To succeed on WordPress: 10 oversights to avoid at all costs!

All too often, once our WordPress site is up and running, we tend not to appreciate how much damage small, uncorrected errors can cause. Those who are aware of the risks avoid the worst; for everyone else, trouble will eventually come knocking.

It is true that we tend to let our guard down once we have made it through the gruelling process of building our site. Yet that is precisely the moment when everything is decided in terms of our site's future.

In this article, we will look at the 10 mistakes to avoid at all costs in order to keep your site running smoothly.

1. Neglecting backups

This is certainly one of the worst mistakes you can make! The day something goes wrong and your site refuses to function, you will have no recent backup of all your work. Your hopes and your site will be left in ruins, and you will have lost an immeasurable amount of work and time.

So please — make it a habit to perform regular external backups (once a month is fine), so you have something to fall back on when things go wrong.

2. Ignoring updates

Second mistake! Just as important as external backups, updates ensure the ergonomics and security of your site at all times.

Starting with the basics alone, many users continue to work on their beloved site while running outdated versions of WordPress.

So get clicking and apply all updates as they come, whether they concern WordPress itself or your themes and plugins. This will save you no end of security issues and access problems.

3. "Admin" as your username — a serious mistake

If you are still using "Admin" as your username, it would come as no surprise if your WordPress site experienced security issues one day. Even though WordPress sets this automatically, you can change it.

So update your username and make sure you use a complex password — the security of your site depends on it.

4. Where you download your themes and plugins

Themes and plugins are the pillars of your site. It is therefore important to verify their origin before downloading them.

And since we tend to use free ones, you should check quality first and foremost, particularly when it comes to plugins.

5. You have no anti-spam plugin

Spam is extremely common on websites. Easy to deploy, it can seriously damage your image and your site.

Nothing could be simpler than installing a free anti-spam plugin to prevent it. The best ones in this area are: Askimet and Antispam Bee.

6. No responsive design means few visitors

The future belongs to small screens — yet if you have not taken the necessary steps to make your site responsive, it will be visited by very few people.

It is therefore important to ensure your site adapts to mobile, especially since doing so will not alter its ergonomics or its appeal in any way.

7. You forgot the contact form

Yes, as obvious as it may sound, once our site is built and our project feels complete in our minds, we often end up forgetting what is sometimes the most important element of our site: the contact form.

This form makes communication easier and largely prevents spam. The Contact Form 7 plugin is the best known and most widely used.

8. Uncompressed images

Compressed images prevent your site from wasting storage space, and allow your pages to load much faster. That extra wait — even if it's only 2 or 3 seconds — can put visitors off or give them a poor impression of your site.

So this is not a step to overlook, especially as it takes very little time.

9. You are using the default favicon

A favicon is a small icon representing a website. These icons are created and/or used by website designers. Web browsers can display the favicon in the address bar, bookmarks, tabs, or other shortcuts.

By default, WordPress uses a "W" as its favicon, but you can change it. It is advisable to use your logo instead, as this will be your identity on the web.

10. You are using the wrong platform

It may seem far-fetched, but some users end up confused between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. So which one should you choose?

Both platforms are excellent — but you will need to choose based on the purpose of your site and its long-term future.

To help you decide:

Features

WordPress.ORG

WordPress.COM

Personal domain name

Yes

No

Storage space

Depends on host

3 GB

Code modification

Yes

No

Theme selection

Yes

Limited

Plugin selection

Yes

No

Comment management

Yes

Yes

SEO optimisation

Yes

Yes

Export

Yes

Yes

Adsense

Yes

No

Price / Year

€30 depending on host

Free

You now know which mistakes to avoid and which tips to put in place to succeed. All that is left is to take action!

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