WordPress can be optimized and used in a number of ways. For those who feel a bit behind on knowing what can be done to improve their WordPress experience, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve compiled some useful tips and ricks to make students’ WordPress experience better – with just a little damage control and some handy keyboard shortcuts.
On a side note, we know that many of you are probably tackling a paper or two right about now, and “How long is an essay?” is a common question to ask oneself. Don’t fret, people forget important details from time to time. Navigate through that guide, and figure it out with no stress.
Additionally, Studyfy Reddit is a helpful subreddit to visit for students who are experiencing any academic difficulties – ask the community a question.
For those not having any particular problems at the moment, we’re happy for you. Here’s our list of WordPress secrets that students can take advantage of.
-
Add Code Without Coding
Use shortcodes to replace complicated code and spice up your website. They’re like code lines, but easy and manageable (fortunately, unlike actual coding).
Some of you may have already tinkered with HTML code lines for fun in the past – well, this is basically the same. WordPress will detect the code and add/replace the HTML that corresponds to the shortcode the user has typed in!
Students can also use a shortcode generator if they feel a bit confused and lost at the beginning. Additionally, there are examples for novices online, so that they can better understand how to use shortcodes.
It’s a really handy trick, and with a bare minimum of code line, users can add a little dazzle here and there.
-
Use SEO Tools
Are you SEO’d?
It’s noteworthy that optimizing a website for search engines is a smart move. Consequently, it will make it easier for students to gain traffic and exposure! Try to create your website with an SEO-friendly theme, and use plugins that will improve the website’s SEO.
There are many options out there, but we’ve picked some good ones so that you get the general outline of what the SEO services can do:
- Aioseo: WordPress SEO Plugin and Toolkit
- Semrush: SEO Toolkit
Both websites offer various services that will help websites rank higher for Google and other search engines. There are many more options online, but these two are pretty adequate and good to start with.
Competing online nowadays with more established blogs and websites is not exactly a walk in the park, so it pays to have some useful tools up the sleeve.
Be smart – find a way to rank better, as this will ultimately do your website good.
-
Use Auto Backup Plugins
Students can choose to install automatic backup plugins that will schedule backups for your WordPress database. Trust us, this will make your life easier.
We highly recommend doing this, since you don’t want to live out a scenario where months of your work just disappear with no way to retrieve it.
Unpredictable and frustrating things can happen online as well, like a website getting hacked. So, just to be sure, get a backup of your data ready somewhere.
Luckily, students can find auto-backup plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory or the WordPress Administration Screens. Additionally, students can just do a quick search of what available plugins there are online since there are many accessible options that can be tested for free.
-
Try Out Gutenberg
We recommend trying out the new editor for WordPress 5.0 called Gutenberg editor. For students who have a website running on the older version of WordPress, try experimenting on a new and trial website on WordPress 5.0, to avoid any unwanted changes.
Gutenberg is optimized for editing intended to display pages full of media! It’s flexible and easy to maneuver since students will edit and build their websites with blocks.
-
Install Google Analytics on WordPress
Google Analytics is an extremely useful free tool provided by Google, and we highly recommend students to use it for their WordPress website – win in the long run!
What does Google Analytics provide? It allows users to view the web site’s traffic, like where site visitors are coming from, and what they do while they’re visiting the website.
It can come off quite complicated at the beginning but don’t fret since there are tons of tutorials on how to get started with Google Analytics online (some are offered by Google as well).
-
Keep Tabs on The Word Count
With WordPress’ standard editor, the word count indicator can be found at the bottom of the text box – and right above the custom settings.
On the other hand, while using the full-screen editor, just place your mouse pointer at the top of the screen; this will trigger the word count to appear below and the menu to pop open.
-
Change Heading Styles Quickly
Here’s a useful hack for students so they can save some time on editing their website (and not a bad habit to learn):
- Press Ctrl + 2 (for Windows and Linux OS) to switch heading styles quickly.
- Press CMD + 2 (for Mac OS) to switch heading styles quickly.
This will allow students to change heading styles from H2 to H6. Just change the number to get the desired heading style. For example: Ctrl/CMD + 3, Ctrl/CMD + 4, etc.
Conclusion
For students who haven’t gotten a backup plugin yet, and haven’t jumped on the opportunity of using Google Analytics even after reading our article, we recommend that you do.
WordPress websites can bridge anyone to good opportunities online, provided they put in the work and effort to run whatever they intend to run on the site. So, work smart, and be resourceful. We hope this little guide has helped and given some WordPress users a eureka moment.