Managing your own website? You’re probably wearing 10 hats, juggling client work, marketing, and trying to figure out why your homepage suddenly broke. Here are 7 actionable WordPress tips that will save your time, your sanity, and your site.

1. 🔒 Use a Security Plugin — Don’t Wing It

Why: Hackers love WordPress — it’s popular, and many sites are under-protected.

How to do it:

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard
2. Click Plugins > Add New
3. Search for Wordfence or iThemes Security
4. Click Install, then Activate
5. Go through the guided setup — most plugins make it easy
6. Turn on features like firewall protection, login attempt limits, and email alerts

🛡 Bonus: Enable 2FA (two-factor authentication) under the plugin settings for extra protection.

2. ⚙️ Ditch “Admin” as Your Username

Why: “admin” is the most commonly brute-forced username. It’s like leaving the key under the doormat.

How to do it:

1. Go to Users > Add New
2. Create a new user with Administrator role
3. Log out
4. Log in as the new user
5. Go back to Users, delete the old admin account
6. When asked what to do with their content, assign it to your new user

✅ Done. You now look like someone who knows what they’re doing.

3. 🧽 Clean Up Your Plugins

Why: Old or unused plugins slow down your site and can be a security risk.

How to do it:

1. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins
2. Look through the list — if you’re not using it, or don’t remember why you installed it:
   • Click Deactivate
   • Then click Delete

🚨 Rule of thumb: If it doesn’t serve a clear purpose, bin it.

4. 🎯 Use a Real Cache Plugin

Why: Caching makes your site load faster by saving static versions of your pages — no more rebuilding every time someone visits.

How to do it:

1. Go to Plugins > Add New
2. Search for LiteSpeed Cache (best for LiteSpeed servers) or WP Fastest Cache
3. Click Install > Activate
4. Use the plugin’s default settings — or turn on:
   • Minify HTML/CSS/JS
   • Browser caching
   • GZIP compression

⚡ Fast websites get more love from Google and your visitors.

5. ✍️ Write Posts in the “Posts” Section — Not Pages

Why: WordPress is designed to handle blog content using Posts, which are categorized, dated, and archived automatically.

How to do it:

1. In the dashboard, click Posts > Add New
2. Give your post a title, write your content
3. Assign a Category or Tag to help users (and Google) find it
4. Click Publish

🗂 Tip: Reserve Pages for static content like your homepage, About, Services, or Contact.

6. 🖼 Compress Images Before Upload

Why: Images over 500KB slow your site way down — especially on mobile.

How to do it:

• Before uploading:
  1. Visit https://tinypng.com or https://squoosh.app
  2. Drop your image in
  3. Download the compressed version
  4. Upload it to your WordPress media library
• Or:
  1. Install the Smush plugin
  2. Activate it and let it bulk compress your existing images
  3. Turn on lazy loading and auto-compression

📷 Clean images = faster site = better user experience.

7. 🧭 Use a Visual Builder — But Don’t Overdo It

Why: Page builders like Divi, Elementor, or Kadence let you design without touching code — but it’s easy to go overboard with animations and bloated layouts.

How to do it:

1. Choose one builder — not three
2. Use pre-made blocks or templates, then customize for clarity, not flair
3. Avoid stacking effects (fade-ins, parallax, sliders, etc.) unless truly necessary
4. Test your page speed using PageSpeed Insights

🧘‍♂️ Minimal is powerful. Fast is beautiful. Confusing = gone.

🎯 Final Thought:

Your website is your online storefront. A clear, fast, secure site builds trust, increases leads, and lets you focus on your real work — not fixing broken pages.

Want help setting up a lean, conversion-focused WordPress site?
That’s my jam.