We all make mistakes. I know I did when I was first starting out with WordPress years ago. But over time, I’ve encountered many sites that had a lot of these errors going on and some that had all of them at the same time. I’ve seen sites that had over 100 plugins. That’s not a typo, it was over one hundred! Anyway, here are 6 common WordPress mistakes – some of the most common to watch out for, and fix immediately if needed!

6 Common WordPress Mistakes

01. Overloading your website with too many plugins. Only use plugins that are absolutely necessary for your website to function properly. Any unused/inactive plugins should be deleted.

02. Not updating WordPress, your theme, and plugins. One of the biggest security risks to your WordPress site is neglecting updates. I do all my and my clients’ sites at least once a week.

In addition, my hosting provider alerts me to any pressing updates needed for any plugin across all my sites. In most cases, I’ve already updated the offending one, but good to know they’ve got my back

03. Not optimizing photos, graphics, and images. Over the years I’ve had many people ask why their site is so slow. My first response? “Are you optimizing your images?” Size them properly with Photoshop or similar to start and combine that with an image-optimizing plugin as well for extra speed. Loading 4MB photos straight from your cell phone just doesn’t work.

04. Choosing a poor-quality hosting provider. Yes – it really does matter. Cheap hosting typically equals slow servers and networks, and poor customer service. Does your provider handle security, speed, and backups – so you don’t have extra plugins to administer and worry about? Does everyone in tech support know WordPress inside in out?

Just so you know, I’ve been with my provider for 9+ years and never had a site hacked or go down through any fault of theirs. If your provider can’t do the same, maybe it’s time to change.

05. Using weak usernames and passwords. Just like using a password like pass1234 is bad, admin is not an acceptable username – ever. Take the time to come up with unique usernames and strong passwords. It’s not as hard as recovering a hacked site. And be sure to only give administrator access to a few people that really need it.

06. Not backing up your website. There really is no excuse for not backing up your WordPress site every dang day! If your hosting provider doesn’t do it automatically (they should), then there are plenty of plugins that will do it for you.

If you need help with any of the above, just contact me.