If you are a blogger using WordPress, you know that its admin area is your temple. It is on your dashboard that your blog comes to live, that you perfect it, and that you manage everything that you need to make it successful.
So nothing better than put your hands on some tips that can help you to improve the performance of your WordPress’s dashboard. The selection above will give you the information you need to make your work easier, safer, and much more fun.
1. Hide Some Items Of The Menu
If you feel overwhelmed by so many options available on your WordPress menu, or if you are accepting guest bloggers, you will be happy to know that you can hide some items of it using the Adminimize plugin. By installing it, you will gain full control over your options, becoming able to choose which parts will be activated or deactivated. It will also optimise the backend of the header so that each user can have its own experience along with the settings.
2. Add a Feature Image Column in Admin Area
Another plugin that you will love is the Feature Image Column. It will allow you to see the feature image of your posts on your edit screen, so you can find out if any of them needs adjustment, or if they exist in the first place. And if you learn how to deal with the code, you will be able to change the default image or its size directly by adding your own CSS.
3. Create a Verification Code
As you know, by default, anyone can access the admin area of your blog by typing its address followed by /wp-login.php. Then the only thing between a hacker and your dashboard is your password, which might not be the best in the world. So, to make it a bit harder for them, try a plugin called Stealth Login Page. It will let you create a verification code that must be added to access your dashboard.
4. Repair and Optimise Your Database
It might happen that your admin area is starting to run slower than usual. It can be caused by many things, and one of them is a corrupted database. To fix it, you can use the plugin WP-DB Manager. It will help you to repair, optimise, backup, restore or delete your backup database with the goal of improving its performance. You will also be able to drop and empty tables and run selected queries. Other features involve automatically scheduling future backups and optimisation activities.
5. Implement Caching
Caching will speed up your WordPress by storing your pages and posts as static files. As a consequence, the loading process on your server will be reduced. To make it happen, you can use plugins, or implement browser caching and server-side caching. Among the plugins, you can choose Cache Enabler, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, or WP Rocket. They will do all the hard work for you.
6. Customise Your Post Types
By default, WordPress admin area will label your content as post, page, attachment, navigation menu items, revisions, or links. But you can use plugins to add more to your options. MarketPress, for instance, will add options for products, while Course Press Pro is great for courses and classes. Just think about which kind of content you need to create, and you will find a plugin ready to get your dashboard better organised. Just bear in mind that what is create isn’t necessarily post type, as you can use them as a page as well.
7. Add Login Redirect To Non-Admin Users
Let’s say that you need to give access to a someone, but they only need to see very specific pages. Then Peter ‘s Login Redirect can help you there. It will let you set up logins and logouts redirects based on username, user role, or user role. And you can also set a redirect URL for post-registration, and add your own code logic before and between any of the plugin’s normal redirect.
8. Show or Hide Your Widgets
WordPress dashboard comes with several widgets. But not all of them are shown, and you might be missing something that is important to you. Or you might have a few there that you never use. To fix it, it is very simple: just click on the Screen Options button, and uncheck the box next to each option you don’t want or check those you wish to make available for you.
9. Limit Login Attempts
Another way to reduce the chances of your blog getting hacked is by limiting the login attempts. It will make things difficult for anyone trying to guess your password. To get it done, use the plugin Limit Login Attempts. It restricts the number of retry attempts when logging in for each IP and when logging in using auth cookies. It informs the user about remaining retries or lockout time, and there is an optional email notification.
10. Brand Your Admin Area
If you are a WordPress developer, you will find this tip very useful. Using Ultimate Branding plugin, you will be able to customise your dashboard in much more detail. You will be allowed to choose your colours, add your logo and company name. It will also remove WordPress branding for you and help you to create custom Admin bar menus. And all this without a line of code.
In Conclusion
As you can see, there are several plugins and simple tips that can help you to improve your WordPress admin area. Some of them are focused on making it look better, while others will shield your blog against hackers. You will also find options ready to improve the performance of your dashboard. In any case, don’t settle for less.
If you feel like something could be better, then do it. If you do a bit of research, you will certainly find the right tool to make it happen. Or you can contract someone to create it for you. As mentioned before, your admin area is crucial to your blog, so it should run as perfect as possible.
About the Author:
Kerry Creaswood is a journalist, writer and blogger who writes on the topics related to SEO, marketing and social media. Also she is a writer for GrabMyEssay. To find more about Kerry – check her Twitter and Facebook.