The Most Common Rookie Mistakes Users make on WordPress

How is WordPress working out for ya?

Wow, that shrug was almost French in its nonchalance.

So maybe WordPress isn’t all you were imagining it would be. Don’t worry. It’s alright to feel a little lost and overwhelmed. You’ll get used to the platform pretty quickly with a little effort and some patience.

So while you’re putting some time into mastering the basics, make sure to learn about the common mistakes almost every beginner makes on WordPress. This will save you from trouble in the future.

Underestimating Backups

Yeah, yeah… they’re just copies taking up space. I need that space for my _____ (insert: content/more plugins/ other stuff). When you put it like that, backups do sound pretty useless.

You’ll only need a backup for:

• Recovery after hacking/malicious activity/attack
• Restoration after fatal compatibility errors
• Accidental Lock-outs (when you can’t access admin for any reason)

This is your one solid safety net in at least these 3 situations, any of which can cause significant downtime. For business websites, that means hours’ worth of no-contact with potential clients/leads. In severe cases, it could mean penalties and banning.

Make sure to get a good backup plugin (I prefer BackupBuddy) and let it automate scheduled backup creation for the entire site … consistently.

Tip: A good idea is to synchronize backup schedule with maintenance – Every time you successfully upgrade the website and/or make major changes in the setup, create a backup.

Being too lazy to change the defaults

I am not stressing this because you need to be unique. I am stressing this because you need to not look like an amateur.

There are benefits to changing the default tagline/ admin username/ admin password (Seriously?) / Permalinks etc. You get control over all these features (and more). Learn to wield it for the reasons of:

• Security: Websites that appear ‘new’ or look like they were created by amateurs are more likely to get hacked. Attackers see these sites as easy targets. Unfortunately, they are correct. Change every bit of default data, and you shouldn’t even have to be reminded to change the admin name and password.

• Identity: Your WordPress has a Customizer. There’s a Site Identity Tab in it (since WP 4.3 “Billie”) where you can make a lot of difference by tweaking small details like site title, favicon, and a tagline.

• SEO: The default permalink structure will have your pages/posts show up with numerical URLs, but your users as well as search engines dislike these nondescript URLs. Customize Permalinks settings and change it to http://domain.com/category/postname for better SEO.

Hoarding themes/plugins/widgets from Unreliable Sources

The number of security vulnerabilities in your website is directly proportional to the number of themes/plugins/widgets you have.

You might think, hey! There are websites offering premium stuff for free!

STAY AWAY FROM THOSE unless you really want to get hacked.

Using pirated goods on WordPress is a terrible idea: you are inviting something filled with malicious code and backdoors onto your site. Just say no.

Trust authentic sources only for free as well as premium stuff (WordPress.org repositories, Envato Marketplace, iThemes, Elegant Themes, et al). Do not compromise your site’s security to save your dime.

I also mentioned “Hoarding”, which refers to the act of installing too many plugins/widgets just because there are endless choices available. Get good quality, feature-packed, consistently updated plugins from trusted sources, and keep the number to a bare minimum to ensure security and good performance (site speed).

Taking Maintenance and Security Lightly

This fact in no way means that WordPress itself is not secure, but WordPress websites are easy targets simply because there are so many of them. No other CMS or platform can boast powering over 16 million websites and counting.

Maintenance and hardened security ensure that you are doing everything in your power to protect yourself from mass attacks. If you don’t have the technical resources/skill/time to do so, you can always hire WordPress developers to be your remote IT guys on the web.

Endnote

The worst mistake you could possibly make is to let yourself stagnate by not making the effort to keep up with your platform.

So keep pace, learn and grow. It’s how we do things with WordPress.