Are you a web entrepreneur who is contemplating using WordPress for your site? Or are you a blogger already active on WordPress?  It is definitely a helpful program. Of course, with such flexibility comes bad judgment. Consider some of the most common WordPress mistakes made by newcomers.

No search box or archives.

Actually, search boxes are better than archives, since few people are going to search for content by date. Most of them will want to search by category, or even better, by search field. They will most likely remember the article they want to find (or a new article they want to read) by typing in a keyword phrase that is on their mind. The best, well developed WordPress websites and themes usually don’t have this problem. However, remember that you can always re-situate the search field using the widget option.

Not checking each page.

This is a fairly common error, and can result from a variety of coding issues. Sometimes the errors are small, and may only involve a different font, or an awkwardly positioned paragraph or line break. However, in the worst-case scenario, your entire page could be relocated, or frozen because of an error message. It is a good idea to go through your entire website and check each page to make sure it is professionally presented and preserved.

Losing the original code.

A lot of WordPress users do end up messing with the CSS programming your original developer or agency created for you, as it seems so easy sometimes. However, if and when you decide to do this, you must always take steps to back up the original text by copying and pasting it into a word document or notepad document. You do not want to lose the data and code as is, unless of course, you can rewrite it from scratch. Sometimes changing one slight letter in the CSS text can make your entire WordPress database unreadable.

Not auditing your plugins.

You may end up downloading more plugins than are useful. If so, then be sure to audit the plugins that you no longer use or that don’t work with your WordPress version. This also helps with WordPress security. You may not even need some old plugins if you download new plugins that perform multiple tasks. Make sure all of these plugins work, as having too many could eventually cause the program some operating problems—or even a total crash.

Not testing your changes and making sure you’re keeping clean code.

Remember, even though WordPress is more “standardized” than a DIY HMTL or WYSIWYG pages, there can still be display errors depending on resolution, monitors and web browsers. Test your content and note the differences on your PC, on another person’s PC, and even on a mobile unit.

Not getting feedback from your friends, critics and acquaintances.

First and foremost, invite feedback from your loyal readers and find out how they like the new website or theme. You can also ask for feedback from social media acquaintances. They will not only provide criticism of the page itself but can also clue you in on any glitches that might have slipped past your view.

These are just some common mistakes made with WordPress web design. Of course, the biggest mistake is using freeware and making a mess of plugins or your website or when you could start with custom plugins or code and make things easier on yourself. And then there are common mistakes with social media marketing. Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments below.