Even if you have ever used WordPress to design and launch a website, there are common WordPress mistakes you should avoid.
Let me start at the very beginning.
Your story probably goes like this.
Got your domain name and hosting? You are excited about your new website and eager to share it with everyone. You jump to your server, install WordPress, and select a theme. At this moment, you realize you don’t have the content, and you’d like to polish everything up before launching your website. So, you leave your website like that. You think this is not a problem, no one knows my website exists (you even link your website somewhere in your social profiles, and think – “who on earth will click on my link anyway?”)
Wrong!
Reality – most people will click just out of curiosity, and while you think your website is invisible to search engines, you are wrong here, too!
There are also some real potential threats.
Table of Contents
- 1 | Don’t forget to set a coming soon or maintenance page
- 2 | Don’t install every single plugin and theme
- 3 | Don’t leave default WordPress permalinks on
- 4 | Don’t forget to set the site name and tagline
- 5 | Don’t upload high-resolution images
- 6 | Don’t forget a backup plugin or a plan
- 7 | Don’t forget a spam and security plugin
- 8 | Don’t create a username named admin or use a password generator
- 9 | Don’t forget to implement social media sharing buttons
- 10 | You can’t do it by yourself all of the time
- Summary: The Most Common WordPress Mistakes to Avoid
1 | Don’t forget to set a coming soon or maintenance page
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not uncommon to have a half-finished website or rethink your content or layout.
Most websites aren’t just finished in a day or two, anyway!
However, you don’t want a visitor to hit your half-finished copy, theme demo photos, or even that annoying ‘lorem ipsum’ text.
You know, they say, the first impression lasts.
You should make sure there’s a Coming Soon page set while you build your website.
A coming soon page is easy to set up. And, there are plenty of WordPress plugins to do this.
Many plugins provide an option to include an opt-in, which is essentially a subscription form for your newsletter. Do this so you can get subscribers even while you design and polish your website.
2 | Don’t install every single plugin and theme
Plugins and themes are not just files stored on your web server.
Each plugin creates and updates entries to your website database, making your website heavier over time.
Installing too many plugins and themes can potentially lead to slow website performance or make your website inaccessible.
No visitor wants to hang out on a slow website or will ever come back to your ‘sometimes not available website’.
You don’t want this, do you?
3 | Don’t leave default WordPress permalinks on
WordPress automatically enables the default permalink structure upon successful WordPress installation.
The number that is used in the default permalink references WordPress, where the content can be found in your database.
However, the default WordPress permalink structure is not user-friendly.
It is better to refer a visitor to a readable URL (web page address), such as ‘https://www.yourwebsite.com/your-page-title’, than to ‘https://yourwebsite.com/p=?25’.
Not to mention Google prefers user-friendly URLs, so this is an important boost for your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts.
4 | Don’t forget to set the site name and tagline
Your website title and tagline are the first things your site visitors will see.
Therefore, it is essential to use them to communicate effectively what you are doing, what services or products you offer, or you are just putting your name out there.
Your website’s purpose should be evident at first glance – your message should be delivered to your site visitors effectively in just a small fraction of their time.
Therefore, one of the first things you need to configure your new WordPress website is your Title (your website name) and Tagline (a short statement similar to a slogan or subtitle).
By setting your site Title and Tagline, your website will look professional to site visitors. And, if you are creative enough, entice them to subscribe to your newsletter, program, or service, or inquire about your services.
5 | Don’t upload high-resolution images
While it is understandable that you want your photography or creative website to show and project high-quality work to visitors, it is not a good idea to upload it in high resolution.
High-resolution photos take longer for websites to load, and search engines prefer faster-loading websites.
Therefore, there is a threat to your website to load slowly or not rank high in search results.
Both things cost traffic and may greatly affect your photography or creative business marketing goals.
However, the good news here is – you can still optimize your beautiful high-resolution images for the web without losing too much of their quality.
6 | Don’t forget a backup plugin or a plan
You invested time and effort into developing your website.
Are you ready to lose that work overnight?
Certainly, you aren’t!
Even if your hosting company claims they make backups for you (most of them do), don’t just rely on that.
After all, a hosting server runs on disks and servers.
You know, they can disappear overnight, too! But don’t panic.
Just make sure you get either a backup plugin for your website or a plan.
While some may prefer to develop their website on their local computer and always have a backup, others are happy with a backup plugin.
However, the most important thing is having a backup plan for your website. Your website is your business, remember?
7 | Don’t forget a spam and security plugin
Let’s face it.
When was the last time you received spam in your inbox or read somewhere that a site was hacked?
It was probably several times this month.
Don’t think simply because you are starting, no one would have an interest in spamming you or hacking your website.
In reality, smaller websites are hacked more often, and you don’t want to be ‘that person’, do you?
So, don’t just leave your website vulnerable.
Make sure your hosting has a scheduled backup feature, or use a plugin to back up your site.
Don’t forget that spam protection plugin, too! A small Captcha can go a long way!
8 | Don’t create a username named admin or use a password generator
Please, by all means, don’t create your administrator username as the default one for WordPress.
A username named ‘admin’ is common for WordPress since it is a default one.
By using the default username, you open your site to hackers.
The same goes for the password generator scripts and websites.
While these are handy, please don’t use them – there is no safer password than the one you create yourself.
9 | Don’t forget to implement social media sharing buttons
Yes, your great content and photography speak volumes for you and your business!
However, don’t miss out on the chance for someone to share your content and potentially land you a new client.
Don’t make it hard for people to share your beautiful content; you need to make this as easy as possible so you don’t miss out on that ‘share love’.
So, before launching your amazing WordPress website, make sure social media sharing icons are in place and actually work!
10 | You can’t do it by yourself all of the time
It is exciting to launch and own your own photography or creative business website!
You should be proud of yourself!
However, please don’t make your website your only job.
Remember, you started your website to bring more clients in, and not to update and design everything by yourself.
It is okay to start with a DIY (do it yourself) approach when you are starting.
But, don’t forget to hire a professional to do this for you and enable your business to grow, thrive, and attract the dream clients you deserve!
So, tell me, have you ever made any of the above WordPress mistakes? Did it lead to something serious? I’d love to hear your experience!
Summary: The Most Common WordPress Mistakes to Avoid
We crafted this article to help you set up your WordPress website the right way. And, especially because many WordPress website owners (even the seasoned ones) seem to be commonly making these WordPress mistakes.
Hopefully, this post will help you avoid the worst and most common WordPress mistakes when designing a website with WordPress. You probably discovered some new WordPress mistakes on our list, too.
Let us know in the comments below if you think we should add some other WordPress mistakes to this article.
