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.

Setting up a staging site (essentially a clone of your site) is a great way to test changes before taking them live. A WordPress sandbox is a staging environment in which you can modify your site freely without worrying about a mistake negatively affecting your site availability or your business.

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Let's take a look at everything you need to know about WordPress sandbox to get you on track to start innovating.

Dangers to look out for when you make changes on a live site

Even the smallest tweaks on a WordPress site can have a big impact. Until you test these changes, you can't be sure how they will affect your site. Whether you are updating plugins or trying out a new theme, one wrong move can lead an entire site to crash. A site crash may be the worst-case scenario, but there are a number of other risks involved in implementing changes before testing them.

Some other potential consequences of working on your WordPress site in a live environment are:

• Broken website design
• Drop in search engine ranking
• Slow website load speed
• Loss of visitors and potential business
• Putting sensitive information at risk of exposure

WordPress website management is much more difficult when you do not know the potential issues that may arise with each adjustment you make to your site. The risks of working on your site in a live environment definitely outweigh the rewards, which is why you should have a staging site for all your WordPress development.

What is a staging site?

A staging site, or sandbox site, is an exact copy of your WordPress site in which you can experiment with modifications before taking them live. The staging site helps you catch errors in code or simply test different design elements without modifying your actual site. Whether you want to try out a new feature, update widgets or plugins, or make a major change, the staging site provides an environment in which you can do so safely.

While some users download WordPress locally on their devices to test changes before adding them to their live site, this may not always give accurate results. Certain changes made on the local server may not run the same way on the live server, leading to unforeseen errors.

Unlike the local WordPress server, the staging site runs on the same server configuration as your live site, so you will not run into any new issues when you are ready to take the changes from the staging environment to the live environment.

In short, the WordPress sandbox or staging site is a space for you to explore new things and figure out what works best on your site.

How to set up a staging site for WordPress

There are a number of options when it comes to setting up a WordPress staging site, some of which are more complicated than others. The best solution is dependent on your level of website management expertise. We have outlined the different ways to set up a WordPress Sandbox to help you get started.

Setting up a staging site through your WordPress host

If you are using a WordPress hosting service, a staging site may be offered as part of your package. If so, this is the easiest and most reliable way to set up your staging site. As managed WordPress hosting experts at uPress, for example, we provide a built-in sandbox, so you don't have to do any of the heavy lifting.

Another advantage to this option is that once you have decided which change you would like to take live, your managed WordPress host will also ensure that this process runs smoothly. Additionally, you'll usually be able to access your staging site in one click from within your dashboard or control panel.

This sandbox option offers the most convenience and the least headache, but it may be more costly than the other sandbox options below. On the other hand, if you anyway want other features included in managed WordPress hosting, the inclusion of the sandbox may just make the deal even sweeter.

Setting up a staging site with a WordPress plugin

If you do not use a WordPress hosting service, or your hosting service does not include a staging site, there are a number of WordPress plugins that can help you create a staging site. While this may be a cheaper option, there are some downsides.

For one, if you are using a WordPress hosting service in addition to a staging plugin, there might be compatibility conflicts as the plugin will not have full access to your hosting server.

Another potential issue with using a plugin is that the data from your staging site will be saved on the plugin's server. If your site contains sensitive data, such as customer information, this option may not provide the level of security you are looking for.

If you do want to go with a WordPress plugin for your staging site, you can download one from the WordPress plugin directory. The process of creating your staging site will differ depending on which plugin you decide to download.

Set up local installation

If you would like to set up an offline staging site, local installation is an option. Keep in mind that, unlike the other options for setting up a staging site, only those with access to your computer will be able to use a local staging site.

There are multiple free applications you can download to help you set up a local hosting environment on your computer, such as Local or Bitnami. Each application will differ slightly but will walk you through the setup process once you have downloaded.

While this option is cheap, the downside is that you will have to transfer your live site to your local staging site. This means that you will have to manually add any plugins or themes that you use on your live site, which takes more time than the previous options and also needs more technical know-how.

Setting up a staging site for WordPress manually

This option is more complicated than the others and is not recommended for WordPress beginners. To manually create a WordPress staging site, you will need to create a subdomain, an FTP account, import your database and hide your staging site. If any of the steps are not completed correctly, it could cause problems on your live site, which kind of defeats the purpose of a staging site to begin with.

If you do decide to manually set up your staging site, implementing the changes to your live site later is also a lengthier process with its own set of drawbacks.

Unless you are an experienced WordPress manager, this is probably not the option for you.

Tips for best using a sandbox

Once you have chosen the best option for setting up your staging site, the fun can begin. Think of the sandbox as exactly that: a place to play on your site with whatever different themes, plugins and design ideas you want. Feel free to explore the world of WordPress and expand your site’s horizons. The WordPress sandbox protects your site from any security breaches or crashes so you can keep your site up-to-date and in line with your newest business ideas, without risking any crashes or design disasters.

Once you are ready to deploy your changes to your live site, depending on which option you are using for your staging site, you should be able to do so quickly and easily. Most WordPress hosts and some plugins allow you to deploy changes with the click of a button.

All the world's a staging site... so go became a player.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you're asking what is a WordPress sandbox, why you need it and how to use it for website management. 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 A WordPress Sandbox: What it is, Why You Need it and How to Use it appeared first on uPress.

WordPress is by far the most popular platform and is constantly growing and developing in response. This means you have a vast array of features available to enhance your site, but so many options can be overwhelming. Luckily, we have used our skills as managed WordPress hosting experts to help you narrow it down and have compiled a list of 10 of our favorite WordPress features to help bring you more business.

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1. Security compliance

Arguably the most important feature for your WordPress site is security. Customers should trust that while visiting your site, their personal information is secure. Security breaches could mean death to your business.

Part of choosing the right plugins is making sure that they are actively being managed and updated to prevent vulnerabilities. Any plugins offered outside the official WordPress plugin repository should be closely vetted before choosing to add them to your site. However, to the untrained eye, this can be a difficult task.

Our expert opinion as managed WordPress hosts is to stick with the official WordPress plugin repository to avoid any security issues. Anything offered here is a safe bet and removes any worries about security compliance.

To pump up security, even more, you can also download a firewall plugin to help maintain the highest level of security consistently, keeping your user's information safe and sound at all times.

2. Contact forms

Contact forms are extremely important to any online business. This is essentially the first channel of communication between your visitors and you, serving as the best way to receive feedback or questions from potential customers. This way, you are available to your customers without exposing your personal information on your site.

Contact forms can look any number of ways but should not be overly complicated, with limited fields for the user to fill out. Providing a space for users to enter their email addresses is also a great way to generate leads.

Choosing the right contact form plugin is different for everyone. There are many popular plugins for beginners that provide premade contact-form templates. This is the easiest option and gets the job done. If you are a designer and wish to build a contact form from scratch, there are also many plugins that allow you to do so.

3. Email marketing tools

Email marketing, when done right, is a great way to generate sales and build new and existing customer relationships. Customers are more likely to work with businesses that they know and trust, which is why this can be a great feature to increase sales.

WordPress email marketing plugins provide tools to help you build personalized email campaigns, tailored to different customers' interests. There are plugins available that ensure your emails stay within the bounds of anti-spam laws.

Finding the right email marketing tool for you can help push your WordPress business site to the next level by utilizing customer insights with methods proven to be successful.

4. Call to action blocks

Call to action blocks prompt users to take action in real-time while scrolling on your website, making their experience in moving from action A to B as smooth as possible. Good CTA's will use clear wording and design, making it easy for customers to do things like subscribe to emails or be rerouted to your blog.

Whatever the call to action may be, the user is more likely to engage if the option is presented to them with the simple click of a button. Today, CTA's are almost expected and if your WordPress site lacks one, you be losing out on potential customers that need a little extra push.

5. WordPress analytics

In order to improve your business, you will need to have a good understanding of your analytics. Otherwise, you are left clueless as to what is working and what isn't. When it comes to creating effective business strategies, gathering data about how your customers are responding to your products is crucial. Engaging with your customers is a lot easier when you know what generates traffic.

WordPress analytics features allow you to gather a multitude of important business information in one place. Not only are you provided with real-time insights, but many plugins make your analytics easy to understand, allowing you to make the most out of your site.

6. Testimonials and reviews

Another great way to boost sales is by adding either a testimonials or reviews feature to your WordPress website. This not only allows customers an opportunity to leave feedback, which can provide a better understanding of where to improve, but testimonials and reviews also help to build a social presence.

Many potential customers rely on reviews when making decisions about whether or not they find a business trustworthy. Positive testimonials from previous customers can give new customers an idea of what to expect from you. The more good reviews, the better likelihood that a customer will choose you over competitors.

7. Case studies

While at first glance case studies may seem similar to reviews and testimonials, and in a way they are; case studies provide a more detailed and complete account of your business and how it has affected a specific client over time. This often provides a clearer picture of things like your business objectives and how these are translated into the final product than provided by testimonials or reviews.

Many WordPress case study features are able to translate these case studies into quantifiable data that can then be displayed on your site. This data will help potential customers get an idea of what kind of results to expect from your business. Customers are likely to trust the experience of fellow customers and positive results are proven to improve business.

8. SEO plugins

SEO plugins can be a great way to refine your business site on WordPress. There are a number of plugins available, each with unique features from competitor research to keyword title and meta-description optimization. Focusing on SEO is a surefire way to boost your ranking in the search results of potential customers. Generating more traffic to your site is one of the fastest ways to surge sales.

9. eCommerce plugins

WordPress provides you with the basic tools for building your online business, with eCommerce plugins you will find features that can take your site from good to great. Added opportunities for customization will help customers find exactly what they are looking for.

eCommerce plugins also make customer relations a breeze by removing potential payment issues and issuing refunds much more simple. As mentioned previously, the better the user experience, the more the customer is likely to choose your business.

10. Backup plugins

There is nothing more stressful than the thought of having to rebuild your WordPress site after hours of hard work. Your site is an asset to your business and it is important to ensure that it is protected. Backup features remove this fear and make sure that your site is secure, no matter what. Certain plugins perform automatic backups at intervals of your choosing so you will automatically stay up to date with your backups.

Updating your WordPress site is crucial to stay on top of your game, but you can experiment freely with different options and be confident that a recent version of your site is safe in the cloud.

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The post Want More Business? Include These 10 Features in Your WordPress Site appeared first on uPress.

With WordPress, these often happen when you run updates. It's crucial to keep your WordPress updated as part of website maintenance, in order to close security wormholes and keep the website running smoothly. Most of the time, the update processes and everything carries on like normal. But every now and then, a WordPress update can throw a monkey wrench in the works and make a mess out of your website.

These problems are always fixable, but they can still cause you a good deal of anxiety and worry along the way. If you're part of a large company, you probably have in-house technical support who can deal with your WordPress update problems in the blink of an eye. But small businesses and solo website owners don’t usually have that luxury.

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If you're grappling with WordPress website maintenance on your own and need to troubleshoot WordPress update problems, don't panic. Most of them are relatively easy to correct without any major techie expertise. All you need are simple instructions to guide you through the process.

Here is the support you need to help you deal with 4 common WordPress update problems.

1. Compatibility issues

Compatibility issues that stop the website from working properly are very common after major core updates, usually because some of your old, outdated plugins and/or theme can't communicate well with the new, updated WordPress code.

The fastest way to fix the problem is to check when your plugins and theme were last updated. If it's been a year or more since any update, it's best to look for a replacement that has more support.

A poorly maintained plugin can be a security risk as well as provoking compatibility issues.

2. White screen of death

With the white screen of death, all you see when you try to log into your WordPress account is that white screen, with no error message and no notification.

Sometimes, you might get this popup

There are a number of possible issues that can cause the white screen of death, so you'll have to methodically try each one. Here are a couple of the main ways to fix the problem.

Note: Make sure you have a backup of your site before you start, just in case things go really wrong.

Troubleshoot your plugins

Plugins are often the cause of this issue, so you can deal with it by disabling them all.

If you can get into your WordPress admin area, just navigate to Plugins » Installed Plugins. Select all the plugins and then click Bulk Actions » Deactivate.

If you're blocked out of the admin area too, you'll need to enter through your FTP account. Connect to your WordPress site using the FTP client, then navigate to wp-content folder » plugins folder. Right-click on the folder and select Rename to change the name and deactivate the plugins.

If this fixes your issue, just reactivate one plugin at a time until you identify the one causing the problem. Either replace it with a different plugin, or contact the plugin makers to report the issue.

Clear the WordPress cache

If you can access the backend but you're seeing the white screen of death on the front end, you could be encountering a caching problem. Clearing the cache should help; you'll find detailed instructions here.

3. Download failed

It's not unusual to get a message "download failed" when you try to update WordPress or a plugin/theme. When that happens, it's usually because of an error in your wp-config.php file. Fixing it does involve some code, but all you need to do is copy and paste the code below.

1. Use the cPanel File Manager Code Editor to open the wp-config.php file
2. Look for this code near the top of the page

3. Copy this line of code and paste it as the second line:

define(‘WP_TEMP_DIR’, ABSPATH . ‘wp-content/’);

4. That chunk of code should now look like this:

5. Click Save

4. Installation failed

Most of the time, auto-updates go smoothly, but every now and then you'll get an "Installation Failed" message about your auto-update, which leaves you locked out of your Admin account.

To fix this, you'll need to go to your FTP account. Navigate to the root directory, then find the .maintenance file and delete it.

Now you can re-enter your admin account, and finish the update by downloading it and then upgrading manually.

WordPress update problems don't have to be a cause for panic

Website issues can be worrying, especially when you're running a small business, but with a little help you can troubleshoot them like a pro! When you inform yourself about these 4 common issues and ways to solve them, you'll feel more confident about your entire website.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on dealing with common WordPress update issues, building a business website, or improving website speed and uptime. 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 What Do You Do When You Encounter One of These 4 Common WordPress Update Problems? appeared first on uPress.

That's where marketing tactics come in. It can be hard to know the best steps to take to raise awareness about your product or service or to entice people to choose your company over the competition, but fortunately theres no reason to take a trial and error approach.

You can learn from the experience of other small business owners who've gone before you to use what works, and steer away from what doesn't. Here are 6 marketing tips for small businesses to help boost your customer base and raise your revenues.

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1. Get online

The internet is the first place anyone turns to to compare prices, research brands, or find the closest store. If you're not online, that ideal customer may never find you.

Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy aren't enough. They drive sales, but think of them as like owning a stall at a farmer's market. It's a great way to connect with new customers, but it can't be your permanent store.

Owning your own website means you can:

• Create a fully branded experience, with your color schemes and logo
• Track customer data like cart abandonment rate, bounce rate, and product views
• Build a relationship with customers that goes beyond the first sale

If the idea of building a website makes you shudder, fear not. Website hosting platforms like WordPress or Shopify have pre-set templates and easy-to-use editors that make it simple to create a website even without any technical knowledge.

2. Start a blog

If you want Google to send new customers your way, you need to make it clear what your website is about, and to do that, you need to use the right keywords. It's tough to do that if you’re only running an online store, but starting a business blog makes it all much easier.

Aim to write one blog post a week, but make sure your content adds value. For example, if you run a shoe business, you could write about how to choose the right running shoe. Don't worry about giving away business "secrets;" this information convinces customers to trust you.

Writing blog posts can be tough at first, but it's easier when you pick a topic that you care about. There are also tools to help improve your blog post, like built-in spell checkers, Hemingway to check sentence length, and Grammarly for phrasing and grammar issues.

Once you've written your blog post, make sure you share it thoroughly through social media and to your email subscribers.

3. Hone your website

No one is willing to wait around while your online store takes ages to load. According to one survey, 93% of people clicked off a site because it didn’t load fast enough, and by “fast enough,” we mean under 1.6 seconds. 

Once they leave, they are unlikely to come back, so your business website needs to be easy to navigate, fast to load, and very reliable.

Managed WordPress hosting can help make sure that your website has minimum downtime and responds as quickly as possible, while also taking the burden off your shoulders. When experts deal with the technical side of your website, you can focus on marketing strategies.

4. Grow your social media audience

Social media is basically our second home today, so your business needs to be there. 67% of consumers say they bought something after seeing it appear in their social media feed.

Facebook is one of the best places to start. Set up your Facebook business account and include all the vital information — location, services/products, opening hours, etc. Then you can invite people to like your page, and post content that people want to see and share.

The other channels you use depend on your business. If you're in a very visual line of work, like a photographer or a makeup artist, you might want to be on Instagram. If you’re targeting younger audiences, join TikTok. For B2B sales, make a LinkedIn page.

It's easy to get overwhelmed, so focus on just a couple of channels to begin with. You can write your own new content, post links to your blog, or share other people's content, but make sure it always adds value for your customers.

If this sounds like too much, you can use social media automation. Platforms like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social help you plan and publish your posts. Set a schedule for a month’s worth of posts at a time, and then leave the platform to automatically post them at the right time.

5. Ask for reviews

It may seem hard to believe, but more than three-quarters of consumers trust reviews they see online from a random stranger as much as recommendations from family or friends.

That means it's worth it to ask your satisfied customers to leave you a review on Google My Business, Yelp!, or social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. It can also help to have a "leave a review" box on your site, so you can share positive feedback on your social media or your website.

6. Embrace email marketing

Email might seem old-fashioned now, but people still respond to it better than any other channel. It's the ideal way to remind someone about items they forgot in their cart, share news about your new collection, or send discounts and promotions.

Use your website to gather email addresses from visitors, and then segment them into different groups so you can send targeted, relevant email messages.

Email marketing platforms like MailChimp, AWeber, and ConstantContact help with segmentation, automated campaigns, and detailed data insights, to make your email marketing faster and more effective.

The right marketing tactics can drive big growth for small business

Small business marketing doesn't need to be tough. When you build a business site and improve its speed and uptime, share your wisdom through a blog, build a social media audience, gather positive reviews, and promote your site through marketing emails, you can keep increasing your business reach and growth.
As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on marketing your small business, building a business website, or improving website speed and uptime. 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 6 Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners 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

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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".

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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.

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Credit card fraud is distressingly common, and no one wants to be the one to suffer. These understandable concerns about fraud and theft make many people way of using their credit card to make purchases online, but when you're running a business website through eCommerce web hosting, you need to find ways to reassure people that it's safe to buy items from your site.

Fortunately, today's security solutions have kept up with advances in credit card fraud, and now there are a number of ways to increase security for eCommerce web hosting and encourage customers to carry out online transactions. As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know that one effective, easy, option is to use SSL certificates on your site.

What is SSL?

Because the owners of online businesses need secure eCommerce web hosting that protects customer information, standards were set up to secure data. The first was the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol, or SSL, which encrypted data streams so they couldn't be read by hackers. SSL (and its successor TLS) exists to encrypt data for security, not to save data as some people mistakenly think.

Over time, newer and more effective protocols were developed and SSL became deprecated. The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol became the standard that was established for the transmission of secure information over the internet, but people tend to use SSL and TLS interchangeably to refer to secure data transmission over the internet.

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Why use a TLS/SSL certificate with your eCommerce web hosting?

When you apply an SSL certificate to your WordPress site on eCommerce web hosting, it turns your web address from http:// to https://. This change is one that customers already widely recognize as a sign that trust this website to keep their sensitive financial information secure.

When your eCommerce web hosting uses an SSL certificate, it encrypts all the sensitive information that travels through the internet. Information that’s been encrypted with an SSL key can only be decrypted and read by the server or domain that has the key, which means only legitimate, trusted sites that were designated to receive and read it.

This is immensely important because when information travels between computers and devices, there are malicious actors trying to hack into the information stream. If they succeed in hacking into unencrypted information, they can easily read everything in it, including credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, residential addresses, etc.

How does a TLS/SSL certificate work to secure sites using managed WordPress web hosting for eCommerce?

Both TLS and SSL certificates work in the same basic way, using the public key/private key principle:

• A public key sits between the server (i.e. your website) and the client (i.e. your customer), but the private key is only stored on the server side.
• When a request is sent to the server, the browser encrypts the data using the public key. This encryption can only be unlocked using the private key.
• When the server accepts the request, it verifies the information was received correctly and decrypts it by combining both the public and private keys before passing the information on to the application (e.g. your WordPress online store).

What is the Encryption Function?

The encryption function basically verifies that the client has connected to the correct server. It then creates a secure communication channel by encrypting information passed between the user and your website. The encryption function makes sure that all the data reaches your website, without any errors or disruptions. If there is a mistake, the server will request an automatic replay from the browser.

Why is encryption important for eCommerce-based managed WordPress hosting?

• Encryption prevents unauthorized entities from reading information passed between the client and the server, which is called a Man In The Middle Attack;
• Enables customers to buy goods and services using a credit card;
• Secures sensitive information that’s transferred online, like addresses, driver's license numbers, passport or identity numbers, bank account information, etc.;
• Google prioritizes sites with a TLS/SSL certificate and boosts them in its search engine rankings.

How to get a TLS/SSL certificate

We're happy to tell you that uPress allows you to install unlimited TLS/SSL certificates for no extra cost.

If you aren't a uPress Customer

Visit our Packages for Non-Geeks page to select the right managed WordPress web hosting package for your eCommerce needs, or reach out to us and ask us directly!

If you are a uPress customer

• Enter your Management Panel and look below the Security tab
• You'll see a category marked "TLS/SSL Certificate"
• Click "Send Certificate Request"

The uPress team will quickly and professionally add the TLS/SSL Certificate to your WordPress site on your eCommerce web hosting. You will be notified as soon as the installation process is complete.

SSL/TLS certificates are vital for a secure eCommerce site

Now you understand about the many benefits of a TLS/SSL certificate, the role of encryption, and how encryption works, you can steam ahead to add a TLS/SSL certificate to your WordPress site.

At uPress, it's our goal to provide all our customers with TLS/SSL certificates to make sure your managed WordPress hosting experience is more reliable and secure.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on using SSL certificates, what other preventative maintenance you need to perform, or you just want to know why your site is running slow. 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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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.

As we discussed in a previous post, keeping your WordPress site updated is key to good WordPress site management, security, and performance. Now we’ll explain how to carry out the process of updating your WordPress site. 

Managed WordPress hosting updates for uPress customers

If you're already a uPress customer, then updating your WordPress site is easy. All you need to do is log in to your Admin panel and click on Choose your site » WordPress Tab » Automatic Update to WordPress, as shown in the image below.

Efficient WordPress site management is as simple as that.

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Handling WordPress updates for non-uPress customers

If you are not a uPress Customer, don't panic. There are several different ways to do this and they are all pretty simple. Or, you could switch over to our managed WordPress hosting packages listed right above by clicking one of those green buttons.

Use WordPress messages

There’s a messaging system built into your WordPress site management dashboard which notifies you about updates every time you log into your WordPress account. You'll see a red circle with a number inside it near the top of your left sidebar when you log in.

Click on the Updates tab in the sidebar and follow the on-screen instructions to install the updates listed.

Receive email notifications about WordPress updates

Alternatively, you can receive an email whenever there's a new update. You just need to install the WP Updates Notifier plugin from the plugin store, and follow the instructions to activate it.

Once it's installed and activated, go to "Updates Notifier" to put your email address in the extension settings. You can choose whether to receive emails about every update, or only about core updates, theme updates, or plugin updates, then click "Save settings," or "Save settings with test email."

If you don't receive a test email, contact our customer support.

Turn on Automatic Updates

If you're using WordPress 3.7 or higher, you can turn on automatic updates for minor releases that fix bugs and other safety issues. You can also permit automatic updates for larger releases, extensions, and topics.

Be aware, though, that allowing automatic updates can be dangerous for your WordPress site management if you don't have a Dedicated Managed Storage Server that monitors for any mishaps. If you always permit automatic updates without any backup, there's a risk that an update could damage your site. Without a recent backup, you won't be able to correct it.

There are two ways to enable automatic updates: using an extension, or with code.

Using a plugin to enable automatic updates

Go to the WordPress store to install and run the Easy Updates Manager add-on.

After activation, go to Control Panel » Updates to adjust the plugin settings.

You'll see that one of the options is Automatic Updates. Here, you can turn on Automatic Updates for core WordPress site management updates, extensions, themes, and translation files updates. Once you have finished, click Save settings.

Using code to enable automatic updates (wp-config.php file)

If you're confident about handling code as part of your WordPress site management, you can permit automatic updates on a code level.

1. Go to your WordPress menu and hover over "Appearance." In the menu that appears, click "Editor."
2. On the right-hand side of the screen, you'll see "functions.php" or "Theme functions." Click this to go to the code editor.
3. Copy the following line of code and paste it into the wp-config.php file.

define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);

To turn on automatic updates for themes and plugins as well as for core WordPress site management updates, add these lines of code as well:

add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_true' );

add_filter( 'auto_update_theme', '__return_true' );

That's all it takes! Hopefully, this article helped you feel in control of your WordPress site management updates.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know what we're talking about, whether you need advice on updating to a new version, you're debating how much bandwidth you really need, or you want the full lowdown on security. 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 2 appeared first on uPress.