How to avoid common mistakes in Wordpress website

I have seen many popular websites and they make some of the most basic, silly mistakes which at times look funny in their Wordpress website. People buy a Wordpress website and just rush to write their very first blog post. Once published, they will think about all other activities. This should not be the case. Wait till the initial setup is done. Once this is complete, you can go ahead write N number of posts.

• Not creating child theme - It is important to create a child theme specially when there is a new Wordpress update available. If updated, all you settings will be gone. Check my previous article on how important is it to work with Child Theme in WordPress.


• Not removing the initial default settings - Site Title still says "Wordpress 3.8" and the tag line still says "Just another Twenty Fourteen Theme". Please update these atleast. Write your Wordpress website title and a small tag line.


• Not updating Time zone - By default the time zone will be set to UTC+0. Update this to your local time zone and by selecting the city.


• Permalink Settings - I had written few blog posts without changing the default settings. Later on, I decided to change the permalink structure. And this caused issues as my older blog posts were already indexed. Also see - Important points to follow while redirecting webpages. So, choose the right permalink structure when you initially create a Wordpress website before writing any blog post. Make a note in a paper, create a hierarchy/folders. Wordpress offers many different permalink options. Check out more details on this at WP - Using Permalinks.


• Modifying code under Appearance >> Editor - Editing your code in this editor under Appearance option is a bit risky. If something goes wrong here with the code then you may get a blank white screen. With this, your website will be down and also you cannot even view your Wordpress website dashboard. To fix this issue check out my post on - how to fix WordPress white screen of death Issue.


• Installing the right plugins - We need to be careful while installing plugins. Some plugins (in the worst case) can slow down/ bring down your Wordpress Website. It's always good to install a plugin which has high rating, already downloaded by few thousands and also, the plugin should have regular updates from it's developers. Check out the list of - must have WordPress plugins when you build your own website.


• Make your blog post visible to search engines - Register your website with Google webmasters and Google Analytics. I have seen many complaining that their blog posts are not visible in search results. The reason is it's not indexed yet or you are blocking search engines from indexing your website. Make sure that the option is not checked under WP Settings >> Reading >> Search Engine Visibility.


• Keep your Wordpress website up to date  - It's always recommended to keep all the plugins and Wordpress theme updated. As each of the releases will contain bug fixes, security patches in addition to the new features. If you have any issues while updating or uninstalling a plugin then check - how to manually disable WordPress plugin.


• Track your Traffic - Best thing to do is register your blog with Google analytics which will keep a track of your traffic right from beginning. You can create different views in Google analytics when you do this like test, prod, all data etc. Check out why is it better to create multiple views for Website Analytics and also see that in the total traffic, exclude you own visits/ traffic. To do this check out how to exclude internal website traffic in Google Analytics reports. In addition to checking your website traffic on Google analytics, you can also track within Wordpress. To do this check out  my previous post on how to check website traffic stats within WordPress.


• Not deleting the welcome post - Let this be your very first task of deleting the first post. When you create a new Wordpress website there will be a default post - "Howdy, Ravindra Joisa... Welcome to Wordpress etc etc". Delete this post before it's indexed by Google. This is the most common thing seen is many blogs.

Fixing these issues should be done in the very beginning and if you are late then it might hurt your website once the pages are indexed by search engines. You always have the option to fix it, but it might be time consuming. Instead of all these mess, keep this as the very first task when you first buy a Wordpress website. Hope this was helpful. Leave a comment and let us know if you have seen any such basic mistakes that could have been avoided. Note that the above mentioned points are for Wordpress.org and not Wordpress.com

Did you find this blog post useful? If so then do us a favor. Share it with your friends on social media. Also, Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.