Last Updated on June 15, 2020 by Sunny Staff
If you run a website, then chances are you may be running it on WordPress. After all, WordPress is the most popular content management system on the internet, powering 36% of all online websites.
However, while WordPress is generally easy to use, it can also be overwhelming, especially for beginners. There are plenty of tricks and tips to make your experience using WordPress simpler and smoother; it’s just learning them all and getting used to the program that’s the tricky part.
That’s where we come in to help. If you’re new to using WordPress, keep reading for our top six WordPress for beginners’ tips. You can thank us later!
1. Opt for a User-Friendly Theme
The WordPress theme you use for your website is very important. For a functional and easy-to-use design, you need to make sure your theme is mobile-friendly and attractive to the eye.
That means it should display neatly on a desktop, laptop computer, and any mobile device such as an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or tablet.
Many top-quality themes are free, but you need to assess their versatility and responsiveness to different screen sizes, so be sure to check. Some free themes look fantastic on a desktop but appear clunky and unattractive on a mobile screen. In short, you want to make sure your theme is “responsive” – that it looks great on all devices: desktop, mobile, and tablet.
A whopping 58% of online searches are on a mobile device, so it’s super important that your theme is mobile-friendly. Otherwise, you may be missing out on lots of visitors.
2. Add Google Analytics
If you’re hoping to transform your website into a source of income or a fully functioning business, it’s crucial to understand where your users come from, how they interact with your website, and how much revenue is coming in.
Enter Google Analytics. The tool is super easy to set up on WordPress from the beginning, and you can use it to see what your website’s users are doing and where they’re coming from. If you want to know what content is the most impactful, you have to be able to measure it. You can even learn about their personal characteristics. For example, you can find out your users’ age groups and gender. Take a look at this blog post for how to set up Google Analytics in three easy steps.
Google analytics reports from the date you set it up, so set it up as soon as your site is live to start gathering data immediately. If you’re new to Google analytics too or are having trouble using it, there are a ton of plugins that can help. While this tip is number two on our list, it’s our top tip for WordPress beginners. You can’t improve what you don’t measure!
3. Tidy up Your Permalinks
Shorter URLs are not only more attractive to the eye, but they usually result in more clicks than longer URLs.
WordPress lets you edit the URL structure for each post you create, allowing you to customize the permalinks.
Make sure your permalinks are short, snappy, and relevant to the page. When people lay eyes on a shorter URL address, they’re more likely to interpret the words to guess what the page is about. So, create helpful URLs that relate well to the content for a better click rate.
4. Download Yoast SEO
There are plenty of free plugins available to improve your WordPress website, and one of the best tools on the market is Yoast SEO. Most of you know that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – making you website friendly for search engines like Google so your website will rank for the search queries your customer’s use. For WordPress beginners, here’s a great intro to SEO from Yoast.
Yoast SEO will analyze each post, page, or product, offering helpful and intuitive advice to help the content rank highly in search engines. It also scores your performance for the selected keywords across the website and your meta tags. Plus, it will offer a readability grade for your content and will advise on how to simplify it to improve the reading age of the text.
If you’re going to download any plugin, let it be Yoast SEO to help you create readable and engaging content for customers.
5. Create Internal Links
One of the best SEO and marketing tips for WordPress is to create on-page SEO by internal linking to another page on the website that shares the same keyword.
In the classic WordPress editor, choose the word to be the anchor text. Then, click on the link button and in the following field, type in the same keyword you selected.
WordPress will locate all the blog posts on your website that feature that keyword.
Choose one of them, click return, and voila! You’ve created an internal link. Continue doing this for each page, but always make sure that the links are relevant.
6. Protect Your Website From Spam Content
Unfortunately, spam comments are prevalent on unprotected WordPress websites. You may discover that shortly after building your website, thousands of spam comments flood in.
While you can adjust ‘comment settings’ to ‘must be manually approved’, it can be tedious and annoying removing thousands of pending spam comments.
Thankfully there are plenty of anti-spam plugins on the market to make the job a little easier.
Anti-spam by CreativeMotion is a good one. It’s simple, clean, and free to use. Simply install and activate, and you can wave goodbye to annoying spam comments.
WordPress for Beginners: Our Best Tips
When it comes to WordPress for beginners, many will find it easy enough to create an attractive and well-functioning website without any coding experience.
With these tips, you’ll be able to work your way around WordPress more efficiently and can create an even better website that’s fully optimized for performance.
For professional assistance running your WordPress website, we’re here to help. At Sunny HQ we take care of everything related to keeping your WordPress website safe, secure, optimized, and up-to-date, so you don’t have to.
We offer everything from rock-solid hosting, round-the-clock management, all-inclusive maintenance, and expert and friendly support. Sound good? Check out our selection of WordPress solutions here!
