We’re all familiar with that one adage– if you want something done right, do it yourself. It’s incredibly important to start with a good foundation when you’re bringing a brand to life. When your fundamentals are solid, you’re free to build on top of all that with confidence. This same logic ultimately applies to the WordPress pages we make and the processes we subsequently use to sustain them.
WordPress admins have the unique task of ensuring the platform’s systems don’t get in the way of a good site experience. Little things build up to a much bigger whole and it’s on you to know which parts fit where. It’s a tangle of overlapping functions, but one may develop a fluent understanding of the systems at play– enough at least to not hurt your chances at a good user or SEO experience.
People do still make mistakes though, and WP admins are no exception. These mistakes could range from simple matters of forgetting to fill out a couple of tag fields, or more urgent matters like poor choice of platform, host, or backup service. Knowing what to watch out for makes things easier to avoid, so let’s get into some of the more common mishaps.
Choosing WordPress.com over WordPress.org
This happens to novice users more often than not, and it definitely went this way for me at first. While they both share a given name, WordPress.com is strictly a blogging platform, while WordPress.org offers the functionality you need to turn your site into practically anything to suit your needs.
Neglecting your backups
It only takes one odd moment for everything to turn south. Losing your data is something that could utterly cripple your entire operation, so you need to invest in a good backup utility for your page. Tools like UpdraftPlus and BackWPup are a couple of popular options, and should give you some peace of mind.
Asset hoarding
Stacking too many plugins together may result in your site having bloated load times. A minimalist approach to page building should help you avoid any potential hits to load time or plugin compatibility. Try disabling every single plugin you have one-by-one, and keep only the most important ones. You’ll find that smarter selections win over sheer volume.
Improper tagging and categorization
Categories and tags are a crucial part of WordPress’ ability to rank in searches. Algorithms like well-sorted content, and these allow you to place content in specific buckets that make indexing much, much easier. A lack of tags makes it hard for crawlers to parse which information fits where, and if it’s relevant to most searches.
Is it a post or a page?
You could think of content as two distinct streams– relatively static pieces that aren’t likely to change, and then more supplementary material that gets updated fairly frequently. Pages are better suited for the former and are pretty set-and-forget. Posts, on the other hand, can be made in response to current events, or serve to support or sustain existing campaigns.
