Are you intimidated by wordpress? Are you overwhelmed trying to figure out all of the different aspects of the site? If so, you are in luck. This article has some information to help you get started. Once you have read it, wordpress should be de-mystified for you. Then, you can start improving your site.
Create smart URLs! Don't use a lot of keywords in the URL, and keep the whole thing simple and straightforward. Avoid excessive verbiage. You want to create smart permalinks that are easy to look at and easy to understand. This helps make your blog more user friendly and comprehensible.
Be sure to add an author biography to each blog post on boards where many bloggers are posting. In this way, each blogger gets proper credit and it is easier for readers to know who posted what at a glance. Furthermore, readers will tend to stay on your page if they can get all the information they need in one place.
Do not let your theme get stale. The first thing you should do if you notice a decrease in traffic is check and see when you last changed your theme. As your site grows and changes, the theme should as well. Make sure that it accurately reflects your brand, and you should see a rise in traffic.
Set a publishing time for your blog posts. When editing an article for publication, you can select when it will be published. It's a good idea to set regular updates for a specific date and time. To really stay on top of keeping your blog up to date, put your blog posts in ahead of time and let WordPress post them to your blog for you.
If you want to create a line break, but not a paragraph break, hold shift while you press the enter key. This moves the cursor down to the next line without including any blank space. If you want to put a letterhead-type address on your page, this should make it a snap.
Users should be able to send your articles via e-mail easily. This is crucial for sharing purposes. Visitors may not have access to sites like Twitter or Facebook at work and need a way of sharing your article with others. You can use a plugin called WP-Email to help you do this.
If you haven't customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn't actually benefit you or your visitors directly.
Remember to make good use of the footer area at the bottom of your WordPress blog pages. In this area you can include additional information about yourself and/or your copyright. You can also add a link to another page if you wish. Different themes give you more use of this area, so choose your themes carefully to maximize the value of your page footers.
Wordpress has many keyboard shortcuts which make working with posts a snap. For example, ctrl-c allows you to copy text, while ctrl-x lets you cut it. Ctrl-v will paste it somewhere else. Ctrl-b is bold, ctrl-i is italic and ctrl-u is underline. These basic keyboard shortcuts will save you a lot of time if you memorize them.
As you can see, wordpress does not have to be intimidating. If you follow these suggestions, you can learn how wordpress works. Once you have that knowledge, you can create a successful site. Your visitors will be impressed with the navigability of your blog. The return traffic created by the professional appearance is just what you need.
Create smart URLs! Don't use a lot of keywords in the URL, and keep the whole thing simple and straightforward. Avoid excessive verbiage. You want to create smart permalinks that are easy to look at and easy to understand. This helps make your blog more user friendly and comprehensible.
Be sure to add an author biography to each blog post on boards where many bloggers are posting. In this way, each blogger gets proper credit and it is easier for readers to know who posted what at a glance. Furthermore, readers will tend to stay on your page if they can get all the information they need in one place.
Do not let your theme get stale. The first thing you should do if you notice a decrease in traffic is check and see when you last changed your theme. As your site grows and changes, the theme should as well. Make sure that it accurately reflects your brand, and you should see a rise in traffic.
Set a publishing time for your blog posts. When editing an article for publication, you can select when it will be published. It's a good idea to set regular updates for a specific date and time. To really stay on top of keeping your blog up to date, put your blog posts in ahead of time and let WordPress post them to your blog for you.
If you want to create a line break, but not a paragraph break, hold shift while you press the enter key. This moves the cursor down to the next line without including any blank space. If you want to put a letterhead-type address on your page, this should make it a snap.
Users should be able to send your articles via e-mail easily. This is crucial for sharing purposes. Visitors may not have access to sites like Twitter or Facebook at work and need a way of sharing your article with others. You can use a plugin called WP-Email to help you do this.
If you haven't customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn't actually benefit you or your visitors directly.
Remember to make good use of the footer area at the bottom of your WordPress blog pages. In this area you can include additional information about yourself and/or your copyright. You can also add a link to another page if you wish. Different themes give you more use of this area, so choose your themes carefully to maximize the value of your page footers.
Wordpress has many keyboard shortcuts which make working with posts a snap. For example, ctrl-c allows you to copy text, while ctrl-x lets you cut it. Ctrl-v will paste it somewhere else. Ctrl-b is bold, ctrl-i is italic and ctrl-u is underline. These basic keyboard shortcuts will save you a lot of time if you memorize them.
As you can see, wordpress does not have to be intimidating. If you follow these suggestions, you can learn how wordpress works. Once you have that knowledge, you can create a successful site. Your visitors will be impressed with the navigability of your blog. The return traffic created by the professional appearance is just what you need.
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Now that you have some great suggestions about wordpress premium themes, you can better see how it can improve your blogging efforts. Take what you have learned here and build upon that knowledge. As you gain information, you will gain confidence. Soon you will be seeing more traffic and increased popularity on your blog.