Over 30% of the websites that exist on the internet today are up there thanks to WordPress. This makes it one of the most powerful website management platforms in the world. Businesses use it, bloggers use it, online retailers use it – everyone uses WordPress because it is accessible, reliable, responsive, and always up to date with what’s trending in terms of website management.
The biggest advantage of WordPress is that many of its features are free to use, so if you don’t have the budget to invest in a complex website or the skills to handle never-ending lines of code, you can still come up with a decent-looking website.
Still, if you want to take your website to the next level, you will need to invest some time and resources into learning how to take full advantage of all WordPress has to offer. The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to content management, plugins, and features, so the sooner you start getting familiar with them, the faster you will be able to elevate your website.
Because we know the process can be quite intimidating and time-consuming, we are here to help. Whether you are new to WordPress or simply want to look for ways to improve your website, below is a list of best practices to help you get started.
Choose a reliable hosting provider
WordPress provides a free hosting option, but you will be required to keep the .wordpress.com at the end of your URL. While this option is a perfectly viable one, having your own individual URL will look much better for clients.
We would need an entire day to cover all the aspects you need to consider when choosing a provider to host your website, but we will do a quick summary so that you can go back and write blog content that sells.
For starters, without proper hosting, your website simply can’t be on the internet, but you probably already figured that out by now. But you can’t go on choosing the first provider you find. You will need to choose a hosting provider that offers sufficient resources to handle the traffic on your website. The last thing you want is for your visitors to leave your website due to long downtime or constant crashes.
Decide on a theme that suits your brand
WordPress is amazing on so many levels, and one of the best aspects is the fact that you can choose from a variety of themes to give your website any look you want it to have. You can find an array of free and paid WordPress themes directly on the platform, but if you don’t like the options, you can always look for others online.
There are lots of platforms that provide amazing themes to choose from, so no matter if you are looking for a WordPress blogger theme, a new face for your landing page, or resources for your eCommerce store, you will surely find something you like.
Because the array of options is so big, you have to assess your needs before you can go on hunting for a new theme. Is your site an eCommerce platform, a portfolio, a blog, or a combination of these? Finding the answer to this question will ensure you choose a suited theme that speaks to your audience and makes your content stand out in all the right ways.
Resize your images and media files
Big-sized files will only slow down your website, so if you want to preserve storage space and keep your website running at the speed of light, you need to take care of this. After all, why go through all the fuss and write blog content that sells if people are not staying on your website long enough to read it? Speed is a very important aspect when it comes to running a successful website, so speeding up loading times will only be beneficial for your brand.
There is no point in uploading images with a huge size, so you should always look to compress images and videos before uploading them. It is very important, however, that the quality of your media content is not affected, so you need to find a reliable tool.
Most of these tools work very fast, and all you need to do is upload your files, compress them, and then download the new version.
Don’t install every plugin you see
Plugins are great for your website’s functionality, and WordPress accommodates a huge variety of options. If you want to add features such as newsletters, chats, contact forms and so on, you will need to install plugins for each of them, which is easy to do and saves you a lot of time.
Still, no matter how great these plugins are, keep in mind that too many of them will significantly slow down your website and can even threaten your website’s security. Plugins are basically lines of code that get added to the website, and sometimes they can prove to be too much for your website to handle.
No matter how tempted you are to add as many cool features as possible, take a step back and only use plugins that are truly bringing something helpful for both you and your visitors.
Keep your website secured
Security should be at the top of the list when it comes to website priorities. Besides updating your website periodically and ensuring there are no bugs or broken pages, you will have to take some extra steps to ensure the good security of your website.
Back up your website regularly to make sure nothing is lost in case something happens to your website. Your hosting provider should offer backup options for free, but you can go ahead and look for other similar plugins as well. Speaking of plugins, a good security plugin will protect your website by using a malware scan, a bunch of firewalls, and many other layers of protection. Look online for options and choose the one that suits your needs best.