Just started to blog with WordPress? Or you’re using WordPress already but want to learn something new?
Don’t miss out on the 10 important things every blogger must know about WordPress!
10 Important Things about WordPress Every Blogger Must Know
WordPress is absolutely my favourite way to build a blog or website. I want to share with you 10 important things you need to know about WordPress.
Some of them might be new, some of them might give you more knowledge. But at the end of the post I hope is going to help you using WordPress for blogging or business. Want to share your thoughts? Let me know in the comment below.
This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost for you. Please read my disclosure policy for more info.
1. Username
The username is what you’ll use to log in to the WordPress website. Make sure it doesn’t contain “admin”.
Why?
Years ago all WordPress installations up to version 3.0 came with a default ‘admin’ username (and nowadays some still do), making it very easy to guess to hackers.
Furthermore, make sure that the username you use to log in is different to the display name.
If you avoid these two little things, also if hackers will try to guess your username (I don’t want to be a pessimist, but unfortunately it will happen at a certain point of your blogging career), it will be impossible for them to find the right one.
2. Password
For logging into a blog/website, apart from a username, you’ll need a password.
My best advice is to use a complex one, at least 12 characters long, including upper and lowercase, numbers and special characters. Avoid using passwords you already use for other accounts, especially if they have personal details.
If you’re worried about not being able to remember the password, you can use an app like Last Pass to help you store it.
3. Plugins
Here’s what makes WordPress the best CMS. Plugins! To start, I recommend keeping it as simple as possible. A mix of some basic administration plugins and something more blog related but still simple.
For example, the go-to plugins that I always include when I create a website for a client are:
- Wordfence – my favourite ever, is a security plugin that helps keeping your blog/website safe from undesired hacker’s attacks, malware and all nasty things. A feature that I find great is the possibility of lock an IP address out after an certain number of times it tries to log in, as well as blocking username guessing containing certain word.
- Anti-spam plugin – Of course the purpose of a blog is to write blog post and engage with visitors. But you’ll also find a lot of undesired spam comments! Having plugins like Akismet or Antispam Bee can make the difference and help you auto-categorise a certain type of comments.
- Jetpack – Despite is not indispensable, this plugin can help you a lot in taking care of your blog/website. It can provide you with some insights on the traffic, some extra security features and much more.
- Yoast SEO – Also if you’re still small, it doesn’t mean that you cannot already thinking about SEO! Your blog will work also without this plugin but, as I said earlier, the purpose why you started is because you want your blog to reach as much as people possible. So it’s good to start working on it from the beginning.
Interested in other plugins? Have a look at this article: The best 5 WordPress plugin for beginners bloggers.
4. Backups
Setting regular backups is important to keep your website safe (if your website is hacked you can always install a previous uninfected backup) and give you peace of mind in the case an update or any amendment go wrong.
One of my
5. Theme
Choosing a great theme is one of the things that will make your blog standing out from others.
Aim to choose easy-to-navigate and responsive themes that showcase the message of your blog or business easily and connect to your brand identity. You should avoid cheap-looking themes or themes that get your readers easily distracted. I’m not saying that they’re not good, but I think it is worth researching a good theme and invest money into it rather than looking like an amateur – especially if your aim is to make money out of it.
What is a “responsive theme“. A responsive theme will automatically resize the content of your blog or website to laptop and smartphone screens. This means it will look good on both.
6. Blog Posts
Writing blog posts will be the heart of your blog/website as they are a great way to drive traffic, inform your readers about what you sell, what you do or just sharing some informative content. Remember, when writing a blog post you want to give a solution to your target readers’ problem.
With that in mind, is good to remember that, once you’ve written a blog post, you can re-vamp it and re-publish it in the future if you’re lacking ideas. To do so, you want to avoid putting the date of publishing in the post URL.
To change settings, simply go on “settings” on the left sidebar of your WordPress admin area and click “permalink”. It will open the permalink settings where you can change the appearance of the post URL (note: the action is not retroactive, so it’s best to do it as soon as you create the blog and before posting).
For SEO purpose, I chose the post name structure – the title of the post will be shown after the prefix of my website, making it easy for search engine to find it and list it in search results.
Plus in this way, two URLs won’t be the same as you’re not going to write same post title twice.
7. Media
The media section is where all the media files are stored to be used in your WordPress blog or website. You can upload images, PDFs, videos, music and more.
Once a file is uploaded, WordPress automatically gives it a URL but you can edit the rest of the fields as much as you want.
My advice is to use keyword dense or SEO optimised text in the “TITLE” and “ALT TEXT” section.
Why?
If you search something on Google, the first results you’ll get will be the most similar to your keywords (of course there are other factors, like domain authority and geographical factors, but this is another topic). In order to index the best result first, Google analyses what’s behind a blog or website. Basically, all that weird text that appears to be something like:
<p>This is <sub>subscripted</sub> text.</p>
Hope you are following me so far… So, if Google analyses what’s behind what you graphically see on your blog or website, it will also read media! Here’s an example. In the following picture, I used the text “WordPress tips for beginners” both for title and alt text. If I go to see how the picture would appear in HTML language, it would be something like that.
<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://www.isalillo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/wordpress-tips-for-beginners-683x1024.png" alt="wordpress tips for beginners" class="wp-image-1998"/></figure>If you have a look at the code, can you spot the alt text? This is Google way of reading information! And will use it to index that picture in a web or image search.
8. Site title & Tagline
Similar to what I’ve discussed for media, is important that your blog or website have a site title and tagline in place. I’ve seen a lot website with just the title and the tagline completely skipped or forgotten.
For the same reason, Google can analyse what’s behind a graphic content like a picture, same way it analyses your website title and tagline.
I won’t dig too much in details this time, but my advice is to use the name of your brand as “title” and a keyword that reflects your brand as “
If you wish to edit them, simply go on “settings” and then click on “general”. Once you are in the general setting page, change the title and tagline accordingly to your needs and remember to click “save changes” at the bottom of the page.
9. Sidebar
You have probably noticed that on some websites, all the content extends across the page. In others, especially blogs, the content is about 2/3 of the page and the other 1/3 is for a space called “
It’s a no brainer that sidebars are important also if you’re a beginner because in that section you can insert important things like your profile, your latest posts, affiliate links, adverts, etc… Almost all the premium themes have the two display options: fullwidth or sidebar (that’s another reason why buying a premium plugin is better than using a free one).
Once you’ve selected the sidebar option – some themes even let you select it for different pages instead than for the whole website – you can customise it with what works best for you.
Go on “settings” and click on widgets. On the left you’ll find a list of all the widgets available in your WordPress installation. On the right, you have the “places” where you can use your widgets. Some of the most common are sidebars, footers, headers but it varies for each theme.
Now, if you’ve got some widgets already in the sidebar you can keep it, edit it or delete. If you wish to add new or more, simply drag one widget from left to the desired place. Remember that the order you see in here, will be the same as the visual version – if you check the sidebar of this page, you’ll see the “search” widget, followed by the “categories” on and so on.
Every widget works very easy: just click on the arrow next to the widget name and fill the required info and click on the blue button “save” or click delete to get rid of an undesired widget.
Why am I not using a sidebar? My answer is easy. I opted for a more clean look. I used to have sidebars with affiliate links, profile, posts etc… But for personal tastes and to help my readers having the best experience while reading my blog, I opted to go fullwidth.
10. Updates
Last but not least, is very important to keep your WordPress version up to date (if you want to know how, I’ve done a video tutorial about it) as well as the plugins.
You don’t have to check for new updates every single day! For experience, every week., for example, every Wednesdays, is enough to make sure your blog is safe and everything works fine.
If you really have no time for it, you can hire a VA or a professional to do it for you – for example, I offer monthly maintenance service which includes backup and live security updates.
Outdated plugins, especially if poorly coded, create the perfect mix for hacking vulnerabilities.
Some consideration about WordPress
WordPress is a great platform for blogging or creating a website for your business. It definitely gives you a wider range of customisation than other CMS like Squarespace or Wix.
It’s also great when it comes to SEO. You can literally apply SEO to every bit of your blog or website: pages, posts, headers, footers, images, alt text, etc.
With these 10 easy steps, even if you’re new to WordPress, you can make sure to have a great professional looking blog.
