WordPress is the most widely used CMS (content management system) in the world. It’s also one of the easiest ways to set up a blog or website, thanks to its standard XML format and user-friendly interface. If you’re just getting started using WordPress as your website engine, it can be difficult to remember all of the little details that will make your site successful and search engine friendly. Even experienced users are prone to making mistakes with WordPress from time to time. Fortunately, these mistakes aren’t too difficult to correct if you know what to look for. Here are the top three mistakes people make with WordPress and how to fix them:
You’re Not Using a Responsive Theme
A lot of people make the mistake of selecting a theme that isn’t “responsive” (sometimes called a “mobile-friendly” theme). This means that it doesn’t automatically adjust its design to fit any screen size and remain legible. If your theme isn’t responsive, your website visitors could have trouble reading your content on mobile devices. This could cost you readers and search engine traffic, since about half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. You can check your theme’s responsiveness by typing in your URL and zooming out to see if your site stays readable. To see if your theme is responsive, look for the “mobile-friendly” icon on your theme list. Selecting a theme that is responsive will save you a lot of headaches and problems in the future. You don’t want to lose readers or have your website get de-indexed because people can’t access it!
You Don’t Have Good Quality Content
A successful blog is, first and foremost, a blog with content. Essentially, you need to be the expert in your topic, and the content you publish needs to prove it. WordPress loads each post from your feed as a separate page that search engines can read and index. If your posts are thin and low-quality, you’re taking up a lot of extra space for no reason. Pages that don’t provide substantial content can actually hurt your SEO, since search engines will have a hard time indexing them. You should aim for at least 300 words per post to avoid this problem. In addition to the length of your posts, the quality of your writing is also important. Be sure to avoid grammatical errors and bad spelling, and use relevant vocabulary words. If you want to rank higher in organic search results, these are the fundamentals of quality content.
Your Images Are The Wrong Size and Resolution
Another common mistake that people make with WordPress is uploading images that are the wrong size or resolution. You want to make sure your images are the right size to avoid stretching or compressing them (and making them look blurry). If your images are too small, they won’t look good and they won’t be legible. If they’re too large, they’ll take up extra space and slow down your site. You can avoid these problems by checking your image size before you upload, and making sure it fits the design of your site. When it comes to image resolution, you’ll want your images to be at least 72 DPI (dots per inch). This will ensure that your image looks as clear as possible. You don’t want your visitors to squint at your images and then click away!
Your Video Doesn’t Have Closed Captions
If you’re posting videos to your website, you should make sure to include closed captions. Otherwise, you’ll be losing out on a large portion of your audience who can’t hear your video. You might think that most of your viewers are hearing persons, but there are plenty of people out there who use sign language as their language of choice. If you want to reach all potential readers, you need to provide captions for your video. You can add them manually through WordPress or use a software like Rev to make the process easier.
Your Website Isn’t Easy to Use and Navigate
One of the first things people look for in a website is how easy it is to navigate and use. If your website is clunky and hard to use, people will click away before they click “buy”. If your site is frustrating to navigate and use, people won’t come back. You want to make sure your website is easy to navigate from the start. This means you should have a detailed “about” page that explains your company and what you stand for. It also means you should have a menu at the top of your site that allows readers to move between different pages. If your site is difficult to navigate and use, people are less likely to click “buy”, “subscribe”, or any other action you want them to take.
In Conclusion
WordPress is an amazing tool that can help you publish great content with ease. However, it’s important to remember that you can’t use it to replace other elements of website management, such as website design and development, keyword research, content creation, and link building. In order to make the most of WordPress and ensure you aren’t making any of these common mistakes, it’s important to educate yourself on the basic functions and features of WordPress. Once you’re familiar with the basics, it’s easy to avoid these common WordPress mistakes and create a website that’s easy to navigate and use.
