10 Essential WordPress Tips Every New Blogger Should Know
November 27, 2025
Welcome to the world of blogging with WordPress! You’ve chosen a platform that is powerful, flexible, and scalable. But as a new blogger, the WordPress dashboard can feel like a vast control room with a million switches. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.
The truth is, starting a blog is about more than just writing. Setting up your WordPress site correctly from day one will save you countless headaches down the road, improve your site’s performance, and help you get discovered by readers (and Google) much faster.
Before we dive in, this guide is for users of the self-hosted WordPress.org, which gives you full control, not the more limited WordPress.com.
Here are 10 essential tips every new WordPress blogger should know.
By default, WordPress sets your post URLs (or “permalinks”) to something ugly and unhelpful, like http://yourblog.com/?p=123. This is bad for users and bad for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Before you publish a single post, fix this.
How: Go to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard.
Action: Select the “Post name” option.
Result: Your URLs will now look like http://yourblog.com/your-awesome-post-title/. This is clean, descriptive, and search-engine-friendly.
2. Understand the Difference: Posts vs. Pages
This is a fundamental concept that confuses many beginners.
Posts are your blog articles. They are timely, appear in reverse-chronological order on your blog page, and can be organized with categories and tags. This is where 90% of your writing will live.
Pages are for static, “evergreen” content that doesn’t change often. Think: “About,” “Contact,” “Privacy Policy,” or “Services.” They are not dated and don’t use categories or tags.
Knowing which one to use (use “Posts” for articles, “Pages” for site structure) is crucial for an organized site.
3. Master Categories and Tags
Don’t just randomly add categories and tags. Use them with a strategy.
Categories are the table of contents for your blog. They are broad, hierarchical (you can have sub-categories), and every post should have one, maybe two. (e.g., “Recipes,” “Fitness,” “Travel”).
Tags are the index of your blog. They are specific keywords that describe the details of a post. (e.g., “chicken,” “keto,” “HIIT,” “Paris”).
A good rule: Stick to 4-7 main categories for your entire blog, and use 3-7 relevant tags for each post.
4. Install an SEO Plugin from Day One
You can’t just write and hope people find you. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of helping Google understand your content. WordPress makes this easy with plugins.
Action: Install Yoast SEO or Rank Math (both have excellent free versions).
Why: These plugins add a simple checklist to every post. They guide you on using your target keyword, writing a good meta description, checking readability, and setting up all the technical “meta” data Google needs. It’s like having an SEO coach looking over your shoulder.
5. Optimize Your Images (Before You Upload)
Slow-loading websites kill blogs. The #1 cause of a slow site? Large, unoptimized images.
Action 1 (Before Uploading): Resize your images. No blog post needs a 5000-pixel-wide photo. 1200-1500 pixels wide is plenty. Then, compress the image using a free tool like TinyPNG.com. This reduces the file size without sacrificing quality.
Action 2 (After Uploading): Install an image optimization plugin like Smush or Imagify. They will automatically compress any images you upload in the future.
6. Install a Caching Plugin
In simple terms, “caching” creates a static copy of your site that can be served to visitors instantly, rather than having to build the page from the database every single time.
Why: It makes your site dramatically faster.
Action: Install a free, well-regarded caching plugin like WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache. Most have a simple “one-click” setup that will give you an immediate speed boost.
7. Take Security Seriously
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, which also makes it the biggest target for hackers. Don’t be an easy victim.
Action 1: When you install WordPress, never use “admin” as your username.
Action 2: Use a long, complex password.
Action 3: Install a security plugin like Wordfence Security or Sucuri Security. Their free versions provide a firewall, malware scanning, and login protection (e.g., limiting login attempts) to block automated attacks.
8. Set Up Automatic Backups
Your hard work is valuable. What happens if an update breaks your site, your host has a problem, or you get hacked? A backup is your time machine.
Action: Install a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus.
How: Configure it to run automatic (e.g., weekly) backups and—this is the most important part—send those backups to an off-site location like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3. A backup saved on the same server is useless if the server fails.
When you log in, you’ll often see a red circle with a number, indicating available updates. Don’t ignore it.
Why: The vast majority of updates for WordPress core, themes, and plugins aren’t for new features; they are critical security patches. Running outdated software is the #1 way sites get hacked.
Action: Once a week, back up your site (see tip #8), then go to Dashboard > Updates and run all available updates.
10. Resist “Plugin-itis”
Your first instinct will be to add a plugin for every cool feature you see. This is called “plugin-itis,” and it’s dangerous.
Why: Too many plugins (or even one-or-two bad plugins) will slow your site to a crawl, create security conflicts, and make maintenance a nightmare.
Action: Before you install any plugin, ask yourself: “Is this feature absolutely essential to my blog’s core mission?” If not, skip it. Stick to well-reviewed, recently updated plugins, and delete any you aren’t actively using.
