WordPress Archives - uPress https://www.upress.io/blog/post/tag/wordpress/ Managed WordPress Hosting Thu, 13 Jan 2022 10:03:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.upress.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/favicon.pngWordPress Archives - uPresshttps://www.upress.io/blog/post/tag/wordpress/ 32 32 Managed WordPress Hostinghttps://www.upress.io/managed-wordpress-hosting/ https://www.upress.io/managed-wordpress-hosting/#respond Tue, 11 Jan 2022 15:34:41 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1922Managed website hosting essentially means that the host takes care of all your website's technical needs. If you're paying for "regular" hosting, without any management specified in the price, you're likely just getting unmanaged hosting. What's the day-to-day difference, and why do you need managed WordPress hosting? Find out here.

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Today, a proper online presence is crucial to the success of any business, big or small. This may seem like a simple task, but when broken down it includes a multitude of things; content creation, marketing and advertising, sales, security updates, adding new themes and plugins, to name a few. WordPress users (especially non-Geeks) can end up spending more time on website maintenance than running the business itself, which is where managed WordPress hosting can really save the day.

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

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A WordPress Sandbox: What it is, Why You Need it and How to Use ithttps://www.upress.io/a-wordpress-sandbox-what-it-is-why-you-need-it-and-how-to-use-it/ https://www.upress.io/a-wordpress-sandbox-what-it-is-why-you-need-it-and-how-to-use-it/#respond Mon, 10 Jan 2022 11:06:43 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1857Have you ever spent hours updating your WordPress site only to have it crash, losing all your work? Don't you wish there were a place you could test changes to your WordPress site before taking them live? A WordPress sandbox allows you to play around with your site while removing the risk.

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Most WordPress users find themselves constantly developing their site, from plugin updates to minor daily adjustments. It can be tempting to work on your site live, but even the smallest changes can put your site at risk. Even a single line of faulty code can compromise your site running smoothly.

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.

Discover your personal WordPress sandbox today - click here

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.

Discover your personal WordPress sandbox today - click here

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Want More Business? Include These 10 Features in Your WordPress Sitehttps://www.upress.io/want-more-business-include-these-10-features-in-your-wordpress-site/ https://www.upress.io/want-more-business-include-these-10-features-in-your-wordpress-site/#respond Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:02:33 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1718With so many options offered on WordPress, it can be hard to tell which features and plugins should be used to best grow your business. Time is money, so skip the research and read our review of the best WordPress features to improve your business site today

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eCommerce is an essential avenue to increasing profits. Your website design plays a huge role in the way potential customers perceive your business, which is why it is so important to implement features that improve UX. A good eCommerce encounter leads directly to higher profits.

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.

To make your WordPress site work harder for you, click here

  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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

To make your WordPress site work harder for you, click here

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5 Ways to Choose the Best Visuals for Your WordPress Landing Pageshttps://www.upress.io/5-ways-to-choose-the-best-visuals-for-your-wordpress-landing-pages/ https://www.upress.io/5-ways-to-choose-the-best-visuals-for-your-wordpress-landing-pages/#respond Thu, 11 Nov 2021 11:09:56 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1684Choosing the wrong visuals for your WordPress landing page can lead to an increased bounce rate, while choosing the right one can boost engagement and conversion rates. In this article we 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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Humans are highly visual beings, and as such, they can easily be swayed by an image or a video. So, unsurprisingly, choosing the wrong visuals for your WordPress landing page can lead to an increased bounce rate, while choosing the right one can boost engagement and conversion rates.

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.

Spores

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.

Maximize Amazon Sales

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.

Never overpay for flights

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.

Course information

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.

Explore plans

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Why Build Your Site with a Popular WordPress Themehttps://www.upress.io/why-build-your-site-with-a-popular-wordpress-theme/ https://www.upress.io/why-build-your-site-with-a-popular-wordpress-theme/#respond Sun, 07 Nov 2021 09:28:13 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1673Now that you’ve decided to create a WordPress website, the theme you choose will be crucial. You'll want a premium theme complete with all the necessary features, visual layouts, and latest tools. Learn all about Newspaper, a unique news and WooCommerce WordPress theme that lets you write articles and blog posts with ease.

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WordPress is a popular CMS. The most popular one out there. Now that you've decided to create a WordPress website, you'll need a host and a theme. At uPress you'll find a great managed WordPress hosting solution that can speed up your site's performance. If you're thinking of creating a content-loaded blog, this is exactly what you could possibly need. However, besides these, you also have to choose your new theme. Our recommendation for today is a premium theme full with all the necessary features, visual layouts, and premium tools. The Newspaper theme by tagDiv is a popular WordPress theme and the best-selling one for the news, blog, editorial, or publishing industries.

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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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What Do You Do When You Encounter One of These 4 Common WordPress Update Problems?https://www.upress.io/what-do-you-do-when-you-encounter-one-of-these-4-common-wordpress-update-problems/ https://www.upress.io/what-do-you-do-when-you-encounter-one-of-these-4-common-wordpress-update-problems/#respond Tue, 12 Oct 2021 08:04:40 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1662Do you know what to do if your WordPress website doesn't work properly after routine updates? Do you wish you could troubleshoot basic problems on your own, instead of having to shell out for expensive tech support? Learn how to handle simple, common WordPress update problems without panic and without extra costs, so you can feel more in control.

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WordPress is possibly the most popular website platform for small business owners, partly because it's so easy to use. But even an easy-to-use website platform can throw out technical problems from time to time.

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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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
  1. Copy this line of code and paste it as the second line:

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

  1. That chunk of code should now look like this:
  1. Click Save
  1. 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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Do you need managed WordPress hosting?https://www.upress.io/do-you-need-managed-wordpress-hosting/ https://www.upress.io/do-you-need-managed-wordpress-hosting/#respond Tue, 20 Jul 2021 08:15:42 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1251Do you know the difference between regular WordPress hosting and managed WordPress hosting? Managed costs more - why? And do you really need to pay for those extras? What exactly ARE those extras? Learn about the pros and cons of managed WordPress hosting as well as details about shared hosting vs. VPS. With this information you’ll be able to answer the question, do you need managed WordPress hosting?

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If you're building a new website, you want to keep the costs down while making sure that you end up with an easy to use, reliable website that's a delight for visitors. One of the many budget decisions ahead of you is do you need managed WordPress hosting, or can you make do with regular, unmanaged hosting?

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.

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What is managed WordPress hosting?https://www.upress.io/what-is-managed-wordpress-hosting/ https://www.upress.io/what-is-managed-wordpress-hosting/#respond Tue, 13 Jul 2021 08:43:13 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1211Every 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, which means that the host takes care of all your website’s technical needs. Learn about the difference!

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Building a great website for your new business, blog, or project is one thing. Keeping it going is another. Not every website owner has the technical ability, expertise, and most of all, time to keep on top of the many small tasks that keep a WordPress website up and secure. This is where managed WordPress hosting comes in. You might be asking yourself, what is managed WordPress hosting?

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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Top 10 WordPress Security Vulnerabilities - and How to Protect Your Sitehttps://www.upress.io/top-10-wordpress-security-vulnerabilities-and-how-to-protect-your-site/ https://www.upress.io/top-10-wordpress-security-vulnerabilities-and-how-to-protect-your-site/#respond Thu, 01 Jul 2021 09:31:57 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1118WordPress sites can be highly secure, as long as you take steps to prevent, address, or otherwise mitigate security vulnerabilities. Here's the skinny on how to keep your WordPress site updated, patched, and protected against cyber threats.

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It's practically gospel that WordPress sites are less secure than sites built on other platforms, but that's actually a myth. We are managed WordPress hosting experts, so we know! WordPress is far and away the most popular website host, which means that the chances are high that any given site that gets hacked will have been built on WordPress.

Of course, it's still vital for website managers to keep their WordPress sites updated, patched, and protected against cyber threats. Here are 10 of the main WordPress security vulnerabilities that hackers could target to break into your website, and suggestions for ways to strengthen them and close the wormholes.

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  1. Vulnerable plugins 

Plugins add so much functionality to WordPress sites, but if you're not careful, they could turn into a vulnerable backdoor. There are tens of thousands of plugins and themes made by third-party developers and companies worldwide, but not all of them are equally secure or trustworthy.

It's crucial to choose plugins which are actively managed, with owners who regularly release updates and provide support. Just like core WordPress updates, plugin and theme updates help fix known WordPress security vulnerabilities, close loopholes that hackers could exploit, and make sure that your site is as secure as possible. An old plugin that no longer receives active support can therefore be an open door for hackers.

It can often be tempting to use a premium plugin or WordPress theme that's not offered through the WordPress plugin repository, but it's often a mistake. Sometimes, these premium plugins and themes aren't updated regularly, and sometimes not at all. Even when they are updated, the process is usually complicated and has to be done manually, so unless you keep on top of the updates, there's a high risk that your plugin will go un-updated.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we highly recommend using only plugins and themes from the official WordPress plugin repository that were developed by well-known companies and are kept updated for your managed WordPress hosting or self-hosted site. This will go a long way to preventing any security issues, since these plugins and themes are thoroughly checked to make sure they don't contain any malicious code and are in line with security regulations.

  1. Default passwords

Passwords are meant to protect the entrance to websites and web hosting platforms under your control, so they are often the first line of attack for hackers. One of the most common approaches is a Brute Force attack, when hackers just try out hundreds of passwords, hoping that they'll get lucky and hit on the one you used for your account. That's why it's so important to create a long and complicated password for your website. The harder it is to guess your password, the less likely it is that this kind of attack would succeed.

You'd be amazed at the number of web managers and developers who forget to change the default password on their website — and when we say website, we mean not just the WordPress site itself, but also the WordPress dashboard, FTP accounts, databases, WordPress managed hosting, the email you use to recover your site, and anything else tied to it. If you're using managed WordPress hosting, make sure that you generate a different unique password for every account. Reusing a password you've used before, or are using elsewhere, raises the risk that someone will guess it, or hack it from a different site.

Even more sites have passwords like "password", "12345678", or easy-to-guess options like birth dates, ID numbers, and phone numbers, which are always among the first that bots or hackers will try.

Many website owners don't like to use long and complicated passwords simply because they're hard to remember. A good solution is to use a complete sentence that makes sense only to you (and even misspell a word on purpose) so it's much easier to remember. These kinds of passwords are much stronger than a single-phrase password.

Another solution would be to use a password manager that generates and stores unique secure passwords. That way you only have to remember one secure password; the one for your password manager.

It's not just the password, either: you also need to pick a secure username for your managed WordPress hosting or self-hosted website. If you use "admin" as your username, you are basically doing half the job for hackers targeting your website.

  1. Weak user permissions

The more people can access your WordPress dashboard, the greater the risk that someone will introduce an unsafe plugin, use a weak password, or accidentally activate infected software. It's easy to lose track of permissions if you're managing a large team of web designers, editors, SEO managers, writers, and more, but crucial to restrict access to mission-critical areas.

WordPress has a number of different user roles, each of which permits a different level of access and activity:

  • Subscriber – A registered user who can only access their own personal profile.
  • Contributor – A user with permission to edit and manage their own posts, but who can't publish any content.
  • Author – A user with permission to edit, manage, and publish their own posts.
  • Editor – A user with permission to edit, manage, and publish their own and other users' posts and pages, but without permission to access "sensitive" areas of the dashboard.
  • Administrator – A user with permission to view and change all WordPress dashboard areas and every feature and option.
  • Super Administrator – (Only available on Multisite installs) User with permission to access and manage all the websites on a Multisite network.
  1. Unlimited login attempts

Hackers can only attempt the brute force attacks mentioned above if they have an unlimited number of opportunities to keep trying to guess your password. By default, WordPress allows unlimited login attempts from any IP address, which just makes it easier for malicious actors.

Close this WordPress security vulnerability by setting WordPress to automatically block the attacker's IP after a certain number of failed attempts. One of the easiest ways to set this up for self-hosted or managed WordPress hosting is using a plugin called Limit Login Attempts Reloaded. It's available for download from the official WordPress plugin repository.

uPress customers: The plugin WeSafe is installed by default on all the websites on our servers and performs this action.

  1. Single-factor authentication

"Regular," single-factor authentication just requires anyone logging in to enter their username and password, and then they can gain entry. It means that hackers effectively only have to pass through one "gate" to enter the website and is one of the more serious WordPress security vulnerabilities.

You can make it much harder for them by activating two-factor authentication (TFA). With two-factor authentication, everyone has to enter a unique one-time code sent via email or SMS to their pre-registered account or phone number, or one that's generated on another registered device, as well as getting the right password.

One of the easier ways to do this for your managed WordPress hosting site is by using the Google Authenticator plugin that's available for download from the official WordPress repository. It offers two-factor authentication via a mobile app (note that you need to install the Authenticator app on your phone for this to work). After installing everything, you log in to your WordPress site with your username and password. You'll be requested to enter a 6 digit code from the mobile app. The code changes every 30 seconds and can be generated only on the app that is paired with your user account.

  1. Sending unencrypted data

Whenever something is changed on the WordPress hosted site you manage, the data travels from one server to another, giving malicious actors an opportunity to intercept the information packets and steal the data. But if you encrypt it, using a TLS encryption certificate, they wouldn't be able to read the data even if they could capture it.

The TLS certificate is based on unique encryption keys installed on the website's server. Only your computer will be able to use those keys to decrypt the information. You can acquire a TLS certificate for free with most hosting providers, using Let's Encrypt.

Upress customers: You can install a TLS certificate from the security tab in our management panel.

  1. Ignoring backdoor vulnerabilities

Backdoors are a kind of malware that hackers send out, often disguised as authentic WordPress system files, in the hopes that someone will install it on their site. Once installed, it creates a kind of wormhole that lets hackers enter the server by the backdoor (hence the name) and creep across to other sites hosted on the same server.

As well as enabling two-factor authentication, checking site permissions, and preventing unlimited login attempts, you can help protect your site from backdoor WordPress security vulnerabilities by regularly scanning it with tools like SiteCheck that detect common backdoors.

  1. Malicious redirects

A malicious redirect attack is when the hacker changes some of the code in your website files, either by entering through a back door, using a rogue plugin or theme, or breaking into your server.

Disabling unlimited login attempts, ensuring your passwords are strong, and checking your permission levels can all help prevent malicious redirects. It's also a good idea to scan your site from time to time with a scanning plugin, and follow up on any alerts that you receive.

  1. Permitting XML-RPC protocols

Since WordPress version 3.5, every WordPress site has XML-RPC protocol enabled by default. Although this helps connect your WordPress managed site with other applications and websites, it can also compromise your security. XML-RPC protocols allow hackers to the system.multicall function to attempt logging in with thousands of different protocols for only a small number of requests.

Disabling can be done by using the Disable XML-RPC-API plugin; by restricting access to the xmlrpc.php path at the server firewall level, or by using the .htaccess or nginx.conf file at the server level.

  1. Welcoming bad bots

Many hackers use bots as "spies" to check on your website's defenses and performance before they decide to attack. As well as scoping out your site for WordPress security vulnerabilities, bad bots can drag down performance and steal bandwidth and content.

But you don't need to let them through the door. There's a list of "bad bots" on botreports.com, and you can block them from entering your site at all. Most security plugins and managed storage services already block the bots on this list, but you can be doubly safe by blocking them at the firewall; at server level with the.htaccess or nginx.conf file; or by installing the StopBadBots plugin.

UPress clients: There is an on / off button to block bad bots under the Security tab.

Stop WordPress security vulnerabilities from turning into security incidents

WordPress sites can be highly secure, as long as you take steps to prevent, address, or otherwise mitigate security vulnerabilities before hackers can take advantage of them. These 10 tips won't prevent any security incident, but they are a very good start to making your WordPress managed sites as secure as possible.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we speak your language. We can geek out with you about security vulnerabilities, but we can also discuss HTTP2 protocol, IPv6 support, or DNS tools. 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.

Explore plans

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How to Fix a Slow First Page Load on a WordPress Sitehttps://www.upress.io/how-to-fix-a-slow-first-page-load-on-a-wordpress-site/ https://www.upress.io/how-to-fix-a-slow-first-page-load-on-a-wordpress-site/#respond Tue, 01 Jun 2021 06:14:06 +0000 https://www.upress.io/?p=1013When WordPress is slow to load the first page, it can spell death to web traffic. But WordPress sites can be notoriously heavy and slow to load, thanks to all the plugins, themes, unnecessary CSS, etc. Nobody wants to wait, so how do you fix a sluggish first page load? Here are 7 fixes that you can implement today.

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As managed WordPress hosting experts, we know all too well that when WordPress is slow to load the first page, it can spell death to web traffic. We’re all busy doing hundreds of things at a time, our patience is limited even at the best of times, and no one is willing to wait around for your page to load. Google’s latest core update requires every web page to load Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) in no more than 2.5 seconds to be considered just “acceptable,” and you need to keep it under 2 seconds to be "good."

But WordPress sites can be notoriously heavy and slow to load, thanks to all the plugins, themes, unnecessary CSS, etc. 

It’s easier to track down the fault when the entire website is slow, but it’s fairly common to see a really slow page load the first time you hit the website in the morning, or if the site’s been unused for a few hours and then you return to it. 

After it’s "woken up" the first time, it's generally smooth and fast loading for the rest of the day. Since it's pretty unlikely that your website is just not a morning person, there’s got to be another way to fix a WordPress site that's slow to load the first page.

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How to deal with your WordPress site when it's slow to load first page

There's no single solution that works for every web page. Fixing website speed and page load requires a lot of time, attention, and tedious trial and error, although there are some common fixes to try out first before you reach out to your community forum. 

Use your local server's IP and turn to https://gtmetrix.com to run a site audit and work through the issues that it presents. Some of the factors that influence page speed and load, and which could be causing your issue, include:

  • Image optimization
  • Too many CSS files, and/or CSS files that are going unused
  • Too many JavaScript files
  • Not deferring JavaScript parsing
  • Failing to minimize JavaScript
  • Failing to minimize CSS
  • Too many MySql queries
  • Failing to minimize request size
  • Forgetting to leverage browser caching

Here are some of the ways that WordPress developers have dealt with their slow initial page load problem. 

  1. Check your server

If you're lucky, it's a server issue caused by your host's policies. Shared hosting is particularly prone to slowing down your page load and speed, but it can happen even with dedicated hosts.

Some hosts do throttle speeds for inactive pages, and there have been a lot of complaints around GoDaddy's host loading speeds. Try transferring your page to a local managed WordPress hosting service so you can identify if the problem persists.

  1. Examine your caching 

If you're loading RSS feeds front-end, the cache can expire, which causes a very long pause before there’s a response the next time you load up the site. Installing a caching plugin can help.

If you've already got a lot of caching in your cPanel, that could be interfering with response time. Deactivate and reactivate your caching plugins one at a time to see what helps, and try rejigging your caching plugin setup. Sometimes it helps to remove "Combine CSS Files" and "Combine JavaScript Files".

If you've identified the cache plugin, but you can't do without it, experiment with the plugin settings. ESI has been found to be a problem for LS Cache plugin users, it treats each image as a separate block and makes a separate PHP request, so that's a lot of requests and the images load very slowly

  1. Reinstall all plugins

Even though your plugin is active, updated, and seems to be working smoothly, sometimes you end up with a patchwork of updates and code that drags everything down. It can work to remove and then reinstall each of your plugins, one at a time. Reinstalling means you get the latest version all in one smooth package.

  1. Clean up heavy elements

Over time, large databases can bloat and get clogged up. If you’ve been running the same website for years, all your different plugins, restyling, and updates can leave their traces on database tables. Use query monitor to determine if this is a problem — log in as admin with query monitor active, leave the site for a day, then return to check which queries take the longest.

Sometimes 'Advanced Database Cleaner' can help, but if your databases are large, your only option will be to completely reset them and rebuild them from scratch.

  1. Rewrite your php

WordPress' PHP itself can be holding you back. Try rebuilding your site with your own PHP codes. It might take more effort than using WordPress PHP, but the results will be worth it.

  1. Cron job workaround

It's not a solution, but if you’ve been trying and trying and you still can’t find the root of the issue, setting up a cron task or scheduled task can serve as a workaround. Create a cron job to call your home page once every 5, 10, or 20 minutes, to keep it "awake" so that you won’t have the issue of WordPress being slow to load the first page.

  1. Think differently

One developer couldn't work out what was dragging down his site page load and speed. His team tried literally everything, and nothing worked. They came back to it after four years (!) and discovered that the sites had too many articles marked as sticky.

Because of the WordPress serialized array in wp_options to mark sticky posts, it caused the main loop of the dynamic home page to take an incredibly long time. Clearing the sticky_posts field in the table fixed the problem.

Deal with WordPress when it's slow to load first page

Fixing your WordPress website speed really isn't optional. It’s almost certainly going to take you a lot of time and effort, trying one thing and then another, but it'll be worth it when you solve the issue. These fixes mentioned above are a good place to start.

As managed WordPress hosting experts, we speak your language. We can geek out with you about site audits, but we can also discuss cron tasks, IPv6 support, or DNS tools. 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.

To fulfill your need for speed - click here

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