WordPress is currently the most popular CMS (Content Management System) globally without competition, and the statistics show that WordPress runs 52% of all websites that use CMS technology. Although it has been considered a blogging platform exclusively, this CMS has long been much more than that. Easy installation, pronounced flexibility, and easy maintenance have resulted in WordPress being used by everyone today – from small start-ups through business giants like The New Yorker and large eCommerce sites. WordPress has also long been a platform for small websites, and it was true. But since then, the share of WordPress among websites with the highest traffic has been multiplying.
WordPress is a free, open-source platform. It means that the source code of WordPress is publicly available and that anyone can create various upgrades that expand the platform’s capabilities. It is another reason for its great popularity. This platform is also known for its excellent SEO features. The structure of links (permalinks) is clean, and search engines easily index such links.
Working on SEO requires a lot of attention and work, so people often forget required aspects like redirects. Many domains are forwarded from one to another, and some of these transfers affect search engine positioning. For that reason, there is a “301 redirection”, which is used for redirecting without negative consequences on search engines. You can set 301 redirections in several ways. We recommend the WP 301 Redirects plugin to make redirects; it will also help you a lot with 404 errors.
However, good SEO is not the only thing you need to consider when creating your WordPress site. Here are a few more tips and tricks for using WordPress and making your website attractive and exciting worldwide.
1. Adequate hosting is your advantage
Good hosting is essential for every WordPress site, and if eCommerce is the foundation of your business, there are even standards that your hosting provider must meet. The hosting provider must be stable, reliable, fast, economical, and always available for all your questions and possible problems.
There are several types of hosting services to choose from. Be sure to start with the ones that best suit your needs. At first, you will most likely like shared hosting options. When your business grows, your hosting will need to grow with it. Choose a hosting provider that will allow you to upgrade painlessly and quickly.
It is also a good idea to consider a dedicated server, especially when there is more traffic to your site or you use internal payment services. A dedicated server will ensure that your site has all the necessary resources to run smoothly, your transactions will be in one place, and you will be the only one who will be able to access them.
Nowadays, everything revolves around security, and that’s where SSL certificates come into play. Your hosting provider must also be able to provide you with a quality SSL certificate. Your site will thus use the HTTPS protocol. Browsers will not warn your users that the site is insecure, and your site’s visibility when searching will not be affected. The last item, but no less critical, is the backup. In the beginning, make sure that your hosting provider performs regular backups. Data loss is equivalent to a traditional trade caught in a fire!
2. Make your web design interesting – WP Sticky is a good idea
We know that you enjoy spending time on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and many others. We believe that you have opened a separate page for your business on each of them and regularly update the offer. Also, we know that you are diligent in responding to everyone interested in your products and that you are always available for those who want to know more about your business. But, unfortunately, it is not enough.
Social networks are undoubtedly vital to promoting and active participation in the online community, but remember that they are not in your possession. The website is. If you invest wisely in its creation and the way you present yourself online, the investment can pay off many times over in a short period.
Only a professional team of experts, including a web designer, developer, SEO specialist, and web writer, can comprehensively approach developing a solution for your site that will be original, intuitive, easy to use, and adapted to its purpose. Your site will not have much value without all that, and search engines may not recognize it. It will not be so easily visible to users and your future customers or associates.
Today, it is pretty easy to create a design due to many available themes and templates, but none will be attractive enough to the end-user. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the design with things like sticky elements. With WP Sticky, you can make any element of your website sticky.
Whether it is a header, menu, navigation, or widget, they can all be fascinating, have a unique design, pick different colors, and follow the user scrolling on your website so that their eye always puts attention on the sticky element. Sticky elements are a good thing to make it easier for the user to view the page, present or sell a product of your business and do it sophisticatedly.
3. Be prepared for hacks and crashes
WordPress is one of the most popular platforms, so it is also a target of attacks. That is why it is crucial to have emergency tools, backups, and good support. You will find all this by installing the WP Reset plugin. Their Emergency Recovery Script is magical and certainly helps in these situations. Scenes like a panicked attempt to enter the admin panel will be a thing of the past, just like the white screen of death. Also, with it, you can scan or reinstall core files, delete the .htaccess file, restore snapshots, reset user privileges and roles, even reset WordPress entirely, along with many other things.
Most of us use our business computers for some other things, like watching movies, using social networks, and so on. The more frequently your computer uses these additional services, the greater the risk that sooner or later you will infect it with a computer virus or something worse. When that happens in the end, all your passwords and business correspondence go to those who can very easily misuse your computer. They do this through computer viruses or malware that you sometimes unknowingly install on your computer. God forbid that someone installs a keylogger that monitors everything you type on the keyboard or a crypto locker that “locks” all your data and uploads it to the Internet, and then asks you for considerable sums of money to return the data to you.
Last word of advice
Do not forget to install the latest version of WordPress and update all the plugins and themes you use on the site. Out-of-date plugins are the most common cause of site hacking. WordPress is a pretty secure CMS, but only when updated.
No application is perfect, not even WordPress. However, what is important and gives you some security is that it is very often updated and improved. Safety is always at the forefront of the community of developers who extend it. It is effortless to update WordPress, plugins, and themes that you use. All you have to do is run the update, and the CMS will do the rest itself. But be sure to back up the entire site first before updating, as some plugins or themes may have a compatibility issue with the new version of the CMS.
