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Maybe you have finally decided to make a blog or you want to make your own website for your own company. In any case, if you are just starting out and know WordPress just by hearing it, the chances of making the most common mistakes on WordPress are high.
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That doesn’t mean you should give up. Not nearly! What you need to do is learn from the experience of those who have already gone through this and continue reading what I have prepared for you.
Here is a list of the most common WordPress mistakes and what you need to do to avoid them.
12 common mistakes in WordPress
#1 Wrong choice of WordPress platform
One name, two platforms? Well, yes, there are two variants of the WordPress platform, and the wrong choice of it is one of the most common WordPress mistakes.
WordPress.com is the right platform when we talk about a personal site, a blog in the simple sense of the word, for example. It’s free, easy to use, and doesn’t bother you with server setup, backups, updates, or anything like that.
On the other hand, it doesn’t even bother you: you can’t have full control over your site, you have a limited number of WordPress themes and plugins, you can’t use Google Analytics (only after an expensive upgrade), and any form of site monetization costs you extra.
WordPress.org, on the other hand, is suitable for more complex sites, the purpose of which is monetization. This involves purchasing hosting, giving you the opportunity to have full control over the site, access to an unlimited number of themes, plugins, and customization.
In this case, however, the entire responsibility for administration falls on your shoulders, but it also allows you to make money from your site.
#2 Failure to back up
It is one of the WordPress mistakes that can make your life bitter and leave you staring at the sun without a site.
Without a backup, all your work and investment can go on Saturday in minutes. And this for a variety of reasons: you accidentally deleted it, it was broken by hackers, malfunctions, etc.
Backup is, therefore, more than essential and can be done with tools such as UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy.
#3 Failure to perform updates
Fear of errors, indifference, laziness, for whatever reason, not performing updates is one of the most dangerous WordPress mistakes as it opens the way for hackers. The longer you delay updating, the more difficult it becomes.
If your site is created on WordPress.org, you will need to make your own updates. WordPress notifies you every time you have to upload updates to your site and it’s good to do it when you need to. The longer you delay updating, the more difficult it becomes.
#4 Using a standard URL
One of the most common mistakes of WordPress is the use of a standard URL, which neither users nor Google are happy with. The standard URL is completely dull because it does not contain any information about the content of that webpage, and it is also inappropriate because it does not contain keywords to help with Google searches.
Setting up your own URL is extremely quick and easy with the Permalinks feature in the WordPress control panel.
Therefore, we recommend that you use, for example:
Instead of: https://findtheblogger.com/how-to-avoid-the-12-most-common-mistakes-in-wordpress/
use: www.findtheblogger.com/mistakes-wordpress
#5 Using a standard favicon
The small details make the difference, and the favicon is one of those details.
The favicon is the icon that appears next to the name of your page in the browser. It often happens that this detail is ignored, and this is another WordPress mistake to keep in mind.
If you don’t set your own favicon, you’ll find yourself posting online with an image that actually belongs to the WordPress web design company or theme developer for your site. To promote yourself by use your own logo as a favicon.
#6 Ignoring SEO settings
WordPress can stop your site from being indexed by search engines. And this is a good thing as long as you are still working on it. The problem is that it often happens that this setting stays active even after the site runs on the internet. Take this mistake into account and don’t forget to make the necessary changes so that your site can be indexed.
Also, don’t forget or ignore the SEO settings for each page of your site and for each post.
#7 Lack of a cache plugin
It is a WordPress mistake that will cost you the speed of loading your site and, at the same time, indexing it on Google.
A cache plugin, such as WP Rocket, will make your site load faster even in times of high traffic. This way, Google and your visitors will be happy.
#8 Ignoring security settings
Using admin as a login name or password for your WordPress is like leaving your house door permanently unlocked. And yet this is one of the most common WordPress mistakes.
Under no circumstances use this word as a login or password. WordPress gives you the opportunity to change your login details from the beginning, and it is best to do so then.
Of course, a sophisticated admin and password do not guarantee that your site will be guarded by hackers, but they are the first line of defense against them.
Learn more about keeping your WordPress site safe!
#9 Using the standard tagline
The tagline is a short description of the site that WordPress makes available to you and that is indexed by Google.
If you don’t change it in Settings >> General, the tagline of your site will be Just another blog, ie the standard version for any new WordPress site, and that really doesn’t work at all.
#10 Sample Page Retention
Another mistake on WordPress is keeping the template page. If you do not delete it from Pages or replace it, it will still be active, and therefore visible, on your site. Plus, it will appear in Google searches.
And speaking of Google, in a simple search, we see that there are still almost 1 million WordPress sites that have an active template page. And it doesn’t look professional at all.
#11 Using images at the original size
The use of large images affects the loading speed of the site and takes up unnecessary memory available on the server. You can avoid this WordPress mistake by saving any image you want to upload to the site in a compressed web format. Tools like SHORTPIXEL or JPEG Mini will help you with this.
#12 Changing the site URL
The URL of your site is like your home address. Once changed, people will no longer know how to find you. The same thing happens online. Google and your visitors will have a hard time finding your site on the internet, and you will wake up with a sharp drop in ranking and traffic.
So, don’t make changes to your site’s URL unless absolutely necessary, and if absolutely necessary, make sure you do it right.
And now that you’ve learned the most common mistakes on WordPress, start building your own blog or site.
Take into account all these WordPress mistakes when building your own blog or site so as not to waste your time or nerves unnecessarily. It is always better to learn from the mistakes of others than from your own.
