In this post, we will discuss the remaining 3 tips on tweaking your WordPress theme
Changing the Sidebar
The sidebar is the narrow vertical column placed either on the right or left-hand side of on your theme, and often jam-packed with lots of information to provide navigation for the visitor. The list of navigation item often includes Categories, Pages, Archives, Search, Recent Posts and Recent Comments.
The information displayed in the sidebar is controlled by the theme’s sidebar.php file.
Take a look at the file and you might see:
<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>’); ?>
The Categories list might look like:
<li id=”categories”><?php _e(‘Categories:’); ?>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_cats(); ?>
</ul>
</li>
You can change the sidebar by editing the sidebar.php file. Or, you can also use the widgets subpanel ( located at Appearance > Widgets) in your WordPress admin panel to add and change your sidebar (this option does not require you to know any scripting). If you have installed and activated sidebar plugins and widgets, you will find these plugins listed in the widgets subpanel.
For more information: http://codex.wordpress.org/Customizing_Your_Sidebar
For more information on the Widgets subpanel: http://codex.wordpress.org/Widgets_SubPanel
Add Contact Form
By now, we all know that adding a mailto link on a website is the easiest way to increase the amount of spam in your inbox. Instead, use a contact form. WordPress has hundreds of contact form plugins you can choose from: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=contact. Contact Form 7 (http://contactform7.com/) is the plugin that we would like to recommend to you.
All you need to do is install the plugin, activate it and design your form, then add it to your page in just a click.
Add Google Analytics Tracking Code
Everyone wants to know how many visitors come to their website. Google Analytics is the most popular tool for tracking your website traffic. Adding the Google Analytic tracking code is very easy – setup an analytics account with Google and copy and paste the provided code before the </body> tag on the footer.php file (so that the code is embeded at the bottom of all pages of your website).
For more information: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/