A powerful open source content management platform, Drupal is built with modularity in mind. With easy content authoring, great performance, and excellent security, it is also one of the most flexible on the market, rivalling even some of the market leaders in that regard. This means that when you are considering what you want to do with it, the sky is the limit.

What I am about to go over only scratches the surface of what you can do – a few Drupal tips and tricks to get you started on one of the web’s greatest content management systems.

Take Control of Spam

Especially if you are running a community site, you are no stranger to spam. In addition to clogging up your site with needless clutter, it represents a significant security risk. Luckily, Drupal equips you with a number of powerful modules and built-in features to keep your pages spam-free. In addition to installing Akismet and spamicide, you can also do the following:

• Install the Flag Abuse module to help your own users police the site
• Block or moderate user registrations to require administrator approval
• Require email verification on newly-created accounts
• Install a geoblocker to protect against spam domains
• Use Role Delay to gradually drip-feed permissions to new users
• Use Ban and Unpublish to simplify removal of spambot users

Optimize Everything for Search

One of the core components of a website’s success involves how well it’s optimized for search. Luckily, Drupal includes a great selection of features that let you take care of everything you need in that regard. These include:

• Caching and compression to improve site performance
• Control over custom page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs
• Integration with Google Analytics
• Powerful SEO-focused modules such as Metatag, Nodewords, and Yoast

Override Stylesheets to Better Match Your Site’s Design

Last but certainly not least, imagine you have a module that makes use of a particular stylesheet. Unfortunately, it is one that meshes relatively poorly with your site’s overall layout. Believe it or not, you can actually choose to override that module’s stylesheet, and instead use one of your choosing.

The process is a bit complicated. First, place a file with the name of the css you want to override in your current theme’s folder. Next, simply add the following entry to your site’s .info file:

stylesheets[all][] = cssname.css

These Drupal Tips and Tricks Are Just the Beginning

This is only a very brief overview of Drupal that is just meant to get you started. There is much, much more to the system than we have discussed here. Drupal provides an easy way to manage your website’s content – and if you pair Drupal with a powerful and easy to use hostforlifeasp.net