Chapter
11

7 Common WordPress Mistakes


Here is a list of common WordPress mistakes made. Avoid them to ensure your website works at its optimum best. 

1. Not Using a Child Theme

A child theme is a secondary WordPress theme for your website. It replicates a lot of the features of the parent theme while also allowing you to customize functions and features. The most significant benefit of using a child theme is that it gives you leeway to make a few mistakes. If you do accidentally make some errors in the child theme, you can always fall back on the parent theme.

Under Apprearance > Themes, you will notice a child theme that appears next to its parent theme

WordPress parent theme and child theme

2. Overlapping Categories and Tags

We have already discussed the difference between categories and tags and why they are essential. A common WordPress mistake is to confuse the two and use them interchangeably. This mistake can not only confuse your website visitors but impact your SEO. Ensure that all your content creators are on the same page on where to use what category and tag. 

3. Adding too many Plugins 

We have spoken about plugins and how amazing they can be. However, it is easy to get carried away and install a ton of plugins. This brings the risk of slowing down your website and even plugins impacting the performance of other plugins. To avoid this, here are a couple of tips to use plugins intelligently.

  • Do a thorough check of the features each plugin offers and ensure you are not installing ones with overlapping features
  •  Always do a round of vetting a plugin before adding them to your site 

4.Using a Weak Admin Username and Password

Keeping your website safe from hackers is important. The first step towards this is ensuring you have a secure username and periodically updated password. 

Most businesses use simple passwords like businessname123 to ensure various team members can remember it. These simple passwords are the easiest to hack. Always ensure your passwords are a combination of letters, numerals, and symbols and updated periodically. Another common WordPress mistake made by businesses is to have a strong password but a simple user name like “admin.” It is vital to have both a secure username and a strong password. 

WordPress username and password

Get your WordPress website audited to find out all the issues that you may not know about.


5. Running WordPress on Default Settings 

After spending considerable time working on content for your site, it can be tempting to set up your website with the default WordPress settings. While there is nothing technically wrong in doing this, it may not always be in line with your goals and theme. Take some time to go through every aspect of the default settings and customize according to your business. 

6. Configuring Comment Moderation

Spam and irrelevant comments on your pages can have an impact on your SEO. To avoid or at least reduce such comments, include a captcha form and make providing email ids mandatory. Also, ensure you periodically monitor comments and delete unwanted comments. 

Dashboard > Settings > Discussion

7. Not Going into Maintenance Mode When Making Major Changes

Websites are dynamic and will require some changes and updates from time to time. Some of these changes may be major and need considerable time. It is crucial to choose the “maintenance mode” when making changes. This way, you can prevent visitors from visiting broken links while maintenance is on. Also, it is a good practice to make significant changes in a development copy.

If you want to avoid common SEO WordPress mistakes, read out chapter on optimizing WordPress for SEO.

While you are using WordPress, you are also likely to come across some commonly seen errors. Read our blog post on the ten most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

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