Regardless of whether you are a client or a developer, when building a WordPress website, it is essential to pay attention to some important aspects that can make all the difference to the website's success.
From the client's perspective, you should always look for a web development agency that takes the initiative and implements the following best practices when you ask them to build your WordPress website.
- Basic security for your WordPress website
- Basic search engine optimisation
- Mobile-friendly website
- Page loading speed optimisation
Basic security for your WordPress website
WordPress as a tool for developing websites is very robust and secure. However, with the right plugins, it can be even more secure, protecting your website from common issues such as spam and brute force access attempts.
It is advisable to have a plugin that protects your website from brute force access attempts, and another that protects against spam, which is very common if you are going to have a blog on your website. Two basic security rules that will help keep your website secure and free from spam.
Basic search engine optimisation (SEO)
If I had to choose the most important topic from all of them, this would be it. Optimising your website pages for search engines is critical to the success of your business.
Better known by the acronym SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), it refers to a set of strategies aimed at improving the ranking of your pages in search engines, thus gaining more organic traffic.
Some of these strategies require a lot of effort and time, which is why there are teams specialised in this area; others are easier and can be applied right from the construction of your WordPress website.
For this purpose, plugins can be used to help implement such strategies, such as the Yoast SEO plugin, which, besides being free, is the most widely used and is well documented.
Mobile-friendly website
One of the advantages of working with WordPress is that you can easily build a mobile-friendly WordPress website. This is an extremely important requirement for improving the user experience of those who want to access your website via mobile devices.
In addition to the better experience it offers, search engines, such as Google, give preference to mobile-friendly websites when displaying search results. This is because more and more people are using mobile devices when browsing the internet (nowadays, over 60% of website visits come from mobile devices).
As a client, you should always demand a mobile-friendly website, which will improve your website's visibility in search engines, enhance the experience for mobile device users, and increase the number of visits your website receives.
Page loading speed optimisation
If you are browsing the internet and come across a page that is taking too long to load, you won't think twice; you will close the page and continue your search. The same can happen to those visiting your website.
If your pages are taking too many seconds to load, then something is wrong and you should be more concerned about this aspect. The problems can vary, from images that are too large, an overloaded server, a conflicting plugin, and so on.
Some tools, such as PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom Website Speed, can help you identify the problem.
In summary
A website with all these points optimised is a major step towards gaining visibility, attracting traffic, and drawing customers to your business.
Many other aspects must be considered, and even within the topics discussed here, much was left unsaid… But we will always be here to help! 😉