12 tips for WordPress
Are you starting your own WordPress website? Or have you had a WordPress website for a while but aren’t getting the most out of it yet? Are you perhaps missing some useful plugins? In this article, we’ll provide you with more information about WordPress, including its benefits and practical tips for using it.
About WordPress
WordPress is the most widely used Content Management System (CMS) worldwide. It is used on 33% of all websites. About 60% of websites with a CMS are WordPress websites (source: WordPress market share). WordPress is used for everyday websites and blogs, but also for large, well-known websites such as Horecava, PlayStation, and Disney. WordPress is therefore great for simple theme sites, but also for experienced WordPress developers who use custom-written plugins, scripts, and code. Digital Wizards uses WordPress as the foundation for building custom websites and custom web shops.
Benefits of WordPress
There is a good reason why WordPress has such a large market share worldwide. As a CMS, WordPress offers many advantages, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced users. Developers can also create extensive features within WordPress, making it suitable even for the most demanding marketers. A number of WordPress benefits at a glance:
- WordPress is easy to use; even with little knowledge, you can quickly create a website.
- Experienced developers can build custom websites themselves using their own code and plugins.
- Users can be assigned eight levels of permissions. Each user has their own capabilities and limitations, ensuring that everyone can perform all necessary tasks within WordPress for their specific role.
Helpful tips for WordPress
Have we convinced you of the benefits of WordPress? Great, then let’s get started with some handy tips! As mentioned, WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world and offers many advantages. Unfortunately, this does make WordPress—and therefore WordPress websites—vulnerable to hackers. The first five tips we’re going to give you are therefore focused on security.
1. Change WordPress admin
Immediately change the default username from Admin to a different name. You’re making it too easy for hackers to try password combinations on yoursite.com/wp-admin/ using the default username “Admin.” Once they’re in, they can change everything, and you can write off your website if you haven’t made a backup in your hosting account.
Step-by-step guide to changing WordPress Admin
Go to ‘Users’ and create a new user with full Admin rights. Give this user a unique name that is not associated with Admin.
- Log in with the new username in the WordPress environment.
- Remove the existing user Admin.
2. Security plugins
Various free plugins help you secure your WordPress site. The basic versions of these plugins are often sufficient to prevent the worst problems. For example, iThemes Security In the free version, for example, this protection is provided:
- Blocking unauthorized users based on an irregular number of login attempts.
- Absence mode, which prevents users from logging in during specific times.
- Strong password generation mode, which ensures that users are required to use strong passwords.
- 404 Detection: If a bot searches for vulnerabilities on your site, it will generate many 404 errors. After all, the pages do not exist, and iThemes Security will block this immediately.
- Detection of filename changes.
- Modification of the login URL so that hackers do not know where to log in.
Another interesting plugin is Wordfence Security. The free version of this tool also offers many features.
3. Using a backup plugin
To prevent all your work on your website from going to waste, it is recommended to use a WordPress Backup Plugin. For example, did you make some changes that turned out not to be so useful? No problem. Just restore your backup of the previous version. There are various backup plugins available in WordPress, such as Updraft WordPress Backup.
4. Google Authenticator code
Want to make sure you deter scammers and hackers? Then use Google Authenticator. This app—which you may already be familiar with from the “two-step verification method” in your Google account—generates a unique code every 30 seconds. At the user level, you can set up a link for each user with their own unique link.
5. Yoast SEO
If you aren’t already using Yoast SEO, you should start as soon as possible. This plugin has been around for over ten years, but it’s only gotten better. The SEO The plugin helps you improve organic discoverability on a per-page basis. Yoast SEO ensures at the page level that you:
- You can easily add meta titles and descriptions, ensuring they are neither too short nor too long.
- Place enough text on your new page.
- Your focus keyword appears sufficiently in the text, but also in the title.
- You can specify whether or not the page should be indexed by search engines.
- You can see how the layout will look via a snippet.
There are also many other features that help make your website more discoverable organically. For example:
- You can easily create a sitemap using Yoast SEO.
- Have you already registered your website with the Google Search Console? Using the Yoast SEO plugin, you can set up verification in just a few steps. Once your WordPress website is verified, you can submit the previously created sitemap to Google.
Don’t feel like editing meta titles and descriptions one by one? You can do this in bulk using the Yoast SEO plugin; that saves a lot of extra work.
6. Remove/deactivate plugins
Are there some plugins you no longer use? Have you tested a few plugins that didn’t quite meet your needs? Then deactivate or remove them. This prevents potential entry points to your website from being created. You’ll also prevent plugins that are no longer properly maintained by their developers from gaining access to your WordPress website.
7. Broken link checker
Is your website a few years old? Have you just changed the menu structure? You may well have a few broken links. Broken links are a source of frustration for users, but Google won’t appreciate them either. Especially if pages have high Page Authority, it’s a shame to lose that to a 404 error. Use a “broken link checker” plugin so you can resolve any issues with 404 pages as quickly as possible.
8. Optimizing images
Do you have a homepage with 20 MB of images? This is at odds with a good SEO strategy. The page will load slowly, causing visitors to leave your site prematurely. Google also places a high priority on page speed and penalizes you mercilessly for slow-loading pages. One of our new clients had a 20 MB homepage, and after we—together with the client—optimized the images, the average ranking ‘suddenly’ jumped by 5 spots!
9. Optimizing page speed
As mentioned in the previous point: Google will favor fast websites over slower ones. So make sure your images aren’t too large or that they’re resized using special plugins. There are also plugins that help with caching, so the website loads faster.
10. To measure is to know
Who wouldn’t want to know how many visitors have been to their WordPress website, which channels they come from, and which pages they view? Google Analytics makes it easy to gain this insight.
11. Applying header texts and heading tags
One of the most common mistakes on WordPress websites is failing to use headings, also known as heading tags. These are the so-called H1s, H2s, and H3s. In fact, they indicate the topic of a text, new paragraph, or section of text. Not only do they improve the website’s readability, but they are also a fundamental component of good organic search visibility. Note: use only one H1 heading tag per page.
12. GDPR-compliant?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in effect since May 2018. Much has already been written about this law, but in short, it boils down to the fact that you must provide your visitors with clarity regarding the personal data you collect and/or store from them. This also entails responsibilities for you as a proud website owner. Consider, for example:
- Ensure clarity cookie statement. Which cookies are placed and how do they work?
- Post a privacy statement, in which you specify what data you collect and with which tools.
- To make your life a little easier, we recommend that you start with Cookiebot to work with. This tool collects all the cookies you collect on your website and classifies them as well. Cookie Bot also has a WordPress plugin that is easy to use. Cookie Bot can also be automatically linked to your cookie policy page, which saves a lot of work.
Want to learn more about WordPress?
Are you intrigued by WordPress and interested in our custom websites? Then contact Digital Wizards to see what we can do for you. We specialize in custom websites and online stores.
