7 Easy Ways to Organize Your WordPress for Efficiency

Easy Ways to Organize Your WordPress for Efficiency – WordPress is a popular Content Management System (CMS) for building a website. It offers a clean dashboard with features and tools that allow you to create, modify, and publish content.

However, as you customize and make changes, WordPress elements such as plugins, themes, media, posts, and pages will start crowding the dashboard. If left unorganized, they will cause your WordPress to become cluttered.

Unorganized WordPress elements can negatively affect your work productivity. For example, you might spend longer locating files in the Media Library or struggle to find uncategorized posts.

In this article, we will cover easy tips on organizing your WordPress so you can work efficiently. Let’s get started.

1. Organize WordPress Dashboard Screen

When logging in to your WordPress account, you will be taken to the dashboard screen that displays the overview of your website content. The dashboard screen’s work area also shows widgets like At a Glance, Activity, QuickDraft, and Welcome. Installed plugins and themes may also have their own widgets.

Widgets allow you to see recent activities on your WordPress and perform several quick actions, such as replying to comments and creating a draft. However, if you find rarely used dashboard widgets, you can hide them to make the dashboard screen look cleaner.

To hide dashboard widgets, click on the Screen Options tab located on the top-right of the screen. Each widget displays specific information in the Work Area. For example, Site Health Status tells you the current state of your website. Uncheck the widget’s options as necessary.

Moreover, it is also possible to create a custom dashboard by installing a custom WordPress dashboard plugin. Its basic features are similar to the Screen Options tab functionality. However, there are some additional features where you can hide the Help and Screen Option tabs, customize the WordPress dashboard’s CSS, and create custom Admin Pages.

2. Manage WordPress Main Navigation

WordPress Main Navigation is the WordPress sidebar menu that allows you to perform administrative tasks. For example, you can create and manage web content from the Posts menu or configure plugins on the Plugins menu.

Installed plugins may also appear on the sidebar menu, and that can cause the main navigation to be cluttered. Some plugins might show up under Appearance, but others appear under Settings. Also, you cannot rearrange the order without the help of a plugin.

Therefore, consider installing Admin Menu Editor, which allows you to reorganize menus in the main navigation bar and even group them inside submenus. The plugin is also convenient as you can drag and drop the menus when organizing them. Moreover, Admin Menu Editor lets you rename the menu titles and change the icons, URL, and CSS.

3. Rearrange WordPress Toolbar

The WordPress Toolbar or WordPress Admin Bar is located at the top of the Administration Screen. It provides useful links that work as shortcuts to perform quick tasks, such as creating a post, editing your profile, and viewing comments.

Just like the dashboard and main navigation, the WordPress Toolbar is also fully customizable. That means you can add or hide the links via a plugin or coding.

For example, the Toolbar Editor plugin provides useful features for customizing your toolbars, such as grouping or hiding shortcuts, changing shortcut titles, and adding new toolbar shortcuts. Also, you can rearrange the toolbar without hassle using the drag-and-drop feature.

Alternatively, customizing your toolbar via coding gives you more possibilities to tweak and configure it to your liking. To do this, however, you must have a basic understanding of PHP or CSS.

4. Clean Up the WordPress Database

The database is a fundamental part of your WordPress site. It contains your website data, such as posts, pages, and comments. Also, it records changes or requests you and your visitors make.

Cleaning and managing your database is important to ensure that your website functions properly. Doing this can also reduce errors and storage usage. For example, when you uninstall a plugin, you need to remove unused tables or files manually to avoid a bloated database.

Note that you should create a backup of your database before performing database cleanup in case of any errors. Use phpMyAdmin or a plugin like UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin to do this.

Afterward, run a checkup on your WordPress by testing plugins and navigating through your website. If you encounter an error, use the backup to restore the database to its previous state.

5. Organize Categories and Tags

Categories and tags are two important elements in WordPress. Understanding how to use them helps you manage and organize your posts effectively.

Categories group WordPress posts that have similar topics. For example, an article about how to promote a business online can go into the Business category. You can also assign posts to more than one category. For example, an article about a technology company can be classified into the Business and Technology categories.

Assigning your posts to Categories is crucial, since having too many Uncategorized posts can worsen site navigation and harm the overall user experience.

Similarly, Tags specify a post with relevant keywords to give a more detailed description of its content, which can help readers find specific posts easier. You can add multiple tags for a post via the Tags Module in the WordPress Editor.

6. Reorder WordPress Page and Post Listing

By default, WordPress pages are categorized in non-chronological order, while WordPress posts are in reverse-chronological order.

Depending on the type of website you run, reordering your WordPress pages and posts may be beneficial for multiple reasons. For example, you can sort pages and posts in custom orders, such as alphabetically, to provide visitors with easier navigation.

Reorder your pages in the Order tab via Quick Edit. For example, if you want to reorder Home, About, Blog, and Contact in alphabetical order, you need to change their number value.

If the About page is first in the order, leave the number value at 0. Meanwhile, for Blog, Contact, and Home, change the corresponding number values to 1, 2, and 3. After hitting the Save button, the page order will be About, Blog, Contact, and Home.

Installing a plugin like Simple Page Ordering is an alternative way to rearrange page listings via a drag-and-drop interface. However, note that this plugin only changes the order on the WordPress dashboard, meaning that your front-end web pages will not be affected.

7. Organize Media Library

Media like images, photos, and videos are essential parts of your WordPress site. When adding or uploading media files, they are automatically saved in the WordPress Media Library.

However, as you upload and add more media, they will take up more space. Therefore, keeping them organized and tidy is highly recommended. This includes removing unused or old media to free up storage space, properly naming files and folders, and sorting media by topics, locations, or genres.

Organizing your media library is quite easy with the help of a plugin, such as the Media Library Folders plugin. It allows users to create, rename, copy, move, and delete media files and folders. However, the free version of this plugin only allows you to create up to ten folders, so consider upgrading to the pro version.

Conclusion

A cluttered WordPress site can make it difficult to perform administrative tasks. Therefore, organizing your WordPress is important to create a better workspace and help increase your productivity.

Summing up, the following are seven tips to organize and declutter your WordPress:

• Organize WordPress dashboard.
• Manage WordPress main navigation.
• Rearrange WordPress toolbar.
• Clean up the WordPress database.
• Organize categories and tags.
• Arrange WordPress pages and posts.
• Organize WordPress media library.

Remember that performing WordPress cleanup takes time, but it’s worth the effort to have an organized website. Good luck!