Once you have launched and established your website, it takes other efforts to make it as successful as you want it to be. To climb that high mountain of flourishing success there are a few hidden tips and tricks that will guide you and help you reach the peak. In this article, we will share some of our best WordPress tips to optimize your website at its full potential.
WordPress is the most popular open-source content management platform that’s available for everyone at free installation. Its popularity grows larger due to its simple and easy-to-follow interface that makes every most novice feel comfortable. You can create exceptional, highly capable websites without writing a single line of code.
To take your website to the next level, we suggest you take all the best WordPress tips and incorporate smart practices to have your website perform will full capacity. If you are new to the WordPress family this article will be of great help you get you started on the right foot, where we share all the must knows WordPress tips and practices. Let’s get to it.
All you need to know about search engines
We decided to put this tip above all else as it is imperative to make your website search engine friendly in order to increase traffic and bring more people to your website. There are a few crucial yet simple steps you can take to make your website rank high on search engines. Although, you need to know that all the best WordPress tips and practices, especially when it comes to SEO and search engine ranking it takes consistency and hard work.
Learning all the best tips and tricks of Google and how its algorithm works will have you at the advantage of bringing more organic traffic to your website and thus conclusively convert them into potential customers or loyal users.
First and foremost it is important to make sure you have your site built on a clean and well-executed code. But since you have built your website with WordPress, this is not something you should worry about, as WordPress by default creates HTML pages that are easily readable by search engines.
Secondly to the list, we have backlinks as they are a crucial ranking component on each website. Backlinks are HTML hyperlinks from one website to another. When you place an SEO strategy and produce compelling content, this will increase your reputation in the search engine world, having other creators see you as an authority in your niche.
When you create content that is rich, academically informative, and creative it appeals more to readers, and when they feel like this content is deemed worthy, they are more likely to share or link it as a resource.
Creating backlinks will require constant improvements, great content, and dedicated time. Best WordPress tips to create backlinks could be strategies such as guest blogging. infographics, email outreach, commenting on high-authoritative blogs or sites, or writing a review or contribute to the article or post by expressing critical thinking of yours and naturally.
Backlinks help create site authority, to make your website more appealing for search engines rich snippets are known to help you SEO and rank your website higher via CTR – Click through Rates, thus engaging our website with more traffic. You can create Rich Markup snippets using an SEO plugin for which we will elaborate in more detail on other sections of this article.
To see the full guide on how to rank your website higher on search engine and see all the best WordPress tips and practices you can check our further this article. Following all the best practices and tips will have its benefits on optimizing your website, but make sure you also avoid the absolute no’s when it comes to SEO and search engine ranking.
Choose the right theme for your WordPress website
The beauty of WordPress is that it gives you an abundance of choices to select from. WordPress has its perks as being the number one platform for building beautiful and highly capable websites, You can select from the large repository of WordPress themes, either free or premium. But how do you choose the right theme for your website?
First, make sure the theme you select to lay the foundation of your website is fully SEO optimized, as we mentioned earlier as one of the most important WordPress tips, search engine optimization is a great deal when it comes to websites and their longevity.
There are a lot of themes available on the market, when selecting the theme, pay close attention to its quality, read reviews about the theme, and don’t be afraid to go premium to get the best of WordPress.
Identify the needs of your website, whether you are looking to create an online store you can choose a theme that’s perfectly designed and fit for eCommerce stores. But if you are looking to create an online portfolio to showcase the finest of your work then you can pick from the best WordPress themes for portfolio websites. Or check the section of the best WordPress themes for blogs if you are passionate to write about anything you like.
Always see if the theme you select will tick all the boxes and provide you with the necessary tools and features to fully functionalize your website. It is one of the crucial WordPress tips to choose your theme wisely as it will determine the success of your website, amongst other practices you follow.
Install only the most necessary plugins
Themes are the beauty to your WordPress website, as they will enchant users with exceptional design and style, meanwhile plugins are what add functionality to your WordPress website. In order to perform tasks not possible within the default range of WordPress, the large ecosystem of plugins will offer just about any functionality you wish to perform.
All these WordPress tips that we are unveiling are somehow connected to one another, we mentioned that picking the right theme will be a fundamental choice for your website, as it will determine the design and functionality of your website. Plugins are needed when the theme does not provide a built-in feature for particular functionalities.
In such cases, a plugin is very much needed, like when you need to add forms to your website or live chat plugins. When looking through the large repository of WordPress plugins one might be lured by all the extravagant functionality they provide, but keep in mind to install the plugins that are essential to your website.
Keep your website lightweight and stray aways from overloading your website with too many plugins. Make sure to check the reviews for the plugins, the update dates as well as installations. All these are indicators of plugins that won’t harm your website. Poorly written plugins will risk the security of your website, another one from our guide of WordPress tips which will be elaborated later on in the article.
Keep your WordPress website updated
Your website will require much work and effort put into it. Although all the WordPress tips we are sharing are simple and easy to follow along with, they require care and persistence. Keeping your website and all the data in it up to date is a task that should be performed on all instances. You can not take the risk of losing all your content due to any sort of malfunction,
Updates are mandatory to introduce new features and functionality to your website, but it is recommended to take regular backups which is the process that implicates the case of copying your files and database which then you can use to revitalize the original copy in the event of data loss.
Although WordPress does not come with a built-in backup solution, there are still severe possibilities that provide you with data backup. You could either choose to back up your WordPress website manually ( either using the Cpanel or FTP ) or install a plugin to back up your website and do the job for you, as most of the plugins will provide a simple and intuitive interface to help you during the process.
If you select the plugin options you will backup as well as restore your WordPress website with ease, as the plugin is designed to help you along the entire process, doing most of the job for you. Make sure to check all the updates of WordPress, these might be minor changes but it is imperative that you keep your website up to date as it will tweak and fix the bugs.
To check for new updates in WordPress simply go to your WordPress Dashboard and you will see the update notification right at the top. The process is simple and straightforward, and won’t take you much time to be fully completed. All these WordPress tips will allow your website to work and function properly, especially with each update being to regulate the software upon which your website is built.
Secure your WordPress website
Security on a website should be the number one priority for all website owners because due to security breaches you could lose your data or if working with sensitive information it could result in more catastrophic events, and for this reason we consider it to be very important amongst other WordPress tips we have shared. WordPress is an open-source content management and provides a secure software for you to build your website on, but sometimes security breaches will be caused due to bad practices you follow, or due to misinformation.
From the very beginning, make sure you choose a secure and solid hosting service. This is the main foundation of your website, for such reason, you ought t choose a hosting service that provides a safe infrastructure that is capable of protecting your website from cybercrimes.
Be picky about the hosting provider you decide to go with. Perform thorough security research and see if they prioritize security as their top feature. Check if they operate on the latest security software technology.
WordPress admin directory is where you perform all the vital functions for your website, although it is already protected with a username and password, make sure you choose a strong and reliable password or you can add another security layer using the two-factor authentication method. This can easily be done using a plugin. Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication by miniOrange, is a plugin designed to help you set up Two-Factor Authentication and simplify the process of doing so.
We should have mentioned earlier in this article, but one good way to secure your website is to install an SSL Certificate. By installing an SSL Certificate your website’s permalink will change from HTTP to HTTPS . These certificates are primarily used to keep secure sensitive information that travels around the web. They are encrypted and secure and will only be accessible to the intended recipient.
You can find more information and all the best WordPress tips on security in our previous article, How to secure your WordPress website.
Choose a drag and drop page builder
Most of the WordPress themes will provide flexibility and tons of functionality to build your website. But since WordPress is the platform of the people, taking full advantage of all the robust features can be challenging for those who do not know how to code or those new to WordPress.
WordPress page builders come to the rescue giving you the power to customize and design your website down to the last extent. Using a drag and drop page builder will have you looking like a real web designer and stylize your website to your liking with much ease.
They use a live interface that helps you put the ingredients and components onto your website by simply dragging the elements and dropping them onto the working sheet. This is one of the WordPress tips that will reduce workload and help streamline your workflow, instead of dealing with all that code, you can intuitively style and design your website of your desire.
Invest your time into selecting the perfect page builder for your website and will result in the creation of high functionality websites. Drag and drop page builder will empower beginners as well as developers to take full control over their website and design it to their needs. There are plenty of free and premium WordPress page builders, like Elementor, Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, and more.
Add Google Search Console and Google Analytics in your WordPress website
To optimize your website for better rates and conversions, besides integrating all the best WordPress tips and practices, you will need the tools to track ad analyze your progress during the entire process, This will help you gain insights on what strategies you should follow next as well as what aspects of your website you shall focus on.
Google Search Console is a valuable tool that will help transform your website for SEO with invaluable insights and reports. With the help of Google Search Console, you can monitor and maintain your WordPress website and keep track of how well is your website doing in the ranking.
Google Search Console is a powerful tool to gain analytics and insights on the progress of your website, and adding it to your site will be a major component that will direct your marketing strategies to fulfill all your goals. See the article on how to add Google Search Console to your WordPress website.
Google Analytics is another outstanding tool to track and monitor your website that can easily be integrated within your WordPress website. Simply create an account with Google Analytics, and install the dedicated plugins for the job. The best Google Analytics plugins that will provide real-time data and reports are MonsterInsight, Exact Metrics, and Analytify.
You can easily add and integrate other powerful and useful Google tools to your WordPress website such example might be Google Forms. This is especially one of the great WordPress tips for beginners looking to establish a well-organized website with all the reports and insights in one place.
Install an SEO WordPress Plugin
Having a website that is fully search engine optimized will have its perks and benefits. We mentioned and revealed all our best WordPress tips on how to rank your website higher on search engines and what practices you should follow. Besides compressing your images and writing alt text and title, an SEO plugin will be the right tool to help you optimize your content and give the best of your website.
The WordPress repository beholds a large number of plugins that provide all sorts of functionalities to your website, same with SEO. There are many great choices of plugins to install and help you step up your game in terms of search engine optimization. Plugins like Rank Math, or Yoast SEO, can be downloaded for free and offer amazing tools that will assist in every aspect of your website.
You can check the title, metadata, images, content to make sure it is all search engine appropriate. It will also provide you with suggestions to make improvements where needed. Both of the plugins also provide a premium version that comes packed with an abundant number of advanced tools and features.
Responsive Design
Mobile Responsiveness is a must for every website in the current period. The number of people using their mobile devices for everything has seen an increase in websites as well. For such reason it is imperative for your website to be able to adjust to every screen size, thus capturing a wider site audience.
Mobile responsiveness besides being one of the best WordPress tips also influences your website’s SEO. With all the technological developments, it is no wonder that Google stated that all websites should be responsive and be compatible with mobile versions as well.
Note that all of our Neuron Themes are mobile responsive and compatible with multiple devices. You shall not worry about your website’s responsiveness as each of our themes come responsive ready, with the options to set precise breakpoints for each device.
Final Words
We are glad to have served you this article where we reveal all the best WordPress tips and practices for you to follow. Especially when you are new to WordPress it might seem overwhelming to deal with everything at the same time.
Although the WordPress interface is simple and straightforward and best of all does not require any coding knowledge, it is best to know some tricks and tips to get you started on the right foot. We made sure to compile all the most important WordPress tips to serve beginners as their guiding light during the entire process of website building.
In order to build the website you desire you will need all the right tools at your disposal, that is why we covered it all entirely in this article. As your website grows you will be able to learn what works and what doesn’t for your website, but until then enjoy these best WordPress tips and make sure to follow these practices for a successful start.
