The Ultimate WordPress Cheat Sheet

In school, there were times our teachers would allow us to make our own cheat sheets. What did or didn’t make it onto that sheet was entirely up to us. If we failed to place an important item that we didn’t remember on that sheet and came across the dreaded question that addressed that missing item, anxiety ensued. Our hearts moved up into our throats, our frustration mounted, and that moment of holding our breath and guessing made the doubt bubble up. But what could you do if you didn’t know the answer?

It stinks to get a wrong answer on a test because it causes you to lose points and affects your cumulative grade at the end of the quarter or semester, which then affects your grade at the end of the year. When relating this to WordPress, one mistake can affect the overall quality or functionality of your website. That is why it is good to have a cheat sheet that covers some common items so that you know what to do when faced with the matter.

Why do You Need a Cheat Sheet?

Just like the cheat sheet you used in class, it helped you move through the test faster and minimized the number of errors that you made. A WordPress cheat sheet gives you quick access to some important and necessary functions, as well as keeps you up-to-date on some of the latest trends and standards.

Some Existing Cheat Sheets

There are some existing cheat sheets that are out there and they are very useful. We are going to put these here because it certainly doesn’t hurt to combine resources into one place so you don’t have to jump around the Internet looking for an answer. Here at Templatetoaster WordPress website builder presents list of WordPress cheat sheets are:

1. Complete WordPress Cheat Sheet by WordPress

The Complete WordPress Cheat Sheet covers the areas of theme structure, the loop, the category based loop, theme definition, template include tags, WordPress template tags, BlogInfo tags, and navigation menu code.

2. WordPress Help Sheet

The Advanced WordPress Help Sheet gives you code snippets for content only homepages, styling different categories, creating unique images for different categories, styling individual posts, previous and next posts links, site page links, dynamic page titles, query posts, CSS theme details, page template details, the loop, tags cloud, and unique templates for categories.

3. CSS Cheat Sheet by Leslie Franke

This is a CSS cheat sheet that we can put right here for you. It covers everything from syntax and font to borders, position, background, and more.

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4. SEO Cheat Sheet by Moz

This is the ultimate SEO cheat sheet by Moz. In fact, it is four pages long. You can see screen caps of the four pages below and see that it covers a lot of territory. You are able to see the most important HTML elements, URL best practices, HTTP status codes, SEO tips, pagination, Robot Control Syntax, Sitemap Syntax, structured data, rich snippets, multi-language capabilities, responsive design, and much more.

The Ultimate Plugin Cheat Sheet

No all-in-one cheat sheet is complete without specifying the plugins that every WordPress website needs. Those plugins are:

1. WP Super Cache – This plugin caches your WordPress site, creating static HTML files that are served by Apache, preventing the processing of heavy PHP scripts. In simpler terms, this plugin helps speed up your WordPress website a great deal.
2. Yoast – Yoast is a great SEO plugin. This single plugin helps you SEO optimize your WordPress website by giving you guidance and tools. You can post titles and meta descriptions, clean up permalinks, ensure you have an XML sitemap, clean up the head section of your site, enhance RSS, and much more. Yoast is free but has a premium version.
3. Backup Buddy – Backing up your WordPress website is very important and Backup Buddy can do that for you. If something happens to your website and its content, you can use Backup Buddy to put everything back to where it was. This can save you the headache of having to redesign your website after a crash. Set up backup schedules, store the backups off-site, and restore quickly.
4. Share for SumoMe – Social sharing is everything in today’s world. It has become a key element in a website’s success. The setup is easy and you can place the Smart Share buttons where you need them to be.
5. Sucuri – Sucuri secures your website in that it keeps the site clear of malware, DDoS attacks, and website hacks. If malware has already made its way into your website, Sucuri cleans it up. You get a Website Application Firewall, an intrusion Prevention System, 24/7 incidence response, and continuous monitoring to identify a potential compromise.
6. Gravity Forms – We all need contact forms on our websites. Sometimes we need more. Gravity Forms make having forms on your site easy. You have drag and drop field placement, field modification options, and Gravity Forms can be integrated with PayPal, MailChimp, and other online services.

Figuring out the New in Editor Linking Feature

When the WordPress 4.5 “Coleman” update rolled out, everyone noticed something odd – an in-editor “quick” linking feature. This had some WordPress users scratching their heads. When you click the link icon in the kitchen sink, a new box pops up. You can enter the link into the small box that pops up and says, “paste URL or Type to Search” and then click the arrow to insert. If you click the gear icon, the old linking box is going to pop up. If you decide you want to take that route, make sure that once you enter the URL and anchor text and click “update,” that you don’t touch the linking box that just might still be hanging out on your screen.

There are times when this new linking feature wants to stick inside the editor. You can move on with your work and it may eventually disappear on its own or stick in one spot until you need to use it again.

Now it’s Time to Get to Work

So now that you have access to some of the best WordPress cheat sheets out there, info on the most necessary and best plugins for your site, and you know that you are not alone when Coleman’s linking feature won’t go away, it’s time to put it all to use. You have access to a lot of information right here in one place so that you don’t have to use your precious time scouring the Internet for what you may or may not know you need for your site.

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