WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) and for several good reasons. For starters, it’s incredibly easy to set up and manage a WP-powered site. In addition, the CMS is lightweight and therefore able to produce sites that load up fast especially when everything is properly optimized.
However, on the downside, WordPress is not known to be too tolerant to basic mistakes, meaning you need to know and avoid them if you’re to enjoy its benefits in their entirety.
For today’s post, therefore, we highlight the seven most common WordPress mistakes we regularly see both beginners and experienced webmasters make with their sites. We’ll also show you how to avoid each of them.
Ready? Let’s dive straight in!
Using an unreliable hosting service
A WordPress website is just as efficient as the web hosting service that powers it. It is, therefore, a pity that the majority of website owners disregard the importance of choosing a reliable web host for their sites.
When starting out, it’s important to visualize your ideal hosting solution that matches the exact needs of your site. This means having a web host that offers the right amount of disk space, RAM, domains and subdomains, and server location among others.
If you are a novice WordPress user without technical skills and knowledge to manage servers, this is a great list to get you started. Inside, you will find top yet affordable hosting providers with a proven track record of offering total reliability and excellent uptime. Be sure to check them out!
Failing to stress-test your site
Besides hacks and malware infections, one of the most common causes of WordPress site crashes is sudden spikes in traffic. This is why it’s important to stress-test your site to make sure that it can actually withstand a surge in the real-world traffic. Luckily, this doesn’t have to be a difficult task especially with the numerous tools available to help with this process. The tools work by simulating the actual load on a site’s usage resources. You can thereafter check the results and correct any arising issues as you deem appropriate.
Not backing up your website
Running a WordPress site without having a stable backup plan in place is another very common mistake that most webmasters make today. You definitely don’t want to lose everything on your website just because you failed to back up your files. And no, backing up a WP site doesn’t have to be manual or a time-consuming task. In fact, you can automate the entire process using free or paid WordPress backup plugins or use a managed hosting provider to handle all the work on your behalf.
Using outdated WordPress software version
WordPress, just like all other software, receives regular updates which add new features while also sealing any security loopholes. To enhance the safety of your site, ensure that you update your WordPress as soon as a new version is released. This helps to minimize the chances of being hacked or supporting malware-infested plugins that could bring down your site.
Using too many plugins on your website
As an administrator, some of the privileges you enjoy is the ability to choose and install relevant plugins to your website. Because of its wide community, this CMS supports an extensive range of these tools for different applications and processes.
While it can be tempting to install and use numerous plugins to customize your site, having too many of them can significantly slow down your website. In some worst-case scenarios, plugins may even conflict with each other or with the WordPress core, hence causing a lot of hard-to-track issues. As such, before you can download any plugin, be sure to evaluate if it’s indeed necessary and its implication on your site speed.
Forgetting to Install Google Analytics
Despite playing a crucial role of collecting and providing website owners with key web data, Google Analytics is installed in only about half of the websites on the internet today. And though you may think that Jetpack and other related analytics options are enough, you definitely need some extra data. Ideally, Google Analytics helps you analyze all traffic coming to your site while also offering insights into the behavior of your website. This alone is enough to help you create better content and improve your overall marketing strategy.
Not including any contact form on your website
A contact form is one of the most convenient ways that web users can reach you whenever they want to communicate with you concerning your products or services. Don’t just provide an email and phone number and leave out this form as most website owners do. If possible, include all the three channels (and even social media accounts) to boost your site’s conversion rate and ultimately boost your sales and profits.
Which of these WordPress mistakes have you been making and how do you plan to stop them? We’d love to hear your feedback.