3 Mistakes New WordPress Bloggers Make

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As many of you know I have been running a blog over here at MorganLinton.com since 2007. While I started-out initially on Typepad I made the move to WordPress about five years ago and haven’t looked back. Like most new things I learned the hard way and made mistakes that I learned from along the way.

While I made a lot more than 3 mistakes (and yes I still make plenty of mistakes now) these are three that really stand-out to me that I see a lot of new bloggers making. So if you’re just getting started in the blogging world, save yourself some time and pain by avoiding these three mistakes, you’ll thank me later:

  1. Using the default Permalink format – for some reason WordPress defaults to URL’s that end with p=123 or some other meaningless number. This isn’t great for search engines or for humans. Change your permalink format to http://www.yourblog.com/sample-post/ and viola, way better permalinks. You should do this the moment you setup your blog.
  2. Not enabling Akismet – holy spam comments batman. Seriously, enable Akismet immediately or prepare to drown in low-quality junk comments. Seriously, enable it now.
  3. Using plugins that have security holes – the #1 way that scammers and spammers will attack your blog is through plugins full of security holes. But how can you tell if a plugin is bad news? It’s easier than you’d think, do a Google search for things like “plugin-name security issues” or “hacking plugin-name”. Put yourself in the scammers shoes and look for what they would look for, if you find articles for how to use the plugin you’re about to download for bad, don’t install it. You should also look at the ratings for the plugin and read the details to make sure it has been updated for the latest version of WordPress. What you don’t know can hurt you.

Photo Credit: Phil Oakley via Compfight cc

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton