WordPress is used worldwide. The ease of use and versatility of WordPress is simply unmatched by anyone else. If you want to have a successful blog, then WordPress is a great step to take. Use the information located below when using WordPress.

Become familiar with the tools available to use with WordPress. For instance, clicking the “kitchen sink” button gets you a multitude of formatting and importing options to distinguish your site. That will help you with formatting.

It is easy to use WordPress to add video blogging to the website. While you may need to prepare a little more, that makes things worth it. The majority of web surfers are visual in nature. Videos can teach people much better than words can.

Select a unique design when creating your site. While copying someone else’s design is quick, it doesn’t make a good impression. Your site should be unique and reflect your personality.

Have a plan before you begin publishing. A schedule helps you keep your eye on the deadline; so as the deadline approaches, it may give you more incentive to write that piece. As a matter of fact, you can create your posts ahead of time and then use the WP scheduling feature to post them at specific times.

You want no special characters visible within your URLs. When search engines attempt to spider your website, these will give them problems, so get rid of them. It is also a good idea to shorten URLs to keywords.

Unless you change it, posts will appear chronologically. You can change the order of this list by changing the dates on your blog posts. To do this, open a single post and look for the date near the top right. Change its position by clicking the date, changing it, and saving the post.

Become familiar with the options and tools that are at your disposal when you blog with WordPress. For example, clicking the Kitchen Sink will give you choices such as importing and formatting posts. Use this for many formatting options.

Do many people leave comments on your posts? If you do, it can be cumbersome to sift through all of them. Try using a plugin that adds page numbers to the comment section. Your site will have more visual appeal and be easier for visitors to navigate.

At the very top of your WordPress page, create a catchy greeting for your visitors. This makes your site more personal when trying to relate to the visitor. This is much less robotic, which makes things accessible through the plugin.

Do not make something such as “admin” your own username. This makes yourself more vulnerable to bots. This is a risk to the security of your site. Go through your users page, and erase any such usernames. Choose a different username.

Omit special characters from the URLs of your blog posts. These characters negatively affect how a search engine crawls and indexes your content. In addition, make sure the URLs aren’t too long; you don’t want anyone to be turned off by the length.

Keep your WordPress password secret. In addition, just use plugins from reputable sites and always read reviews. If your site is hacked or attacked with malware, you could lose the whole thing.

Use descriptions that are very targeted. This is the first thing that your audience will view. This makes them critically important. Scribe is a good kind of SEO software you can use to gain control over this. You can then edit some of these items to make sure more people come to your site.

Always save a backup copy of your blog. This must be a regular process for you. Xcloner is a great plugin that you can use. Pick whichever plugin or site you would like to use. However, have it backed up in numerous locations. You don’t want to take the chance of losing all your blog posts.

The greeting appearing at the head of the WordPress website page should be very engaging. A good greeting is more intimate for visitors and can relate to how this visitor found your blog. This makes your site seem more personal.

If you want to post on off-days, schedule them a few days before via WordPress. You can set them at certain times, even when a computer is far from you. Go to “Edit”, and then find the “Publish” option. Under the Publish box is a radio button that says Publish Immediately. Next to it is a place to input time and date. Input your time in military format. Select OK. Check the Schedule For screen and choose Schedule.

You no longer have to approve or disapprove comments manually. Instead, Akismet can do this for you. You’ll be emailed once there’s a comment, but you should uncheck manual approval so that the authors get to post comments without delay. If you don’t do that, there really is no point in using Akismet.

Is it hard for you to post at the times that you promise to? Create a blurb that is posted at a specific time and date of your selection. When opening the page where you post new content, there will be an option to schedule a publication in the future. Write when you’re in the mood and take care of future posts.

Be certain that your plugins are always up to date. WordPress plugins can add unique features to your site. But just like regular software, they get updated. There are many critical upgrades that you may not have been aware of. Older plugins may fail without updates.

You do not have to depend on a drop-down menu for headers. You can use keyboard shortcuts. You can press the CTRL button and then a number from 1 to 6 to choose between the various options. This saves you time if you use the headers often.

Be sure to pay attention to reviews of plugins when planning to use them. Remember that anyone with some programming know-how can build these plugins. Avoid plugins with a lot of reports of bugs, flaws and security holes. The best thing to do is to use those that have high ratings and many downloads since this signals that they are safe.

Your WordPress site should have comments enabled. This builds a community and gives you more information about your readers. Don’t worry about spammers, there are plugins that allow you to screen comments before allowing them to be seen on your site.

Keep WordPress updated to the latest version. There are security patches in updates, which decreases vulnerabilities. Using an outdated version opens your page up to all sorts of negative possibilities. So, make sure you’re installing all updates that are rolled out.

Highlight any comments the author makes to a blog post. The comment section is where many readers will leave comments or questions. Responding to one of these questions can easily be overlooked, swallowed up in a sea of comments. You should make the author’s comments a different color. In this way, they will be easy to find.

You don’t have to spend long with WordPress to see why it is so popular. Use these tips above to get more benefits from WordPress. You’ll have a professional-looking blog quickly, so that you can focus more on its content and readers.