10 Common WordPress Mistakes

In the beginning, WordPress was nothing more than a popular and easy-to-use blogging platform. Today it’s one of the most popular CMS ( content management system) available and has literally hundreds of thousands of themes and plugins available.

Did you know that WordPress powers over 43 per cent of all websites on the web? That’s astounding!

Whether you have been using WordPress for years or just starting out, there are some basics you need to know about. There are some mistakes that nearly every designer at one time or another has made when working with WordPress.

Here are 10 common WordPress mistakes you should know about.

1. Using free themes

At one point or another, all web designers have used free WordPress themes. And although they serve their purpose, the biggest problem with free themes is that there could be literally thousands of other WordPress-based websites using that same exact theme you are.

It’s no secret that users, as well as search engines, love unique content. This doesn’t mean that you should stop using premium or free themes all together. However, there is a time and purpose for both of those. Just don’t forsake creating good designs from scratch.

2. Using way too many plugins

One of the huge benefits of choosing WordPress for your CMS is the limitless amount of plugins available. There is literally a free plugin available for any feature you want your website to do.

The issue, however, is in the security of your website. Plugins that you download could be developed by anybody. We like to hope that these developers are creating sound code, but without creating the plugin yourself, how sure can you be that it IS secure? Not to mention the fact that sometimes plugins can even crash your entire website.

3. Using too many widgets

Good design should be functional, yet simple at the same time. Widgets can clutter up your sidebar. Take a moment and think about what is important for your site visitors to have and get rid of the extra junk in your sidebar widgets.

4. Inviting spam through comments

When was the last time you checked your comments that people leave on your website? It’s unfortunate that we have to monitor comments before we allow them on our website. The problem is that many comments posted on websites are created by programs that automatically found your website and write a “spammy” comment in hopes of getting a backlink to whatever website the spammer owns.

5. Not updating your website

WordPress is a great and very popular CMS to use. However, the issue is that WordPress is vulnerable, just like any other CMS.

When was the last time you updated WordPress? New updates are created to help prevent unauthorised access to editing or even crashing your website. Go update right now!

6. Overusing categories

WordPress makes it easy to accomplish pretty much anything you would want to in regards to website content. The problem is that it is easy to overuse categories.

Try using broader categories for your posts instead of creating a new category every time you publish a new article. It will be better for your website, as well as your readers.

7. Stealing images

It doesn’t matter what you have heard, it is NOT okay to just take an image from Google Images and post it on your website. Although it doesn’t happen very often, it would be embarrassing if one of your clients received a C&D letter for copyright violation. To avoid this, either ask for permission or use premium stock photography.

8. Creating weak content

One of the main reasons that WordPress has become so popular is because it is so easy to update content. Maybe it’s too easy? What has happened is that writers are getting lazy and not producing as good of content as they used to.

Your goal should still be to provide your user the best experience possible. Not just in design, but in content as well!

9. Your website is not responsive

If you’re not already incorporating responsiveness into your designs, you need to! Having responsive design that fits mobile devices makes a better user experience, as well as increase your readers from mobile search.

10. Forgetting to backup your website

It’s easy to talk about how important backing up is but it’s an entirely different thing to practice what you preach.

How bad would it be if you installed a plugin and it crashes your website? So either use backup plugins created specifically for this purpose or do everything manually. It doesn’t matter what method you choose, so long as you are actually backing up your website on a regular basis.

SOURCE: Website Templates