Everyone make mistakes. Oscar Wilde says it very nicely: “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”. Experience is a great teacher and everyone learn from their mistakes. However, it is much more efficient to learn from the mistakes of others. In this article, we will share 25 most common WordPress mistakes that we see most beginners make. Hopefully you will use this guide avoid making the same WordPress mistakes.
1. Choosing the Wrong Platform
There is a huge confusion between self hosted WordPress vs. Free WordPress.com. Often people confuse the two, and it is a very common mistake. Sometimes users just want to create a simple personal blog, and they are outraged by the recurring cost of managing a self-hosted WordPress site. In other cases, users create a Free WordPress.com site wanting to be able to have total control over their site, add plugins, make money etc. This is by far one of the most common mistakes that we see among our users.
Compare the pros and cons and use this guide on how to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
2. Buying More than what You Need
To get started with a self-hosted WordPress blog, all you really need is domain and web hosting. However, a lot of domain registrars upsell other useless services. This confuses the heck out of small business owners. Some of these services are: Private registration, branded emails, SSL, 5 year registration etc.
You don’t want private registration. One of our clients had private registration with Godaddy, and it was hell to transfer the name over. We had to send driver licenses, article of incorporation for the company and other confidential information just to move the domain. For branded emails, you have Google Web Apps. In most cases, you don’t need SSL. There is no reason for you to pay for 5 years of domain registration upfront. What if you decide to quit? You lost all that money. Besides, you will probably save more $$$ with the renewal discounts.
3. Not Creating a WordPress Backup
We have all made the mistake of not creating a WordPress backup. You only realize this when you fall in a hole and absolutely need the backup for rescue. We advise all of our users that you should create automatic backups in WordPress. There are 3 good solutions: BackupBuddy (Paid), VaultPress (Paid – we use this one), and BackWPup (free).
Some real-life stories:
“Dumping a WP database without having a backup in case the new WP database I was importing had an error.”
“Ran a SQL query without any backups. There was no UNDO button.”
“My site was hacked, and the hackers wiped everything. I had to start from scratch because my host didn’t backup like they said they would.”
Bottom line is folks, start backing up your site. Update: Here’s a tutorial on how to restore WordPress from backup.
4. Ignoring WordPress Updates
At one time or another, we have all been afraid of updates. Sometimes, we simply forget to upgrade sites that we own because we are not managing it properly. This can come back to bite you big time if there was a security vulnerability, and your site gets hacked.
We recently had to upgrade one of our users from WordPress 2.9.2. Lesson learned here is the longer you wait, the harder it becomes.
Upgrading from one version to the next is not very hard. 9.9/10 times, it simply takes one click. If your theme and plugins are coded properly, then your site will work. But again, its always good to have backups.
See our Ultimate Guide to Upgrade WordPress for Beginners.
5. Using a Default Favicon
Favicons are the little icons that show up next to your page title in the browser window. Many beginners completely ignore their favicons, so their sites usually have favicons from their web hosting provider like Bluehost or from their theme company such as Genesis.
Think of the favicon as your website’s identity card. Change it right now if you haven’t already. Here is our guide on how to change your favicon in WordPress.
6. Updating functions.php without having FTP Access
We have all locked ourselves out at least once because we improperly pasted the code in our theme’s functions.php file from our WordPress admin. What is worst is when you don’t have FTP access or don’t know how to use FTP.
We have also written a beginner’s guide to pasting snippets from the web into WordPress.
We also recommend that you avoid using the built-in WP editor at all times. Here is how to disable theme & plugin editors in WordPress.
7. Too Many Categories
WordPress makes it really easy for users to create categories. Often this is the reason why people get carried away and create categories for just about every post. We have all been down this path before only to learn and change everything to add proper structure to our sites.
We have written a comprehensive guide on Categories vs. Tags – best practices.
8. Not Setting Up Your Permalinks
For the longest time, people would simply use the default URL structure: /?p=23. Not only is this bad for SEO, but it is bad for users as well. When installing WordPress, make sure you update your permalinks structure by going under Settings » Permalinks.
9. Ignoring SEO Settings
When installing WordPress, it gives you an option to prevent search engine bots from indexing your site. During the development stages, folks often check this. The problem is that they forget to uncheck that which means their site never gets indexed.
We have had several folks who got their entire site de-indexed when they were redesigning themes.
Another very simple things that we notice beginners ignore are the SEO settings for blog posts and pages. No it is not enough to just install a plugin like WordPress SEO by Yoast, and then do nothing. You should still proactively update your meta settings. Here is a an article on how to optimize your WordPress blog posts for SEO.
10. Changing The Site URL and Losing All Traffic
How many of you hated the first domain you registered and wanted to switch away from it when you got serious about blogging? Yup, it happens to all of us. What could be worst though is changing your site URL without taking the proper steps because that can cause a significant drop in your traffic and income.
We have written a guide on how to properly move WordPress to a new domain. We have also written a guide from moving form WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
11. Not Installing a Caching Plugin
A lot of beginners don’t know what caching is which explains why they wouldn’t install a caching plugin. We have explained here on why we use W3 Total Cache. In short, caching allows you speed up your site and prevent downtime if you get a lot of traffic at once.
We also recommend that you get started with a CDN. Here is an article on why you need a CDN.
12. Choosing WordPress Theme from a Bad Source
We have helped numerous beginners clean up their sites after they reported their sites were infested with malicious links. This happens when you download your WordPress themes from a bad source. Here are some rules that we follow:
1. Only download free WordPress themes from WordPress.org
2. Use one of these trusted providers.
13. Not Having a Contact Form
At one time or another, we have all created contact page and simply listed our emails there. Only to realize that few months later our inbox has started receiving insane amount of SPAM. Yes, that’s when you look into solutions and find contact forms.
We highly recommend Gravity Forms because it allows you to easily create any type of form (contact form, donation form, subscribe form, registration form, polls, surveys, etc) all from a drag-drop interface. Here is a Gravity Forms Coupon.
14. Not Installing Analytics
Often we get emails from users asking us how to increase their social media shares and site traffic. When we ask where do you stand right now, they usually respond with “I have XXX followers on twitter”. Most of the times, users do not install google analytics.
Google Analytics allow you to see tons of insights about your site, so you can highlight areas to improve on. We also recommend users to signup with Google Webmaster Tools.
Useful: How we increased our organic search traffic
15. Writing in Microsoft Word
We are too accustomed to writing on a software like Microsoft Word. Ever had an instance when your computer instantly shut down, and you lose all your work? Or how about when you pasted your article from Microsoft Word, it added tons of weird characters in your posts.
Yes, there is a paste from Word button in WordPress visual editor, but we always recommend our readers to use the built-in WordPress post editor. WordPress has the auto-save ability, so it saves your posts even if you don’t hit save. WordPress post editor also allows you to look through your revisions and restore to an earlier version if you like.
16. Just Another Blog Tagline
WordPress by default adds a tagline “Just Another Blog” to every WordPress install. Often beginners don’t know about it, so they don’t change it until they realize it is being indexed in Google. You can change the tag line by going to Settings » General.
17. Not Deleting the Sample Page
WordPress used to come with a default about page, but now it comes with a default sample page. A quick google search showed that there are 1.1 million sites that still have the sample page on their site. Most folks don’t know about it or they simply don’t want to delete it.
Go ahead and delete this page if you are not using it.
18. Failing to Moderate Comments
Often when developers setup sites for small businesses, they fail to provide proper training. This results in their clients not knowing how to manage their WordPress sites. By the time they realize, they have a tons of work to do. One of our users ran into this issue, and he is still working on getting caught up.
If you don’t want comments on your site, then simply turn them off using the Disable Comments plugin.
19. Error Establishing Database Connection
This is less of a mistake, and more of an error. But this can happen due to a mistake. Were you using the same password for your database as your cPanel password? If you did and changed that password, then your WordPress site will return an error establishing database connection error. This is why you should always create a database specific user.
This error can happen for other reasons as well. Refer to the article above to see all other fixes.
20. White Screen of Death
If you are over 18 years old, then you have experienced the blue screen of death on your PC. Well WordPress has a similar error called the White Screen of Death. This happens when you install a bad plugin or theme that exhausts the memory limit of your site. You can easily fix it by increasing the memory limit in most cases.
For all other fixes see: How to fix the WordPress White Screen of Death
21. Crazy Long Archives
When starting with WordPress, the archive widget looks very cool because it shows all the months you have been blogging. After a year, it starts to look a bit annoying and cluttered. This also makes your sidebar insanely long which doesn’t look very good. In these cases, you want to create a custom archives page.
22. Not Saving Images for the Web
As a beginner, we don’t really care about performance, storage space and such which is why we upload non-optimized images. As we get more experienced we realize that the images we uploaded could have been so much smaller if only we compressed it for web. Often the quality doesn’t go away either.
Adobe Photoshop has an option to Save for Web. GIMP (free software does as well). JPEG Mini is a neat tool that lets you do this as well.
23. Ignoring Security
Often users don’t care about their site security until they get hacked. This is also why they don’t make backups at first either. We strongly recommend that you try to improve your WordPress security. Few things you can do:
- Create a Backup
- Install Limit Login Attempts
- Use Two-Factor Authentication with Google Authenticator
- Start using Sucuri – Here are 5 reasons why we use Sucuri
24. Hard Coding Everything
When starting out most DIY users hard code everything in their custom page templates. There is nothing wrong with that, but it just makes things harder to manage if you want to pass things on.
The reason why people love WordPress is because it is easy to use. If you hard-code everything, then it defeats the purpose. This is why you should try to utilize coding best practices and standards.
25. Not Learning More
One of the worst mistakes you can make is not learning more about the platform that you use. There are new plugins and solutions coming out every day. Some that significantly improve the way things were done before. This is why we always recommend our readers to make a conscious effort to learn more about WordPress and get involved.
The easiest way to do this would be to read WPBeginner regularly. Join our newsletter from the sidebar to get daily and/or weekly updates, so you are always up to date with all the cool things and tools.
We also encourage that you follow @wpbeginner on twitter because we post a lot of small but important updates there. We have also created a list of WordPress Experts that you can follow from one place. If there is something interesting going in the WordPress world, then these folks will be talking about it. You can also find tons of insider scoop there.
To get involved with the open source project, the best resource is to look at the make.wordpress.org site. This will take you to the areas where you are most interested in contributing.
We hope that you found this article about 25 most common WordPress mistakes that you should avoid. What are some mistakes that you have made in the past? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
hi:) thanks so much for your page and for each and every helpful post. i’m still at the way beginning or maybe like 1 city block past it and i know i need to read a ton before i ask dumb questions but this moment i’m hung up on something i just read in the 25 mistakes post, item 2, paying too much: “you don’t want private registration.” is this the thing where you pay like 10 bucks a year for them to keep your contact info secret? like, should i go and shut off the “who is guard” feature? tia! sarahj
Sorry to be a pedant…
In the last paragraph: “We hope that you found this article about 25 most common WordPress mistakes that you should avoid”
…helpful?
I certainly did find it, and it was very helpful. Thank you
Thank you for the best policies and practices. I just finished setting up wordpress on my site and am ready to get started with my online business. I actually fell into the trap of creating a wordpress.com website when I first got into ebusiness and it was very frustrating. I’m happy I found this article better late then never. Cheers!
Wondering how I can add a similar comment function to my blog.
I am a complete novice to blogging. Still doing the backend research before I sign up. I wish to start a personal yet interactive experience sharing kind of blog and see the response on my content before I get into the tech stuff and customization etc. The response will also determine whether the idea is worth creating money with. I have read a lot about wordpress.com/wordpress.org, Web hosting platforms etc and understood the pros and cons.
Could you advise what is the norm? Do people directly start with paid web hosting even if they are novice, or does it make more sense to start with free wordpress.com and then move to paid web hosting platform after a period of time. How easy/difficult is it? (I read the post of how to do it)?
We will recommend you start with a self hosted WordPress.org site. It is not as difficult or as costly as it sounds and will save you from moving your site in the future.
I am a complete novice to blogging. Still doing the backend research before I sign up. I wish to start and see the response on my content before I get into the tech stuff. The response will also determine whether the idea is worth creating money with. I have read a lot about wordpress.com/wordpress.org, Web hosting platforms etc and understood the pros and cons.
Could you advise what is the norm? Do people directly start with paid web hosting even if they are novice, or does it make more sense to start with wordpress.com and then move to paid web hosting platform after a period of time. How easy/difficult is it? (I read the post of how to do it)?
one thing more please write a detailed article on do-follow and no-follow attributes … and what does robots.txt do….
waitng for this article
Thanks
Well, detailed article. I really appreciate your efforts. I am about to start a wordpress blog on web designing & development. This would help me get well with my blog. I am going to read you other posts as well.
Thank you very much for sharing useful information. Please write a detialed article about domain authority and basic seo step for beginner.
Thanks
Thanks for sharing this
HEP! …thanks for a nice to know guideline, before getting started
Thank You.Its A Life Saving Tips Thank Yu Very Much.
Thank you so much for all the tips and links. Looking forward to learning more about Word Press as I have just started blogging this month!
Very helpful article and I’m not a beginner… but you’re helping me realize how much I have yet to learn. I did click the link to sign up for your newsletter but it takes me to the Aweber sign in page. I’ll dig around your website and find another way. Thanks!
WordPress Post Saving upto Few Characters even on writing full Long article ( e.g 900 words but only 80 words getting saved).. I have tried from Number of different browsers and Gadgets but same result..Please share your experience..
I am a beginner and this article is what I was looking for… thks
great info…it is really easy for beginners
ya really!!
it helped me too
I can not figure out how to delete the default sample page as you recommended. I don’t see this text anywhere on my page (dashboard end or user-facing end), however when I post a link to my About Page in Facebook, it shows the whole “this is an example of a page. Unlike posts which are displayed…” How do I remove this please?
In your WordPress Admin area, you should see Pages menu item in the admin sidebar. Clicking on it will display all your pages. Edit each page until you find the one that contains the line “This is an example of a page…” and delete it. See our guide on the difference between posts vs pages in WordPress.
Awesome article. I was doing 2 out of 25 mistakes but, by now will not make them anymore.
Great Post! nice guide to the wp begineer. I subscribed already.
Good List. I thought I would add one more:
3b: Backing up your site but having no clue as to how to recover the site if it was actually lost or corrupted.
Here’s a tutorial for that:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-how-to-restore-wordpress-from-backup/
Great note for beginners (like me).
Sins game-http://www.larige.com/library.html
Great article, and while I knew most of these tips there are a still a few I didn’t know about. One thing I see on some new (and maybe even older) wordpress site is people don’t disable/remove the meta admin widget from their sidebar. No reader/viewer/client/customer, etc needs to see a link for you to log into your wordpress dashboard when they got to your site. That tab is completely useless (just go to yoursite.com/wp-admin) and should be removed as soon as your site is active.
Good one Al. Yes I agree with the meta widget.
Hi wpbeginner team and Syed
Thanks for writing such great for newbies like me to guide us what are best ways use wordpress and how we can get maximum benefit from it.
#18 ‘disable comments’ is easier to do through the default admin panel. No need for a special plugin to disable commenting.
#24 ‘hard coding’ is not always right. Something you can save your dbase some extra work by just hardcoding certain items and reduce database calls. I know that caching (#11) negates this, but nothing is ever 100% bullet-proof.
Everything else in this article is correct and in line with my own experiences so far.
To be perfectly honest: I keep seeing more and more of these most-do lists for WordPress. It surprises me why, after all this time, Automattic doesn’t just incorporate those best practices into their core. It seems so obvious.
PS: I see you paginated comments. That’s something I always disable by default. I understand how canonicals work and see that it’s implemented here, but duplicate content is something to avoid at any cost.
#18 – the plugin does a lot more (i.e disable comments for specific post type, etc).
#24 – I used to think the same way, but not anymore. It has been explained that hardcoding URLs doesn’t make much of a difference. Also if you want to use the power of WP (i.e edit content from the back-end) then it doesn’t make much sense to hard-code things in the template. As you pointed out already, caching takes care of it, so it makes sense to use proper caching and make things easy for yourself.
As for paginated comments, if you really understand how canonical works, then you wouldn’t be making that comment about duplicate content.
-Syed
Miss one mistake. Having ADMIN as a username. Still don’t know why WordPress is still giving this suggestion for a username knowing that it is the username where most of the attacks are on.
But great article
This was so helpful! THANK YOU! I’ve now made 2 sites and have been blogging for 6 years and finally installed backup plugins, limit login attempts, and know more about SEO. And thanks for the help with the pasting snippets – I crashed my site by messing that up. This helped me get my favicon up and running, and pushed me to run all those pesky updates and clean up my old themes.
I’d love to see an article on moving a blogspot site to WordPress without losing the SEO if you can work that into the rotation. I have to move over 400 posts from http://simplifiedmom.blogspot.com/ to http://simplifiedmom.com and don’t want to lose any SEO that may still be there.
Thanks again. You just made my day!
Great tips! I especially love the one about the too many categories. I tell my clients to think of it like a book: the categories as the table of contents and the tags as the index.
These are awesome list. You hit me hard when you mentioned about forgetting to backup
As an agency hosting and developing in WP . . . . underestimating the amount of time (and therefor the cost) to consistently implement these 25 protocols above on dozens of WP sizes we have developed over the years.
Many many thanks for the important reminder. You guys rock!
Great artikel, THX!!
Just realized I have been using the ugly Blue Host favicon for all the time!
After reading this post, I immediately created a favicon from my logo in photoshop and my blog looks much professional now
Thank you for all the great tips! I will look into other articles one by one now.
Glad to help Maggie
Thanks for the tips! Number 25 hit me hard, I have been coasting for a long while. This past weekend at WordCamp Columbus and this article has inspired me!
Thanks again!
John
THANK YOU!!! I’ve shared this and book-marked it and saved it in my Evernote. Now I can point so my clients … and “can I just ask you one-question?” folks who will never pay to be clients to this awesome list. Gosh, I feel freer and less burdened already!
DITTO on Kathys comment!
This was really amazing and well thought out article. I will be recommending your site on my site.
In fact I am going to put you on my home page right now. I dont have a list just yet and if someone finds me, they have somewhere amazing to go!
Your info is so valuable. You are pretty detailed but I realize that for as much as I have learned—There is so much more to learn!!!
Thank you for this website!!!
Mary
Thank you Mary
I had done the same mistake of selection between WP.com and WP.org
But now I am going for WP.org
Nice tip for Beginner like me.
Hello.
Great article and great tips.
I update my blog regularly and am also reading a lot about WordPress every other day.
However I didn’t take a back-up of the site till date. Wanted to install the Backwpup plug-in, but the page showed that it wasn’t compatible with WordPress 3.6 yet.
Great information. Wish I had this when I was first starting out with WordPress – also learned some new tricks. Thanks!
Need to print this out and post it beside my workspace for re-reading regularly. Great advice, some I’ve done, but more work to do! Thanks!
There’s been a lot of posts of this type that float around the interwebz, but I have to say this one is the most comprehensive list I’ve seen – nice!!
Thank you Lucy for the kind words
Thank you! I’m a new wordpress user and I find your articles SO helpful!
Awesome Article and tips for Beginner.