Most fresh bloggers make the same mistakes at the very beginning of their writing career. In most cases, this happens because they don’t have enough information and experience. WordPress prevents you from some of the mistakes since this platform is already packed with numerous default features that help you create professional blogs.
Using it, you can set everything up perfectly and run your blog as soon as possible. Relying on the wonders of WordPress, you can overlook numerous content mistakes and vulnerabilities of your blog. Read the following post to learn more about the most common errors to arm yourself with useful information!
WrodPress.com or WordPress.org?
WordPress has two free services, and most of the beginners don’t know the difference between them. You should make the right choice, considering your needs. While both have pluses and minuses, you should distinguish which one is perfect for your project.
WordPress.com is a great platform for artists, photographers, bloggers, creative writers, and everyone else. WordPress.org is for those who want to create rather sites than blogs and have full control over them. The choice is yours.
Don’t forget to change the default tagline
The default WordPress tagline for every new blog sounds like “Just Another Blog,” which is not the best title for yours. As an author, you need to show your uniqueness and add a catchy tagline relevant to your niche or main theme. Go to your dashboard and find:
- Settings > General
Edit the default tagline, and don’t forget to delete the sample page that leads to WordPress installation.
Add a contact form
A common mistake most bloggers make is adding Contact Page and forgetting to add Contact Form to their blogs. Publishing your email or Facebook address is not enough to encourage your audience to contact you. What is more, when you do that, get ready to see thousands of spam-letters in your inbox very soon.
Add a simple contact form to allow your audience to send an instant message right from your resource. Maybe they have some commercial offers for you or want to pay to get assignment done. Numerous convenient WordPress plugins allow you to create convenient and straightforward forms, so don’t forget about them!
Make sure to change the default user name
The default WordPress’ username is “admin.” Obviously, this is a predictable name for hackers who may want to steal your website. Change the default name when installing WordPress. To defend your blog from any troubles and attacks, choose something complicated. Add numbers and special characters to your user name to make it more advanced.
Create a unique favicon
The platform adds default favicons to every new WordPress blog and site. These are small images displayed in the browser’s bar near your website name. Most fresh bloggers don’t pay too much attention to favicons, but you really need to create an original one if you want to look professional. You can draw one in Photoshop/Illustrator or use online generators if you are not very good at graphics and design. When you are done, go to:
- Images section > Your theme
Replace a favicon there and show your originality.
Create a backup version of your blog
To keep your blog content safe, you should take care of a backup version of your site. It is frustrating, but most of us realize the importance of backups only when we lose data and results of our hard work. When our precious texts are lost, we try to restore them, and this is not always possible.
Have a backup of your blog because a crash can happen at any time. There is an easy way to do it:
- Tools > Dashboard > Export
The automatic backup tools include such plugins as BackupBuddy, VaultPress, and BackWPup.
Take care of a mobile version
Believe it or not, but nowadays, smartphones and tablets are used more than computers, especially when it comes to entertainment. It means that you must adapt your website and make it mobile-friendly. There are two ways to do that:
- Use Responsive WordPress theme that adapts sites to all screens automatically
- Use plugins like WPTap or WPtouch
Both options are effective, so the choice is yours.
Conclusion
WordPress is a great platform for bloggers: you can find so many tools and plugins there! The site provides all opportunities for beginners to boost their writing careers. However, even though there are so many advantageous features that make your blogging easier, mistakes are unavoidable.
We all do them, but the trick is to reduce their amount. The tips we have listed here will arm you with the necessary information. Take them into account, and you will avoid most beginners’ errors. Pay attention to everything that is provided by WordPress by default and change it.
This is especially important for your tagline and user name. Add a Contact Form instead of a Contact Page, and don’t forget about the backups – save your content and nerves.
Author’s bio:
Sandra Larson is a blogger whose articles and guidelines appear on numerous reliable platforms. Sandra has a blog on the WordPress platform and considers herself a writing enthusiast. She shares her experience and ideas with other bloggers, take part in creative group projects, and training programs related to online content creation.