WordPress for Dummies: The 5 Most Common Issues, Resolved
Websites are difficult to design. There’s a reason custom web design can cost as much as $10,000.
Web designers are well versed in HTML, have unique design sensibilities that set them apart, and work closely with you to craft the perfect digital representation of your brand. If you’re just starting out on your site, this kind of done-for-you site experience sounds like a dream, right?
It’s likely you don’t have that kind of cash to shell out for a custom site. It looks like you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and do the work yourself! WordPress is a great option for you since it’s relatively cheap and easy to set up.
It’s not uncommon to run into issues as you design and implement your own WordPress site, though. Don’t fret– you’re not the only one dealing with them.
Check out this WordPress for dummies guide that highlights the six most common WordPress issues you might face, and how to resolve them quickly and easily!
1. Disproportional Images
This is super common with WordPress beginners, but it actually has a simple solution. All you’ll need to do is resize
The problem: your images aren’t scaled correctly. They’re either stretched, compressed, or way too pixelated, making them appear low quality.
That’s no way to show an image!
Most of the time, this happens when you don’t adhere to your theme’s image settings. Yes, each theme has image settings that you’re required to adhere to if you want your images to show on the front end exactly as they should.
There’s not one ideal image size you should resize all your photos to, because WordPress themes can vary greatly. Some themes highlight images, whereas others use them only as small thumbnails.
Go to your theme’s settings or get in touch with the theme’s creator to figure out what size your photos need to be to look good. The problem usually isn’t your photo– it’s a simple fix.
It’s an important one, too. High-quality images have the power to increase your SEO and convert more leads.
2. Spammy Comments
Comments are one of the best ways to build community on the internet, which is important for building your following and converting leads. It’s tough to utilize the comment feature on your blog posts when your comments are full of spam, though.
There are multiple WordPress plugins you can install to eliminate this problem. Disqus is will manage your comments for you. It filters out the spam from real comments so you don’t have to go through and manually delete them.
You can also download a plugin which only allows people to leave comments when they’re signed into Facebook. This extra measure prevents non-human spam bots from leaving garbage in your comment section. And let’s face it, most of your readers are probably logged into Facebook already, anyway!
3. New Changes Aren’t Showing Up
This is the most annoying thing when you’re trying to design a site from scratch. How can you picture your progress when WordPress won’t update the live view function?
First of all, make sure you’re pressing “save.” It’s common sense, of course, but it can’t hurt to double check!
If that’s not the problem, a caching plugin might be the culprit. Do you have any WordPress cache plugins installed to save on loading time? If so, it could be acting up as you edit your site.
The fix: head over to your cache plugin settings and disable it while you work. Just don’t forget to re-enable it once you’re done so your visitors will be served static HTML files instead of dynamic upon the first visit.
4. Connection Timed Out
Unfortunately, this is usually a server error that you don’t have a whole lot of control over. Pinpointing what timed out the connection, though, can help you eliminate features that take up too much memory and cause this problem to persist.
To determine if it’s a plugin, you’ll need to disable all of them first. Then, turn them on one by one to find the one that causes a connection timeout. Sometimes, complicated themes and overly designed sites can cause this problem as well.
If this doesn’t work, contact your host to talk about the issue.
It’s a good idea to try to avoid this problem before it happens. To do so, don’t overload your site with too many plugins. The ability to install plugins is one of the best features of WordPress, but overdoing it will slow your site down.
That’s the last thing you want. Almost half of consumers want your website to load in less than 2 seconds. If it doesn’t, it could result in a much more frequent rate of page abandonment!
5. Permalink Problems
WordPress uses a default permalink setting where your website pages will show as numbers instead of page titles. Instead of a link showing up as “nameofyourwebsite.com/blog-post-title,” it would show as “nameofyourwebsite.com/?p=2.”
While the functionality of this default setting is just fine, it doesn’t look great for your viewers. It can be confusing and makes the user experience less personalized. It’s comforting for a viewer to be able to look at the address bar and see the blog post title there.
Instead, change your settings to show the page name or post name instead of the index page number using “/%postname%/”. It’s a small detail, but sometimes the little things make all the difference when it comes to design.
From WordPress for Dummies to Expert
Web design isn’t easy, and despite WordPress’s relative ease of use, it can be difficult to navigate as a beginner. But now you’ve read up on WordPress for dummies, the basics of WordPress mishaps you might encounter during your website design endeavors.
Hopefully, you found the answer to your issue. If not, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We love to help people rock WordPress, so let us know how we can help you rock yours!
