuable time cleaning up sabotage and changing passwords. This will help ensure that your blog is a success.
Get to know your Wordpress WYSIWYG editor. When you write a new post, you'll see a small bar that goes across the text input area. This is your WYSIWYG editor - meaning whatever you push will happen to whatever text you have highlighted. If you choose bold in the editor, the text you have chosen will become bold. It's similar to using Microsoft Word.
If you want a post to stay at the top of the page, there is no need to set it's date way in the future any longer. Instead, go to the post and click on Edit under Visibility. Choose the option which allows you to make the post sticky and enjoy!
Be sure to back up your site often! The best way to do this is to have your host back up your site every day for you. If they don't offer this service, instead back it up yourself. There are plugins which will do the job for you, or you can just download it to your own computer.
Keep the plugins at a minimum. Although plugins can be beneficial, too many can slow down your site's load time. They can slow down things considerably, impacting your search engine rank. Slower sites don't usually rank as well as those that are faster.
Use a security plugin. Keeping your blog secure is important, and there are plenty of plugins out there that promise to do just that. Try a plugin you feel you can trust. Wordfence is a good choice. It offers a firewall, does virus scans, blocks any malicious networks, and is free.
Is it hard to post updates to your blog when you want to do so? You can create a post in advance and then schedule it to be posted later. You have the choice when creating your post for publication time. This means you should get started on everything ahead of schedule.
When you have a question about how to create something in Wordpress, consider visiting one of the many user forums that have been set up on the web. These online communities are often created by Wordpress experts who just want to bring together people with a similar goal. When you post a question, it is not uncommon that you will get several very helpful responses.
The Relevanssi plugin allows you to search your logs to find out what your users are interested in reading. Why does this matter? When you have writer's block, you can check out the results it provides to know what you should be researching and posting about on your site.
Highlight any comments the author makes to a blog post. Folks often use comment sections to voice concerns or make inquiries. Don't let your response to a question get lost. Use a different color, and bold or italicize the text. They will easily be visible to visitors.
If you are working on a post not ready for publication, you can save it as a draft or in unpublished mode. You can make changes on it that the public cannot see during this time. Only publish them when you are completely satisfied with how they look.
If you want to use Wordpress, be sure to buy your own domain. yoursite.wordpress.com is easy and free, but you don't get the ability to make the same customizations and additions you would if you had a site on your own server and with your own domain, cramping your potential for success.
Have you ever wanted to start your own blog? Now that you have read this article, you should have a better idea of how you can use WordPress to blog. Getting started is really not so hard once you take the time to learn the basics. Use these tips to get started today.