WordPress is one of the most popular and user-friendly content management systems (CMS) in the world. Whether you’re starting a blog, building a portfolio, or managing a business website, WordPress offers tons of features, plugins, and customization options. However, there are plenty of WordPress hacks that many beginners may not know about but can significantly improve the way you manage your website.
In this article, we will take a deep dive into some of the most useful and lesser-known WordPress hacks that will enhance your site’s functionality, boost performance, and make the overall user experience much smoother
Let’s explore some of these powerful tips and tricks that can elevate your WordPress journey to the next level!
Table of Contents
Top WordPress Hacks for Beginners
1. Enable the WordPress Debugging Mode for Troubleshooting
For beginners, debugging issues can be daunting. However, WordPress has an in-built debugging feature that can help you troubleshoot errors on your site. If you’re dealing with a problem or error, enabling the WordPress debug mode can help you see what’s happening behind the scenes.
How to enable Debugging:
1. Go to your website’s file manager or connect via FTP.
2. Locate the wp-config.php file.
3. Add the following line just above “/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */”:
define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
This will activate WordPress debugging mode, and you will start seeing error messages on your site, which you can use to identify and fix problems.
2. Quickly Switch Between Themes Without Losing Customizations
One of the best features of WordPress is its ability to switch between themes, but switching can sometimes mean losing customizations. To avoid this, use the Customizer in your WordPress dashboard. You can preview and tweak your new theme without activating it.
How to do it:
1. Go to Appearance > Themes.
2. Hover over the theme you want to test and click Customize.
3. You’ll be redirected to the theme customizer, where you can tweak settings like colors, fonts, layout, and more.
4. Once you’re satisfied, you can activate the theme. This way, none of your customizations are lost, and you don’t have to worry about any immediate display changes on your live site.
3. Use a Custom Login URL
The default login URL for WordPress websites is /wp-login.php or /wp-admin. This is well-known by hackers and bots. Changing your login URL to something more unique can add an additional layer of security to your site.
How to change your login URL:
1. Install the WPS Hide Login plugin.
2. Go to Settings > WPS Hide Login.
3. In the plugin settings, create a custom login URL (e.g., www.yoursite.com/secure-login).
4. Click Save Changes.
With a custom login URL, you’ll be making it harder for malicious bots to find your login page and try to break into your website.
4. Use the WordPress Site Health Check Tool
The WordPress Site Health Check tool helps you monitor your site’s performance and security. It provides a comprehensive overview of your site’s overall health, including updates, security features, and configuration recommendations. It’s an essential tool for beginners who may not know where to look to keep their site in top shape.
How to use it:
1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Tools > Site Health.
2. You’ll see two tabs: Status and Info. The Status tab provides performance suggestions and warnings, while the Info tab gives you detailed information about your server, WordPress setup, and environment.
3. Pay attention to the recommendations and make the necessary adjustments to optimize your site.
5. Create a Maintenance Mode Page
If you need to perform updates, fixes, or maintenance on your site, it’s essential to inform visitors that the site is temporarily down. Instead of just showing a blank page or error message, you can use a maintenance mode plugin to create a temporary page with a personalized message.
How to activate Maintenance Mode:
1. Install the WP Maintenance Mode plugin.
2. After activation, go to Settings > WP Maintenance Mode.
3. Enable the maintenance mode option and customize the page’s design and message.
4. Save changes, and your visitors will see the maintenance page while you’re working behind the scenes.
6. Use Shortcodes to Add Functionality
WordPress shortcodes are small snippets of code that allow you to add advanced functionality without having to deal with code directly. Shortcodes can be used for inserting galleries, buttons, forms, and more.
You can add shortcodes to posts, pages, and widgets for enhanced content and design without needing to dive into code.
7. Disable WordPress Post Revisions
By default, WordPress saves a revision of every change you make to a post or page. While this is useful, it can lead to a bloated database over time. Disabling or limiting the number of post revisions WordPress saves can help optimize your database.
How to limit revisions:
1. Open your wp-config.php file.
2. Add the following code to limit revisions:
define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, 5);
This will limit WordPress to saving only 5 revisions per post/page. You can change the number to your preference.
To completely disable revisions, use:
define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, false);
8. Schedule Automatic Backups with Plugins
WordPress doesn’t automatically back up your site unless you’ve set it up yourself. Regular backups are essential in case something goes wrong. Plugins like UpdraftPlus allow you to schedule automatic backups and store them on cloud platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3.
How to set up automatic backups:
1. Install the UpdraftPlus plugin.
2. After activation, go to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups.
3. Set your backup schedule and choose where you’d like to store your backups.
4. Click Save Changes to enable automatic backups.
9. Leverage WordPress Auto-Updates for Plugins and Themes
Keeping your plugins and themes up to date is crucial for security and performance. By default, WordPress doesn’t automatically update plugins and themes. However, you can enable auto-updates for plugins and themes directly from the dashboard.
How to enable auto-updates:
1. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
2. For each plugin, you’ll see an “Enable auto-updates” option. Simply click on it to activate automatic updates.
3. For themes, go to Appearance > Themes and enable the same option for your installed themes.
10. Speed Up WordPress with Caching
Website speed is critical for user experience and SEO. Caching is a technique that stores a static version of your content to serve to visitors, which can greatly improve load times.
How to enable caching:
1. Install the W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache plugin.
2. Go to the plugin settings, and enable caching for pages, browser caching, and database caching.
3. Configure the settings to suit your website’s needs, and save the changes.
Caching can significantly reduce server load and improve the overall performance of your website.
11. Create Custom User Roles for Better Website Management
If you’re running a multi-author WordPress site, you can create custom user roles with unique permissions to control who can access certain parts of the website. WordPress comes with a few default user roles, but if you need more control, you can create custom roles using plugins like User Role Editor.
How to create custom user roles:
1. Install the User Role Editor plugin.
2. Go to Users > User Role Editor.
3. Click on Add Role and create a custom role, specifying the permissions you want to assign.
4. Save the role and assign it to users accordingly.
12. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Faster Content Delivery
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps deliver your website’s content (images, scripts, stylesheets) faster by caching your content on multiple servers worldwide. This reduces the loading time for visitors, especially those who are far from your website’s hosting server.
How to set up a CDN:
1. Sign up for a CDN service like Cloudflare or KeyCDN.
2. Follow the instructions provided by the CDN provider to integrate it with your WordPress site.
3. Once integrated, your content will be delivered faster to users from various locations, improving overall performance.
13. Improve SEO with the Yoast SEO Plugin
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for any WordPress site, and Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins for beginners to optimize their site’s content. It helps you craft SEO-friendly content, generate sitemaps, and much more.
How to use Yoast SEO:
1. Install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin.
2. After activation, you’ll see a new section at the bottom of your posts and pages that allows you to add a focus keyword, meta description, and analyze readability.
3. The plugin provides a color-coded analysis of how SEO-friendly your content is. Follow the suggestions to improve your SEO score.
4. Yoast SEO can also automatically generate an XML sitemap, which makes it easier for search engines to index your website.
14. Hide WordPress Version to Increase Security
Exposing the version of WordPress you’re using can be a potential security risk, as attackers might target known vulnerabilities in that version. Hiding your WordPress version from the source code is a simple but effective way to protect your site.
How to hide the WordPress version:
1. Open your theme’s functions.php file.
2. Add the following code snippet to remove WordPress version details:
remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’);
This prevents WordPress from displaying its version number in the page’s source code.
15. Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Save Time
Did you know that WordPress offers a variety of keyboard shortcuts to streamline your workflow? These shortcuts can help you publish, save, and edit your posts and pages more efficiently.
Common keyboard shortcuts include:
- Ctrl + S (Cmd + S on Mac) – Save a draft.
- Ctrl + Z (Cmd + Z on Mac) – Undo last action.
- Ctrl + P (Cmd + P on Mac) – Preview your post.
- Alt + Shift + S – Submit your post for review.
- Alt + Shift + W – Toggle full-screen mode.
- Ctrl + B (Cmd + B on Mac) – Bold selected text.
- Ctrl + I (Cmd + I on Mac) – Italicize selected text.
Explore the full list of shortcuts in WordPress’s keyboard shortcut reference, and you will soon be working much faster!
16. Disable WordPress Admin Email Notifications
WordPress sends notifications about new comments, user registrations, and other events to the admin email address by default. While some of these notifications may be useful, they can also clutter your inbox. You can disable or customize these notifications to keep things tidy.
How to disable admin email notifications:
1. Install the Better Notifications for WP plugin.
2. After activation, go to Settings > Better Notifications for WP.
3. From here, you can modify or disable the email notifications that WordPress sends out.
17. Limit Login Attempts to Prevent Brute Force Attacks
Brute force attacks are a common method used by hackers to gain access to WordPress sites. Limiting the number of login attempts can help prevent these attacks. By default, WordPress allows unlimited login attempts, making it easier for hackers to try different passwords.
How to limit login attempts:
1. Install the Limit Login Attempts Reloaded plugin.
2. After activation, go to Settings > Limit Login Attempts.
3. Set the number of allowed login attempts and the lockout time (in minutes). Typically, setting the limit to 3-5 attempts and locking the user out for 15 minutes is recommended.
This simple plugin can dramatically increase your site’s security.
18. Enable SSL for Extra Security
Using an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate ensures that data transferred between your website and its visitors is encrypted. Google also ranks HTTPS websites higher than HTTP sites, making it an important SEO factor.
How to enable SSL:
1. Purchase an SSL certificate from your hosting provider or use a free certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
2. Once installed, go to Settings > General in your WordPress dashboard.
3. Update your site URL to use https:// instead of http://.
Your website will now be served over a secure connection, which helps protect your users’ data and boost trust.
19. Quickly Duplicate Posts and Pages
When you’re creating similar posts or pages, manually duplicating content can be time-consuming. A simple plugin like Duplicate Post allows you to clone any page or post with a click, so you can easily work from a template.
How to duplicate a post or page:
1. Install and activate the Duplicate Post plugin.
2. Once activated, go to Posts or Pages and hover over the post/page you want to duplicate.
3. Click the Clone option to create a copy.
You can edit the copy later, saving time when creating multiple pieces of content.
20. Optimize Your Database with WP-Optimize
Over time, your WordPress database can accumulate unnecessary data, such as old revisions, spam comments, and database overhead. Optimizing the database helps improve your site’s performance.
How to optimize the database:
1. Install and activate the WP-Optimize plugin.
2. Go to WP-Optimize > Database.
3. Check all the options (e.g., clean post revisions, remove spam comments) and click Run All Selected.
This will clean up your database and improve your site’s speed.
Before You Go
WordPress is an incredibly versatile platform that offers countless opportunities for customization, optimization, and growth. By leveraging these hacks, beginners can streamline their workflow, boost performance, and enhance security.
From using debugging mode and creating custom login URLs to leveraging caching and automatic backups, these tips will give you an edge in running a smooth and effective WordPress website.
Don’t hesitate to explore these hacks, and remember that WordPress is constantly evolving. Stay updated on new features and improvements to continue getting the most out of your website. Happy WordPress-ing!
