You’ve decided to start a blog. That’s great! But now what? WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and for good reason- it’s easy to use and versatile. But that doesn’t mean you can just start blogging and expect people to find your blog. There are a few things you need to do in order to set yourself up for success. In this post, we’ll give you 10 tips for blogging on WordPress.
Choose Your Hosting
When it comes to choosing your hosting, you have a lot of different options. But, WordPress recommends Bluehost, Here are some of the reasons why:
• 24/7 support from WordPress experts
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• FREE domain name and email address
• 1-click WordPress installation
Watch Theme Demos
When you’re looking for a WordPress theme, it’s important to watch the theme demos to get a better idea of how the theme works. Theme demos can show you how the theme looks on different types of pages, how it handles menus and widgets, and even how it displays blog posts.
By watching the theme demos, you’ll get a better idea of how the theme works, and you’ll be able to see if the theme is a good fit for your blog.
You may also like: How To Write Engaging Blog Posts
Install an SEO Plugin
One of the best things you can do for your blog is install an SEO plugin. This will help you optimize your posts for the search engines, which will help you get more traffic.
There are many SEO plugins to choose from, but we recommend the Yoast SEO plugin. It’s easy to use and it has lots of features that will help you improve your SEO.
Install Google Analytics
Now that you’ve set up your blog, it’s time to start tracking your website traffic. The best way to do this is by installing Google Analytics. This free tool will give you insights into where your visitors are coming from, what pages they’re visiting, and how long they’re staying on your site.
To install Google Analytics, simply create a free account and add the tracking code to your website. It will take a few minutes to start tracking data, but once it’s running you’ll be able to see how your blog is performing and make tweaks accordingly.
Set Up Your Gravatar
If you’re not familiar with Gravatars, they’re essentially little icons that represent you on the web. They show up next to your name on comments and blog posts, and help people to recognize you and connect with you better.
Setting up a Gravatar is really easy—just head over to gravatar.com and create an account. Once you’ve registered, all you need to do is upload a photo of yourself (or your logo) and specify your email address. From there, Gravatars will automatically be generated for all of your email addresses.
So why not set one up today? It’s a quick and easy way to add some personality to your blog, and it can help people to connect with you better.
Keep the Plugins and Themes Updated
One thing you’ll want to do on a regular basis is keep your plugins and themes updated. Outdated plugins and themes can leave your website vulnerable to attacks, so it’s important to make sure they’re always up-to-date. In WordPress, this is a simple process—just navigate to Updates in the left-hand column and click on Update All. WordPress will take care of the rest.
Wiki: Blog
Manage Your Comments
Comments are a great way to engage with your readers and get feedback on your posts, but they can also quickly become overwhelming if you’re not prepared. Here are a few tips for managing your comments:
1. Disable comments on individual posts.
2. Delete spam comments as soon as they appear.
3. Respond to comments regularly, and be sure to thank people for their feedback.
4. Use a plugin like Akismet to automatically filter out spam comments.
5. Use a plugin like Comment Moderation to approve or decline comments before they’re published.
6. Restrict commenting to registered users only.
7. Manage comments with a plugin like WP-Comment-Controller.
Use Title Tags and Alt Text
When you’re adding images to your blog posts, it’s important to use Title Tags and Alt Text. Title Tags are the text that displays in the tab of your web browser, and Alt Text is the text that displays when an image is not loaded. You can set these in the WordPress Media Library by clicking on the pencil icon next to each image.
It’s important to use Title Tags and Alt Text because they help your images show up in search engine results. The Title Tag is what people will see in Google when they search for images related to your blog post, and the Alt Text is what they’ll see if they hover over your image. So be sure to use keywords that describe your image and relate to your blog post.
Edit Your WordPress Permalinks
One of the most important things to do when setting up a WordPress blog is to edit your permalinks. This is the web address of each post on your blog, and by default, they are set to something like “?p=123”. This is not very user-friendly, and it’s important to change it to something more friendly and SEO-friendly.
To edit your permalinks, go to Settings > Permalinks and select the structure that you want. There are lots of different options to choose from, but my favorite is the “Post Name” structure. This will show the name of each post as the web address, eg “www.example.com/post-name.html”.
Set Featured Images
When you’re writing a blog post, it’s a good idea to set a featured image. This is a small image that will appear in the header of your post, and it can help to capture your reader’s attention and encourage them to read more.
To set a featured image, go to your post editor and click on the ‘Featured Image’ box. You can then upload an image from your computer or from a website.
If you’re not sure what kind of image to use, try to find one that represents your post topic or matches your blog’s style. You can also create a custom graphic or use a stock photo. Just make sure that you have the rights to use any images you choose.
Conclusion
You’ve decided to start a blog. That’s great! WordPress is a great platform for blogs of all kinds, from personal journals to business websites.
But before you can start publishing your thoughts or selling your wares, you need to set up your WordPress site. This guide will show you how to get started.