You certainly want your blog to stand out from the thousands of WordPress blogs that are already there. You are looking forward to remove some competition around your website, aren’t you? All you need is a list of cool WordPress tips and tricks for beginners up your sleeve and your blog will be shining in no time. Moreover, these tips will make it super easy for you to handle your daily tasks in managing a blog or a website. Scroll away to solving all your problems of a website.
Add Custom CSS to WordPress Theme
Adding CSS lets you change how things appear on your WordPress website such as margins, colours, size of the fonts etc. You would require to change this outlook sometimes. A hassle free way of doing it is to visit your admin panel and then go to the Appearance in Customize section. When the customizer is launched you would be able to see the preview of your site, clicking on Additional CSS will expand it. Custom CSS can be added in a text box which will be applied once you add a correct rule. Save and publish will make the changes.
Change Senders Name in WordPress Emails
Another tip in the list of WordPress tips and tricks for beginners is how you could personalize the email sent through WordPress. Every email notification flashes the name of WordPress, which may look a bit unprofessional. This can be done using a plugin or a code added in your functions will do the trick. Here is what you need to do:
Get Rid of the WordPress Version Number
This is yet another easy WordPress tips and tricks for beginners using which you can get rid of the WordPress version in the header of your website. Here is how you could do it:
The above needs to be added in the function.php of your theme. An alternate way of doing it which requires the use of a plugin.
Displaying Post Summary on Archive and Home Page
Many blogs display the summary of articles instead of complete articles on their home and archive page. This is a trick which helps in loading pages in very less time, prevents duplicate content in your site and increases number of page views. Most WordPress themes have this feature however if your version is not supporting this feature it can be added to your version of WordPress.
Protect Your Admin Directory with a Password
The admin directory is where you control your daily website tasks from. Even though comes password protected already a second layer of protection will help you secure it completely. You don’t want someone taking over your website and doing something offensive on it which would lead to business and reputation loss. In order to protect your admin directory, you need to go to cPanel dashboard and click on Password Protect Directories in the security section. You will be prompted to select the diaries which you are looking forward to secure. Now select /wp-admin/ folder and create your choice of username and password. Now, whenever you open the wp-admin directory the system will prompt for your username and password.
Change the Way how Images are Displayed
Next in the list of WordPress tips and tricks for beginners is to change how images are displayed. When you add many images in a certain post they appear one on top of the other. Users would have to scroll too much if they are interested in seeing all of them. Displaying them in grid or thumbnails would look more decent while also saving the user from too much scrolling.
In order to do so you have to either edit and existing post or create a new one where the photos would be displayed and on the edit screen click on Add Media which would open the WordPress Media uploader pop-up. Now upload all the images you wish to be displayed which you would be seeing in the media library, now click on Create Gallery and then Create a New Gallery. The window will show gallery settings option. You can select the size of image, which order they can be displayed, how many columns and which link should be on which image. Next insert gallery will have your gallery set in the blog post.
Custom Default Gravatar Image
Profile pictures are displayed by Gravatar in WordPress. If gravatar is not there then a default image known as ‘Mystery Person’ is used by it. Most users who don’t have gravatar image linked to their email addresses will be seen in this image of ‘Mystery Person’ in the comments section. This default gravatar image can be replaced by a custom one of your choice.
First, you would have to upload the image of your choice to the media library and then copy the image file URL. Now go to themes function.php and add the below code:
The $myavatar will have to be replaced with the URL which you copied of the image.
In order to see the changes, you can go to Discussion page from Settings and see that the default avatar has been added to the list.
Working on WordPress is quite simple and it hardly takes one to understand its functionalities. Once you start working on it daily you will slowly come to know more and more tricks which will help you in easy operation of WordPress while also keeping it interesting for your users. The above WordPress tips and tricks for beginners are to guide you in your initial days.