More than 500 websites are built on WordPress every day. Competitors like Shopify and Squarespace don’t even have half this daily number. This statistic only goes to show how much WordPress dominates this market.
WordPress is widely used for many reasons. Some of the WordPress benefits that companies like are easy installation and setup, SEO and mobile-friendliness, free features, and an intuitive interface.
That’s why we’ve listed some tricks and tips for WordPress to maximize your experience with this website creation and CRM platform. By the end of this article, beginners and webmasters alike should learn a thing or two about using WordPress.
Table of Contents
- Tip #1: Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan
- Tip #2: Pick a Good Quality Theme
- Tip #3: Install Google Analytics
- Tip #4: Install an SEO Plugin
- Tip #5: Compress Your Images
- Tip #6: Limit the Number of Plugins You Install
- Tip #7: Set Up Your Gravatar
- Tip #8: Stay Updated
- Tip #9: Keep Your Site Safe and Secure
- Tips for WordPress — Key Takeaways
Tip #1: Choose the Right Web Hosting Plan
For 12 years now, WordPress has been the most rapidly growing content management system in the market, according to HubSpot. You can create just about any type of website from personal blogs and business websites to eCommerce stores and membership sites.
However, a common misconception is that the platform also hosts websites, which isn’t the case. You still need the right hosting plan for your site to be live and available on the internet.
The first of our many tips for WordPress websites is to choose a hosting provider that has enough resources to manage your website traffic, prevent downtime and crashes as much as possible, and improve your website speed.
That said, the minimum hosting requirements for WordPress websites include a PHP version of 7.3 or higher, a MariaDB version of 10.1 or higher, or a MySQL version of 5.6 or higher. It also needs to provide HTTPS support.
Tip #2: Pick a Good Quality Theme
Finding the best WordPress website theme can be tricky as there is a myriad of options available. The upside is there’s no need to rush; you can take your sweet time picking the best one that suits your needs.
Here are some of our top WordPress tips for picking a theme for your site:
- Read reviews to ensure that it suits your project.
- Don’t shy away from premium themes if you have to.
- Be careful with choosing themes that come with pre-packed features. They may be appealing, but they could slow your site down.
- Pick a mobile-friendly theme to give your mobile users an exceptional experience on your site. Don’t skip this According to Statista, 59% of website traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices.
- Look at live theme demos to see how the theme works.
Your theme is the basis of your WordPress website design. So, we have to include this in our WordPress web design tips: pick a theme that suits your project requirements and one that you’ll actually have fun using.
Tip #3: Install Google Analytics
According to W3Techs, 56% of websites use Google Analytics to analyze their website traffic. This tool tracks your site’s performance and provides insight into the ways users interact with your site, making it an important tool for measuring website success.
Installing a Google Analytics plugin on WordPress will allow you to view these insightful data directly on your admin dashboard, saving you time from having to bounce around sites.
Tip #4: Install an SEO Plugin
Over 50% of website traffic is generated from organic search, in which SEO plays a crucial role. Using an SEO plugin will not only make SEO much easier, but it’ll also increase your chances of ranking high in search engine results.
There are hundreds of options if you’re on the lookout for an SEO plugin, but the one we recommend is Yoast SEO. It takes care of your site’s SEO needs, both basic and technical, so Google can better crawl and understand it.
It provides suggestions for better on-page SEO, such as readability, keywords, alt texts, meta titles, and meta descriptions. Additionally, it can help you manage your robots.txt files and sitemaps, no-index posts or pages, add self-referencing canonicals, and handle pagination. Applying WordPress SEO tips like these can help bring organic traffic to your site.
Tip #5: Compress Your Images
Speed is critical in running a website, and many WordPress tips and tricks revolve around reducing page load time. Reducing the file size of your images by compressing them will improve the speed of your site and save you some storage space. An Unbounce survey found that 70% of consumers think twice about buying from an online retailer with slow load times.
Compressing your images to speed up loading times will only positively impact your website. You can use free online tools like ImageResize, Kraken.io, and TinyPNG. Simply upload the image you wish to compress and download it after it’s been optimized. It’s that easy!
Aside from compressing images, you should also compress videos to optimize the overall site performance.
Tip #6: Limit the Number of Plugins You Install
Plugins add functionality to your WordPress site on top of your theme’s built-in features. You should have plug-ins for caching, security, SEO, and others that you need for your business. For example, if your website has pop-ups, you may need a pop-up plugin. If you handle bookings, you need a bookings plugin.
However, one of the important tips we have for WordPress websites is limiting your plugins. The extra code that they bring can slow down your site and compromise its security. Don’t go overboard; install only the ones you’ll use.
Tip #7: Set Up Your Gravatar
Tom Preston-Werner created the Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) in 2007 to serve as an online representation of internet users across various websites. Gravatar is integrated into WordPress and is globally recognized because millions of websites and people use them.
We’ve included it on this list of WordPress tips because we think every WordPress admin should have one, whether you’re a blogger, small business owner, or the founder of a non-profit organization. This adds credibility to your content and helps you establish your brand.
To create your Gravatar, simply navigate to your Profile section on WordPress and head to the Profile Picture section. From there, click on the link to Gravatar, and you’ll be taken to the Gravatar website. You then upload an image and link it to the email you used to register your WordPress account.
Tip #8: Stay Updated
WordPress regularly updates its software to maintain the security and integrity of the platform. Major updates occur monthly, while minor ones happen every two weeks. There isn’t much to worry about updates; you simply need to regularly check if there is one.
To check for updates, go to the dashboard, where an “update now” button will show if you need to update anything. Before and after updating your software, make sure to back up your site.
Tip #9: Keep Your Site Safe and Secure
In our digital age where cyber-attacks are rampant, running a WordPress website requires you to understand the importance of security. Here are some WordPress tips and tricks to keep your website safe and secure:
Get an SSL certificate to encrypt data passing through your website, including logins and payment details.
Install a security plugin that uses malware scanners, firewalls, and more to protect your site from data breaches.
Regularly back up your site in case it gets hacked or you partially delete your code by accident.
Tips for WordPress — Key Takeaways
WordPress is one of the best CRM platforms today. It’s intuitive, easy to use, and versatile for almost any website type. However, you need to actively maintain and manage it.
As a final WordPress tip, when it comes to creating and running a site, a WordPress web design company can be a valuable asset. Working with a reputable agency lets you focus on other aspects of your business while letting professionals handle the technical and maintenance tasks.
