WordPress is perhaps one of the most trusted platforms for bloggers and website developers. Users really like the fact that it’s easy to set up a website or post a quick blog on WordPress without the hassle of complicated coding and maintenance issues. That being said, sometimes mistakes happen and certain essential elements get overlooked while setting up blogs and websites on WordPress. In this article, we will discuss the most common mistakes in WordPress that can happen while publishing posts.
Choosing correct platforms and plans
Initially, while setting up your WordPress account, you need to pay attention to the type of platform you’re about to choose. If you want to post blogs only and don’t want to deal with a complete website, go with WordPress.com (run by Automattic). On the other hand, if you want a complete, self-hosted website solution, choose WordPress.org. This step is crucial because whatever choice you make will impact your later decisions.
You must also keep an eye on the types of plans you want to go with when you create your account. Though you can simply go with a free domain to post blogs, you can also opt for paid options which will allow you to get a domain name of your own choosing, host your own website, as well as let you run your own ads.
Setting up the profile incorrectly
While setting up a profile in WordPress is pretty straightforward, there are certain elements that should be edited before proceeding with the content submission process. It is important to come up with a catchy and unique identity for your blog, so setting up a logo, tagline and website’s name should be your priority. Also, it is important to remember to delete the default “Hello World” posts. They are just sample posts and do not serve any purpose. Alternatively, those posts can be repurposed into some other blog post without creating a new one.
Forgetting to Proofread
It is very important to remember that writing is not everyone’s cup of tea. Keeping this in mind and before publishing a content for the whole world to read, the least you can do is to proofread the content. It doesn’t matter if you’re the one who has written the content, or if it has been ghostwritten, go through the entire thing twice or thrice if necessary, and publish the content only when you have ironed out some creases. As an alternative, you can get your content critiqued by professionals for a nominal fee if you do not have time to proofread the entire thing. Consider this point to be set in stone if you are publishing a content for the first time.
Setting Up the incorrect URL
WordPress is a flexible blogging platform that allows you to set up and edit a few essential details. The free version will allow you to edit the URL, tags, and categories. You’ll need the paid version to install plugins, which can be used to update title and description of the content, which would optimize the content for SEO and allow for a better presence on search engines.
Once you’re done with the content and before you publish it, do remember to update the URL. In the free version of the platform, you can do this by going to the bottom of the sidebar to the right side of the screen, and review the tab “More Options”, under which you can edit the ‘slug’, which is essentially the URL of the post. On the paid version of the website, you can edit URLs through plugins. An advice: do not create super long URLs. In fact, try to eliminate any stop words like ‘if’, ‘an’, ‘the’ etc. Small URLs are easy to remember and can potentially increase user traffic.
In addition, you should also check the permalink setting to choose the structure of the URL you’d want to be displayed. The structure can be organized by date, category or title. This can be found in the Settings section of the administrator panel.
Unoptimized Meta Title and Description
If you want your blog posts to be read by as many people as possible, you should consider dedicating some time on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). One good way of optimizing the content for SO is to focus on the title and description of your posts. If you are using a paid plan, you can install plugins to optimize your post’s Title and Descriptions. Optimized titles and descriptions help your blog posts appear in prominent positions in search engines like Google, Bing etc. If you have particular keywords in your mind, you can craft the titles descriptions by yourself by following certain guidelines. This is a step that you should not avoid at any cost.
Avoiding Anchor Texts and Hyperlinks
Anchor texts and links are mostly used in certain areas in a content to point users to some other reference points, such as other websites or even other blogs that are relevant to your own subject matter. This practice is good as it helps readers find more reference points to follow. User friendliness is a good way to get attract readers, thus increasing the prominence of your posts. Read up more about anchor texting to utilize this tactic for all your posts.
Avoid Setting Up Pointless and Complicated Tags and Categories
A helpful feature of WordPress is the ability to let users create specific categories and tags for different post types. However, it is not a good idea to create overly complicated tags or categories. Tags and categories are mostly used to navigate through different posts and pages, and complicating them can ruin the user experience. Create clean and easy to understand tags and categories so that visitors can find their way easily through your blog.
Lacking Goals While Creating Content
Storytelling is a good way to occupy readers’ imagination and keep them hooked. However, it is also equally important to stick to a particular goal while writing a content. If you have started writing about jewelry, it would be unwise to drift into the realm of furniture. Writing without a definite goal in mind is a good way to lose readers and garner ridicule.
Over-optimizing for SEO
We all know that SEO is an important factor which can attract visitors when done properly. It is, however, not a good idea to over-optimize a content purely to rank on a search engine. While it is a good practice to insert a few keywords in a content, keyword stuffing is something that should be avoided at all costs. SEO as a process has evolved a lot, and over-optimization is looked down upon, by users and search engines alike. Read more about SEO etiquettes to understand the do’s and don’ts of SEO optimization.
Conclusion
For first-timers, setting up a proper WordPress account and going through with the first post might seem to be a daunting task, however, we can assure you that that is not the case. The points we have made above can save you some essential time and energy, if followed properly and help you deliver a highly refined and attractive blog post.
