14 Mistakes You Should Try To Prevent When Creating Your WordPress Website

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WordPress is a great choice for creating a website, as it is the most popular content management system that makes it extremely easy to build websites. Nevertheless, there are a few basic mistakes that many inexperienced website developers make. These are easy to prevent, you just need to know what to focus on when creating a WordPress website. 

So no matter whether you are a developer or a client, the list we are going to share with you is worth keeping in mind. Fixing errors is always more time-consuming and more expensive than having a website built properly from scratch. In today’s article, we will discuss 14 mistakes that you can easily avoid.

#1 The website has not been updated

Developers creating WordPress themes and extensions are constantly updating their products.  This allows them to improve their performance, make them more secure, and fix any possible compatibility issues with other extensions and themes. Therefore, it is crucial to keep your website up to date to eliminate any vulnerabilities and maintain proper functioning.

#2 No backup is made

Unfortunately, accidents can happen. You never know when an emergency will occur that can only be remedied by restoring the backup. Your page may be hacked, the servers may crash, and you may accidentally delete something you wanted to keep, something that is irreplaceable. Whatever happens, once you have your backup to rely on, with minimal data loss you can save your website from perpetual waste.

#3 Ignoring security

Thousands of websites are hacked every day due to improper security settings. Hackers can delete, copy, redirect the page to another, or even take complete control of your website. It’s not something you would wish to happen to your business.

Therefore, it is very important than anything to use a professional and reliable security plugin that will protect your website from hackers.

#4 Confusing navigation structure

The navigation of your WordPress website should be clear and simple, with easy-to-find content. Otherwise, visitors will drop out quickly. What mistakes can be made in this case? Well, here are the most common mistakes that usually confuse website visitors when it comes to navigation structure:

  • too many unclear menu items
  • menu items and buttons are in an unusual place
  • menu items contain fantasy names that the user does not understand
  • links to the wrong or wrong location

One thing is sure, it’s worth keeping in mind that users have been browsing thousands of WordPress websites in their lifetime, where the main elements are located in the same place. This means that the average visitor can easily get to the content they are looking for effortlessly. Your WordPress website is just one of the many on the internet, and if it takes more time to navigate it than others, visitors won’t spend time searching for where to look for the content they are searching for. They will simply leave your website and won’t come back anymore.

#5 You are not using Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the best (and free) ways to monitor website performance by analyzing visitor behavior. It allows you to see where your traffic comes from, which pages and posts are up-to-date (and which are not), and last, but not least, how your website is navigated. There’s a lot to see in Google Analytics, such as information on how much time has a visitor spent on a page or on what type of device they visited the website.

This information offers great help when it comes to eliminating or improving any possible errors on the website. Also, it helps you decide which advertising platform you should spend more on as part of your marketing strategy.

#6 You are not A / B testing

A / B testing is a great way to decide things like which button colors users prefer to click on, and which item placement or image is more appropriate. Of course, there are plenty of variations that are worth trying out for maximum efficiency. Divi, for example, has a built-in A / B testing feature. It allows you to perform highly efficient tests with only a few clicks. And the results will give you detailed statistics that will help you to make the right decision that keeps your business going forward.

#7 Your website is slow

Slow websites have a pretty high bounce rate. The vast majority of visitors won’t wait for a slow website to load. Tools like GTmetrix will show exactly the reasons behind the slow loading time. In most cases, these are unnecessarily oversized images, which can be easily reduced, yet your loading time will improve by a lot. 

#8 Your WordPress lacks good SEO

Websites that aren’t optimized for search engines, may not even appear in the Google list of results. The stronger your competition for each keyword, the more effort it will take to get better results. If you want to learn more about the importance of optimizing your website for search engines, click here.

#9 You misuse categories and tags

Using categories and tags is an efficient way to organize your content, but they are often used incorrectly. Categories cover more general topics, while tags should be used for more specific ones. You should use both, but try to keep them limited. For example, blog posts may fall into one category, but may have multiple tags.

#10 Lack of CTA action call buttons

A well-crafted and properly designed website gives a great feel to both the developer and the owner. This includes properly placed call-to-action elements. Encouraging action on your website is very important if you want to achieve results, but if your CTA is not clear or visible, you cannot expect much action from your visitors. To get the best results, always test the placement, color, font, image, and text used to create calls to action.

#11 Your website lacks mobile optimization

Over the past few years, the number of mobile internet users has increased significantly. If you don’t make enough effort to make sure that mobile users can enjoy your website, things will go wrong. Your page will be hard to read, words will be broken, letters and pictures will appear too big or too small, and visitors will leave your website in a second. Not to mention that Google won’t like you either.

#12 You are not collecting an email list

Email remains one of the most important marketing tools. Most visitors will never return to your website, but if you can find the right reason to land in their inbox, you can easily stay in touch with them. You can offer them early access to sales, special discounts, and discount codes… which will most likely bring them back to your website.

#13 You do not use a child theme

The child theme is essential if you want to change anything in the files. The template will be overwritten during the theme update and your changes will be lost. Child themes allow you to make all the necessary changes without losing the current state of your website. This is practically a second theme that inherits the functions and properties of the parent theme, but if you make changes to it, it will not be overwritten by the updates.

#14 You ignore the user experience

When it comes to user experience, here are the most common mistakes you can make:

  • Inappropriate navigation path (users get lost, can’t find what they’re looking for, or aren’t guided where to go)
  • In mobile view, the page isn’t attractive or is falling apart
  • Your pages are not visible due to screen resolution
  • There are too many ads appearing on the page
  • You use flashy, confusing letters that are hard to read

 

Closing Thoughts

Whether you create your website or have it built by developers, you should always keep in mind this list. Especially if you want a truly profitable WordPress website that guarantees smooth operation. In case you need help creating your business website, do not hesitate to get in touch with us! We are a team of experienced web designers and developers ready to help you improve your online presence!

Book a meeting so we can create your WordPress website together