WordPress Advanced Tips: What You Need to Know

Let’s talk about WordPress advanced tips. If you want to travel an extra mile, these tips can help you.

WordPress seems complicated for beginners. Once you have learned the basics, you must move the needle far behind the visible surface.

Let’s describe the topic in more detail.

WordPress Advanced Tips

Comment Moderation

If your blog is set to post users’ comments, WordPress automatically checks for various tests.

To see how WordPress processes comments, see the Discussion page in the dashboard.

On the page, you can set WordPress comments moderation rules, such as:

1. You can post who can comment on posts.
2. Set if the comments are published or held for review.

Users can also see new comments when logged in. The “Activity” screen panel in the dashboard shows new comments, which can help you increase WordPress functionality without extra coding.

Search page

Users can now create search pages with Gutenberg Blocks.

First, create a standard page as you do in WordPress. Then, go to the Pages page to create a new page.

Once on the Editor, you must create a new Gutenberg Block – “Search”.

Next, save the page if you plan to make changes later. If you have done everything, hit the “Publish” button immediately.

Now, it’s time to test the page out.

When loaded on the front end, the page shows a search box. Enter a sample keyword and hit the “Enter” key.

If the search query matches existing post titles, you can see the returned values on the same page.

Static page in WordPress

A static page helps admins set a static page on the site’s home page. You get the idea.

Unlike regular settings, a static page cannot display recent posts on the home.

Let’s create and set up a static page on WordPress Home.

Go to the Add New page option in the dashboard. Give the page a new name; let’s call it “Home”.

Once you’ve created a new page, it’s time to move forward.

Go to the Reading page in the dashboard and set the newly created page as the home page. You can also set a “Blog” page for recent posts; you can understand the difference.

Once you have made the required changes, save them. You can now see the difference on your site’s home page.

Note: If you’re fluent in using page builders, such as Divi Builder, you can design your site’s static page with custom elements.

Customize Date and Time format

Users can set date and time formats on the Settings -> General page in the dashboard.

WordPress shows the date and time set on the dashboard page on specific occasions, such as when publishing post content.

You can see more options on the dashboard page if you want to change the format. You can also change how WordPress shows various formats.

If you know how to change the source code, you can do better with the WordPress date and time settings.

Permalinks

In WordPress, permalink settings are severe and could affect how WordPress generates URLs.

There are other aspects, too.

Changing WordPress permalinks for a new and old site can affect WordPress. New sites are easier to adjust, while changing permalinks for established sites could create redirect issues, a drop in search ranking, and 404 errors.

Here, we aim to discuss custom permalinks in WordPress.

If, for example, you want to create custom URL structures, you’d most probably choose the “custom” option.

The custom option helps users embed various variables in custom URL structures. For example, you can insert a category, post ID, base category, or content slugs in URLs. However, please take care of the errors after changing WordPress permalinks.

Post content

Using a page builder to create custom pages? Let’s discuss this in more detail.

Page Builders like Divi help users insert post content snippets in various sections. The module lets you fetch post content and display it where it makes sense.

Another thing – the point of impact is to check for a post preview before publishing. It helps users prevent unwanted formats.

Also, WordPress automatically checks for a post content to prepare its preview. Even if a tag is not closed, the WordPress core can help users fix things automatically.

Post status

Understanding how WordPress post statuses work is essential for those who manage WordPress content at scale.

WordPress can help users:

1. Publish a post right away
2. Schedule posts for future publishing
3. Save unfinished posts, also known as “Drafts”
4. Helps users assign “Pending” to posts that require admin’s assistance
5. WordPress can also help users create and manage “private” posts
6. Auto-draft post’s content automatically, also known as “Revisions”

Based on how WordPress works, users can easily create membership sites, user-generated content directories, and content-based sites with post statuses.

Content Revisions

As described above, different versions of unfinished posts are known as “revisions”. WordPress automatically creates post revisions as users are making changes to drafts.

Here, you should pay attention to post revisions if you must revert to a previous post version.

Post revisions are saved in the database, but you can clear them in WordPress if you don’t need them. Plugins like “Delete Post Revisions” can do this.

Blog content visibility

If your site’s blog page fetches recent posts, you should know the following use cases.

1. By default, a theme can automatically fetch and display recent posts.
2. If you’re using a page builder, you can set options to show specific posts on the blog page.

For more information on possibilities, see your page builder’s option for the “blog element”.

Comment spam in WordPress

Spam comments are used to target search rankings.

There are three ways to fight spam comments.

1. Don’t accept comments on WordPress posts
2. If you’re accepting comments, set tight rules on the Discussion page in the dashboard.
3. Use a comments moderation plugin, such as “Akismet”.

However, if you’re new to blogging and don’t have users at scale, you don’t need to get worried. In this case, very few people may leave comments on posts.

You must set tight rules if your site’s traffic is more than enough.

Excerpts in WordPress

Excerpts are content snippets fetched to show under post entries.

There are two ways to handle post excerpts in WordPress.

1. Use the page builder’s options to set excerpts length, size, and other options.
2. Turn off the excerpts while you’re creating new posts.

However, hiding or displaying post excerpts depends on personal preference and post settings.

Writing code in WordPress content

Putting code snippets in WordPress content requires special care.

If you misplace code structures, syntax errors could be created on the front-end display.

Here is a list of places to put codes in WordPress.

1. Advanced CSS places on the Appearance -> Customize page
2. You can also edit WordPress core files to add code structures to content. However, this method is not recommended and is not for beginners.
3. WordPress Classic Editor can help you add codes to content. You’ll need to switch between various displays.

Remember that changes occurred due to codes wiping out once new updates are rolled out.

WordPress Anchors and Jump Links

WordPress anchors are jumps you insert in WordPress content.

Once created, users can jump to various sections on a page. This is useful, especially when users need to scroll long-form content.

There are various ways to set WordPress anchor links.

1. Users can create anchor links manually in WordPress. This method involves inserting code snippets in the “code view” of a post content.
2. Using plugins can help users create anchor links quickly.

Using a plugin for automatic outlines can also help. The links being created in outlines are anchor links.

Final Thoughts

So far, you’ve learned how to use WordPress’s advanced flexibility options.

If you’ve missed something you expected, let us know in the comment section below.

WordPress is a technical yet powerful CMS. If you need help, let us know if you need maintenance issues, page speed improvements, or bug fixing in WordPress.