Ah WordPress, the most popular website building software. Yeah, that didn’t sound so catchy. Regardless, we don’t need to tell you the various benefits it provides small businesses. Nevertheless, there are a couple things to avoid in order to make sure your website is in tip top shape.
Is your site mobile user friendly?
If your website isn’t responsive to most browsers and screen sizes, you could lose the web traffic that comes from mobile devices. It’s unlikely these visitors will try to view your website from another device if they didn’t have a good experience the first time. Luckily WordPress has many solutions for this.
Do you have too many plugins?
WordPress plugins are important in maintaining your website. They offer many different solutions ranging from security plugins to contact form plugins. While plugins can prove to be very effective in running your site, using too many can lead to a variety of problems, including security breaches, website crashes, and slow loading speeds.
Are you using a Child Theme?
A child theme is a sub-theme of a larger parent theme that inherits all of the functionality, features, and style of the related parent theme. When a child theme is used, it allows you to customize a parent theme without touching any core files. The problem with using a parent theme is that if you make any modifications to the theme, everything will be lost once the theme is updated by the developer. To avoid losing any customizations, be sure your site uses a child theme. You can choose to use a parent theme with an existing child theme or you can create your own.
Are you compressing your images?
Images make content more engaging, but the larger file size means that it can take longer to load. Slow site loads can affect user experience and you can possibly lose traffic. If your bounce rate—the percentage of users who leave your site immediately—is high, search engines like Google will categorize your site as malicious or spammy. This categorization can lower your domain authority and ranking.
Are you implementing SEO correctly?
Whether you’re a blogger building a WordPress website for personal use or a business owner creating a site to expand your e-commerce capabilities, you should start by understanding the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). Knowing SEO best practices helps you optimize your website for search engines like Google. When Google is able to find your site, it can then show it to people who are looking for the products you sell or the content you produce.
Do you use Google Analytics?
You need to analyse your site in order to know who’s visiting, what they’re clicking and how often they’re there. It’s important to start gathering information about your website as soon as possible. If you know where your customers are coming from, how long they’re staying on your website, and what they’re looking at, then you can modify your SEO and marketing strategies to give them more of what they want.
Is “Admin” your User Account Name? If so, change it.
Using the default “Admin” as your user account name for your WordPress login can be a security risk. “Admin” can be easily guessed, and it leaves your website data at the mercy of hackers. Your username should not be easy to guess. Don’t use the same as your published name, an email, or something that someone can figure out easily.
