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15 Most Common WordPress User Mistakes to Avoid

15 Most Common WordPress User Mistakes to Avoid

15 Common WordPress User Errors

Protect yourself by avoiding these 15 most common WordPress user errors to ensure a functional and effective site.

1. Slow Load Times – Be sure to host your WordPress site somewhere that will meet the unique demands of WordPress. This is especially important as Google search algorithms account for load times within search results. Optimizing your site speed will also make your site more user friendly.

2. The White Screen of Death – This can occur when there is extra space left at the end of the wp-config.php file or a more complicated reason. Having a hosting provider assist you will help you to figure out the issue and stop your audience from seeing a blank white screen.

3. Connection Errors – Having a connection error will cost your site traffic. This may occur because your server is down or WordPress cannot access the database to serve the page content.

4. WordPress Tagline – The “Just Another WordPress Blog” tagline should be the first to go. It is the default tagline loaded onto WordPress and will become your header in your homepage search result unless you update it.

5. De-Indexing your Site – Do not set your site to private as it would de-index it from search. This does not just remove your blog posts but your tags on every page and will drop your traffic to zero.

6. Operating on an Old WordPress Version – Updating your WordPress is essential to ensuring performance, usability, and security of your site.

7. Remove Deactivated Plug-ins – Deactivated plugins can run you a security risk for your site. The most popular way hackers break into WordPress sites is through the back door of plugins.

8. Having a Messy Wp-Admin Section – The best admin sections are maintained, kept up to date, and uncluttered. Bad sections normally run old versions of everything, have way too many useless plugins and make it difficult for another author or developer to navigate.

9. Posts that Cover the Front Page – Be sure to think about utilizing a theme that has the “Read More” button or focuses on featuring excerpts. No one wants to go onto a site that has a post spanning the entire length of the page making it look cluttered and unorganized.

10. Sidebar Placed Below Your Content – Sidebar widgets are simple to customize but can easily be shifted by simple mistakes causing it to sit below the content. This normally occurs from extra placements of div tags in your theme editor code.

11. Poorly Formatted Homepage – A homepage can easily become mis-formatted as a result of activating or changing settings of a plugin. Be sure to always check your homepage after making changes or updates in your admin.

12. Blog Subdirectory – If you are installing WordPress as a blog attached to a non-Wordpress site, than be sure to install it within a directory that is labeled blog rather than wordpress. Otherwise you will end up with your site domain /wordpress compared to your site domain/blog.

13. Index.php in the URL – Just as with the blog subdirectory, an incorrect installation can cause your site to have index.php in all your linking.

14. Local or Visible Backups – If you have plugins that are making backups to your files or database within your root folder than it is likely everyone else can see them. Keep your back-ups to yourself.

15. Visible Server Information – Be sure you are not providing detailed information or the version of WordPress you are running. This can be easily checked at your site domain /phpinfo.php or your site domain /readme.html. Having these easily accessible will only attract more risks for hackers to prey on you.

About The Author
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.