If you are a WordPress beginner you might be wondering, what is managed WordPress hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting is a hosting service that manages all the technical aspects of your WordPress site. The goal of managed WordPress hosting is to have WordPress experts support you in the areas you need extra help so you can focus on the parts of your business, blog or project that you know and love. Think of it as your own personal IT department.

Click here to see what sets managed WordPress hosting apart

Some of the services included in managed WordPress hosting are:

• WordPress theme, core, and plugin updates
• Regular site backups
• Fine-tuning site performance and speed
• Scanning for malware and other security issues
• Quickly creating new websites
• Building and managing staging sites
• Website migration

What sets managed WordPress hosting apart from regular hosting?

WordPress is your website host, meaning the server and physical location of your website. While WordPress is responsible for managing the overall maintenance of the server, they do not cover the individual technical needs of your personal WordPress site.

Managed WordPress hosting, on the other hand, means that the host takes care of all your website's technical needs. Keep in mind that not all website hosting is managed hosting, so unless you are paying specifically for a managed WordPress hosting service, it is probably not included.

If you have read about different types of website hosting, you may have come across shared hosting as a lower-cost option. Why go with managed WordPress hosting if it costs more? The short answer is, you get what you pay for.

Shared website hosting features websites on all different platforms, not just WordPress, which means that in order to accommodate everyone, the hosting environment needs to be simplified. This can pose a number of issues from potential security risks to your site running slowly, depending on the other sites sharing your host.

Unlike shared website hosting, managed WordPress hosting is designed to handle WordPress sites specifically, which allows for greater customization and understanding of your exact technical needs.

Do you need managed WordPress hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting is a great service, but whether or not you need it is dependent on how much traffic your WordPress site gets, how much technical knowledge you have and how much time and money you have at your disposal. If you are a serious techie or on a tight budget, managed WordPress hosting may not be for you.

For owners of small businesses or high traffic blogs looking to expand and lack the time or technical skills to deal with all that comes with running a WordPress website, Managed WordPress hosting is a great resource.

Managed WordPress hosting may be more costly than other options, but if you factor in potential website crashes and security breaches that could affect business, it is a service that pretty much pays for itself. Not to mention the added stress relief of knowing your WordPress site is in good hands.

The pros and cons of managed WordPress hosting

If you are on the fence about whether or not you need managed WordPress hosting, weighing the pros and cons might help you make an informed decision.

Pros

• Increased website security
• Managed WordPress expert support
• Lightning speed
• Free dev tools/staging site
• Automatic updates/backups

Cons

• Price
• Limited to WordPress sites, does not support external non-WordPress code
• Email service and domain names not always included

Advantages of using managed WordPress hosting

Still not sure if managed WordPress hosting is for you? Let's break down some of the services included in managed WordPress hosting to help you make up your mind.

Lightning speed

Managed WordPress hosting servers are built to handle high levels of traffic, meaning as your business grows, it will not be at the cost of your site's speed. So feel free to scale up without worrying about slowing down.

Expert Support

Managed WordPress hosting means having your own team of WordPress experts at your service at all times. Unlike shared hosts, these experts know WordPress front to back and can advise you on all things tech. No longer will you be left wondering how to fix a bug or which plugins to avoid, your personal managed WordPress council has you covered.

Automatic updates and backups

Managed WordPress hosting teams are constantly figuring out how to best optimize your site via proxy content distribution network (CDN) centers and server-level caching, so you don't have to worry about staying on top of the latest plugins for site-level caching. They can also help you remove unnecessary plugins, which means lower security risks.

Managed WordPress hosting should also include automatic backups to ensure your peace of mind every step of the way.

Security

Managed WordPress hosting increases security on your site to the point that a hacking attempt is basically just a waste of time. Managed WordPress hosting provides features including but not limited to active spyware and malware scanning that help boost security specifically in areas of weakness that hackers know to look for on WordPress.

As mentioned above, managed WordPress hosting also ensures that your WordPress core, theme, plugins, etc. are all up to date, which is also extremely important to your site's security. On the off chance that a hacker is somehow able to bypass all of these measures, your managed WordPress hosting team will help you through the recovery process.

Development Tools

Managed WordPress hosting includes tools that help you to best develop your site. These tools may differ depending on your host, but one example of a dev tool is a WordPress staging site which is basically a clone of your website where you can test out different themes and design features before taking them live.

Additional benefits

While we covered some of the top benefits of managed WordPress hosting, you can also look forward to many other perks from tools that help you monitor web traffic and customer behavior, to simple website conversion, among many others. Managed WordPress hosting ultimately allows you to scale your business by providing you the best support and tools to do so.

What is the cost of managed WordPress hosting?

What is managed WordPress hosting going to cost? Managed WordPress hosting does cost more than unmanaged hosting, but the service you receive with managed WordPress hosting is at least equal to that of a system admin or tech support, which you would likely need to hire without WordPress experience.

Service admins, as opposed to managed WordPress hosting experts, generally do not have the same level of experience with WordPress specifically. This means that plugin updates and overall maintenance will still likely be left to you, which takes time and leaves room for error. Even one site crash or security issue could end up costing you more than managed WordPress hosting.

Managed WordPress hosting also ultimately allows you to scale your website by providing you the best support and tools to grow your business in ways that would take much more time and effort on your own. Think of managed WordPress hosting as a shortcut to a successful web presence, which we all know can’t be bad for business.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on the pros and cons of regular vs. managed hosting, you want to know which plugins are critical, or you're finding that your site is slow and you need help troubleshooting. You can trust us with the entire gamut of WordPress questions, so the only one left is... why aren't we hosting your WordPress site yet?

Click here to see what sets managed WordPress hosting apart

The post Managed WordPress Hosting appeared first on uPress.

Let's take a look at five different ways to choose the best possible visuals for your landing pages, along with some illustrative examples to set you on the right track.

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Illustrate Your Brand

The main purpose of your landing page visuals is to showcase what your brand is about. No matter how well you construct your copy, the images you choose will always speak a little bit louder and convey more meaning.

For starters, try to find words that describe your brand best. Is it sophisticated, edgy, traditional, relaxed, hip? Once you are satisfied with your choice, you can judge each visual element by this merit. Does it match your brand's tone and voice well enough?

Take a look at the solution Spores has come up with. As their actual product is difficult to define, they have chosen a custom image that speaks volumes about the brand: cutting-edge, futuristic, tech-based, and innovative.

Source: spores.app

None of these words appear anywhere on the page, though. You're aware of them based on that single landing page image.

Animate Your Visuals

To make your visuals more dynamic and more engaging, you can literally make them move. Animated images, like gifs, are a great way to draw the eye in and add more interest to any page.

You'll have to be careful, however, and make your animated visual WordPress-appropriate. Compress it to make it as light as possible and make sure your servers can handle the load.

Naturally, the animation should also be on-brand and illustrate a specific point on the page. Let's take a look at how Aura has chosen their moving image.

Source: goaura.com

They feature an astronaut, which, at first glance, may have nothing to do with Amazon sales. However, the allusion is easy to spot: take your sales to the Moon and beyond with Aura's solutions.

Make the Data Easier to Digest

Visuals are also a great way to help your visitors digest complex or long-winded streams of data. If your landing page would benefit from data visualization, you can use an infographic to help your visitors get a better hang of whatever it is you're trying to convey.

Other than ensuring that the information you're displaying is correct and up-to-date, the infographic itself should, once again, load fast. It should also incorporate some of your brand's colors and use a font that's aligned with your message and voice.

You can use a free tool like Canva to create this infographic – it doesn't have to be anything spectacular. Its main purpose is to make information easily digestible and more visually appealing.

Reckenen has done some great infographics over the years, and this one on the impact of fraud on small businesses is a great one to try to emulate. It's short but conveys a lot of information, and the brand's overarching design theme has been implemented excellently.

Make Them Colorful

Another way to choose your landing page images is to think about the color story.

The method to employ is along the lines of “keep them on brand.” Start by landing on the kinds of emotions you want to evoke with your visuals, and go from there.

You'll already have noticed that most eco-friendly brands choose to use a green color palette. A lot of SaaS companies use blue, as it's supposed to suggest trustworthiness and knowledge. Purple is often considered a color that fun brands use, and so on.

You can also mix your colors and use a combination to achieve your desired effect. For instance, Scott's Cheap Flights has used turquoise and pink to evoke that sense of paradise we all wish to embrace on our holidays.

Source: scottscheapflights.com

Their illustration is rather simple but very on-brand and in line with their key messaging.

Use Real People

Finally, you can choose visuals that feature real people. This choice is best when you want to establish a deeper connection with your visitors and make them feel part of a group.

Human faces can also show a lot of emotion that will be easy to relate to. So, for example, you might choose to use stressed and anxious faces to illustrate a pain point, and smiling and relaxed faces to showcase your solutions.

Bear in mind that it's always best to reach for images of people who make up your target audience. For example, if you are marketing to an older audience, don't use young couples on your landing pages, and vice versa.

Furthermore, you can use the photos of your actual customers and clients. User-generated content is an effective way to both add a layer of social proof and showcase your products or services.

Skillcrush has used illustrative images of real people on their landing page to make themselves more relatable and approachable.

Source: skillcrush.com

It's much easier to identify with a young woman learning to code than an abstract illustration of the computer language.

Final Thoughts

Using visuals on your WordPress landing pages can make them much more effective and much more appealing to any target audience. The key is to consider what the best choice would be and how to ensure that it is on-brand.

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The post 5 Ways to Choose the Best Visuals for Your WordPress Landing Pages appeared first on uPress.

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Who is tagDiv?

tagDiv is a Software Company that's based in Romania and has been part of the WordPress industry since September 2013. With more than 120,000 customers worldwide, this company consists of experienced web developers, web designers, and skilled digital marketers that join forces to create the best web solutions.

tagDiv has built the Newspaper and Newsmag WordPress themes for the blog, news, and publishing industries. The team also provides on-demand web development and web design solutions for any web owner that wants to implement custom ideas. Some of their customers number United Nations, UBER Engineering, TOK HIT, Welthee, Share America, Rackspace, Tech Explorist, and many more.

With technologies such as WordPress, MySql, android, PHP, iOS, Vue.js, Bootstrap, and more, tagDiv performs:

• User Experience Design
• Web design & development
• Performance optimization
• eCommerce development
• Digital support services
• WordPress development
• Frontend development
• and more.

If you're interested, it's quite simple to get in touch with the team. All you have to do is to submit a request and include all the details about your project.

Why is Newspaper a Popular WordPress Theme?

The Newspaper theme is available exclusively on Envato, Themeforest market for $59, and  you benefit from 6 months of free support & lifetime updates. The Newspaper theme package contains all the prebuilt websites (demo designs), PHP, CSS, and JS Files, premium plugins, and others.

Compatibility

It is compatible with latest versions of WordPress, starting with WordPress 4.0 up to WordPress 5.8+. The Newspaper theme has more than 115,000 sales and a 4.82 rating out of 5, based on more than 7,010 ratings.

With this theme, you can build multi-language websites, as Newspaper is WPML compatible. Furthermore, you can create eShops, as the theme is integrated with WooCommerce and has built-in eCommerce functionality.

Customizability

Using the latest technologies, the Newspaper theme is responsive & flexible and is highly customizable on the front-end. The template is loaded with many tools that can help users to create a professionally-looking WordPress site.

Newspaper theme comes with tagDiv Composer, a live editing page builder that allows you to customize all the elements. The functionality given by this tool is drag and drop so it's easy to move, delete, modify, duplicate or reuse customized short-codes.

In the package, there's also a gallery of pre-made design templates that are editable and customizable. It's called tagDiv Cloud Library. From homepages, single post templates to author, search, and sections pages, you can quickly import the desired one and assign it globally or individually.

With this theme you can customize the top and bottom of your site, as Newspaper includes a header and footer builder that allow you to do so.

Easy to Monetize

As publishers look for ways to monetize their content, this theme has several ways to add banners, advertisements on the site.

Furthermore, there's a membership plugin called tagDiv Opt-In Builder that allows editors to lock content and provide access only to the members.

Why Choose the Newspaper theme?

There are many reasons why you should start working with the Newspaper Theme, and for making it an easy choice, we've made a PROS and CONS section.

PROS

• Front-end customization
• Responsive, ready for mobile devices
• 120+ prebuilt websites (demos)
• Fast and versatile
• Includes tagDiv Cloud Library with premade design templates
• Header and Footer Builder
• AdSense and Google Ads ready
• Membership Plugin to increase marketing effectiveness
• eCommerce ready
• WPML compatible

CONS

• Not RTL ready
• Many features that could be overwhelming if you are a beginner

Newspaper is an All-In-One Solution

There are plenty of WordPress themes out there, but very few authors bring the best in them. Newspaper theme is a popular WordPress theme and the best one in the blogging and news community. You'll see thousands of newspapers and magazines built with the tagDiv theme. Each with its own designs and color schemes, and created to deliver the best UI and UX best practices. As managed WordPress hosting professionals, we know how important it is to make an honest choice. Newspaper is an all-in-one solution, due to the amount of features and the possibility to extend everything with custom services implemented by the theme's software company.

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The post Why Build Your Site with a Popular WordPress Theme appeared first on uPress.

It's true that managed WordPress hosting costs more, but it could be worth the extra dollars each month. It's a tricky choice to make, so here are some things to bear in mind to help you make an informed decision.

Do you need managed WordPress hosting with uPress? Yes. Click here.

What is the difference between managed WordPress hosting and non-managed WordPress hosting?

Essentially, when you use non-managed, "regular" hosting for your WordPress website, the host is only responsible for maintaining the server that you use. The server is like your website's physical home, and the host makes sure that it's always in good working order.

But that's as far as the host would go. When it comes to your site's performance, security, and operating conditions, it's all on your shoulders. Updating WordPress core, plugins, and themes; ensuring the site is backed up daily; scanning for security risks; and other routine website maintenance tasks are all your responsibility. Unless you are already a WordPress expert, all this may have you asking, do you need managed WordPress hosting?

In contrast, managed WordPress hosting means that the host's experts take care of all these obligations, as well as other issues that affect the technical well-being of your site. A managed WordPress host also helps create staging sites so you can test out new website ideas before they go live, enable smooth website migration, and carry out ongoing tweaks and refinements to make sure that your site is always operating at peak speed and performance.

What is the difference between shared hosting and a VPS?

It's important to understand that managed WordPress hosting isn’t the same as using a virtual private server (VPS), also known as private WordPress hosting. Shared hosting means that the server which hosts your site is also home to other websites - probably hundreds of them.

Shared hosting costs less than private hosting, but the flip side is that your site has to share resources. If another site on the same server sees its traffic spike, it can cause your site to load more slowly. Similarly, once hackers penetrate one site, it's much easier for them to move on to the other sites that share the same server.

Using a VPS means that your website gets its own exclusive space on the server. It doesn't actually have a whole server to itself, but it's separated from the other sites on the server (that's why it's called a virtual private server). If you really want your own private server without any other websites on it, you're talking about a dedicated hosting plan.

Whether you're using shared or private hosting, you'll find that managed WordPress hosting is still valuable to protect your site security, ensure site performance and speed, and maintain your site on an ongoing basis.

The pros and cons of managed WordPress hosting

Still asking yourself, do you need managed WordPress hosting? Let's weigh the pros and cons.

Pros:

• No hassle about maintaining your site
• Higher website security
• Improved site performance and speed
• Free staging site and website migration
• Expert assistance troubleshooting performance and security issues
• A customized environment that's optimized for WordPress sites

Cons:

• Only suitable for WordPress websites
• Domain names and email service usually aren't included
• Costs more than unmanaged WordPress hosting

Do you need managed WordPress hosting? Who can get away with regular hosting?

It's true that managed WordPress hosting costs more than unmanaged hosting, so if you're seriously counting your pennies you're probably wondering whether you can get away with the lower-cost option.

We can't make the decision for you, but we can tell you who would be better able to cope without expert managed WordPress hosting in their corner.

Business owners who are also techies

You need a certain level of technical knowledge to manage a WordPress site. You need to know how to migrate WordPress sites and create staging sites, what to do if there's a security issue, and how to keep your site at peak performance.

Business owners with time on their hands

Managing a WordPress website doesn't just require technical knowledge. You also need to have enough time to stay on top of every update, run backups every day, and drop everything to respond when your site goes down or slows down. Do most business owners have that kind of time to spare?

Small businesses with an in-house WordPress expert

Some businesses already have a tech expert in-house, one who has the time to maintain their WordPress site as well as taking care of the business network and dealing with other cybersecurity issues, and is knowledgeable about WordPress maintenance. If you've got someone like that on your staff, congratulations, you’ve won the lottery.

Website owners that don't need a reliable, high-performance site

Managed WordPress hosting means that your website has higher uptime and faster page loads, so that you don't lose out on customers because your website is down or the site takes too long to load. If that's not important for your business, you might be able to get by without managed hosting.

If you don't fit into any of these categories it is probably safe to say you do need managed WordPress hosting.

What to look for in a managed WordPress host

If you've decided that you do need managed WordPress hosting for your business, the next step is to choose a company to provide it. Here are some of the things to look for during your search:

• Transparency about what is included in the price
• High uptime and performance levels
• WordPress-specific expertise
• Real-time malware scanning and removal
• Free website migration
• Free SSL certificates
• Automated daily backups
• Automated updates for WordPress core, themes, plugins, etc.
• Free WordPress staging sites
• Dedicated 24/7 customer support
• Traffic spikes are free or incur minimal extra cost

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on the difference between managed vs. regular hosting, how to manage security updates, or even formatting the time and date on your WordPress site. You can trust us with the entire gamut of WordPress questions, so stop asking yourself, do you need managed WordPress hosting and focus on the only question left...

Do you need managed WordPress hosting with uPress? Yes. Click here.

The post Do you need managed WordPress hosting? appeared first on uPress.

Managed WordPress hosting means those tasks are dealt with by somebody else (hopefully, a managed WordPress hosting expert!). Technical maintenance jobs handled by website hosting management include:

• WordPress theme, core, and plugin updates
• Regular site backups
• Fine-tuning site performance and speed
• Scanning for malware and other security issues
• Quickly creating new websites
• Building and managing staging sites
• Website migration

Click here to get all the benefits of managed WordPress hosting

What is managed WordPress hosting vs. regular hosting?

Every website host is responsible for maintaining the server, which is the physical home of your website, but that doesn't mean they are providing managed website hosting. What is managed WordPress hosting exactly, then?

Managed website hosting essentially means that the host takes care of all your website's technical needs. If you're just paying for website hosting, without any management specified in the price, you're likely just getting unmanaged hosting.

Many website owners use shared hosting for low-cost website hosting. But that can bring security risks (for example, if one site is hacked, the others on the same server can be at risk), plus another site's increased traffic can cause your site to slow down. However, managed website hosting can refer to either shared or private website hosting.

A typical host has websites using many different platforms on the same server, so the environment has to be pretty generic. In contrast, managed website hosting offers an environment that's fully customized for the needs of WordPress websites in particular, with all systems tailored to WordPress sites.

What is managed WordPress hosting able to provide you?

There are a number of benefits to using managed WordPress hosting for your website.

Tech expertise at your fingertips

Managed WordPress hosting means you effectively have a WordPress expert at your disposal all the time. You don't need to learn the tech side of things yourself, or hire a techie every two minutes to troubleshoot a bug or handle core updates, you can just leave it to the hosting management team.

Optimized website performance

What is managed WordPress hosting management doing for your website's performance? By optimizing your website for speed at the server level, your site won't slow down when traffic levels spike, and you can scale up whenever you like without worrying about it.

Managed website hosting teams improve performance with proxy content distribution network (CDN) centers and server-level caching, so you won't break your head installing and managing plugins for site-level caching, plus the fewer plugins you have, the fewer potential back doors there are into your site.

Stronger website security

What is managed WordPress website hosting doing for your site's security? Managed hosting boosts security in numerous ways. It typically boasts features like free SSL certificates, and real-time scanning for worms, viruses, spyware, malware, spam, etc. baked into the system. Because it's for WordPress websites only, managers can optimize security features to compensate for known WordPress weaknesses.

Managed WordPress hosting ensures that your WordPress core, theme, plugins, etc. are updated promptly, closing security loopholes. If you are unlucky enough to get hacked, your managed WordPress hosting team will help you deal with it.

Staging site free of charge

Managed WordPress hosting includes a staging site that allows you to test drive different features and experiment with your website without worrying about affecting visitor experience or affecting something on your existing site.

More benefits

What else is managed WordPress hosting boasting? Other advantages to managed WordPress hosting include the option of a complete WordPress install within minutes; advanced dashboards that help you track visitor numbers and behavior; and automated daily backups that ensure that you can quickly and easily get your website back if anything goes wrong.

Do you need managed WordPress hosting?

The decision whether or not to use managed WordPress hosting depends on your specific circumstances. If you have plenty of tech know-how, and also enough time to handle ongoing maintenance and management yourself, you probably don't need managed WordPress hosting. It's also not an option for website owners on a very tight budget.

But if you don't have the time and knowledge to manage all aspects of website maintenance alone, and/or you need reliable website uptime and can't afford any downtime or glitches, then it's even odds you need managed WordPress hosting to give you peace of mind and time to dedicate to running your business.

The pros and cons of managed WordPress hosting

Pros

• Peace of mind about website security
• Dedicated customer support
• Faster website response speeds
• Free staging site
• Advanced analytics dashboards

Cons

• More expensive than unmanaged website hosting
• Only suitable for WordPress sites and can't support external non-WordPress code
• Doesn't always include domain names or email service

What is managed WordPress hosting going to cost? Is it worth it?

The short answer is Yes, and Probably yes.

What is managed WordPress hosting going to cost compared to unmanaged hosting? Managed WordPress hosting always costs more than unmanaged hosting, because you are receiving a higher level of service than with unmanaged hosting. However, you have to balance those extra few dollars a month for the service against the money you're saving from the results of unmanaged hosting.

For a start, without managed WordPress hosting you'd probably need to pay for technical support on a regular basis, or put up with the hassle of managing plugins, caching, maintenance, updates, and security trouble-shooting yourself. The cost of just one security incident a year is probably more than you'd spend on managed WordPress hosting.

With managed WordPress hosting, you can focus on building your business instead of dealing with technical issues and maintenance tasks. It gives you peace of mind while also ensuring that your site operates at optimized performance and delivers the best speeds so that visitors are always satisfied.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on the pros and cons of regular vs. managed hosting, you want to know which plugins are critical, or you’re finding that your site is slow and you need help troubleshooting. You can trust us with the entire gamut of WordPress questions, so the only one left is... why aren't we hosting your WordPress site yet?

Click here to get all the benefits of managed WordPress hosting

The post What is managed WordPress hosting? appeared first on uPress.

You can reach a company website just by typing their web address, and it makes no difference whether or not you put www. at the beginning. So a lot of our customers ask us if it matters whether they use it or not.

In brief, the answer is "not really".

With or without www, that is the question - click here

Why is there a difference between www. and non-www. web addresses?

Traditionally, the website address like website.com, without www. before it, is your server name. When you use www.websitename.com, it means your files are shared publicly on the web, in contrast to ftp.websitename.com, for example, which means that your files are shared internally.

But today we usually use the term "domain" to refer to your www. address, not your server, so you can use a www.domain or a non-www.domain, which is also called a naked domain. Technically, using a www. web address can help DNS to limit cookies in sub-domains, but that would only concern you if you're a techie web developer.

As a business and website owner, all you need to know is that both www. and non-www. website addresses work equally well.

Which type of web address is best for WordPress SEO?

For most of our managed WordPress hosting clients, the real question is which formulation is best for WordPress SEO purposes. They want to know if search engines will find them better with a specific type of domain name, or if they could be penalized for using (or not using) www. at the beginning of their URL.

We have good news for you here too. When it comes to WordPress SEO, there is no difference between the two types of web addresses.

Just like your visitors don't pay much attention to whether or not there's a www. at the beginning of your web address, nor do search engines. Using a www. web address is really only a matter of personal preference, not WordPress SEO.

Even Google says that your choice is down to your own preferences, not about WordPress SEO. The only thing that really matters is consistency.

Consistency is key

If you seesaw back and forth between using a www. address and a non-www. address, you'll end up paying for it with your WordPress SEO. Google and other search engines won't know which web address to use when attributing link juice, or which one to suggest when people search for your business' keywords.

You'll end up competing with your own website for WordPress SEO love.

So whichever you choose, be consistent. If you've already got a web address with (or without) www. just keep on using it.

Setting a primary domain

If you're undecided about which address formulation to use, you don't have to make a choice. You can use both www. and non-www. if you think that people might have trouble remembering your correct web address.

But to keep your WordPress SEO going strong, you'll need to set one of them as your primary domain. Otherwise you'll weaken your WordPress SEO for all the reasons we mentioned above - search engines won't know which one to suggest for search queries, so your ranking will be split between the two web address versions.

Here's how to tell Google which domain address to use and maintain your WordPress SEO.

1. Use Google Webmaster Tools

If you didn't add your website on Google Webmaster tools, now is the time to do so. Login to your Google Webmaster Tools account and click on your website.

Then click on the Settings Icon and choose Site Settings.

Under Site Settings, choose Preferred Domain.

2. Use Yoast WordPress SEO

If you'd prefer not to use Google Webmaster Tools, there is an alternative, and that's the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin. Just click on the link and hit the Download button to add the WordPress SEO Yoast plugin to your WordPress dashboard.

Once you've installed Yoast WordPress SEO, you'll see that it automatically defines the canonical URL in your website header, which lets Google know which is your preferred URL formulation.

Now you're all set and your WordPress SEO is protected.

In case you were wondering, at uPress we prefer to use www. in our domain names. It's not because we think they are better than non-www. domain names, it's just the approach that we like best. You can still use a non-www. web address if you prefer. We won't judge, and it won't affect your WordPress SEO.

We hope we managed to explain the differences between websites with www and those without www in their domain address, and to reassure you about your WordPress SEO.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need us to walk you through the SEO ramifications of using www, or you want to talk about how much bandwidth your business really needs. If you're asking what is managed WordPress hosting, it means you can trust us with the entire gamut of WordPress questions, so the only one left is... why aren't we hosting your WordPress site yet? Click below and join us.

With or without www, that is the question - click here

The post With or without WWW – which website address is better for SEO in WordPress appeared first on uPress.

Web management agencies and web developers handle WordPress migration for client sites on a pretty regular basis. It's a simple task, but it still takes time that you'd rather spend on other things.

That's why, here at uPress managed WordPress hosting, we've developed a smooth, user-friendly Auto Migration Tool that automates WordPress migration to make it friction-free.

Here's a quick guide to WordPress migration with uPress.

Step 1: Run full backup

As you know, the first thing to do before you start any process is to backup the website, even if you're using the uPress WordPress migration tool. You can do this the usual way, either through the cPanel or Direct Admin to download a full backup, which takes 5-60 minutes.

Step 2: Open the Site Migration Tool

After logging in, go to the uPress Admin Panel to create your new site for WordPress migration.

Go to Homepage >> All Sites >> Create New Domain

After entering the domain in the correct field, click Create Package.

Next, navigate to the Admin Panel of your newly-created WordPress site (mysite.co.il) and open the site migration tool. Click the uPress auto migration tool tab.

Click the Use Site Migration Tool button, and then Start auto migration.

After this, you will immediately be taken to the next screen.

Migrate to uPress within 24 hours

Step 3: Using the uPress WordPress Migration Tool

Now you've got the uPress Site Migration tool open and ready to go, it's time to prepare your backup file by:

• Uploading the backup
• Choosing a file to upload directly to the home folder using FTP
• Cloning a site from an existing Git
• Loading a backup file from an HTTP link 
• Loading a backup file directly from an FTP server

Once you've uploaded the file, the system automatically identifies it as a full backup and activates the Start Replication button.

Step 4: Summarization

When you click Start Replication, the WordPress migration system will run the following tasks:

• Deploy backup file and place files in the correct folders
• Create a new database table>>deployment of database from backup file>>choose appropriate databases>>import file to the correct table
• Update WordPress (wp-config) settings in accordance with the new data
• Replicate file permissions for new server default
• Search and replace within the database, replacing the original domain address with a temporary uPress domain
• Cleanup all temporary cache files from the old server
• Database optimization

When Site Replication is complete, you'll see a "success" notification and receive a temporary domain address.

At this point, you can close the WordPress migration tool and continue to the new temporary domain.

That's all it takes to complete WordPress migration for any website, no matter how large or small. At uPress managed WordPress hosting, we strive to make things not only secure, but also intuitive, easy and quick.

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The post The uPress Site Migration Tool appeared first on uPress.

Before the next WordPress update, we thought we'd share this post that explores the impact of new WordPress versions on your WordPress management plans.

First of all, a little WordPress management history.

Unlike most website hosting platforms, WordPress is a free content management system developed by an open community of programmers. WordPress management systems are constantly evolving, with new tweaks and improvements being added all the time.

Every WordPress management update fixes bugs, adds new features, responds to user feedback, and upgrades existing capabilities in order to stay up-to-date with changing standards of technology. That means that if you don’t update your WordPress site, you'll endanger its security and could miss out on new features.

Let's take a closer look at the pros and cons of WordPress management updates.

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Maintain security

Security is the most important reason why you should keep your WordPress site up-to-date. The popularity of WordPress management for all kinds of websites has made it into a magnet for hackers, malicious code distributors, thieves, and other bad actors. Approximately 23% of the world’s websites are based on WordPress.

On top of that, WordPress is an open source content management system. That means that the source code is publicly available so that anyone can study it and find ways to improve the platform, but it also means that hackers can study it for vulnerabilities that they can exploit to hack into WordPress sites.

Whenever security experts find a vulnerability or weakness, they report the bug, make quick fixes, and discuss ways to patch the weakness to keep hackers out. The vast majority of WordPress core updates are vital security updates that protect your site. They aren't something that's nice to have to make your WordPress management easier; they are vital patches that keep cyber thieves out of your website.

If you continue to use an out-of-date version of WordPress, you are vulnerable to attack. Hackers track and locate sites that are running on older versions of WordPress because they know these are easier targets.

Bear in mind that these updates don't apply only to the core WordPress management system, but also to all the plugins, themes, and templates that you use. You really need to keep each of these fully updated.

Access new features

There are loads of minor WordPress updates, but major ones only come a long every now and then and they always hold important new features and software changes. For example, WordPress 4.0 brought an enhanced plug-in experience; WordPress 4.1 introduced in-line image editing; WordPress 4.2 came with faster plug-in updates.

That means that if you are using an older WordPress version, your WordPress management will be very different, and probably much more difficult, than someone who updated their version promptly.

Improve performance

WordPress developers are constantly trying to improve site performance. Each new version comes with a number of changes that actually make WordPress work faster and more efficiently.

For example, WordPress 4.2 improved JavaScript performance for navigation menus, while WordPress 4.1 improved complex queries that helped sites that used the same queries. Since website speed is a crucial factor in SEO, we strongly recommend keeping your WordPress version updated.

Patch up bugs

Even though every version of WordPress is tested meticulously before it is released, there can still be small bugs that slip through unnoticed and they’re only found once the version is fully operational. That's why responsible WordPress management applies to even minor updates, which are updates numbered “X.X.X” like 4.2.1.

If you contact WordPress support about a problem with your WordPress management, the first question they'll ask will be about which WordPress version you’re using. Updating WordPress is usually enough to solve the issue.

The down side: Adjust for extensions and templates

The only possible downside to keeping your WordPress updated is that occasionally, it could cut off plugins, extensions, and templates that aren't using the best practices and coding standards. That's why you need to schedule frequent backups as part of your WordPress management, at least before each update. Sometimes you might also need to readjust your plugin settings after an update.

Keeping your site updated is best practice for WordPress management

Overall, the advantages that WordPress updates bring far outweigh the possible disadvantages. WordPress updates will increase security, fix bugs, improve site speed, and bring you new features. If you’d like to learn more about updating to the latest version of WordPress, check out Part II of this blog.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on updating themes, managing preventative security, or if you just need to figure out how to configure your time and date formats. You can trust us with the entire gamut of WordPress questions, so the only one left is... why aren't we hosting your WordPress site yet? Click below and join us.

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The post Why is it important to use the latest version of WordPress? Part 1 appeared first on uPress.

If you're building your own website on the WordPress content management platform, you might be feeling a little nervous about how to get started. Don't worry! We’re here with a friendly and non-scary guide that will take you through each step of building a new WordPress content management site.

Step 1: Add a new website to your Storage Package

Create a new website

The first step is to create the infrastructure for your WordPress content management site. You'll begin on your uPress home page and click MY WEBSITES.

The first step is to create the infrastructure for your WordPress content management site. You'll begin on your uPress home page and click MY WEBSITES.

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The dashboard will show you which managed WordPress hosting you've bought, either Personal, Professional, Business, or VPS Server.

You'll also be able to see how much package data you've used already, including data used for domains, disk space, and monthly traffic. When you have websites, you'll also see how much of your storage package remains.

Click the button marked Add new website.

Enter or purchase a domain

Next, you'll see a window asking for your website URL. If you already have a domain name and you're migrating from another platform, you'll enter it here.

By default, the box for Regular Domain is checked. If you already have a domain you'll leave it checked and enter your exact domain address below.

If you don't yet have a domain, you can buy one through uPress managed WordPress hosting. Check the box for uPress temp domain, and write the URL that you'd like to have in the field below. This will become part of your website name in the future, but for now it's just your temporary domain address.

Add the website

Click the blue button marked Add website, then click Login to Manage Domain.

If you accidentally click Close, a screen will appear with a gray square underneath the address you chose. In the middle of the screen is a button marked Management. Click on it to reach the desired screen.

Step 2: Install WordPress

Now you've added a website to your uPress storage package, you can install WordPress content management on the new site.

Click the green Install WordPress button, as shown in the image below.

You'll see a message telling you "WordPress installed." Click on the link below the message, or enter the exact URL into your browser.

You'll see this WordPress content management screen.

To continue with the installation process, choose the language you want to use to manage your WordPress content management site, then click Continue.

The next window asks for information about the WordPress content management website owner and manager. Complete each of the fields, and then click Install WordPress.

Step 3: Customize your WordPress content management site

Now you've successfully built a new uPress site and added WordPress content management. You can now choose a theme, add plugins, and customize the appearance of your WordPress content management site. It's time to make your WordPress content management site your own.

While you're tweaking and perfecting your site, it's only visible to you and whomever else you grant access. It’s not yet been published, so the public can't search for it or visit it.

Step 4: Publish your website

Up till now, your new WordPress content management site has been operating in a temporary domain provided by uPress managed WordPress hosting.

You can work on the website until it is time to publish it by redirecting the site to a Fixed Domain only after you redirect the Domain DNS to uPress. If you have not yet made a DNS redirect, you must access the Temporary Domain provided for this site. Don't forget! When you finish building your website, you need to change the Temporary Domain Name to a Fixed Domain and update the DNS addresses in the Domain Management interface you purchased through the Domain Registrar Company.

uPress Servers DNS addresses: ns1.upress.io \ ns2.upress.io

If you're not sure what to do, you can always open a uPress Support Ticket, and be sure to include the Domain Registrar Access Information and the Domain Address you wish to update.

Once your site is published, you need to double-check your website security. Learn more about how to do that in our SSL Certificate post right here!

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The post How to Install WordPress using the uPress Admin Panel appeared first on uPress.

If you're using WordPress CMS for your business website, you might feel nervous about WordPress plugin updates. After all, you know the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Your web developers worked hard to build you an appealing website that engages your audience, and you don't want to risk messing it up with an unnecessary update.

Although we get that feeling, as managed WordPress hosting experts, we can confidently tell you that WordPress CMS relies quite heavily on updates. Because WordPress CMS is open source, hackers study the WordPress source code to look for vulnerabilities that could give them a way in to your site. That's why WordPress CMS and WordPress plugin developers issue frequent updates to close new vulnerabilities and maintain security on your site.

WordPress CMS is a continual work in progress. WordPress developers are constantly looking for new features to make it even better, and improved ways to keep up with technology and security best practices. The same applies to WordPress plugins; if the plugin owner is responsible and cares to deliver a good product, they'll issue regular updates that add functionality and improve security.

That's why we recommend that you always keep your WordPress CMS and plugins updated, as part of your basic website maintenance.

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What should you do if plugin updates don't appear?

Ideally, your plugins and core WordPress CMS should update themselves automatically, but what should you do if that doesn't happen?

Perhaps you read about an update to a plugin, theme, or design pattern in a WordPress blog or on one of the WordPress CMS support groups, but you didn't receive any notification on your management dashboard. Or maybe you’re searching for an update that didn't appear.

When plugin updates don't take place automatically, that's usually because it's a premium plugin or (commercial) design pattern that's based on a customized update system. If you're missing plugin updates and wondering what to do about it, we have a golden rule for forcing WordPress CMS to check for new and available updates.

It's a clever little plugin called Force Plugin Updates Check.

How to install Force Plugin Updates Check

To make WordPress CMS check for new available updates on a regular basis, we recommend using a special plugin called Force Plugin Updates Check. Force Plugin Updates Check searches for and initializes updates for both plugins and themes. It's available through the WordPress CMS plugin library, and it's simple to install and set up. We'll walk you through it.

First, follow this link to the Force Plugin Updates Check download page. Click Download and follow the instructions to run the installation files on your WordPress CMS.

Once you've added Force Plugin Updates Check to your WordPress CMS, you'll want to see it in action. In your WordPress Admin Panel top bar, you should see a new button marked Check For Plugin Updates.

Click the button, and you'll see the page refresh. Any updates should immediately show up on your WordPress CMS admin page. It's that simple.

Using Force Plugin Updates Check saves you time and ensures that your WordPress CMS and associated plugins will always be up to date and fully secure. Without it, you might need to get your site to contact the WordPress.org servers, which is inconvenient and only happens when admin is carried out manually. Ain't nobody got time for that.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on updates or other preventative maintenance, or you are simply battling with a sluggish site. If you're asking what is managed WordPress hosting, it means you can trust us with the entire gamut of WordPress questions, so the only one left is... why aren't we hosting your WordPress site yet? Click below and join us.

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The post How to force WordPress to check for updates appeared first on uPress.