WordPress is the most popular platform in the world and 33% of the world's websites are built on WordPress. When you create your first blog or website on it, you have to take care of a lot of things.
Today in this article, I am going to tell you about 43 common WordPress mistakes so that when you create your blog on WordPress, do not make all those mistakes.
. Choosing the wrong platform
If you are brand new to blogging and are thinking of starting your own website or blog on WordPress, WordPress.com and WordPress.org can confuse you. Incorrect platforms can cause trouble for you later.
1.There are many bloggers who choose WordPress.com over WordPress.org. Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are completely different platforms. Here is a guide that will help you understand them better - WordPress.com vs WordPress.org - Which is better?
If you are serious about blogging, I recommend starting a blog on WordPress.org. But if you have created your blog on WordPress.com, don't worry, you can easily move it to WordPress.org - How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
2. Choosing the Wrong Web Hosting
However, there are many Web Hosting Providers in the market that promise to be the best, but after purchasing the hosting from them, you feel that they have cheated you.
If you choose an incorrect Web Hosting, it will affect both your WordPress SEO and traffic. The reason for this is, your website will remain in downtime most of the time and your site will load very slowly. Here we have made a list of some best web hostings, which can be used - 7 Best WordPress Hosting Companies in Hindi
3. Installing WordPress incorrectly
However all web hosting companies allow WordPress to be installed with 1-click. But there are many users who download and install WordPress zip file manually from WordPress.org. In this case, some bloggers make a mistake. I recommend you to install it with 1-click. Here is a guide - WordPress Par Website Kaise Banaye 2019 - Complete Guide in Hindi
4. Not using Maintenance or Coming Soon Page
If you have currently launched your own site or blog and it is not completely ready for visitors, then maintenance mode or coming soon page should be used. For this you can use WordPress Maintenance Mode Plugins. This makes your professionality and a good impression on the user.
5. Leaving Tagline Default
When you create a WordPress blog, the default tagline is "Just another WordPress site". Many WordPress beginners leave it as the default, indicating that your blog is brand new and people may not take it seriously.
Use a unique tagline for your blog. Just you have to click on Settings >> General and enter your unique tagline in the Tagline box.
Most Common WordPress Mistakes
6. Do not delete Sample Content
When you install WordPress, you will see some sample content “Hello world” and “Sample page”. If you don't delete it, it makes you unprofessional.
To delete it, click on Post >> All post and delete the Hello world post. Similarly, to delete a Sample Page, click on Page >> All pages and delete it.
7. Don't Use Your Own Favicon
This is another common mistake often made by new bloggers. They do not use their own favicon. This favicon file is too small to see but shows your brand and professionality. Here I have made a list of some favicon generator website using which you can easily create a good favicon for your WordPress blog.
After creating Favicon, you can upload it by going to Appearance >> Customize >> Site identity section.
8. Using Google Images
Each blogger uses images for his article. But you choose the image very carefully for your article.
If you need images for your article, then you cannot use Google Images because those images can be copyright protected and they can later trouble you.
There are many websites in the market (FreeDigitalPhotos, MorgueFile, Pixabay, Pexels etc.) that offer free stock images. You can use a website that gives images for free and is related to your article.
9. Ignoring Security
WordPress is the world's most popular Content Management System (CMS). According to W3Tech, 32% of websites are built on WordPress. It is due to its popularity that hackers target it more.
If you do not secure your WordPress website, then hackers can hack or delete your data, by instantly hacking your site. You can steal any secret information, ask for a ransom, and waste your years of hard work.
Here I have shared 19 Best WordPress Security Tips which will help in securing your WordPress site. Although these Security Tips cannot secure your site 100% from the attack of hackers, but you can secure your blog to a great extent.
10. Using Admin for Username
The admin username is saved by default when installing WordPress. Although you can change it but your WordPress website or blog's login username is Admin, then change it immediately.
The reason everyone knows this username of WordPress. Hackers can easily hack a site or blog with admin username
Let's see. Here I have shared a guide - WordPress Username Kaise Change Kare
11. Using Weak Password
Hackers constantly try to Guess your Username and Password. So that they can access your site. If you use Weak Password for your site, then hackers can easily hack your blog.
Use the toughest password for your site, so that no one can guess the password. Also, change it at some time interval. Make the password as complex and strong as possible using uppercase A, lowercase a, number 1, special character # $ - '^ & etc. Here is a guide - WordPress Site Ka Password Change Ya Reset Kaise Kare
12. Do not use Well- Coded Theme
There are many themes available for WordPress in the market. Not all of them are well coded and secure. And if you install such themes on your site, then it greatly affects your Website SEO. Also your blog can be hacked.
Here I listed the WordPress Site Ke Liye 24 Best SEO Friendly Themes that you can use.
Do not install themes for your WordPress site from any unknown sources. This can cause your site to be hacked.
Also use a fast loading theme for your site. You can install premium themes from Mythemshop, Themeforest and StudioPress on your site which are well coded and speed optimized. But if your budget is low, you can use free themes such as GeneratePress or Astra themes.
Note: Never use Pirated themes. This can put water on your hard work, ie your website may be hacked or your traffic may be redirected.
13. Complete Website Backup
Backup is the most important part of any website. However, when you start a website, it is not necessarily so. But there are many users who never pay attention to it.
If you do not backup your WordPress site periodically and there is a problem with your blog, you will not be able to restore your blog or website and all your hard work will be wasted.
However there are many ways to backup a WordPress site. You can get complete backup of your site using a good WordPress backup plugin from the WordPress repository. Here is a guide - Updraftplus Plugin Se WordPress Website Ka Compelete Backup Kaise Kare
14. Do Not Take Backup Before Making Any Changes
There are many users who do not backup their site before making major changes in their site and when their site breaks, they start looking for a solution.
But some of the same users make some changes by doing a full backup of their site and if there is a problem or issue in their site, then they immediately restore their site by backup and do it as before.
So when you make any major changes to your site, first do a complete backup.
15. Not updating WordPress Core, Themes and Plugins
WordPress developer teams regularly update WordPress to fix its bugs, security patches, etc. If you do not take the update serious, you may face security vulnerabilities. Hackers can inject malware into your site.
Also keep the plugin and theme up-to-date. If you do not regularly update your site's themes and plugins, you may face security vulnerabilities. So whenever updates come, update them immediately.
But keep in mind one thing that plugins and themes that have not been updated for years, do not use them. You use their alternatives.
Also read
♦ What is WordPress and Why is it Best for Website or Blog
♦ What is Blog and how to do Blogging
♦ What is Domain Full Information
16. Do not change the name of the WordPress Database Table Prefix
The name of the WordPress database table prefix starts with wp_. To see this, connect to cPanel and go to the phpMyAdmin section. Here you will see the database table Prefix name wp_comments, wp_options, wp_links etc.
Hackers know this default database table prefix well. SQL injection can severely damage a site's database. But you can avoid such attacks by renaming Database Table Prefix. Like changing wp_, some can name themselves. Eg, mywp_, xizq_, istc_, xzxi_ etc.
This can be easily changed by the All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin.
17. Not Disable File Editing
If a hacker hacks your blog, he can edit or delete any files of the theme and plugin from the dashboard. Therefore it is very important to secure the dashboard.
To Disable Theme and Plugin Editing from WordPress Website Dashboard / * He's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. Paste the code below before the * / line.
define ('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);
Add this code to the wp-config.php file. This will disable the editing feature from your site's dashboard. To insert the code, log into your hosting's cPanel, then navigate to File manager >> Root Folder. Here you can see your wp-config.php.
Note: Before entering the code, backup your wp-config.php file.
18. Do not Secure WP-Config.php file
The wp-config.php file contains important data stores such as MySQL settings, secret keys, database table prefix etc.
So it is very important to secure it. Login to cPanel to secure. Next navigate to File manager >> Root Folder. Here you will see the file wp- config.php. Now you have to set its Permission to 400 or 440. So that no other user can read or write it.
Apart from this, you can disable the WP-Config.php editing feature by putting the below code in .htaccess,
<files wp-config.php>
order allow, deny
deny from all
</files>
It is very important to keep the wp-config.php file safe, otherwise the data of the WordPress website can be hacked and hacked through this file.
19. Keeping Directory Browsing ON
Directory browsing means that people can easily view your site's photos, files, folders, subfolders, directories, etc.
Through this, hackers try to know which files are on your site, and what weaknesses are hidden in them.
Some WordPress folders such as wp-content, wp-includes have sensitive data stores. Which can be easily viewed through directory browsing. Hence, not disabling directory browsing is like giving hackers an open invitation to hacking.
To disable directory browsing, you have to paste a simple code in the last of the .htaccess file.
Options All -Indexes
20. Do not use HTTPS
HTTPS is one of the Google ranking factors. Because Google still wants a more secure web. So Google is using this as a ranking factors. Sites that have HTTPS enable receive good performance and more traffic in SERPs.
If your site is still HTTP, move it immediately over HTTPS. Here's a guide - How to setup CloudFlare Flexible SSL in WordPress site
21. Edit or Customize functions.php Or .htaccess File without Backup
functions.php Or .htaccess file is the most important part of your site. If you edit or customize it without backing it up, a small mistake can break your site. There may be 403 forbidden error or some other issue in your site.
So before editing or customizing them, make sure to backup them so that you can easily restore them in case of any problem.
22. Changes in Parent Theme instead of Changes in Child Theme
There are many bloggers who, while designing or customizing or editing their blog, start editing or putting code in their parent theme which is
Is completely wrong. If you do this too, do not do it again. The reason is that when the theme update comes and when you update it, it will default again, ie all your customization and editing will be deleted.
But if you make all these changes in the child theme, then even after the parent theme is updated, your customization and editing will not be affected.
23. Using multiple plugins
I have seen many bloggers who each use a plugin for a small thing. More plugins can slow down your site. Use a plugin that can do multiple tasks for your site.
Such as Yoast SEO - When you install it on your site, there is no need to install different plugins for site indexing, sitemap, custom title, meta description etc.
Take care of one thing, always use a well-coded plugin. There are many plugins in the market whose coding is very poor. If you install them on your site, they can severely affect your site performance.
24. Do Not Remove Deactivate and Unused Plugins
If you have any deactivate plugins on your site, delete them immediately. Otherwise you may face a security issue. With the help of Deactivate plugin, hackers can install malware in your site.
On the other hand, Unused Plugins affect your site performance and increase the size of the backup file.
25. Uploading Images without Compressing
If you use a lot of images on your blog or website, then it is very important to resize and compress them. This reduces your image size and improves your site load time. Here is a guide - 5 Best Image Optimizer WordPress Plugins
26. Not using Proper Name and Alt Tag for images
Image can greatly help in increasing your website traffic. So it is very important that you rename the images before uploading and use the appropriate ALT Tag. It helps you to get good traffic from image search. Here is a guide - Image Optimize Kaise Kare (Ultimate SEO Guide)
27. Not using Cache Plugin
Cache Plugins is a plugin that should be on every WordPress blog or website. This boosts your website loading speed.
There are lots of Caching plugins available for WordPress. But W3 Total Cache is the best plugin among them which comes with features like page caching, browser caching, object caching, database caching and minification. Alternative to this you can use the WP Super Cache plugin.
28. Not using CDN
CDN also boost website loading speed. It creates a Cache version of your site on its servers and serves content to the users through the servers that are closest to the user's location. This reduces your server load and improves website loading speed.
Currently, I use CloudFlare on my site. It is a very popular CDN company.
29. Ignoring Website Speed Loading Speed
No one likes to visit slow loading websites. If your site loads very slowly, then visitors will not visit your site.
Also Google is using Page speed as a ranking factor. If your site loads fast, it will perform well in SERPs.
Fast loading affects both website ranking & user experience and ranks well in search results.
Quick tips to improve website loading speed
Upgrade to PHP 7.2
Optimize Your Image Size
Keep only useful plugins
Delete Unwanted Media
Minify CSS and JS Files
Use good Cache plugin
Minimize Redirects
Here is a detailed guide to increase the loading speed of a WordPress website - 18 Ways WordPress Blog Ki Loading Speed Kaise Badhaye
30. Do Not Change WordPress Permalink Structure
The WordPress default URL structure is not SEO friendly and looks something like this.
https://domain.com/?p=123
But don't worry, you can easily convert it to SEO friendly URL. All you have to do is click on Settings >> Permalinks option and select "Post name".
https://www.domain.com/sample-post/
Safely Change WordPress Permalink Structure
31. Not Uncheck Search Engine Visibility
WordPress comes with a built-in Search Engine Visibility setting. When you launch a new site, by checking this option, the search engine Bots can prevent the website from being a Crawl & Index.
But if you forget to uncheck it after checking it, then your site will not be visible in Google search result.
To uncheck it, log into your WordPress site and go to the Settings >> Readings page and uncheck the Search Engine Visibility option.
32. Not submitting Sitemap
Sitemap helps search engine bots crawl your website content better and index them faster in search engines.
If you are already using Yoast SEO or Jetpack on your site, they allow you to easily create an XML Sitemap. Here is a guide - WordPress Ke Liye XML Sitemap Kaise Banaye (4 Ways)
33. Making a site or blog very colorful
Your site
