WordPress Beginners Guide – Some Hacks To Grow Fast

Best WordPress Hacks to Grow Your Website Fast

These are the top 10 tricks that many WordPress beginners or even Experts might not be aware of.

1. Quick Draft from the Dashboard

If you have a sudden idea for a post, you can use the “Quick Draft” widget on the WordPress dashboard. This lets you jot down ideas, titles, and brief content directly from the dashboard without navigating to the full post editor.

2. Customizing the Login Page

With a little code or plugins like “Custom Login Page Customizer,” you can fully customize the WordPress login page, including the logo, background, and colors. This is great for branding your site, especially if multiple users log in.

3. Password-Protect Specific Sections of a Post

Several WordPressShortcodes are available to help make life easier by providing pre-written code snippets. One such is the password shortcode that can help you password-protect a specific section of your post instead of hiding an entire post. You can use the [password] shortcode to password-protect specific parts of a post, not just the entire post. This can be handy for sharing exclusive content with specific readers. Example:

html

Copy code

[password protected=”mypassword”]This content is protected.[/password]

4. Adding Custom CSS via the Theme Customizer

Instead of editing your theme’s CSS files directly, you can add custom CSS through the WordPress Customizer (Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS). This method is theme-agnostic, meaning your changes won’t be lost when you update your theme.

5. Keyboard Shortcuts in the Block Editor (Gutenberg)

The Gutenberg editor comes with several handy keyboard shortcuts that can speed up your content creation. For instance:

• Ctrl+Alt+T or ⌘+Alt+T (Mac) to insert a new block before the current block.

• Ctrl+Alt+Y or ⌘+Alt+Y (Mac) to insert a new block after the current block.

• Use / to quickly search for and add a block by name.

6. Hidden Options in the Admin Bar

When logged in, the WordPress Admin Bar at the top of the screen has a few hidden options you can enable. For instance, you can quickly access drafts, updates, and edit the current page by hovering over certain items.

7. Schedule Automatic Updates

WordPress allows you to schedule automatic updates for themes, plugins, and even the core itself. This can be managed using plugins like “Easy Updates Manager” or by adding filters in your functions.php file.

Example:phpCopy codeadd_filter(‘auto_update_plugin’, ‘__return_true’); add_filter(‘auto_update_theme’, ‘__return_true’);

8. Enable WordPress Multisite

WordPress has a built-in Multisite feature that lets you run a network of sites from a single WordPress installation. This can be particularly useful for managing multiple blogs or client websites. To enable it, you need to edit your wp-config.php file and add the following line:phpCopy codedefine(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);

Make sure the hosting provider for the WordPress site supports the multisite feature so it can be enabled for your website.

9. Customizing the Admin Dashboard

You can customize the WordPress dashboard for different user roles by using plugins like “Adminimize” or by adding custom functions. This is particularly useful if you’re managing a site with multiple authors or contributors, as you can streamline their experience.

10. Using the Code Snippets Plugin

Instead of editing your functions.php file directly, you can use the “Code Snippets” plugin to add custom code to your site. This keeps your code organized and separate from your theme, preventing potential issues when updating themes.

11. Changing the Default Media Upload Folder

By default, WordPress stores uploaded files in the /wp-content/uploads/ directory. You can change this by adding a line in your wp-config.php file:phpCopy codedefine(‘UPLOADS’, ‘custom-folder’);

12. Using Bookmarklets for Quick Post Creation

WordPress has a bookmarklet feature that allows you to quickly create a post from any webpage. Just drag the “Press This” bookmarklet from Tools > Available Tools to your bookmarks bar, and you can start a new post with a single click from any page you’re viewing.

13. Instantly Search Media Library with Filters

The media library can be filtered by date and media type. However, you can also use the search bar to instantly find files by name, and combining this with filters can help you quickly locate specific media.

14. Enhanced Embedding Options

WordPress allows for easy embedding of external content simply by pasting the URL into the editor. For even more control, you can use the Gutenberg “Embed” blocks, which provide additional options for services like YouTube, Twitter, and Spotify.

15. Use Reusable Blocks in Gutenberg

If you often use the same content layout, you can save it as a “Reusable Block” in Gutenberg. This allows you to insert the same content across multiple pages or posts and update it in one place if needed.