Remove or Customize Default Text and Title Attributes

While I’ve already touched on the customization of a few text elements of the default WordPress theme, there are other little text snippets that can be edited, removed, or appended to. An obvious example is the “Powered by WordPress” section in the footer. Your website’s footer seems simple, but it is potentially a significant part of your site’s look, feel, and overall image.

There are also title attributes that are embedded in anchor tags throughout the site. Here is one example, found in the index.php file:

1. <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>  

The code above is the section that will display the title of each post listed on your home page. The title attribute in the anchor tag has the super-obvious text of “Permanent link to …” and then the PHP function that spits out the title. You can modify this and other default text that appears throughout your WP theme.

Don’t Call Your Website a “Blog”

Okay, this is not really a WordPress tip, per se. It’s more of a marketing recommendation for the purpose of more effective branding in conjunction with a site that just happens to use WordPress as its engine. Serious websites that provide significant content are viewed as “communities” or “resources”, instead of “blogs”. The word “blog” nowadays is probably more appropriate for individuals who post thoughts and musings on various personal and professional topics.

If you have long-term plans for your website, and would like to expand it into a thriving online community that is respected and recognized in your industry, then you need to view it that way from the start, and communicate that atmosphere to your users — even if you are starting out small and really are just a single “blogger” posting thoughts and musings on relevant industry matters.

Use the “Pages” Sidebar Section as Your Main Navigation

While I’ve already discussed a little bit about the sidebar, it’s worth mentioning separately that the “pages” section of the sidebar can easily serve as your main navigation bar. At first glance, nobody will even notice that this has been done.

In the default WP theme, here’s the code that generates the “pages” section of the sidebar, found in sidebar.php:

1. <?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>' ); ?>  

Simply take that piece of code and place it wherever you want your main navigation to display. Of course, you’ll have to style it to your liking, in line with your theme’s look. And most likely you’ll want to remove the title of that section. You can do that by simply removing everything after the equals sign in the single parameter, so it will look like this:

1. <?php wp_list_pages('title_li=' ); ?>  

Use the WordPress Codex to see other ways to customize the look of the page list in the default wordpress theme.

Change the Default Display of the Title Bar Content

The header.php file in WordPress’s default theme has a title bar that is coded like this:

1. <title><?php wp_title('&laquo;', true, 'right'); ?> <?php bloginfo('name'); ?></title>  

Once again, you can see the « character that is highly overused in the web development industry. (Not to mention that it’s actually a left quotation mark for french text!) You can replace that character with a different one, and even change the way the page titles are displayed.

You’ll notice there’s a function called wp_title that holds 3 parameters (including the« character). The third parameter tells WordPress where to display the post title — to the left or to the right of your blog name.

You also have the option to remove the function that displays your blog’s name, and instead just manually enter a more keyword-friendly title. The blog name that displays in your Dashboard under “settings” will still display your official blog name on RSS readers.

Don’t Use “Tags” or a “Tag Cloud” (Not Recommended)

Again, while this customization option is not necessarily recommended, it is certainly an effective way to customize your blog so that it does not resemble every other WordPress installation on the World Wide Web. “Tags” are keywords that you can add to individual posts in your WordPress dashboard. They are similar to categories, but provide a wider interrelationship between posts.

Tags associated with a particular post allow users to click on certain keywords to view more entries related to that keyword, similar to clicking on a specific category. Tags also provide SEO benefits, as they help Google and blog directories properly categorize your blog’s pages. So, while you do have the option to avoid using tags on your posts, thereby ensuring a cleaner look to your website, be aware of the drawbacks of doing so.

For simplicity, I personally do not use tags on Impressive Webs. I like each post to be associated with 1-3 categories, and nothing more. That’s just a personal preference to keep the content the primary focus. I prefer to attract users who will actually read the content, as opposed to the ones that are click-happy and bookmark everything