.png)
The WordPress content management system (CMS) can be very complete; it is one of the most user-friendly tools, with an intuitive dashboard that makes it easy for developers and non-developers to customize and publish content. However, this is not foolproof. In fact, there are some common mistakes any WordPress user should be wary of — mistakes that can affect website security and performance. Some of these mistakes are easy to overlook and trip up even the most experienced WordPress user. Whether you're building a new WordPress site or auditing an existing site, it's important to keep these 12 common mistakes in mind. 1. Upload pictures without paying attention to file size. Uploading images quickly is one of the best parts of WordPress, but not resizing images properly is a common user error that may not be obvious to new users. It can have visible and invisible effects, both of which detract from the user experience. At times, you might be using a theme that doesn't automatically constrain images in its featured image settings. That means it's up to you to make sure your images are optimized, otherwise you'll end up with oddly cropped, distorted, or off-page photos. Even if photos look normal to the naked eye, unoptimized photo files can seriously slow down your website's load time. Say you uploaded a 20MP photo and couldn't resize it. Even if your layout is responsive and the photos look appropriately constrained, your site will be forced to load a large file every time the page is called. If you have a photo library, the workload is multiplied.
2. Use plugins when you don't need them. It seems like there is a plugin for everything these days, but site owners should be wary of returning plugins as a solution to every problem. We have absolutely nothing against using plugins - they are the backbone of WordPress' customizability, and everyone should install some really great ones - but be careful. Not all plugins are the same, and too many can put the security and performance of your website at risk. 3. Keep WordPress default settings. WordPress is all about customization, but before you start tinkering, focus on your defaults. These include the page title, login page URL, admin username, and database table prefix. Leaving industry mailing list settings around your website can create security risks and even hurt your SEO. Be sure to update the page title, this will be reflected in your page and post URLs. Optimize them for search, and be careful not to edit a post's URL without creating a redirect, or users will see an error message. Creating new admin usernames and deleting the default "Administrator" username makes a hacker's life more difficult. Always consider passwords, and when using passwords, make sure your website's title and tagline are also updated. 4. Add customizations to the parent theme. To non-developers, this may seem a little technically problematic, but it's an important mistake to avoid and one you can easily control when choosing a theme for your website. Be sure to choose a child theme, which uses a separate layer of code that runs on top of the parent theme. When a developer customizes various aspects of your theme, he or she will do this on the child layer, not the parent layer.
This is important for continuity, as any customizations made to the parent theme may be lost on the next update to a new version. 5. Forgetting to backup before making changes big or small. When should you back up? If you don't have a plugin or hosting platform that runs automatic periodic backups for you, the answer is: do a backup before making any substantial changes. Backup before updating your WordPress version. Backup before updating the theme. Back up before running the SQL query. Backup before updating plugin version. If you update the plugin version without backing up your site, and you don't verify that the new plugin code works with the core version of WordPress you're running, you'll run into problems. Plugin developers do their best to test compatibility, but they can't always consider every plugin you run concurrently - and it only takes some bad code to cause problems or bugs
Some websites require immediate attention to improve their rankings. Many websites provide excellent material, but that content does not always reach the intended audience. When I was looking for a WordPress design service in UK, I came across a lot of websites on the first page, but their contents were all so generic and repetitive. As I scrolled down the page, I came across some excellent websites that provided useful information on a variety of issues.