The Most Common Mistakes WordPress Users Make

Get it done the right way

Not being keen enough with your WordPress website may deny you the opportunity to enjoy the full potential of this amazing platform. There are certain common mistakes that you must avoid if you want to get the best from WordPress. These mistakes won’t just compromise the functionalities and the versatility of your website but also expose it to various kinds of online threats. Be aware of them for a great experience with your site.

Here are the most common WordPress mistakes:

Choosing the wrong platform

The choice of the platform should be dictated by the objective of having the website. There are essentially two types of platforms when it comes to running a WordPress website. The first is the option of creating a free WordPress account and hosting it at WordPress.com. Since this has very limited options, it is ideal when you are interested in basic blogging and you don’t intend to use the site for serious economic activities such as selling products or services online.

The other option is hosting the WordPress site on your own. With self host, you will have to purchase a hosting space as well as a domain name. Though it costs some money, you will have a great deal of flexibility in terms of features and functionalities that you can achieve with the website.

Therefore, it is recommended that you first conduct a thorough analysis of your needs for a website so that you choose the right platform.

Choosing the wrong host

Many people usually fail to choose the right hosting companies when they decide to self host their WordPress sites. A bad host will make your website suffer from regular downtimes thus inconveniencing you and your visitors. They may also make your site prone to hackers thus compromising the security of your site. You need to deal with only the reputable companies who have a track record of offering the best hosting services. Check out the reviews of the various options and only settle for the very best. For more information about hosting options with Pixelate, check out this page.

Failing to back up your site

No website is 100% hack proof in the internet. Hackers are always on the lookout to find vulnerabilities for attacking sites. By not backing up your website, you risk starting it all over again if your website is hacked. Avoid losing sleep by backing up your website on a regular basis! If you host with Pixelate, we set up these regular backups and will restore your site when necessary. You deserve a peace of mind!

Ignoring WordPress Updates

The main reason for the regular WordPress updates is to fix security vulnerabilities and to improve on the general performance of the framework. If you fail to update your WordPress website therefore, you expose yourself to hackers and also compromise the effective functioning of the website. If your site is hosted with Pixelate, you don’t have to worry about making updates. We take care of all of it for you!

Having too many categories

WordPress makes it really easy to organize content into categories. However, having too many categories is likely to break the coherence of the content and get you as well as the users confused. It is advisable that you organize the content into few but relevant categories. You can also use sub categories to reduce the clutter and improve content organization.

Not setting up Permalinks

Permalinks are not only great for your search engine optimization but also for user experience. WordPress makes it easy to have customized permalinks which the search engines cherish and which will be less confusing to your users thus offering them with a good user experience.

Ignoring SEO

WordPress give you the option to stop search engine bots from indexing your site. Many developers prefer this option when the site is still in development but they forget about it once the site is deployed. As a result, such websites are never indexed hence they never rank to take advantage of free organic traffic. It is recommended that you continuously work on the sites search engine optimization in addition to using SEO plugins to help you get better results.

Failure to install a caching plugin

Many beginners with WordPress usually ignore to install a caching plugin simply because they don’t know what it is and its importance. A caching plugin is essential in enhancing your site’s performance by improving the loading speed and reducing the occurrence of downtimes should you experience a surge in traffic.

Choosing a bad WordPress theme

Not just any WordPress theme you come across is safe for use in your website. Certain themes contain malicious codes that might end up hurting your website hence you need to be very vigilant with the source from which you download your theme. You can be assured that every theme provided by Pixelate is coded to the highest standard. Our themes are from the most trusted theme developers in the WordPress community: StudioPress, Organic Themes, and Press75.

Forgetting to delete the sample page and post

WordPress usually comes with a sample page and a sample post. These are completely irrelevant to your site’s content hence should always be deleted. However, some people either ignore to delete them or they simply forget about them. Since there are still millions of sites with these pages online, they are likely to hamper your search engine optimization endeavors due to duplicate content. It also looks unprofessional when visitors stumble upon them on your site.

Not saving images for the web

Many people upload images to their websites without doing any form of image optimization. The result is large disk consumption as well as slow loading images which will eventually reduce the loading speed of the entire website. The solution is to optimize all the images for the web and there are a number of free tools which can be used to achieve this. Here are a few resources to help you optimize your images: EWWW Image Optimizer, Optimizilla, and Kraken

Ignoring Security

Many people will take their site’s security seriously only after they have been hacked. This is probably the reason why they don’t back up their websites and have very weak passwords. By also ignoring regular updates, you also make your site vulnerable to attacks. Just as you take measures to keep your house doors locked and safe, you should also take measures in keeping your website safe. A few things you can do is backup your website, limit login attempts, make passwords secure, and hiding common security vulnerabilities within WordPress. If you host with Pixelate, we will implement more than 30 methods to make your site more secure for you. Check this out for more tips for better WordPress security.

Failure to create Gravatar

Gravatar gives you a face and provides a way for your site visitors to identify who you are. A Gravatar will appear besides your comments when you comment on another WordPress site and this will enhance your credibility and encourage other users to click your link and be redirected to your website. It is very simple to set up! Go here to set it up for yourself: gravatar.com

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