Many beginners in website creation will turn to WordPress for an easy introduction into creating pages in the online world. However, they will often also try to ‘rush out’ websites, either for deadlines or out of personal impatience and curiosity to see how their work will look when it’s out on its own in the world wide web. This can lead to silly mistakes which could’ve been avoided with more careful and methodical work on the website, but beginners are often less bothered about being careful and the quality of the final product. If you want to break the mould and show off how quick and eager you are at learning how to use WordPress, then this is the guide for you. You’ll learn some common mistakes and, through your knowledge of them, you’ll be able to avoid them, and elevate your WordPress website, so that it looks less… amateur. Without further ado, let’s dive right in. This article will try to cover the common mistakes for beginners for WordPress site creation and their solutions.
This may be difficult to understand or even notice if you haven’t used WordPress before, but there are actually two different sites. WordPress.org is the one you need, since it will help you to create a website, but WordPress.com is actually a blog-hosting website. If you only need a low-maintenance blog, then you could consider WordPress.com, especially with limited website skills and experience, but for those who are looking to create websites, you’ll need to sign up to Wordpress.org - don’t make this mistake and confuse yourself before you’ve even begun your website creating adventure!
what is the first on Mistakes for Beginners WordPress? If you’re making a professional website (for example, for a business) then you’ll want your own domain. They make your website seem legit and professional, which is exactly what you need. But, when buying your domain, you might be tempted by some confusing offers from the company offering you the domain, since they will ‘upsell’ several other services to try and prey on new website creators, who will be too confused to say no and grab everything they can get. Stop! Stop and think about what you need - you don’t need a private email right now, Gmail will do. You don’t need extra security for a premium price just yet, so don’t add it onto the price of your domain. Just grab the domain and go, and don’t get side-tracked by alternative offers for different services. More isn’t better in this case, and you’ll be better off saving your money and investing in the services that you actually need later on.
Well, not literally. Contact forms are the most common way to get customer feedback in the website world, and almost every website you come across will have one somewhere, usually on the ‘Contact Us!’ page. If you avoid using one, then you’re alienating the audience for your website, by making them feel like they can’t get in contact with you. Including contact details like emails, phone numbers and addresses if the subject of your website has an actual location is also a good idea. They make your website seem more legitimate, and make the viewer feel like real people are behind the website, which is always important. Later on, you can invest in Live Chat and other exciting ideas, but, for now, a contact form and contact details are all you need.
… or not having one in the first place. A mailing list is a (hopefully) long list of email addresses which you send emails to every month, week or maybe even day if that’s your website/business’ style, with updates and newsletter-like posts. Having it be the first thing that your viewer sees, or one of the first things, is always a good idea, because an alarming statistic states that only thirty percent of the people that visit your website will actually come back - seventy percent will leave and never be seen again. To avoid this statistic ruining your website’s traffic, make sure that viewers are encouraged to sign up to mailing lists, so that you can keep in contact and regularly remind them to visit your website again.
This one isn’t just for beginners - experienced WordPress users are guilty too. Many just don’t update WordPress, over internal fears that it will ‘break’ their website and make it unusable. They put if off time and time again, until their websites are obsolete and they’re forced to update, but they also lose a lot of traffic due to not updating. In order to avoid this, make sure that you install every WordPress update as soon as possible, since your plugins also get updated and the updates can add security to your website, which is always good in the modern world, where hackers are updating their methods almost daily, so Wordpress is upgrading its security as well.
Search Engine Optimization, that’s what, and it’s vital to being noticed on the internet. If your website isn’t search engine friendly, then a) you’re doing something wrong and b) you need to fix it. Using SEO keywords that people often search for when looking for websites associated with or similar to yours throughout the text on your website and in the description is incredibly important, because when people search for your website on Google they will not usually go past the first page of results, since they just take the first few options (after the ads, of course). Make sure that you get onto that first page and research SEO to get yourself up-to-scratch and on that first page.
If you ignore how slow and badly performing your website is becoming, then this is a recipe for failure. People don’t wait around for websites that are slow - after a few seconds, they get irritated. Half a minute? You can forget it. Make sure your website loads as quickly as possible, and remove slow-acting plugins. Content-rich pages can sometimes load slowly depending on internet connection, so, unless you really have to, try to limit them and rely on text to get your message across. If your content is rich and exciting, then a few images sprinkled about will just be the icing on top of the cake.
Often, the theme of your website can make or break your viewer’s experience on your website - and it can heavily impact whether they stay or click away. Good themes are crucial to keeping a viewer interested and making sure that they believe that your website is legitimate and worth staying around to see. Search through the themes available to you and don’t just take the first one that pops up. Make sure that your final theme suits your website, its style, topic and content, and that it looks good. If it looks like it was made at a similar time to the first computer, or like it was made by a five-year-old on their first computer session, then it’s not for you. Choose professional and suitable, and you won’t go wrong.
Mistakes are just part of human nature, but you can easily avoid many of them, like those above. As a beginner, you’re more susceptible to mistakes, but that’s okay. Your knowledge of them will help you to avoid them, and referring back to this list throughout the website creation process with WordPress will allow you to constantly have a reference to work off of. Work carefully, not quickly, and you will have a brilliant first website.
We believe that this article has covered a lot on Mistakes for Beginners WordPress. You can find lots of Articles in our Blog Section which are more than the Mistakes for Beginners in WordPress. You can find tons of necessary Tips on SEO, Site Optimization, Speed Optimization, Security, Marketing, Design, Development etc. As a beginner you may do some mistakes in WordPress Site Design but WordPress has a rich documentation base worldwide where you can learn everything without taking helps from others. So, Mistakes for Beginner in WordPress is not the end, it is the starting point to learn and be the best Developer.
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