It’s been a while now using WordPress for various projects or even troubleshooting on existing websites. WordPress has been the leader among the various Content Management Systems.
Like anybody else, even the WordPress users and developers, during the open source development of it, make some common mistakes.
Hopefully, everyone will use this guide to avoid the same blunders and make their WordPress site better, faster and more secure and of course a success.
[alert type=white ]Read more
WordPress Speed up by leveraging browser caching
Top 5 WordPress Plugins to Grow your Traffic
Guide to securing your WordPress site
[/alert]
Follow me on Instagram
Mistakes to avoid
1. Failing to Create Backup for Your Site
This common mistake will cost your dearly. All the information and data will be lost due to sheer negligence. However, it can be prevented by having a manual or automatic backup of the WordPress site. Even in the event of website getting crashed or corrupted, all your data is safeguarded.
Some real-life stories:
“Dumping a WP database without having a backup in case the new WP database I was importing had an error.”
“Ran a SQL query without any backups. There was no UNDO button.”
“My site was hacked, and the hackers wiped everything. I had to start from scratch because my host didn’t backup like they said they would.”
To back up,just go to Tools, after that, to Export. Use WP-DB-Backup automatic plugin. Also, phpMyAdmin tool or Vaultpress can be used for self-hosted wordpress.org.
2. Use of Default and Unfriendly Permalink
Permalink (permanent link), or URL of a web page is by default set. For the longest time, people would simply use the default URL structure: /?p=23. Not only is this bad for SEO, but it is bad for users as well.
The URL structure, which looks gibberish and meaningless, can be changed to more understandable way. You should use right keywords in a permalink. Doing so helps your website rank better in the search engine results, apart from enhancing the user experience. To change the structure of permalinks, go to Settings and then to Permalinks.
Check my guide to Permalinks – SEO Friendly URL Structure
3. Not Installing Google Analytics and Google Search Console
It is yet another avoidable mistake. Hope you know what is Google Analytics! Nevertheless, Google Analytics helps you in tracking and reporting your site’s traffic. It offers you lots of insights. You get to know the keywords that are to be incorporated into your writings so that you drive more traffic to your site.
Ensure that you integrate Google search console ( previously Google Webmaster Tools). Submission of XML sitemap to console helps you to get all the pages of your website indexed.
Related Posts
You must read Top 5 WordPress Plugins to Grow your Traffic
4. Continuing the use of Default Favicon
Favicon, or favorite icons are small icons. They could be seen adjacent to page title in the browser window, or the browser’s address bar. It is one major mistake done by WordPress newbies, i.e., to continue with the default favicon. Changing the default favicon to you own one would exhibit your professionalism. To replace, checkout for a free favicon generator on the web, visit the images section, replace the default one with your own.
5. Failing Your Mobile Users
Increasingly, people are switching over to smartphones. Failing to make your site mobile-friendly and tablet-friendly will result in you paying the price. What price? Your site will slowly lose traffic. So, to address this issue,use a plug-in like WPtouch for customizing the site for mobile devices. Using responsive WordPress theme also helps in adapting your site to diverse devices.
6. Not Installing a Caching Plugin
Yet another major blunder. Installing a caching plug-in is of utmost importance. Apart from caching plug-in,Content Delivery Network also has to be used. The reason for this need is that your site wouldn’t crash and can even sustain a massive traffic. That said, caching helps in improving efficiency, preventing downtime and also decreases the site’s load time.
Here is an article on WordPress Speed up by leveraging browser caching that you should definitely read.
7. Paying No Attention to WordPress Updates
Every time a bug is found or any susceptibility to it is found, WordPress gets updates. Neglecting any updates will only result in your site becoming prone to attacks from hackers. So take no chances when it comes to security.
8. Creating too Many Categories
WordPress makes it really easy for users to create categories. Often this is the reason why people get carried away and create categories for just about every post. We have all been down this path before only to learn and change everything to add proper structure to our sites.
Properly categorize and structure all the topics accordingly.Offer a pleasant experience to the visitors of your site.
Conclusion
Ensuring that these mistakes aren’t committed will help in the success of your WordPress site. Make a list of to-do’s so that you do not miss on anything. After all, it is always advised that you “look before you leap.”
We hope that you found this article about the most common WordPress mistakes that you should avoid. What are some mistakes that you have made in the past? Let us know by leaving a comment below. 🙂
