Top 10 Best Practice tips for making a WordPress Site

WordPress has been around a long time when you consider Internet longevity. It is currently in version 5.5.1 and although that is only version 5 WordPress is actually over 17 years old. This implies a very stable environment and a broad base of uses when you consider that most software projects have a much shorter average life span of between 6 and 8 years. With this longevity WordPress has many proponents and contributors to its infrastructure. From code developers to theme and plugin developers there are many thousands of programmers and content specialists involved in making WordPress an always improving platform. WordPress started as a basic blogging platform but now with the many themes, templates, and plugins it is so much more than that. There are currently over 7,800 free themes and 57,500 plugins available on WordPress.org alone (at the time of this writing). This does not include the plethora of commercially available themes and plugins available for countless layouts and uses; which is an almost impossible number to calculate.

As an example, on the commercial side of the WordPress ecosystem there are 7,400 plugins and 11,490 themes on the Code Canyon web system alone. This is a web portal for WordPress commercial development among other web development tools. The point here is that with so much diversity of website content topics and so many plugins to affect your WordPress site, how does one ensure that their site is the best it can be in terms of performance, security, and stability? This article will highlight the top 10 best practice approaches to be considered when creating a modern WordPress site. Some of the following points of discussion could be debatable as to their order of importance since that can often be a subjective matter; but let’s get started and see where the list takes us.

[1] The first thing to think about when planning a WordPress site is to consider where you will be hosting it. You should already have your domain name secured by this time so planning for its home should definitely be next. Some subtopics to be considered here are if you plan to have a large high volume / high visitor site that may need its own dedicated IP address and server equipment. Shared hosting is the most popular and cost-effective approach and maybe it’s the right place to start as you grow your audience over time but if you already know that you will have very high demands then be sure to explore the dedicated approach. If you don’t want to share space and resources then your first steps are already determined.

There are many good hosting companies out there so check out wordpress.org/hosting for some recommendations provided by WordPress itself. It’s a short list to be sure but if you don’t like any of these recommendations then the following basic list of hosting features is what you should be looking for:

• cPanel access,
• modern PHP (version 7.4 and up),
• modern MySQL (version 5.7 and up),
• SSL capabilities (some hosts provide a basic SSL for free),
• good telephone and / or chat support,
• good host security, and
• dedicated IP service — if that may be a future need.

[2] The next thing to consider on the top 10 is what your site should look like and how it should present itself to the world. Here we were talking about themes and site templates (templates are design and layout variations within a theme). Of course, WordPress itself has a lot of basic themes that you can download and install for free. These free themes, however, may not be as robust and feature-rich as a commercial theme would be, so do your research and test out your many options. Also, consider verifying that any theme you choose has the basic functionality of allowing for the customization of both CSS and header JS (javascript) file insertions, you will eventually be glad that you did. Additionally, when looking for a theme, if you plan to do any e-commerce transactions on your website be sure the theme is optimized for or at least capable of handling an e-commerce plugin system like WooCommerce. Be sure to check out the many free themes available at wordpress.org/themes

Another advantage to using a commercial theme is that they tend to come with some additional valuable plugins and page builders built in. Themes like Creativo by Rocky themes https://rockythemes.com/creativo has the following commercial plugins included: WP Bakery Page Builder, Slider Revolution, and LayerSlider. Add to that 4 other plugins that are optimized for use within the theme. Another commercial theme called Astro by Brainstorm Force incorporates a page builder tool called Elementor. These are just two examples of commercial themes that include other commercial tools into their bag of tricks so be sure to check out the commercial theme avenue if a major complex site is in the plans. Added features to a commercial theme like those mentioned above can certainly make their selection all the more tempting.

One more essential to think about when selecting a modern theme is to ensure that it has responsive features built in. This means that its display will automatically adjust and resize if needed to the device’s screen size it is being displayed on. So the layout for an iPad would be potentially different from a laptop screen; both would be different again from the display of an iPhone vertical and horizontal display, and so on. Most modern commercial themes have this capability added in by default, but not all of them, and even less so for the free themes. So be diligent on this point as you will likely be tweaking these layouts with CSS (see point #5 later in this article) at some point so the less you have to do for multiple displays the better.

[3] Once you have your site hosted and a theme in place consider making sure your site is secure on as many fronts as possible. For example, if you intend to have a blog area on your site with the ability for visitors to add comments then be sure to get the akismet plugin which is usually installed by default. This plugin helps to keep spam type comments from being added to your blog posts. Be sure to check the options on this subject in the admin area under the Settings -> Discussion menu path. The following image shows the most important options here. If you are going to allow post comments then at the very least hold them for moderation to control what is posted to your website by outside sources.

Of course, the biggest threat to websites these days is the modern hacker. With so many ways to breach a site it can never be a 100% protection scenario. One of the best plugins for overall hacking protection is called WordFence https://wordfence.com. Their free version is quite good but they also have a commercial version with even more security features. Also, they have a newsletter blog that you can sign up for that will keep you informed of the latest threats that they are aware of and any recent plugin vulnerabilities that are being exploited.

[4] The next point to having a great website is to ensure you have the best plugins possible for the tasks you want your site to perform. This is a little bit of a generic topic area as every site is different in some way so, for example, it would make no sense to say that you need the best eCommerce plugin if you are not doing any online sales. In general though you will want plugins that can help you manage the following:

• Image sizes — plugin: Smush
• Site caching — plugin: Autoptimize
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — plugin: Yoast SEO
• Site Analytics — plugin: Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP)
• Rollback options — plugin: WP Rollback

All of these plugins are good for their specific task and as mentioned there may be other plugins that you will need for a specific task that may be related to any or all of the following: blog management, email list management, pop-up generation, chatbot management, site backup and recovery services, and so on.

Do your homework and be aware of these following basic features to see that any potential plugin has this foundation to be a good addition to your site:

Up-to-date — the plugin candidate should have been updated in the past 3 months and is compatible with the latest version of WordPress. This helps to ensure that it is not an abandoned project and that updates and fixes are happening often.

The number of installs is greater than 50. This is a relatively arbitrary number, but you want to see that the plugin is actively being used and that its reviews are encouraging; 3 stars or above is a good standard.

You can find this information on the plugins web page on WordPress.org. Figure 2 shows the information for the WP Rollback plugin mentioned above.

[5] CSS, cascading style sheets. This is a MUST technology to know and eventually master if you are going to maintain and tweak your site’s look and feel in any fashion at all. Especially in a responsive format. The W3Schools website (w3schools.com/css) is a great website for this type of learning or verifying syntax. There are also many CSS books and online tutorials for you to make use of. When you need to change a small layout glitch or want to change the look of the page, the best way to accomplish this, if there are no obvious settings in the admin area, is via CSS. This can be especially useful if you need to make changes on a theme or plugin that is not 100% responsive and you need to change formatting to suit specific mobile layout; iPad vertical for example. In any case you are likely to be using CSS soon after you install your chosen theme, just expect it.

[6] Backup, often! One of the best practical tips to be followed after site security is fully in place is to backup your site completely and often. Depending on your site’s “value” to you or how often it is updated with new content you will be glad you backed up both the site and the database. I mention the database separately here as often WordPress users think that backing up the site is sufficient but if your database is not also backed up it will be either useless or out of synchronization when the time comes to restore it.

There are two plugins that I use on a regular basis for all my backup needs: “All-in-One WP Migration” by servmask.com and if I only want the database backed up then I will use “WP Database Backup” by Prashant Walke. There are many other good backup plugins out there as well like UpDraft and Backup Buddy, but I am comfortable with the ones mentioned. When a search for “backup” is done on the WordPress plugins page over 45 pages of results are returned! So be sure to do your research. Both of the plugins that I have focused on allow for scheduling the backup process; once per day, once a week, monthly, etc. So be sure to set the backup frequency to your anticipated needs based on your site’s value. Both of the plugins mentioned above also have commercial versions with added features so be sure to consider their added value when peace of mind is in play.

Be sure to test your backups often as well, don’t be complacent in thinking that all is well, you may be let down when the time comes to restore your site from a backup and you have missed an important file folder, special plugin, or database table. Backup files can even become corrupted at times so be vigilant on this best practice. Don’t treat backups like car airbags that can only really have their value proven or disproven during an actual accident.

[7] As a segue from backups the next best practice topic is that of having multiple instances of your website active. In conjunction with your live site you should have at least one alternate site where you can do functional testing and verify your live backups. The true website ecosystem would have at least 3 platforms: Live, testing, and development; but not everyone has this luxury. I strongly recommend having at least one alternate site which I affectionately call a “Playpen”. Here you can test the validity of your backups by restoring them occasionally. Restoring the backups has a 2-fold benefit in that beyond just testing the backup of the live site you are also keeping the playpen site well synchronized with the live site.

Another very important aspect of testing a site is to ensure it has good “flow” and that the menu system is useful and makes sense. This is all summarized in the terminology of “Good User Experience” or good UX. This is a science all on its own, but the basics are to ensure that your site visitors can easily find what they are looking for, the colors and images are not harsh, and that they can find help (eg. contact information) if they need it.

Also a good reason for a playpen site is that from time to time large updates are released to WordPress itself as well as themes and plugins; or you want to install a whole new plugin on the site. You don’t want to install any of these new items on a live site only to find that there are security issues or they affect your custom CSS, or some other aspect of your site. This also gives you time to try out any new features and tweak any of your customizations before you release them to the live environment.

[8] Eventually, you will face a challenge of some sort that you don’t know how to fix. To that end be sure to have your resources at hand and current. For example, if you are using a commercial theme, be sure to have the website and support information in your bookmarks or actually written down somewhere. Have the contact information for your hosting provider and their support line saved in a safe place as well. The same holds true for your plugins or any other separate or unique technology that you are using on your website. You don’t want to face a website emergency and not be able to call in the needed help when you need it the most because you can’t find a web address or a phone number.

Besides the above, have good WordPress or web development resources at hand as well. Books, websites, articles, magazines, discussion groups, conferences; and any and all resources that you can bring to bear when needed will prove invaluable. It is also good to be continually learning and being kept informed of new technology or techniques that are in the works. There’s nothing worse than being blindsided by newly released software that affects your site. The relatively recent release of the Gutenberg editor within WordPress is a classic example. Many people were not aware of how drastically it changed the way blog posts were created that there was even a plugin created shortly after its release that disables it — called “Disable Gutenberg”.

[9] Another best practice to remember is that WordPress is based on open-source concepts deeply ingrained in its underlying technology of both PHP and MySQL. Open-source concepts are based on sharing and community advancement and they can be located in the treatise entitled “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric S Raymond. If you have not read this groundbreaking work on software ownership, collaborative creation, and distribution be sure to put it on your reading list. One point being made here is that no matter how far along you on your WordPress journey there is always someone who is a little further behind than you are or you have gone down a specific path that someone else is about to go down. In this respect there is always someone to help. To use a few catchphrases: “pay it forward” and “always be giving back to the community”. By doing this you will make great industry connections that you can rely on for future information sharing and may even make lasting friendships. The benefits of sharing and helping others goes well beyond these points into the psychological realm but just know that it’s all good and raises the collective knowledge and goodwill of the programming community.

[10] The last item on the list of top 10 best practices could just easily be the first and that is to have fun. The World Wide Web has been going on for quite a long time and there are still many frustrations in coding and putting all the moving parts together. I like to think of professional athletes when I think of how I should be approaching work on the web. They generally are being paid to have fun at the highest levels of a game. Now we might not get paid millions of dollars to do web design or work in WordPress but the mindset still applies — go out there and enjoy doing your work, try to treat it as a game and play it at the highest level; keep it light if you can.

Summary

I hope these best practices and tips will be useful to you as you consider what is really required when you want to make a great website on the WordPress platform. The “gems” I have emparted here should help you with all aspects of setting up an installation of WordPress and assist you in avoiding many of the pitfalls along the way. I have learned a great deal in my more than 8 years working directly in WordPress and so much longer with PHP and MySQL.Yet, I am still learning more valuable lessons and reminders every day. Most recently I was reminded of the true value of a solid backup of a site. A client said they didn’t want their site anymore for which I had developed a custom plugin with Google maps that had customized location pins and links to PDF files tied to those pins. I thought I had a good backup, and deleted the whole web system — web files, custom PHP code, database, and all. 3 weeks later the client changed his mind and wanted the site fully restored. My database backup was incomplete and some custom code was referencing database fields that no longer existed. At the time of this writing I am still nursing the site back to full health.

Still, the friends and business acquaintances I have made over the years and around the world in the technology field have proven to be invaluable. I have been able to travel to many places around the world with these connections attending and speaking at conferences in Germany, Australia, Poland, Italy, Canada, and the USA.

Technology changes every week, nay every day, and this variety and technology also keeps me interested and engaged. I love learning new things and making technology soar beyond what it was originally intended. Frustrations will still come up and at times will seem insurmountable but use your knowledge and your network of resources and success will follow.

Check out my RingCentral WordPress app https://www.ringcentral.com/apps/rccp-free-wordpress-plugin that allows you to easily add on features to your site such as a call me now or newsletter that your viewers/ customers can sign up for.