WordpressSmall wordpress changesHave you reviewed your wordpress installation recently to make any improvements?

Do you think there are some changes you could make that would improve the setup?

On a regular basis it’s useful to review your set up to assess if they are any changes you could make that would yield some benefits.

 

Here are 7 changes to consider.  We’d love to hear some more of them!

1.  Removing the Admin User

If you’re logging in to WordPress using the admin username ‘admin’ you need to change this.  If a hacker tries to get into your wordpress blog they will assume the administrator name is ‘admin’.  By changing this you are reducing the chances of getting hacked.

So create a new user name with admin permissions, login with these details and remove the old one.

2.  Implement a Good SEO Plugin

If you want to improve your chances of ranking within Google you need to install a good SEO Plugin which allows you to set up relevant settings for Google.

We originally used AllinoneSEO but recently moved to WordPress SEO by Yoast.   We moved to WordPress SEO because it was required to support the Video Sitemap functionality also provided but we also found it had better functionality.

Just so you know!  The video sitemap plugin is a paid service.  We bought it because it helps index your video content on your site instead of on Youtube.

You can see in the image below the videos (which are actually on YouTube) are indexed on RazorSocial.

 

wordpress changes - Google Video Search Results
Search results now showing a video image

 

3. New Install – Changing the web address structure

If you have a brand new blog recently launched consider making this change.

A common mistake with a wordpress blog is pages on your site not having keyword rich page names.  So when you look at a page name you see something like this:  razorsocial.flywheelsites.com/blog/p?12343.

The problem with this is that you are not helping google figure out what the content is about on your page.  This following is better:

 

wordpress changes - Keywords in page names
It’s important to have relevant keywords in the page name

 

To set this up within WordPress select the ‘permalinks’ section under settings and then set the post name parameter.  This means the post name will automatically include the title of the post so that you will have keywords included.

 

wordpress changes - Permalinks
You need to change your permalinks section to include relevant keywords in your page name

If you have your blog up and running a long time it’s difficult to make this change because other websites may be linking to the old page name and you don’t want to loose that link.  You may need to discuss this with your development team.

4.  Replace WordPress Comments with Disqus Commenting System

This is not a change that everyone will agree with as different people favor different commenting systems but you will get more comments if you use disqus comments rather than the normal comment system provided by WordPress.

The main reason for this is that disqus is a very popular comment system and if you have commented recently on a blog with disqus then you probably won’t have to login to comment.  This makes it easier for the user so you end up with more comments.  I know for a fact that comments improved on this blog when disqus was added.  Please prove it by adding a comment!

5.  Delete irrelevant Plugins

If there are plugins you are not using you should delete them.  Plugins can expose you to a risk of being hacked so you’re better off deleting the ones you are not using.  You may find that you have some plugins that are loaded on your website but not of any benefit.

6.  Implement a Good backup system

If you don’t regularly backup your files it’s essential that you do.  There are some free options available but the one that we find most useful is backup buddy.  It backs up all the essential files plus any database related files.

 

wordpress changes - BackupBuddy
Full Database Backups as often as you like

7. Remove Old Revisions of Files

By default when you install wordpress it keeps copies of revisions of files.  This can build up over time so it’s useful to clear them out every so often.

The ‘better delete revision‘ plugin is useful for deleting old copies of posts that are not relevant any more.

They are just some changes we’d recommend.  We’d love to hear from you.

Is there anything you would recommend?  Are these changes useful or relevant to you?

 

 


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