In WordPress Optimization Tips

Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by Julius.

There are lots and lots of plug-ins out there that let you change WordPress according to your wishes. However only few people use the options that are available with WordPress.

In this article I will show you 6 optimization tips that you can directly apply in your WordPress dashboard.

1. Enable WordPress to Automatically Correct Invalidly Nested XHTML: I always wondered why this is not activated by default. I highly recommend to activate it because if you do not, your HTML may be invalid. This actually happened to me a lot. To correct this go to Settings -> Writing and then enable WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically
2. Automatically Close Comments After a Certain Period of Time: People even created plug-ins to do exactly that even though you can just enable it in the dashboard. To close comments after a certain period of time go to Settings -> Discussion and then click on the box that says Automatically close comments on articles older than. The last step is the adjust the number of days you want to wait before closing comments.
3. Instead of Using a Backup Plug-in, Just Export Your Content: Most people use a backup plug-in for their blogs but you can also just export your content. Of course it is not as nice as using a plug-in but you can still use it under Tools -> Export to create a backup of your blog.
4. Enable Threaded Comments: This is only useful if your WordPress theme also supports it, otherwise it does not make sense. To active this feature go to Settings -> Discussion and then click on the box saying Enable threaded comments.
5. Changing the Permalink Structure: A lot of people have already mentioned this. It is important to change your permalink structure in WordPress. Under Settings -> Permalinks you can change the settings. The least what you should do is to change from the default maybe to the Month and Name section. You can also create your own version by choosing the Custom Structure box.
6. Breaking Up Comments onto Multiple Pages: Breaking up comments makes sense if you have a web site that gets a lot of comments. Go to Settings -> Discussion and active the feature Break comments into pages …

What is strange about this whole thing is that people actually developed plug-ins that do the very same thing that is available in the WordPress settings section.

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