Whatever industry you happen to be in, you want to stand out from the crowd and be unique, and not give the impression that your online presence is just a slightly modified cut and paste job. Of course, if you\u2019re depending on a pre-built content management framework like WordPress for the core of your blog or website, then that could prevent your online presence from truly standing out.<\/p>\n
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So, in this article I\u2019ll run through 10 fairly straightforward ways that a beginning developer or blogger can customize their WordPress theme to ensure it doesn\u2019t \u201clook like a blog\u201d \u2014 at least to a certain degree. Keep in mind that the goal here is not to hide<\/em> the fact that a website is using WordPress \u2014 that\u2019s quite difficult, if not impossible. The ultimate goal here is to help your website have a seamless, consistent, look and feel that does not necessarily scream \u201cWordPress-driven\u201d from the instant the home page loads up.<\/p>\n NOTE: These tips are for beginning WP developers who are coding themes for their own site, or experimenting with theme development. Most likely, these tips would not apply to custom downloaded themes that are pre-built and probably already have many of these customizations.<\/p>\n The sidebar in WordPress is a dead \u201cgiveaway\u201d when a user visits your site. The sidebar will have default titles like \u201cBlogroll\u201d, \u201cCategories\u201d and \u201cArchives\u201d. You can easily change the text of these titles, and which sections are displayed, by editing the sidebar.php file in the theme directory. Also, WordPress displays a different sidebar depending on what page of the site you\u2019re on, which can also be changed. I personally prefer to display virtually the same sidebar on all pages, to keep the site consistent.<\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re not familiar with PHP, WordPress code is very developer-friendly, and easy to work with. A simple knowledge of how functions are called and how to open and close if statements is often more than enough to help you customize some of the sidebar code.<\/p>\n Also, you can easily duplicate and customize certain sidebar sections. Look at the sidebar here on Impressive Webs: You\u2019ll notice there\u2019s a list for \u201cArticles\u201d and \u201cTutorials\u201d. This is done by duplicating the \u201ccategories\u201d section and controlling what categories are displayed using parameters inside the function call for that particular section.<\/p>\n Check out the WordPress Codex for further information on customizing category listings<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the most obvious ways to customize the look of your blog\u2019s urls is to use clean permalinks, rather than the default querystring driven url structure. But that\u2019s an obvious one. No self-respecting blogger would fail to enable custom urls, which can be done easily through the WP dashboard.<\/p>\n But one thing you cannot do through the dashboard is remove the word \u201ccategory\u201d from links that point to specific categories on your site. That\u2019s where Decategorizer<\/a> comes in handy. This excellent plugin, which I\u2019m using here on Impressive Webs, will strip the word \u201ccategory\u201d out of your WordPress urls, leaving a much cleaner experience, taking away the \u201cblog\u201d look and contributing to a more customized, branded feel for your website. Decategorizer will also automatically create 301 redirection for all your old category links, and works with subcategories.<\/p>\n The Decategorizer plugin had a few bugs, which have recently been corrected, and also requires that you install the Redirection<\/a> plugin, for Decategorizer to work properly.<\/p>\n Be sure to read carefully the documentation and installation instructions for these plugins to ensure they are installed and functioning as expected.<\/p>\n Every post has \u201cmetadata\u201d contained inside of paragraph tags at the bottom of each blog post. This data is generated dynamically through the loop that pulls your content out of the database. You can easily edit, delete, or modify any of these pieces of data that are displayed with each entry, which can be found inside of the index.php file in your theme directory. The default look for the metadata section looks like this in WordPress 2.7.1:<\/p>\n By editing the above section of code, you can choose to display only comments and categories, and even alter the characters that are displayed. For example the » will display \u00bb. You have the option to remove those characters and use something more appropriate for your site\u2019s look.<\/p>\n This is not necessarily something I would recommend, since user-contributed comments are a huge part of the blogging world, however, it should definitely be pointed out that removing the \u201cPost a Comment\u201d section at the bottom of every post would be a sure-fire way to adjust your blog to ensure a more customized look and feel.<\/p>\n While this would contribute to a \u201cnon-blog\u201d atmosphere on your website, it is highly recommended that you keep user comments open and instead customize the look of the comment area. Of course, if you\u2019re using WordPress purely as a content management system for developing pages instead of \u201cblog posts\u201d then this would be an obvious choice, and would make more sense.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cTags\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The header.php file in WordPress\u2019s default theme has a title bar that is coded like this:<\/p>\n Once again, you can see the \u00ab character that is highly overused in the web development industry. (Not to mention that it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll notice there\u2019s a function called wp_title that holds 3 parameters (including the \u00ab character). The third parameter tells WordPress where to display the post title \u2014 to the left or to the right of your blog name.<\/p>\n You also have the option to remove the function that displays your blog\u2019s name, and instead just manually enter a more keyword-friendly title. The blog name that displays in your Dashboard under \u201csettings\u201d will still display your official blog name on RSS readers.<\/p>\n While I\u2019ve already discussed a little bit about the sidebar, it\u2019s worth mentioning separately that the \u201cpages\u201d section of the sidebar can easily serve as your main navigation bar. At first glance, nobody will even notice that this has been done.<\/p>\n In the default WP theme, here\u2019s the code that generates the \u201cpages\u201d section of the sidebar, found in sidebar.php:<\/p>\n Simply take that piece of code and place it wherever you want your main navigation to display. Of course, you\u2019ll have to style it to your liking, in line with your theme\u2019s look. And most likely you\u2019ll 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:<\/p>\n Use the WordPress Codex to see other ways to customize the look of the page list<\/a> in the default wordpress theme.<\/p>\n Okay, this is not really a WordPress tip, per se. It\u2019s 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 \u201ccommunities\u201d or \u201cresources\u201d, instead of \u201cblogs\u201d. The word \u201cblog\u201d nowadays is probably more appropriate for individuals who post thoughts and musings on various personal and professional topics.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 even if you are starting out small and really are just a single \u201cblogger\u201d posting thoughts and musings on relevant industry matters.<\/p>\n While I\u2019ve 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 \u201cPowered by WordPress\u201d section in the footer. Your website\u2019s footer seems simple, but it is potentially a significant part of your site\u2019s look, feel, and overall image<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are also title attributes that are embedded in anchor tags throughout the site. Here is one example, found in the index.php file:<\/p>\n 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 \u201cPermanent link to \u2026\u201d and then the PHP function that spits out the title. You can modify this and other default text that appears throughout your WP theme.<\/p>\n1. Customize Your Sidebar and Keep it Consistent<\/h3>\n
2. Use \u201cDecategorizer\u201d Plugin for Cleaner URLs<\/h3>\n
3. Customize Metadata for Individual Posts<\/h3>\n
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<p class=\"postmetadata\"><?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br \/>'); ?> Posted in <?php the_category(', ') ?> | <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?> <?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?><\/p><\/pre>\n4. Disable Comments (Not Recommended)<\/h3>\n
5. Don\u2019t Use \u201cTags\u201d or a \u201cTag Cloud\u201d (Not Recommended)<\/h3>\n
6. Change the Default Display of the Title Bar Content<\/h3>\n
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<title><?php wp_title('«', true, 'right'); ?> <?php bloginfo('name'); ?><\/title><\/pre>\n7. Use the \u201cPages\u201d Sidebar Section as Your Main Navigation<\/h3>\n
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<?php wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages<\/h2>' ); ?><\/pre>\n\n
<?php wp_list_pages('title_li=' ); ?><\/pre>\n8. Don\u2019t Call Your Website a \u201cBlog\u201d<\/h3>\n
9. Remove or Customize Default Text and Title Attributes<\/h3>\n
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<h2><a href=\"<?php the_permalink() ?>\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>\"><?php the_title(); ?><\/a><\/h2><\/pre>\n
10. Use \u201cNice Search\u201d Plugin for Clean Search URLs<\/h3>\n