Blogging has evolved quite a bit since the early days of the Internet. Now, there are powerful tools that you can use to publish your blog with ease. The more you know about these tools, the easier it will be to blog. Learn more about using WordPress by reading this article.
If you plan to use WordPress for your site, you should only do so if you plan to have a responsive design. People access websites from all types of devices, and you want to make sure that any person who wants to view your site will be able to without any issues.
Check out add-ons to find simple tools which will make your site or blog better. For example, you could add a calendar to your side menu bar in order to share events which would be interesting to your readers. You can also find many great add-ons which provide control for advertising, turning your site into a revenue maker.
With WordPress you have lots of choices in themes so you can have a really good looking blog. Take plenty of time to peruse all of your choices so that you can select just the right one to suit your style and your topic. For a truly unique theme, select a premium theme. This will really help your blog stand out from the crowd.
Add page numbers at the bottom of your comments section if you have a very active community. This is important as it will allow your users to be able to sort through the material and information easier. Make sure that the page numbers are easy to see for the viewers.
Keep your permalinks clean and understandable. That means you should look at the permalink box every time you put up a new post. Does the title in the URL make sense? Does it help from an SEO standpoint? If not, click on it and alter it until it is perfect.
Don’t forget to use spellcheck. It may seem obvious now, but many people forget to do it. When using the WordPress editor to post to your blog, make sure you take advantage of its spellcheck function. Even if you have already proofread your post, a quick and simple spellcheck couldn’t hurt.
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.
Unless you change it, posts will appear chronologically. Change the date if you want to rearrange the list. To do this, locate the date in the upper right corner of an open post. Click on date, modify it and save the post so you can change the position.
You can insert media into your posts just by pasting the URL where you’d like the media to appear. For example, paste in a YouTube video just by putting the URL within the text where you want the video to play. Be sure that the URL doesn’t turn blue – if it does, highlight it and click the unlink button.
Do not forget about Facebook. Visitors to your site should be able to leave comments or register with your site through their Facebook account. There are plugins that will help you getting things rolling on your page, and they are easy to download and use. Since so many people are on Facebook, it is important to ensure that your page incorporates the social media site in some way.
As you begin getting comments on your posts, consider allowing people to post with an avatar. It helps your site feel like more of a community, and it only takes a minute to do. Simply go to the settings area of your dashboard and then click on “discussion.” You should see the option there to enable avatars.
Keep a back up of your blog. Regularly schedule this important task. Consider a plugin such as Xcloner to assist you. Back up the blog however you wish, but be sure to do it in multiple locations. Losing an entire website is catastrophic.
Use WordPress to schedule your blog post’s publication dates ahead of time. You can have a post added to your blog at any time, and you don’t even need to be near your computer. You can easily do this using the Publish command located on your Edit screen. There should be an option for immediate publication. Add the times you want, including days, months as well as years. Choose the OK option. Check the Schedule For screen and choose Schedule.
Make sure that you keep any plugins or themes you are using on your blog up to date. Exploits and general weaknesses in the security of a plugin or theme are almost always found eventually. Updates will keep them running smoothly and securely, but it’s important that you remember to keep them updated.
Use the Easy Tweet Embed program to create links for readers to tweet the content of your posts to their followers. It does the work of creating the tweet content for you, so you don’t have to manually create it every time you draft a post, saving you a ton of time.
If you want to put two images side by side, try using an invisible table in your WordPress post. You can create a one row/two column table via your post editor and then embed a photo into each cell. You could take the next step and add another row underneath to add captions below each photo.
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.
By now, you should have a good grasp of the basic features of WordPress. You may even have learned some advanced tips and tricks that let you get the most from your blog. Remember to keep seeking out new tips about the program. Before long, you will have an amazing blog.