We’ve all been beginners!
In this article we share 5 WordPress Tips For Beginners.
Since speaking with our clients we have discovered that many are not using their WordPress platforms as effectively as they could be. This article is designed to help those that are missing out on some of the most simple, yet effective functions.
Post Scheduling
Most bloggers use a posting schedule. Bloggers set timeframes to post monthly, weekly or daily. Through WordPress, you are able to set the time and date for when a specific post will be published online. You can set this up within the WordPress dashboard. Simply enter the edit screen to view the post you wish to schedule.
Once you are within the post, look near the top of the page along the right hand side, you will find options to set the date and time when you wish the post to go live.
Once this is all set, simply publish the page and let WordPress do all the hard work for you.
URLs
WordPress is renowned for setting user and search engine friendly URL’s. Overall WordPress does a fantastic job of this task. In order for your URL’s to be set up professionally and consistently you will need to alter the standard website settings.
You can do this easily by going into your WordPress dashboard, selecting settings, then go into permalinks. Once you are within the permalinks section you will find six options. Through experience I suggest to use Month and Name.
This will ensure that all of your websites URL’s are neatly structured and easily understood. This is an example of what your URLs could look like:
https://universalwebdesign.co.uk/low-cost-web-design
Editing
As a blog or website owner using WordPress, it’s more than likely that you have seen but maybe not used all of the functions available within the compact beast.
There is an abundance of options readily available within the standard set up, this is before we even venture into plugins.
Spellcheck
It’s so easy to miss spelling mistakes. We all do it. To reduce the risk of spelling errors, there is a simple tool that will save you endless hours.
Once you are writing or editing a blog or post, you will find various buttons offering various functions. One of which is a spell checker. It’s easy to spot once you know it’s there. The icon is labelled as ‘ABC’. Click this and you can scan and edit your spelling mistakes within seconds.
Re-Formatting
Sometimes you copy text from Microsoft Word and, even though you’re using the “Paste from Word” button (a clipboard with a “W” on it), the text still doesn’t look quite right. It might be the wrong colour or size. In any case, a button exists specifically for removing formatting from outside sources. To use it, follow these steps:
Most bloggers, ‘me included’ use tools software packages such as Microsoft Word to create and edit content before publishing it on our websites / blogs. This is a great way to take your time over a post and send the content to others review before you post it live, however it is very frustrating when you copy and paste the content from Microsoft Word into your content box within WordPress and the content you pasted remains formatted as it was in Word.
To overcome this issue, the best thing to do is simply remove the formatting. To do this you need to click the kitchen sink icon on the far right, just above the content section. It’s the icon that has two lines of multi-coloured square boxes.
This will drop down further options. Once here, highlight your text and select the ‘rubber’ icon. This will remove all unwanted formatting from your content immediately.
Line Breaks
There has probably been a time when you have created a lot of content within your site and you want to just make a bit of <space> so users aren’t overwhelmed with the amount they need to read.
Thankfully there is a basic, yet effective solution. There is an icon, above the content editor section that looks like two pages with a line straight through them. Select this tool to separate two paragraphs.
Users will find it far easier to read your content and they will be appreciative of you segmenting your site.
Keyboard Shortcuts
WordPress works similarly to Microsoft Word in the sense that there are shortcut functions available make your life easier. Below I have listed several shortcuts that will save you much needed time:
Bold: Control + B
Underline: Control + U
Italic: Control + I
Heading 1: Control + 1
Heading 2: Control + 2
Media
It’s astonishing how many WordPress users are unaware that they can easily embed media content within their sites.
Video
If you wish to embed video, you can do this easily by uploading your content to platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. Once uploaded, you will have the option to copy the code required to embed the video within your own website. Paste this code within the content section of WordPress. Once you click publish, the code will display your video accordingly.
Images
Adding images is rather simple. Select the media icon located above the content section, upload your image to WordPress and then click insert.
Audio
It’s usually best to install a WordPress ‘audio player’ plugin first as this will make your life easy when uploading the audio file and embedding it within your site.
Social
Twitter and Facebook feeds are hugely popular. To embed a feed within your website, you have one of two options:
- Install a social media WordPress plugin
- Copy and paste the social code provided from either the Facebook or Twitter websites.
The first option is certainly the easiest and probably the most effective.
Authors
If multiple people write for your site, but you’re the only one publishing, you’ll notice your username shows as the author for every post. For a lot of WordPress users, the ability to change post authors is hidden by default. Follow these simple steps to change authors for your WordPress posts.
Once your website gets bigger and bigger, it is more than likely that you will receive proposals from other writers to feature within your blog. To enable the writer to post effectively it’s worthwhile adding them as a user. When you add them as a user set their profile / website access accordingly.
Most importantly set them up with a professional profile and fill out all required information, especially the bio.