WordPress is an incredibly powerful and flexible tool. However, its broad array of options makes it easy to make mistakes while using it.
Some mistakes can negatively affect your website, and certain ones can be absolutely devastating. It’s crucial to understand these potential pitfalls so you can avoid them.
In this article, you’ll learn about 10 common WordPress mistakes and how to steer clear of them.
1. Using Poorly-Coded Themes
The first and most important aspect to consider is your theme’s quality, as it forms the foundation for your SEO efforts. Poorly-coded themes can severely hinder your website. Whether your theme is custom-built, purchased from a vendor, or downloaded for free, evaluate it critically to ensure it doesn’t disadvantage you.
HTML Validation
Invalid HTML can cause rendering issues, affecting both users and search engines. This can result in lost visitors and poor search engine rankings. Use tools like W3C’s Markup Validation Service to check your HTML, but note that not all errors might be worth fixing from a ROI perspective.
HTTP Requests
Many themes load an excessive number of scripts, images, fonts, and other files, making your pages load more slowly. It’s crucial to minimize these to improve page speed for both user experience and SEO.
Excessive DOM Size
Efficient HTML is crucial. Many themes use unnecessarily excessive HTML elements, which hampers performance. Focus on themes that prioritize code efficiency over just visual appearance.
2. Using Page Builders
Some might disagree, but using page builders can be a huge mistake. They create bloated code, unnecessary HTTP calls, and often HTML errors. Clean, efficient code is essential but rarely achieved with page builders.
3. Installing Excessive Plugins
WordPress’s power lies in its plugins, but this can also lead to problems. Poorly coded plugins slow down your site and introduce errors. Additionally, adding too many plugins can degrade performance even if each one is well-coded.
4. Not Optimizing Media
We all carry powerful cameras that produce high-resolution images, which are unnecessarily large for websites. Uploading large images can slow down your site. Use plugins to automatically resize images.
5. Omitting an XML Sitemap
Especially for larger websites, an XML sitemap helps search engines crawl all your pages. WordPress doesn’t include this feature natively, so relying on a plugin, like Yoast, is essential.
6. Skipping Updates
Skipping updates for plugins, themes, or WordPress core can have severe consequences, including security vulnerabilities. If you’re likely to forget, turn on automatic updates.
7. Overlooking Security
Beyond updates, security measures like changing default usernames, IP lockdowns, enabling two-factor authentication, and limiting login attempts are crucial to deter hackers.
8. Not Implementing Backups
Automated backups are crucial for recovery from changes or hacks. Your schedule should reflect how often you modify your site; weekly backups are a good starting point. Keep backups in the cloud for additional safety.
9. Omitting Schema
Schema markup, though it may not directly impact rankings, can improve click-through rates by making your search listings more attractive. Implement schema as JSON for better control.
10. Not Properly Configuring Permalinks
The default WordPress permalinks aren’t ideal for search engines. Customize your URL structure to help search engines better understand your site hierarchy.
By addressing these common mistakes, you can significantly improve your WordPress website’s performance, security, and user experience.
