You have probably heard a lot about how to set up your WordPress blog.
I am sure you have also read about WordPress tips.
Everyone wants to tell you what to do with your WordPpess powered site.
You need to do this, you need to change this setting, you have to get this plugn.
Everyone knows what to do with WordPress - well what about the mistakes to avoid? Has no one ever run into a problem with WordPress? No one has ever made a mistake that they would like to share? I am all about saving people time, that is why I have created this list of three mistakes you are making on your WordPress site.
1.
Plugin Orgy - When people find out about plugins they want to get into bed with every one of them.
WordPress plugins are interesting, effective and attainable so of course people love them.
I know that there are must have plugins.
People have to be more picky though! You can't just add plugin after plugin into WordPress.
I had a client who was having an issue with his theme.
He couldn't drag widgets into the sidebar anymore.
He was also complaining about slow load times for his website.
I logged into his back office and checked his plugins.
He had 42 active plugins.
I am not even sure he knew what each of them did.
He had 3 different image gallery ones alone! It took me an hour to find out what plugin was causing the issue.
Once I got rid of the plugins he didn't need - he was left with 11! Don't get carried away with plugins, They can accomplish just about anything you need, but try to keep yourself from adding too many.
Definitely make sure you don't have plugins running that do the exact same thing as one another.
2.
The Sidebar Stretch - Yes sidebars do rule.
With all of those great widgets available, you can do just about anything in a sidebar.
Although you CAN do anything - that is not a challenge for you to run out and try to fit everything into your sidebar.
Some people love throwing widgets into the sidebar, even to the point the sidebar stretches twice as long as the content.
If I get to the bottom of your content, I am not gonna scroll much further down the page.
It only makes your page layout look awful.
It is also wasted real estate because most people won't scroll all the way down your sidebar.
Having 700 sites in your links widget doesn't help with this problem either! Use your sidebar wisely.
If you are running out of sidebar space, prioritize! See if there are any widgets displaying info you could display in some other manner.
3.
Your Permalinks are so ugly...
they Ew-gly - I don't know why so many people ignore their permalinks.
First off, I will never remember the URL.
I know I can bookmark a site but sometimes I don't and I have to rely on my memory.
Bookmarked or not, if I can remember an URL I am much more likely to revisit that page.
Besides that - it helps in the search engines.
I am not sure how much weight Google gives to keywords appearing in the URL, but there is no doubt that it is a factor.
Permalinks are such a simple thing to address.
Just go to your Settings->Permalinks in the back office of WordPress.
Choose your new structure and you are done.
Don't skip such an easy and important step.
If you avoid these three WordPress mistakes you will far ahead of the general learning curve.
Sometimes what you don't do is more important than the things you do.