In this article, we will cover the most common WordPress mistakes and how to avoid or fix them, depending on where you are currently reading the article. While it is understandable to make mistakes, fixing or avoiding future issues could be the key to speeding up your business development and establishing a trusting connection with your clients through a stable website.
First, we will start with the fundamentals of managing a WordPress website and, more importantly, keeping the platform updated and with proper security. Then, we will go through all the nitty gritty specifics of making essential choices that will let you avoid potential mistakes.
Disabling or Ignoring WordPress Updates
Whether it be incremental (minor) updates to different WordPress plugins or themes you are using or a big one connected to the entire version of PHP, it is mandatory and highly recommended to stay on top of it. WordPress allows you to ease into the process by giving you automatic updates, whether or not a plugin or theme needs to be updated, and if a new version is out.
Information: Before making significant updates, such as upgrading to another version of WordPress, you should make a quick backup of your website just in case something goes wrong. It is better to have a Plan B and stay on the safe side.
Important: Another essential part of keeping everything updated is security. Many backdoor malware and infections come from outdated plugins/themes and WordPress versions, so to avoid them and stay safe, keep an eye on them.
Leaving multiple plugins installed on your WordPress website
Another big topic and common mistake when handling WordPress is the chaos of installed plugins and themes. At first, this is all for testing purposes, checking to see what you want and which to use to develop your website. However, a thorough cleanup is needed afterward.
Leftover installed plugins or themes that are left inactive, and you do not plan to use should be deleted. Even if they are inactive, they still take space from your account and passively consume resources. This could lead to a slow backend and dashboard in general. The slower performance of the website on the front end depends on how many active plugins you have and which are being utilized.
Information: Another big issue to mention is plugin conflict. This could lead to performance issues, actual downtime, and critical errors. It is essential to use one plugin for the specific thing you want. For example, if you want a cache plugin to preload your images and improve your performance, you do not need another one or three cache plugins simultaneously.
If you are using a specific page builder as a plugin, stay within its functionalities. Most of these plugins have add-ons or different sub-parent plugins connected to them. Using them in that way is better than using two or three separate plugin builders simultaneously, which consumes many resources and will most likely hurt your website performance and workflow.
Quick choice with a theme for your WordPress website
It is important not to rush and choose the first theme you like on your WordPress site. That is the most common mistake when it comes to developing the website. A lot of factors need to go into consideration when choosing the correct one for you and your website:
- Theme provider and development team connected to it. Choosing one that will be supported down the road with newer versions and potentially new features that could help you out is essential. That is not something that can be guaranteed. However, it can be determined by the number of installations on WordPress websites, its reputation, and online forums.
Information: An important tip when choosing a theme or plugin, for that matter, is to check for online forums and opinions of other users who have tried and used it. What are the pros and cons depending on different perspectives would help you check the boxes for your ultimate decision.
- Every provider also updates its documentation for each theme, and whichever you choose directly from the WordPress database, you can check its updates and see when the last one was made. For example, if the theme is not supported or has slow updates once every two or three years, then that would be a potential risk in terms of security and longevity when using it. The security aspect is something we covered in the first topic, and the second one is connected to known bugs or issues that each theme can or could have. A slow update would mean you need to wait longer, disrupting your workflow and plans of developing the website altogether.
- Another thing to consider is the theme’s performance and whether it offers a mobile-friendly environment as well. That is strictly connected to the website being fast on both desktop and mobile versions. This is essential to provide the best user experience for your visitors.
- The last thing to mention when choosing themes is the support it offers, depending on the provider and if it is free or paid. Support forums or general Discord forums are where other users discuss issues that they need to solve. That is very helpful when working with that specific theme, not only having developer help from the provider if an issue arises but to having a community with which you can relate things you want to be improved on the theme or potential issues that you are having.
Information: A good thing to mention is having made a wrong decision and what comes with it as a consequence. Switching to another theme is a hassle, and it changes the way everything works. Everything you have made through the old theme will be deleted or changed. That is why it is essential to avoid general website re-work by following the steps we recommended earlier.
Going with any Hosting Provider
Another vital part not directly connected to your website is the provider you choose for hosting purposes. The most common mistake people make is choosing the cheapest hosting provider and going through all the hassles until they decide to move everything to something better.
That decision is something that a lot of our current and future clients make when moving hosting providers. The main reasons are underlying costs such as making a backup for the website or checking for malware or slow and unresponsive support, which takes forever to answer basic questions and much more.
It is crucial to have the stability of known server locations and uptime and to have support throughout the entire process, from sales questions to moving your websites or creating a new account. At WPX, we offer all that and more with our free features, such as free optimizations, free migrations, and 24/7 support on both chat and ticket systems.
Having the peace of mind to concentrate on your websites and online business is essential. It can provide you with the workspace to get new ideas and dive into growing them instead of worrying if your website will be down tomorrow or having to contact support and get an answer the next day.
Not making use of all the hosting features that are provided
One of the most common WordPress mistakes clients make is not utilizing the hosting provider to its full potential. That would include help with anything technical, depending on the scope and what is offered as a policy, and using features such as backup systems, optimizations, cleaning infections, and much more.
First things first, at WPX, we offer FFY policy, which we stand by and is one of our most renowned features. It is something that we teach and do automatically without the need for our customers to ask for it. That would include proactively handling all technical related issues and tasks for WordPress.
The next thing would be not taking advantage of the free optimizations WPX offers for each website per year (365 days). That includes having manual work from a specialized Security and Optimization Team going through the website with the client’s permission and doing their best to make everything faster.
Using and utilizing XDN (CDN Network) for all of your websites. That is a feature that most hosting providers ask for additional pay for or have a set limitation on, whilst with WPX there isn’t any. You simply tick over a box next to the website and have multiple caching locations to provide the best user experience for your visitors.
The last thing to mention is free malware removal at WPX. That is another thing that most clients move over to do with us. Other hosting companies offer the same but use an external company with a higher cost, which could go up to 200$. Another thing to mention is that some providers use an automatic plugin for cleanup, which is not ideal. It can not provide you with a summary of what is done and what guarantee you have that it won’t happen in the future.
Not using SEO for better results on your WordPress website
Number 6 in our list of the most common WordPress mistakes is the way you present content on your website. That goes from the style and font to the type of writing and if it is copied from anywhere.
It is important to take note not to make these specific mistakes when building your online website:
- Poorly written content without specific keywords. Sometimes, writing your thoughts for something like a blog or reviewing a product must be taken seriously. Researching keywords is essential for the type of content you want to display not only on the page itself but in its permalink structure and URL. A good read for making better descriptions and meta tags for the pages and products you create can be read here.
- Another one of the most common WordPress mistakes is copying content or plain text directly from other sources of information. While that may seem harmless at first glance, it can be copyrighted, and a DMCA TakeDown Notice can be sent to the hosting provider to delete the content or disable the website. Make sure that the content is authentic to the topic or product. Keep in mind when using entire brand names. A good tip is to contact them beforehand and ask for permission or come to a license agreement of fair use where you are protected with legal documents to use the specific brand or product mentioned on your website.
- Not using SEO plugins that can help you index the content. Plugins like Yoast SEO can help you generate a sitemap. Think of it as a map displayed on the internet where each page and category is linked and has a complete structure. Search engine bots can index your website much better, especially when you remove or add new pages. That way, you can have the best chance for your SEO ranking, connected to where your website appears when a potential visitor searches for a topic.
Not protecting your Contact Form and filtering spam
Another vital mistake when starting a WordPress website is ignoring the Contact Form. That includes not protecting it from automatic bots and phishing spam that can be used to target your email address, which is connected to the specific form.
The first and most essential thing to do is to protect your Contact Form with CAPTCHA. That is something well-known for everyone that displays boxes and a generic question to answer that stops automatic bots and prevents spam comments from being made on your posts or pages.
Another important thing to do is protect the email address you connect to the contact form. That can be done with a secure password and an Unsubscribe button to each sent email as an option to opt out if needed from the recipients. That way, you can avoid potential phishing reports that can target your website and lead to the disabling of the mail function or email service altogether.
The last thing to do is regularly check and delete spam comments, if any. Adding different filters through the contact form, such as additional fields of information from the commentator,s can also help with that. Keeping your site clean from spam messages not only benefits the overall view of the website but also increases the trust of potential visitors who are going to read through the pages.
That’s it! We have reviewed the most common WordPress mistakes. We hope that at least one of the recommendations was helpful for you to grow your online blog or business. If anything is unclear, don’t hesitate to contact our support via chat or ticket.
