5 WordPress shortcuts and plugins to enhance your posts

As a business owner, there’s so much to be done and so little time. It’s difficult to know what to prioritize what to delegate and how to be as efficient as possible. When it comes to your website, large development changes should be delegated, but small updates here and there that you take care of yourself can eat up into valuable time that could be better spent on other things. Luckily, WordPress, one of the most heavily used website platforms, is great for people in a hurry, without a ton of time to spare on development and upkeep. There are many shortcuts and hacks hidden within WordPress’ platform that can make your life easier; if you know where to look.

Between hundreds of pre-built themes, shortcuts, and useful plugins, here are a few time-saving tips to give you the best website possible while saving you valuable time to spend on other aspects of your business.

Customize post URLs and permalinks

Optimize your post with a customized permalink that includes the title of the post. Many WordPress sites and blogs have different categories to segment different types of content. You can customize the URL structure to include the category of the post in the URL as well. To change the link structure go to your settings, click Permalinks, and enter your customized URL.

Generate random posts on your website sidebar

Similarly to creating a post preview on your blog and site, you can use this WordPress Plugin to have your site display randomly generated posts from your archive. These articles will appear in your sidebar and give users exposure to topics and pages they not otherwise get to see. Once you install the plug-in, go to your Appearance settings, click Widgets, and add the Random Posts widget to your sidebar. With little upkeep required, visitors will now have access to even more of your content with very minimal effort on your part to promote the posts.

Integrate HubSpot into your site

Hubspot is an excellent inbound marketing tool that can help define your company’s content marketing strategy, generate leads, conversions and increase sales. The tool also easily integrates with your WordPress site with the HubSpot Tracking Code for WordPress. First, download the plugin. Then simply to the “Plugins” section in the left sidebar of your WordPress site, find “Add a new plugin” and locate the tool.

Save time with keyboard shortcuts

At first, keyboard shortcuts may seem impossible to remember, but once you identify the ones you’ll use often, they can save you a lot of time when formatting writing on your site. Aside from the common shortcuts like cut, copy and paste, WordPress offers many other shortcuts that can come in handy and help you create beautifully formatted and ready-to-publish posts with just a few keystrokes.

• ALT+SHIFT+N – Check Spelling
• ALT+SHIFT+L – Align left
• ALT+SHIFT+R – Align right
• ALT+SHIFT+C – Align center
• ALT+SHIFT+J – Justify text
• ALT+SHIFT+D – Text strikethrough
• ALT+SHIFT+U – Unordered list
• ALT+SHIFT+O – Ordered list
• ALT+SHIFT+A – Insert a link
• ALT+SHIFT+S – Remove a link

You can also enable a distraction free writing mode, that hides unnecessary tools on the screen, giving you access only to the things you need to focus on writing a post.

• Ctrl + – Wider editor width
• Ctrl – – Narrower editor width
• Ctrl 0 – Default width

Generate a post summary on your homepage

Many popular sites with blogs choose to show summaries of recent or trending blog posts on their homepage. This easy addition can increase traffic to your blog, boost post visibility and provide additional value to your visitors. It’s also an easy way to highlight multiple posts at once using limited page real estate. Certain themes already have this functionality built in, while other plugins allow you to create post summaries with ease.

Add Google Analytics to posts

You’re probably already familiar with the importance of measuring the analytics of your site, and luckily Google Analytics quickly and easily integrates with your WordPress site. With the Google Analytics plugin, you can see how users are behaving on your site, where they came from, and a lot of other useful information to track customer patterns and incorporate it into future strategies. Alternatively, if you would rather use another analytics tool, WordPress supports many other tools that track and measure your site’s data.

These tips and tricks are intended to save you time and help you more easily navigate the world of WordPress site upkeep. Once you get the hang of the ones you will use more often, you’ll feel more comfortable and confident that your site is running as efficiently and effectively as possible.