These tools and tips will help you transform your WordPress site and get the best out of the world’s most popular content management platform.
Powering over 75 million blogs and websites, WordPress is an open-source platform that has been around since 2003. It can be used for practically anything. It’s designed to be flexible and simple, which makes it perfect for bloggers, webmasters, and small businesses alike.
However, with over 59,000 plus plug-ins and countless themes it can be daunting to know where to start or how to optimise your site. There are known security risks and other pitfalls that you can easily fall into.
Regardless of what type of WordPress site you have, the following will help. While they don’t cover everything, they are tried and tested and get the thumbs up from us.
1. Hosting
If you’re looking to establish a personal blog then a simple approach is to sign up for a free WordPress.com account. You can set one up easily and you don’t have to worry about the complexities of hosting your own. As a starting point, it’s a good choice.
If you’re looking to do something a bit more specialised then hosting is probably a better option. Look for a provider that specifically offers WordPress optimised packages.
I personally use Tsohost (UK based) and have never had any issues with them. They provide great support and I’ve found them to be really helpful.
SiteGround and Kinsta also rate well. Look for a provider that focuses on security, reliability and speed, and offers support to help you get set up.
2. Security
WordPress gets a bad name on this front. There are some basic rules that will keep you right:
- Choose a host that provides a secure WordPress environment that is regularly maintained
- Pick a provider that gives you a security certificate as part of the package – ensuring the site is delivered over https://
- Use the latest version of WordPress (this can be set automatically – however, make sure you have a backup solution in place in case you need to restore the site)
- Make sure your plug-ins are updated whenever new versions become available
- Delete the ‘admin’ acccount from your system and create a new admin account with a more unique username, and make sure to use strong passwords
- Use a security plug-in such as Sucuri to further boost the security of your site. Ask your host to help you configure this if you are unable to navigate some of the more complex settings.
3. Themes
Make sure any theme you pick is compatible with the latest version of WordPress. ThemeForest is a great place to start. The default WordPress options are good too. Key things to look for include performance, usability, customisability and of course, cost.
Some themes I recommend are:
- ContentBerg – great for content based sites – it’s what this site is built on
- Ekko – multisite builder – we have used this for a few sites. It contains 50 templates that cover most use cases. Simple to use and configure.
- Astra – fast and flexible, another great choice with lots of configurability
4. Speed
The need for speed is essential for any website, especially for mobile use. Fortunately there are a few plugins that can help:
- Nitropack – simple to use, click and forget speed optimisation
- WP Fastest Cache – optimises both cache and code, powerful plugin with both free and premium versions. It does take some configuration though.
- W3 Total Cache – good optimisation possible with this too, but also needs a bit of tinkering to get right.
5. SEO
Clear, concise content that meets a user need should be your guiding principle here, but fortunately there are a number of plug-ins that can help. Yoast is my go-to here. The free version is good but there’s also a paid-for version. You get a score for each post or page and clear feedback that helps you to improve your content. It integrates with SEM Rush, too – a great tool to improve your SEO workflow.
https://en.ryte.com/website-checker/ is a good tool to test your site and get some useful tips for improving its content.
6. Backups
It’s critically important that you take regular backups of your site, just in case something goes wrong. Two recommendations are:
- updraft – haven’t used this but have heard lots of good things about it.
- BackupBuddy – been using this for a long time, and it does the job, however it does cost $80 to get set-up…
Check with your host whether they can set up backups for you – many do and, this can be a cost saving.
7. How to deal with a crash
The most common causes of sites to crash are related to plugin conflicts. This happens either when you activate or update a plugin. If this happens to you – don’t panic. The simplest way to address this is:
- Login to your admin and disable plugins until the issue is resolved.
- If you can’t get into Admin, login to your hosting account and locate your plugins folder, located at /sitename/wp-content/plugins and copy the folder and its subfolders to a new location. Delete the original plugins folder’s contents. The site will start working again.
- You can then add in the plugins again one by one from your copy until you find the one that’s causing the problem. Reverting to a previous version of the offending plugin may help. However, for security reasons, unless it’s essential, look for an alternative.
8. GDPR
GDPR Cookie Consent by Web Toffee – this is a simple and effective plugin that generates a privacy page for you and lets you configure the pop-up to match the colour scheme of your site. Excellent.
9. Newsletters
I’ve recently discovered MailPoet, after trying numerous different options. If you have less than 1,000 subscribers the tool is completely free. It offers form builders, GDPR compliance, and a fully-fledged newsletter editor and generator. Really impressive.
10. Smart Quiz Builder
If you’d like to add some interactivity to your site, this is a great plugin for adding interactive quizzes, funnels and much more. Well supported by the developer and completely configurable. Recommended.
11. Analytics
Site Kit by Google is the one to go for. It links to your Analytics, PageSpeed and Search Console information to provide the metrics you need while integrating with your Google Account.
12. UX
There are some tools you might want to consider for this – https://www.crazyegg.com/ is one and https://www.hotjar.com/ another. They provide heat/click maps and provide invaluable feedback to help you improve the usability of your site.
Going a step further there are services that let you pay to get feedback from users looking at your site. Usertesting.com is one worth looking at. Feedback from these tools can really help to identify and address any problems you might have with key user journeys and landing pages.
13. Site Maintenance
When you’re building your site it’s useful to have a plugin that lets you work away on developing it while serving a useful coming soon or site maintenance page. There are lots of plugins that do just that. I’ve been using the following free one:
Under Construction / Maintenance Mode From Acurax – It provides enough configuration options to give you flexibility in how the holding page will look. This includes 9 templates, a custom template plus a countdown timer and mailing list sign-up option if you wish.
14. Image Optimisation
Another tool that’s worth a mention is Perfect Images + Retina by Meow Apps. This excellent plugin will ensure that your images are optimised across device sizes and formats to ensure crisp graphics that are served at the right size for your users. Another really useful addition to your site.
15. Course Builder
If you’re looking to provide a training course or multi-part tutorial/guide for your users to enjoy, there are lots of membership and learner management systems you can explore. We’ve implemented LearnDash and it is excellent.
It comes with a number of pre-built templates that you can use straight away and a comprehensive guide to setting up and developing courses. It’s a paid-for solution, but if this is core to the type of site you want to deliver you won’t go far wrong with it. Watch out for special offer pricing – they regularly do deals.
I hope you found some of these tips useful and they help to improve your WordPress site.
