8 Common WordPress errors and how to avoid them
1. Too many menus
Your site tries to be everything, all at once. You even have 8 main menu items that have begun to wrap to a second line…breaking the theme design. You want a web designer to make the fonts smaller, but you need to present your information in bite-size chunks.
2. Too many ads
Don’t litter your sidebar with pointless affiliate ads with the hope of making a few bucks. Instead write a well-reasoned post about how some product helped you solve a problem.
3. Too many words
People don’t want to read dense paragraphs unless they have a compelling need. Keep you web writing brisk and crisp.
4. No topical focus
What’s your site about? What’s your USP (unique selling proposition)? Why should I care?
5. Outdated theme
Your WordPress theme is straight out of 2008. As browsers advance you can hide and show information with a new set of technologies (jQuery, CSS3, thickbox, highslide, etc). Typography has also advanced, with sophisticated text shadows and even font embedding. Keep moving, your competition certainly is.
6. Broken links
You have linked to some interesting web articles, but they are not online anymore. You would be surprised at how many blog and news sites change their web URL addresses, or just plain delete them. Get the “Broken Link Checker” plugin. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/
7. Broken images
You moved your web site and your images link to and older edition, be sure to use a relative link, “/images/logo.jpg”, rather than the full link, “http://sample.com/images/logo.jpg” this will save you if you ever do a rebranding and rename your domain
8. Hacked or corrupt site
Your WordPress database holds most of your settings and content. If you get hacked (some may say “when you get hacked”), then you may have spam comments and hidden pharma links in the footer of your site. Finding all of these, is critical, you can’t be a “little bit” pregnant, or a “little bit” hacked. Use a security plugin, e.g., http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/ and get a professional to scan your site annually. If you lockdown your site too much, you may have problems accessing files and other plugins may stop working. This is an expected side effect. (Did someone tell you that owning and maintaining a blogging website would be simple?)