Article Submitted by: Unknown Source
When it comes to blogging, there is no better software to use than WordPress. WordPress is a frequently updated blogging package that allows the most novice of computer users to set-up and update their very own blog. The software is programmed in a way that it is not only easy to use, but easy to modify and be creative with as well. With that in mind, here are five WordPress tricks and shortcuts that will make your blogging experience better, easier, and more efficient. With a little alteration, some of these tips can even be used with other blogging platforms.
1. This is so important for your Denver SEO functionality and ranks as a top tip no matter who you speak to. Most new bloggers go through this. You just created a well thought out post, published it and then see it assigned an ugly URL that ends in “p=145″ or something like that. You have to change this if you want Google and other search engines to respect your site. Go to the options section and then click on “permalinks”. Select custom permalinks and then type in “%category%/%postname%” (minus the quotation marks) as your new permalink structure. This will put the name of the post or the name of the category followed by the name of the post in the URL.
2. Next, if you’re stumped for something to write about, do a Google News search using the keywords or niche of your blog. Then recap a news event and expand on it with a comment of what you think of that event. Don’t just do a straight news recap as this will most likely be seen by your audience as poor content because they can get news any where. But giving some personal experience with regards what is going on in the news does make for some interesting reading.
3. Another great tip you can use with a WordPress blog to help keep people from leaving your site involves the Error 404 page. Most themes used with WordPress have an Error 404 page for when there is an error in a URL. You can see here a great example of an Error 404 page. Hopefully it doesn’t happen often, but when it does happen that someone runs across this (just like the search engine robots do) wouldn’t it be nice to put something more than just the standard error message there? You’ll need to edit the 404.php file, which can be accessed from your WP Admin Control Panel. Try put in a humorous message or apology for the missing content. You can also add some WordPress code that can list the most popular posts or something similar to give the reader another option other than just leaving your site.
4. If you’re using WordPress and want to make your blog a “do-follow” blog, meaning that links from your blog pass on the benefits of Google page rank, you can install one of the many do-follow plug-ins available. There are a number of them available and they can either be found via a search engine or through the WordPress site itself. We suggest Share This and Add This.
5. Repeated and regular postings will boost your page rankings. A great tip that can solve this problem of having to write and post every day or every week (depending on your traffic level) is to write a supply of blog posts ahead of time and then either save them as drafts or change the post time stamp option to a date and time in the future. If you save them as drafts, you can use them at your leisure whenever you need them. If you change the times tamp to a future date, then without you doing anything those blog posts will show up on those pre-defined dates as if you were blogging that day.