5 WordPress Mistakes Every Beginner Should Avoid

WordPress is one of the most popular software that lets you create a beautiful website. It is estimated that more than 30% of all websites on the internet are running on WordPress. Whats made this software so popular is that it is free, open-source, and easy to use. While it is easy to set up and use, there are a couple of mistakes every beginner blogger should avoid.�

NOT USING WORDPRESS.ORG

If you are new to blogging, you have probably already stumbled upon the two very similar websites � wordpress.org and wordpress.com. While similar in name, there are completely different in terms of what each of them offers.

WordPress.org is the website that lets you download a website that will let you build a website. The software is free and open-source, but you will have to take care of buying a domain name, hosting plan, and installing the software on a server. This might sound complicated to some people and in an attempt to avoid the hustle, they buy the all-in-one product that the other website offers.�

WordPress.com is a company website that provides services like setting up a blog, hosting, offers domain names, and provides customer support when needed. Their services are paid and if you chose to run your website on wordpress.com, the only thing you should worry about is providing enough interesting content for your audience.�

Why is it recommended to choose wordpress.org? There are pros and cons to both options but the biggest advantage of using wordpress.org is the freedom that you, as a website owner, will have. Wodpress.org provides free themes that you can use for your websites. If you have a small website or blog, this should be sufficient for you to start. There are also a lot of plugins that you can choose from and use as you like. WordPress.com in comparison has different payment plans that will restrict what you can do on your website. For instance, not every plan allows you to install plugins.�

NOT USING THE RIGHT PERMALINK SETTINGS

It is probably the biggest mistake that all new WordPress users commit. Permalinks are the URL that is created when you post an article or create a page. Some websites have their permalinks in the form year/month/title-of-article. This is how Blogger.com has set its permalinks to look like by default.

Permalinks are an important part of the search engine optimization strategy so it is of utmost importance to set them the correct way. A user-friendly structure will look the following way: your-website-name.com/postname. This is a more readable URL and allows the use of keywords in the URL descriptions. One of the very first things that users should do is to change the structure of the permalinks on their websites.�

DON�T CLUTTER YOUR PAGE WITH PLUGINS

When a new user installs WordPress, they usually clutter it with different plugins. They use analytics plugin, cookies, plugin, anti-spam plugin, comments plugin, social media plugin, security plugin, etc.�

There are only a handful of plugins that are necessary to have on any website. Too many plugins slow down the loading speed of a website. Having two security plugins will not only slow down the website, but it may cause it to crash.�

FORGETTING TO USE UNDER CONTRUCTION PLUGIN

If your website is not ready yet, it is recommended to use a plugin that will display UNDER CONSTRUCTION on your front page. This will assure your visitors that the website is still in development but will be up and running shortly. If you don�t use this plugin, and you are still in the process of setting up your website, any visitor who looks at it may think that the site is abandoned and may never return.

Make sure your website looks ready at all times. Another reason why you should use this plugin is that search engines will take into consideration that your page is still in development. The search engine crawlers will be checking up on your page from time to time and will index it only once it is ready. Not using the UNDER CONSTRUCTION plugin damages your SEO.�

NOT RESIZING IMAGES

A common and overlooked WordPress mistake is not resizing your images. This is actually true not only for WordPress site owners but for a lot of other bloggers that are new to SEO. Using a lot of images on your website can slow down the loading speed of pages.

Slow loading pages rank lower on Google. It is wise to always remember this rule when uploading images. Use programs that will shrink the image size without lowering the quality of the images.�