Owning a WordPress Website requires time management and proper planning on what you want to develop, change or edit. This helps you save a lot of time.
This week, we will touch on the possibilities that WordPress Websites have to offer and the key steps on how you or anyone handles a WordPress Website.
Dedicated time in your schedule
The frequency on create, changing, editing or maintaining a WordPress website does not really matter, as long as you are on it at least once a month.
Having a website, not just with WordPress but with other platforms/cms too is never a one-time done-deal thing. Here are the three reasons particularly in WordPress websites:-
1. Software or widely known as ‘plug-ins’ will always receive frequent updates to fix issues, and bugs or even add features. Think of it like an App on your mobile phone, either it’s automatically updated or manually, it does regularly receive updates. Website plug-ins or software require special attention. You need to go through the change logs of what might have changed, added or worst, removed.
Doing this mostly will help you to identify the improvements in the features you want and avoid extra plug-ins or software just to achieve a simple feature.
2. Layout shifts, with the previous point mentioned. Sometimes, updates may cause layout shifts that break your website’s design. By having dedicated time spent, regardless of how often. Your visitors will most likely stay and continue surfing your website. Navigating to a broken design website is definitely not pleasing.
3. The more features, the more time you need. This is just the nature of having a website, particularly WordPress websites. You see, the features are nice, and it provides an outstanding user experience for your visitors.
This is quite self-explanatory, the more plug-ins you have the more time you need to take note of the updates, in this case, the change log.
This brings us to our next section about the features of a WordPress website.
Too Many Features
WordPress has millions if not billion plug-ins. This opens up the unlimited features you can have on your website. You can mix and match, do your own trial and error, and see if the plug-in works with the other plug-ins, and does it conflicts with anything. Yadayada.
This solution of features you want to have comes with another problem, some plug-ins have the exact same feature as the other plug-ins and this could break your website on a developer level. Not your web developer, but the plug-in developer.
There are a few best practices to avoid this issue of software or plug-in conflicts that you really don’t want to face, which could end up costing you a fortune to fix or worst, being trapped in the ecosystem.
1. List down at least 10 features you want to offer for your visitors.
2. Choose the top 3 core features you want.
3. Choose another 2 features which are nice to offer but not as important.
By doing these steps, it will save your future self from headaches and unwanted time-consuming tantrums that don’t help at all.
Trust me, I have been on this road and it is not a good ride.
Owning a website is exciting at the beginning. It can also be overwhelming and daunting as you grow your traffic, sales and so much more.
Make a Stupid Simple website
From the designing aspect of your website, copywriting, designing and the things that make up a website.
I have seen people trying to cramp every single ounce of detail about themselves tinned in one website.
The experience of visiting such website is like opening your wardrobe and everything is falling off. Then you start searching for what you are looking for.
Websites are meant to display what the visitors want to know, not what you want them to know.
Instead of letting them search within your website, display things that directly impact the visitor’s intent. Here is an example, you sell a car. You don’t show the tires first, right? You show the whole car.
You are selling a car that includes the tires, not a tire that includes a car. LOL.
All in all, when they see the car, now they are starting to find out what are the details, like what the seats are like. Some websites display details that do not impact the viewers at all. For example, the headlights are made of Swarovski crystals crafted by renowned Italian…bla bla bla. I’m not gonna even continue. WHO the heck cares what is his car’s headlamp is made of?!
What I know is that he drove a Mercedes!
Enough of the random analogy. In conclusion, make your website simple to navigate, nice to the eyes, provide an X-factor on what you have to offer and boom. Their next step is to click “Buy Now!”
