Are you making these WordPress blunders?

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However, to enjoy maximum benefits from WordPress, there are some mistakes that you need to avoid. Here are six of the most common:

1. Choosing a defective or irrelevant theme

Besides determining the appearance of your site, themes can also affect your search engine ranking. Therefore, take the time to carry out some research to find out your options.

If you are looking for a free theme, there are thousands available in the WordPress directory and elsewhere. However, some free themes come embedded with harmful code that could make your site vulnerable to hackers. If you choose to invest in a premium WordPress theme, consider the price, ease of use and the reputation of the company. In addition, make sure the theme is SEO friendly.

2. Not changing the default permalink structure

All the posts in your WordPress blog are assigned a permanent static hyperlink (permalink). The default permalink is usually something like http://www.sitexyz.com/?p=123. This not only appears unprofessional but is also useless when it comes to SEO. Therefore, one of the first things you need to do after installing WordPress is to the default permalink structure.

Be sure to insert relevant keywords into your permalinks so as to enhance your search engine rankings.

3. Installing too many plugins

WordPress has a wide range of free and premium plugins that can greatly improve the functionality of your site. However, installing too many plugins will only slow down your site.

Before making a decision, take the time to read the plugin information and statistics. Does it work with the latest WordPress version? When was it last updated? Once you have verified its usefulness, go ahead and install it. If you are not satisfied, ignore it and look for other options.

4. Ignoring WordPress updates

Once in a while, WordPress releases updates which are meant to improve the user interface, security and speed of the platform. All you need to do is click on the ‘Update WordPress’ button and your site will be updated within minutes. However, many people see updates as a bother and simply ignore them. This limits the performance of their sites and leaves them vulnerable to hackers. Besides updating WordPress itself, you should also ensure that your themes and plugins are updated frequently.

5. Not optimising images

Images are a very important element of any WordPress site. However, one of the greatest mistakes you can make is failing to optimise your images. If you want to speed up your WordPress site, be sure to optimise all your images before uploading. This will ensure that your visitors enjoy a pleasant user experience.

6. Failing to create a backup

Your website could crash at any time due to factors beyond your control. Within seconds, you could lose all the content that you have worked so hard to create.

To avoid this, it is very important to have a backup of your WordPress site. This will enable you to restore your site back to normal in case of an unexpected crash. The good news is that there are numerous WordPress plugins out there that you can use to create automatic/manual backups.