Common WordPress Mistakes and How to Fix Them …

While WordPress is an incredible content management system and the doorway to your business, mistakes are commonly made — it’s only human. Without making mistakes, you wouldn’t learn lessons and continue to grow within your business. And when it comes to using WordPress, there are some common missteps you might be making that you’re unaware of … So, if you’re a digital agency working on web projects or a content creator, be sure to take a few minutes today to read the list BELOW that we’ve complied for you of what we like to call “WordPress Blips and Blunders” so you can become better at using the platform and keep your clients and/or audience happy with publishing agility!

WordPress Blips and Blunder PART ONE:

I want to start with something my team and I feel is most important … And to reference Pokémon Go! (which still seems all the rage right now!) …

(1) Being a minimalist with plug-in installations is a best practice to follow. Plug-ins aren’t like Pokémon Go! You don’t want to catch them all as it will cause your website to bloat and run extremely slow. So, do you research and only install what you really need and actually plan on using.

(2) SEO optimization is non-negotiable. And honestly, a missed opportunity with your published content as you will obviously want an increase in traffic and to get your content found – easily – by search engines. This also includes making sure you change your permalink structure as it isn’t optimized for SEO by default.

Another non-negotiable thing to keep your eyes peeled on … (3) Ignoring your core theme and plug-in updates. Having outdated versions of any of those things is like giving a hack-ster admin access to your portal thus creating multiple entries for security vulnerabilities. Outdates files ARE TRACEABLE. So, be sure to check in on your website updates at the very least, once per week. If not more, if you can find the time. And if you can’t, hire someone to do it for you.

These next two items go hand-in-hand and something we see here at Virtually Untangled way too often … (4) Failing to be selective about who you provide admin access to and (5) Forgetting to “up the ante” with the strength of your password. Think of it this way, the easier your password is to remember (and this goes for any platform, not just WordPress), the easier is will be for those computer gremlins to perform brute-force attacks and guess it. And by “computer gremlins” we of course mean those night-living hack-sters. A strong password should include a minimum of 8-10 characters including uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and a special character. Back-tracking to #4, this also should be the same for admin rights (including they own passwords). Giving admin rights is like giving a stranger the keys to your car …! So, be selective on whom you trust with your keys!

WordPress Blips and Blunders PART TWO:

Those first five listings are the most important ones to keep top of mind. Especially if you are just learning the ways of the WordPress world and/or just beginning to build your business assets.

Of equal importance, here is a short list of some other things to keep in mind:

Neglecting to use a “staging” site/environment when building and/or testing.
Choosing the wrong theme for your target audience.
Not keeping your audience top of mind while you create your content and page designs.
Using copyright imagery – or not using imagery at all.
Neglecting to resize your high-resolution images for web.
Improperly changing a post URL after it has already been published.
Using a cheap as dirt web host company (we suggest GoDaddy!)
Forgetting to back-up your site (there are plug-ins for this – but just pick one!).
Neglecting to implement Google Analytics to measure your ROI.

Living a virtual life of modern tech can be complicated.

So, why not simplify it with a little help from our team of “untanglers”.
Let US be the digital glue to everything you do.

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Crystal Kordalchuk

Crystal is an artist, a writer, an organizer, a dreamer, a doer, and down-right proud of it NERD!.

Struck with a love for #AllThings creative at a very young age, Crystal dreamed of a life fueled by her passion for creating and bringing the stories and images in her mind into reality.

As she worked toward her dreams, she earned a diploma as a Computer Applications Specialist then another in Graphic Design and from there began to develop her extensive background in multimedia and the arts. She began her worked in the magazine industry as a layout designer and had a succession of design jobs thereafter. It was her role as a graphic/web designer that gave her the first real glimpse of her future. Soon she began a side job as a freelance designer while keeping one foot in the corporate world. A spark was lit! She turned her freelance gig into a full-time business combining design work with her other passion: creating organization from virtual chaos.

Crystal is one of the most organized individuals on the planet. She is by all means a Zen master of her crafts. She excels at helping others become “untangled” and provides her clients with tools to run their businesses smoothly while she takes care of the details behind the scenes. Thus Virtually Untangled was born. A successful business where her work as a top notch creative in graphic and web — with a twist of virtual assistant — married into one amazing place where clients can come with their virtual messes and become magically untangled. Crystal can always make sense of even the most unorganized chaos and offers a virtual detox of order and peace, so her clients can get busy doing the work that they love the most.

Common WordPress Mistakes and How to Fix Them …

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Crystal Kordalchuk

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