Over the internet, you will find hundreds of discussions, debating whether the SEO is dead or not. As I understand most of the things, I think those who say, SEO is dead, never understood a bit of it!

SEO is a technical thing, and so does a Search Engine, say Google!

As long as Google is going to rely on codes to judge the ranking of a blog post, there will be bugs to manipulate those rankings.

Don’t take it on the negative side. There are both white and black (add ‘hat’) SEO techniques and today, we will be discussing them here.

In past five years, Google has done remarkable progress in machine learning and have implemented a lot of their findings into the search engine itself.

What it does mean is that the rankings are now calculated intelligently, rather than using just codes and scorecards.

For all SEO experts out there who were always on the White-Hat side, this has been a good thing. But, for the Black-Hat ones, it has been a hell of a journey.

People have their rankings and markets they earlier used to dominate. The third term, Grey-Hat still exists and works in some cases!

Do you want to discuss this term thoroughly? Let me know in the comment section, as we can have a detailed discussion which will clear a lot of things for both of us!

Powerful WordPress SEO Tips That Works!

Right now, let’s focus on the guide. Yes, the best WordPress SEO guide!

The default WordPress installation is a powerful recipe, but it lacks almost, every important SEO tool or element. This is why we’ve to take care of the SEO part either manually or via third-party plugins.

Let me just break everything into small headings so that you can easily follow them.

Using an SEO Plugin

Earlier, the fight between All in One SEO and Yoast SEO plugin was stiff. But, the way Yoast SEO plugin has advanced in terms of everything related to SEO has helped them win the race.

Go ahead and ask in any community and most of the marketers are going to recommend you to go with Yoast SEO plugin. Of course, there are a few alternatives to it, but this one is free!

An SEO plugin adds the missing elements to the WordPress core, like handling the no-follow tags, archive, indexing of certain pages, manipulating the title, description, and keyword tags, etc.

So, this is the second thing you need to do. Install Yoast SEO plugin and set it up!

Get your Permalinks right 

Permalinks in WordPress is a tool where you control how the URLs are going to look at the website.

For a news website, you should add the title, year, month, and post ID to the permalink.

For a website sharing universal facts, which has nothing to do with the date, you should keep the title and post ID in the permalink.

Avoid using stop words. There is a setting in Yoast SEO plugin which can take care of it, but you should always cross-check a permalink before hitting the Publish button.

Google Webmaster Tool

It’s an official tool using which you can control certain factors related to SEO of your website.

Like, you can remove a particular page from Google’s index (the ones no longer live on the website).

You can even recommend the links that can be used for Sitelinks. You can see the number of external and internal links to a particular page or the homepage itself. And, so on!

It is imperative for a website to be listed inside Google Webmaster tool, as using the available tools, you can have a bit of control over the ranking, or at least, indexing!

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the difference between singing to a roomful of audience or crickets. According to search Engine Watch “ 91.5% other websites never venture past the first page results.”

Over the past 8 years, the clients/friends that I have worked with failed to grasp the concept of proper keyword research.

Which isn’t just finding a bunch of keywords people are searching for, it’s understanding also your website power to rank. Getting those high volumes but low-hanging keywords to build up your site’s authority to then target more competitive terms.

Check out my comparison of the top keyword research tools SEMrush v Ahrefs v Moz v Spytools tried and tested by me.

Focus Keyword

The number of times a primary keyword is part of the complete content is what Keyword Density is.

The debate over the exact percentage is never going to end, as it varies with the case.

As per my experience, 2% should be the maximum keyword density one should aim for. Usually, I try to keep it around 1% and use related long tail keywords.

Title and Sub-Headings

The title is the important part as it’s the first thing a user see in the search engine listing. If it’s not attractive, you can forget about getting clicks as expected.

It’s another area where the primary keyword or subject of the post should be fit in.

Earlier, we used to add two or even three keywords in the title, and it used to rank at better positions. These days, adding the primary keyword and then trying to make the title look unique, is the best practice.

Other than the title, sub-headings inside the content needs to be used. You can add the primary keyword in one of the sub-headings (H2, H3, H4), and related long tail keywords in other ones.

Never overdo the keyword stuffing as it will add negative marks to the overall scorecard.

Increase CTR with Meta Descriptions

A meta description is that little snippet of text that you see in the search engines below your site title. Crafting a compelling meta description can be the difference between getting 10 or 100 clicks-throughs.

To do this ensure that you’ve got an SEO plugin installed or your theme support the ability to enter meta title and meta description.

Pro tip: look at the ads above the organic search results to see what power words or phrases that include in their ad copy.

Image Alt Tags

Image ALT tags, in short, explained to the search engine and screen readers what the image is about and gives users a text alternative of the image. This is not just important from a search engine standpoint but also from an accessibility perspective.

We use SEO friendly images to display an alternative text for all our images automatically.

Optimizing the Images

Without pictures, a blog post looks boring!

But, adding heavy images can slow down a page which will again affect the overall ranking.

So, compress your picture before uploading it to the blog. You can use tools like ShrinkPictures or simply reduce its resolution using Paint or Image Viewer of Mac.

Before uploading a pic, make sure you rename it. Try and add a name which defines the image and this is another area where you can include the primary keyword.

Content-Lenght

It’s a well-known fact that Google prefers Lengthier content than thin content and in some case penalized sites with lots of thin content. There have been numerous case studies around the web which supports this, and my personal experience holds it to be true.

serpIQ published an interesting statistics which underlines the importance of content-length.

You can do a quick test for yourself by checking out SEMrush > Projects > site audit.

To compare the Avg word count of the top 10 sites ranking for your targeted keywords.

Alternatively Google, your keyword, do a word count check to get your average.

Interlinking and Source Mentioning

If you’ve published a post which is related to this newer one, then go ahead and interlink it. Interlinking not only helps in bringing down the Bounce Rate, but it brings a lot of hidden fruits.

Google and other search engines, favors the interlinking when done with the right intention.

The same rule is applied to the source mentioning. If there is a related post published on another website with authority, then adding that as a source is a good practice.

If you’re not sure about the authority of the external site, then simply add a ‘nofollow’ tag and no harm will be done!

Link Building – Off Page SEO

For an authority blog, there is no need to make links manually. You need to focus on content quality, and other blogs will start linking automatically.

But, for short term blogs, you can experiment with different techniques of making links, manually or via software.

As per Google’s guidelines, making links manually is not a good practice, and algorithm updates like Penguin are specifically developed to target such blogs.

So, you need to understand pros and cons, properly before making a move!

Sitemap

Again, these are just examples of best practices followed by experts. You’ve rights to experiment!

Schema Markup

Schema markup is a piece of code that you implement on your website which helps in a search engine return more useful information to users. If you’ve ever seen a star review rating, movie showing time, the price or availability of a product, this is all examples of rich snippets.

Taking advantage of this will give your website more retail space in the search engines. Plus you will be providing a better user experience and get more qualified leads.

You can learn more about schema markups here and download one of my favorite WordPress plugins to implement this on your site.

Multi-language WordPress SEO

In my experience having a multi-language WordPress site can have a positive impact on your traffic. There as been numerous studies on the web to support this

I thought it would be a good experiment to translate NeilPatel.com into 82 different languages. Within three weeks of doing this, I saw a 47% increase in my search traffic.Neil Patel

All the sites I currently own gets visitors from all over the world consuming my content. And of course, it would make for a better user experience if I was able to translate that content into their local language.

To achieve this, check out: WordPress translation plugins.

To learn more about Google’s best practice watch this:

 

Fix Broken Links

To run a successful SEO campaign, it’s always important to keep the users at the forefront of your mind. This holds true when it comes to broken links, it not only provides a poor user experience but can also harm your search engine rankings.

That is why it’s vital to carry out a regular audit of your website to check for any issues or broken links.

You can use the WordPress plugins to check for broken links automatically but in my experience that usually slows down your website. And is banned by many hosting companies such as WP Engine due to the amount of resources they use.

An alternative would be to check your broken links of our online broken link checker tool and such as http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/.

Mobile Usability

Mobile usability will play a major part in your overall SEO optimization strategy as we see more users browsing the web on mobile devices. In 2015 Google rolled out a mobile friendly algorithm which favors mobile friendly sites. Having a responsive website is a great start but in 2017 and beyond having a mobile-friendly site which supports Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a must. That’s if you want to rank above your competition and provide a better users experience.

By having accelerated mobile pages implemented, you also qualify for Facebook instant articles.

You can check to see if your website is mobile-friendly here: Mobile Friendly

To download and implement AMP on your site use this nifty plugin: AMP

Overall Page Speed or Performance

The time a webpage takes to load completely in a web browser is termed as its Performance, and for the best results, it should be as low as possible.

As per the standards set by Google, an average page speed of a webpage should be below 2 seconds. If it’s going beyond that, then you need to work on optimizing the webpage.

In most of the cases, the plugins and theme used with the WordPress installation are the culprits behind heavy load.

So, the first lesson to learn is to use premium or quality free theme, which is lightweight and keep the number of active plugins to a minimum.

Within the content, make sure you’re not adding a lot of videos or images from other servers as it will increase the number of HTTP requests, which will increase the page load speed.

In modern days, performance is a crucial ranking factor, and thus, part of the SEO checklist!

Over to You

Following these steps, one can rank a new blog post and even outrank the competitors. It all depends on the niche, competition for the keyword and how well you’ve optimized the blog post for these factors.

There is no sure-fire way by which you can achieve expected results. Internet Marketing, and particularly this SEO was always an experiment, and it will always remain one.

So, keep on trying different flavors of this same recipe and see which one works in your favor.

The post 16 Powerful WordPress SEO Tips (That Actually Work) appeared first on SoftwareFindr.

Written by - Visit Website

Sucuri releases a hacked website report for each quarter. Their latest report says that, of all the websites that were hacked in the third quarter of 2016, every 3 out of the 4 websites were developed on WordPress.

If you are running a WordPress site and haven’t been hacked yet, you are a very lucky. But how long will luck favor you?

Is it better to take chances based on luck, or be proactive and take preventive measures to make sure that you aren’t getting hacked? I can tell you voted for the proactive measures. In that case, you have come to the right place.

In this best and frequently updated WordPress security guide, I will share all the latest tips, trips, and techniques to enhance the security of your WordPress site. Follow these steps and will have strong reasons to believe that you will own that WordPress site which isn’t hacked or taken down.

Let’s get started with your personal security.

1. Maintain Personal Security

You log in to your WordPress site from your computer. It is also likely that you have saved the login information for your primary email address, the website, and lots of other critical information on your computer. What happens if your PC gets compromised? In some cases, hackers can also put malware into your browser or router. If any of these happens, hackers might get instant access to your email accounts, website(s), and the social media profiles.

Therefore, the first step in ensuring the best security of your WordPress site is to safeguard your computer. You should use an anti-virus program and keep it updated on a regular basis. These days, there are lots of new threats like ransomware, adware, spyware, crapware, etc. You need to use the Malwarebytes Anti-malware tool to detect these.

Other common personal security tips include enabling the firewall, using the latest versions of various software, using only trusted software, avoiding cracked or pirated software, being alert about social engineering, scams, and other phishing attacks, etc.

2. Keep WordPress Updated

WordPress is an open-source platform. That means hackers and evil people can inspect the code to find out bugs or weak points. These will help them gain unauthorized access to WordPress sites. But luckily, there are lots of security experts out there who are looking for these issues too. Once they report these issues, the WordPress team will release an update addressing those bugs and vulnerabilities.

For instance, WordPress 4.7.2 is the latest version at the time of writing this post. And this security update has taken care of a severe security vulnerability along with 3 other security issues.

As you can see, using outdated versions of WordPress puts you into serious security risks. Hackers can easily find out sites still using older versions of WordPress and try to exploit the vulnerabilities.

So, if you haven’t updated your WordPress site yet, open a new tab and do it now.

I also recommend enabling auto-update for your WordPress site. To do that, add the following line to your wp-config.php file –

define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);

3. Carry Out Regular Backup

Everybody knows the importance of keeping regular backups. But only a few follow through with the advice. The reason behind that is most people believe that they won’t get hacked, they won’t get locked out of their website due to incorrect security settings, or their server won’t crash.

But guess what? Smart Passive Income experienced a server issue, and big sites get regularly hacked (including Sony, the Home Depot, JPMorgan, Target, and TechCrunch).

Don’t risk losing your site only because setting up a backup schedule takes 30 minutes or so. Having the schedule in place will give an incredible peace of mind and save you in the case of any catastrophic events.

There are lots of excellent backup plugins for WordPress. First of all, there is VaultPress, a complete backup solution from the same company which created WordPress. It offers both daily and real-time backups along with simple restoration and site migration features.

If you are looking for free options, you can’t go wrong with UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, and BackWPup. Each of these plugins allows you to create regular backups and store the backup files on cloud storage services.

4. Use a Stronger Password

Using a weak password is one of the most vulnerable parts of your WordPress site’s security. While most people are still using the same old passwords over and over, I believe the WordPress website owners are better than that. But at the same time, password-cracking techniques are getting very sophisticated too.

As Wordfence has shown in this post, it will take a moderately powerful computer about 18 minutes to break a 9-character password containing only lowercase letters and numbers. Which means you can’t rely on the old-school methods of combining numbers and letters and thinking you are secure.

So, what’s the best way to create a stronger password for your website? First of all, you should use a combination of upper and lowercase characters, special characters, and numbers. The password length should be at least 12 characters. And it is a good idea to change your password at least once every 4 months.

Generating and remembering difficult passwords is a boring and time-consuming process. This is why I suggest using a dedicated password management tool like LastPass to handle your passwords. This handy tool will help you create complex passwords and remember these passwords for you.

If you want to be absolutely sure about the login security, you should start using 2-factor authentication, which is our next step in this tutorial.

5. Add 2-Factor Authentication

As you can guess from the name, 2-factor authentication uses two steps to authenticate your identity before allowing you to log in. While there are different types of 2-factor authentication methods available, the most popular method is to use your mobile or tablet to verify yourself.

In this method, the first step is to provide your username and password. Provided these are correct, you will be allowed to proceed to the second step. In this step, you will get a verification code on your cellphone or tablet device. You have to provide that code to make the final confirmation. You can log in to the site only after finishing both of these steps successfully.

Using 2-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your website. When using this system, your website will remain secure even if someone manages to get access to your username and password.

Clef Two-Factor Authentication and Google Authenticator are two of the most popular plugins to enable 2-Factor authentication on your WordPress site.

6. Limit Login Attempts

The default setting of WordPress allows anyone to try unlimited passwords for logging in. Having open access like this, hackers use modern tools and scripts to try various combinations of usernames and passwords to gain access to the website. This is called brute force attack.

The best way to deal with this problem is to use a plugin which limits the maximum number of login attempts within a certain period of time. For instance, you can choose to temporarily block a visitor after 5 unsuccessful login attempts. It is also possible to select a custom lockout period for such attempts.

Login LockDown is the most popular plugin for limiting login attempts. By default, the plugin allows 3 login attempts in 5 minutes. Breaking this rule will block the IP address of that visitor for an hour. You can change these settings by going to Settings > Login LockDon from your website dashboard. The plugin also shows a history of the locked out IP addresses, which could be useful for some people.

7. Rename the Login Pages

For the majority of WordPress sites, the login page URL would be this –

www.yoursite.com/wp-login.php

Replace the ‘wp-login.php’ part with ‘admin’ ‘wp-admin,’ and you will be redirected to the same login page. Since this is the default setting, it is true for all WordPress sites. And most website owners don’t consider these as any kind of security threat.

But the reality is they could be potentially vulnerable points for your WordPress site. First of all, they leak the information that your website is powered by WordPress. And since most WordPress sites have an account with the ‘admin’ username, all the hackers have to do is to try brute force attacks to get your password.

To save your WordPress site from these vulnerabilities, you need to change the default login URL’s. There are several WordPress plugins which allow you to do that. WPS Hide Login and WP Hide & Security Enhancer are two of the most popular choices among these. Both of these plugins allow you to replace the default login URL’s with your own choices.

8. Change the ‘admin’ Username

As I have just discussed, most WordPress sites have an administrator account with the ‘admin’ username. This happens because WordPress used to choose this username on its earlier versions. While the newer versions allow the users to choose their own username, a lot of people still go for the ‘admin’ username. This makes the job half-easy for the hackers.

If you have any user on your WordPress site with ‘admin’ or other easily predictable names, you should change those usernames immediately. To do that, log into the PHPMyAdmin or any other database management tool your server is using. Run the following command in the database –

UPDATE wp_users SET user_login = 'newusername' WHERE user_login = 'admin';

Make sure that you have replaced ‘newusername’ with the username you want to use. And if you want to change the username for any other user, replace ‘admin’ with that username as well.

Alternatively, if you are not comfortable in dealing with the database, there is an easier option for you. Install the excellent WP-DBManager plugin on your website. This handy plugin allows you to run SQL commands right from your website.

9. Ensure Strong Spam Protection

Along with hackers, spammers are also a major threat to WordPress sites. The primary target of spammers is to use your server for sending spam emails. This can lead to your server IP address being blacklisted on the leading ISP’s and email services. You can avoid the spamming attacks by following the security advice mentioned in this article.

Spam comments are another irritating thing for website owners. Having spam comments indicates that you don’t care about the website quality, which may lead your visitors to lose faith from your website. Since most of these spam comments also content backlinks to their websites, it might leave a bad impact on your website’s SEO too.

There are several dedicated WordPress plugins which help you to prevent spam comments. Among these, Akismet comes pre-installed with WordPress. Other popular choices include WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam, SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam, and Anti-spam.

10. Scan Your Website

Contrary to popular knowledge, hackers aren’t always taking down all the sites they can get their hands on. Instead, they might get control of your website and use it to send spam emails, conduct DDoS attacks, use your personal information for identity theft, or for whatever purpose they want.

The worst part is all of these can continue without you noticing anything suspicious. You only take preventive measures when you find out that your website is down. But you never know if or when your website is used for any of those activities. The best way to deal with this is to scan your website on a regular basis.

Performing regular scans of your website will help you find suspicious, malicious codes on your website and track any unauthorized changes in your website’s files. Popular plugins to scan website code include Theme Authenticity Checker, Ultimate Security Checker, Theme Check, and AntiVirus. Yes, I know the first two plugins haven’t been updated within the last 2 years. But these plugins are widely used and there haven’t been any bad reports so far.

On the other hand, if you want to track file changes on your WordPress site, you can use WordFence or iThemes Security to do so.

11. Use WordPress Security Keys

WordPress security keys were introduced in version 2.6 of the platform. These keys will add random elements to your password, making it a lot harder to crack. The keys also ensure better encryption for the data stored in the visitor’s cookies.

In general, self-hosted WordPress sites don’t have the security keys readily defined. You have to do it yourself. Luckily, the process is very simple.

First of all, go to the official secret key generator page. Each time you reload the page, a new set of keys will be provided. Copy all the content of the page. You have to add this code to the wp-config.php file of your WordPress installation.

You can access the wp-config.php file by using FTP or the default file manager provided by your hosting. Find out the following section in the file –

Replace these codes with the copied code from the secret key generator page. Save the wp-config.php file, and that’s it, you have successfully added an extra layer of security to your WordPress site.

12. Be Careful about Themes and Plugins

Themes and plugins are accountable for 49% of security vulnerabilities in WordPress. Another report reveals that about 1 in every 10 plugins in the official repository contains at least one medium-level security issue.

From all these statistics, it is absolutely clear that we need to be a lot more careful in choosing and using the themes and plugins on our WordPress sites. Yes, there is a review process before a theme or plugin gets accepted. But the process is run by volunteers, which means it is not full-proof.

So, how can you be careful about the themes and plugins used on your WordPress site? First of all, you need to make sure that you are using only the plugins you need. If you find a plugin which you aren’t using anymore, delete it immediately. The same advice applies to the inactive themes too.

When installing new plugins, make sure that you are choosing ones which are actively maintained. For instance, you might find some plugin which hasn’t been updated within the last 2 years. You should be very careful in using such outdated plugins as they might contain security loopholes.

The best practice is to use themes and plugins from reliable sources only. Some common sources include the WordPress repositories, ThemeForest, CodeCanyon, Elegant Themes, MyThemeShop, StudioPress, WPMU Dev, Thrive Themes, etc.

Another important thing is to keep away from the cracked or nulled themes or plugins. A quick search on the internet will provide you with free copies of most of the premium themes and plugins. But the majority of these are injected with malicious codes, backdoors, or other kinds of security loopholes. Using these puts your site on serious risks of being hacked, abused, or taken down.

13. Disable File Editing

WordPress comes with simple solutions for editing the theme and plugin files right from the dashboard. You don’t even have to use FTP or the file manager to access these files. You can perform the changes as long as you can access the dashboard. This makes it very easy for the developers and admin(s) of your site to apply customizations or perform little tweaks quickly.

But what if a hacker gets access to the dashboard? He will have all the access as you do. Most importantly, he will be able to edit the theme and plugin files. This allows the hacker to inject and execute any malicious code on your website without requiring direct access to the server. This puts your website into serious security threats.

The best way to deal with this problem is to disable the theme and plugin editors. You can do that by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file –

define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true );

14. Disable XML-RPC

XML-RPC is the short form of XML Remote Procedure Call. This is required for using some Jetpack features, logging into your website’s admin section from smartphones, and for the pingbacks and trackbacks from other websites. XML-RPC has been with WordPress since the beginning.

There are two main vulnerabilities associated with XML-RPC –

• The xmlrpc.php file allows the attackers to test thousands of password without raising any issues for the standard security tools. This is confirmed by Sucuri.
• Incapsula has shown that the xmlrpc.php file offers an easy way to perform DDoS attacks on WordPress sites.

For both of these reasons, it is highly recommended that you disable XML-RPC on your WordPress site. There are two ways to do that –

• Rename the xmlrpc.php file to something else. You will find the file in the root folder of your WordPress installation.
• Add the following code at the top of your .htaccess file –

# START XML RPC BLOCKING
<Files xmlrpc.php>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
</Files>
# FINISH XML RPC BLOCKING

15. Review the File Permissions

File permissions of your website define which type of user will have access to which function. The available functions include read, write, modify, delete, etc.

According to the official file permission article, there are three types of users –

• User: This is the owner of the website.
• Group: Other people who can log into your website, like the registered members.
• World: This is any visitor who tries to access the files.

File permissions are 3-digit numbers. The first digit is for the user, the second one is for the group, and the third digit is for the world. The highest file permission is 777, where all three types of users are provided with all the functions. And the least possible permission is 444, where everyone can read the file only.

You should check out the official doc to have a better understanding of the various file permissions. In short, the doc recommends the following file permissions –

• Directories should have 750 or 755.
• Files should have 640 or 644.
• The wp-config.php file should have 400 or 440.

You can change the file permission by going to the file manager. Most file managers will show the permission status in a separate row. You can change the file permission of any file or directory by right-clicking on the item and choosing ‘Change Permission.’

Alternatively, you can change the directory and file permissions by using FTP or All In One WP Security & Firewall. Check out this detailed tutorial to know how to do that.

16. Change Database Prefix

This is another default setting of WordPress which can be potentially dangerous for your website, by default, all the tables of the database begin with ‘wp_’. What’s more, the database tables names are exactly the same for all WordPress installations.

This makes it a bit easier for the hackers to infiltrate your website. Luckily, it is not that hard to change the default table names. If you are already using a dedicated security plugin like iThemes Security, All in One WP Security & Firewall, or BulletProof Security, you will find dedicated options to do that.

Before you change the database table names, make sure that you are creating a complete backup of your website. This makes sure that you can get back to the previous condition in case something goes wrong during the process.

17. Use an SSL Certificate

SSL is the shortened form of Secure Sockets Layer. This is an encryption technology to ensure better security for the information exchanged between the website and the visitor. Having SSL implies an authentic, professional attitude, which is crucial for establishing your brand. And if your website involves any kind of monetary transactions, SSL is a must-have feature for you.

Still looking for more reasons? How about something from Google? Yes, the search engine giant has publicly stated that sites with SSL will get preference on its search result pages.

Now that you know why SSL is important for your site, check out this detailed post to know how you can get SSL for free.

18. Hosting Matters

When you want to ensure the best security for your WordPress website, you can’t ignore the importance of choosing a reliable host. A good web hosting service will perform regular maintenance to ensure the best performance out of the servers.

For instance, A2Hosting provides detailed information about their regular maintenance schedule. Before choosing a web host, you should find out what their maintenance policy is.

The main purpose of a hosting service is to make sure that their clients’ websites are available to the visitors 24/7. You need to choose a hosting which has long track records of offering excellent uptimes.

It is also important to make sure that your web host keeps regular backups of your website. That will keep you reassured that there’s an additional backup available even if your own backup fails for any reason. Other important features include support for the latest PHP and MySQL versions, WordPress-optimized firewall, and automatic malware scanning.

Among the different types of hosting packages, shared hosting is the most vulnerable one. Once hackers get access to a single website of the server, they might get unlimited access to all the other websites hosted on the same server. This is why VPS or dedicated servers are highly recommended to ensure the best security for your website.

19. Few More Important Tips

Along with the steps mentioned above, here are some other tips you can use to further strengthen the security of your WordPress site –

• Add a captcha or security question to the login page. This will be a useful step to prevent the brute force attacks. Better WordPress reCAPTCHA could be an excellent choice in this case.
• Use the .htaccess file to strengthen security. Follow this in-depth tutorial to know more about the process.
• Remove the WordPress version if you are not using the latest version of the platform. This post at WP Beginner shows you how to do that.
• Tracking the dashboard activity of the users could be an excellent way to find out potential security loopholes. Here’s a detailed guideline about how to do that.
• Disable PHP file execution to prevent unexpected events from taking place on your website. Here’s how to do it within a few minutes.
• Set up a system to log out idle users and to save your WordPress site from session hijacking attempts. Check out this tutorial to find out how to do that.

Over to You

Ensuring the best security for your WordPress site is an ongoing process. Nobody can ever claim to have the complete list of actions to secure your WordPress website. Having said that, you can rest assured that this is one of the most up-to-date WordPress security guides you will find right now.

Following the tips mentioned above will definitely make your website a lot more secure. And the regular backup will make sure that you can get back your site even if you get hacked or lose your data.

So, which of these measures are you applying right now? Did I miss any of your favorite WordPress security step in this tutorial? Let me know in the comments.

The post The Best WordPress Security Guide – Step by Step (2017) appeared first on SoftwareFindr.

Written by - Visit Website

Joomla is a powerful content management system, but it still lacks behind when we compare it with the WordPress. This comparison doesn’t make Joomla any less powerful, but considering the fact that WordPress powers more number of websites, has a better number of plugins and themes in the catalogue.

This offers tonnes of extension options, thus, making it a better contender. So far, your website has done well with Joomla, but now you’re planning to make it even better.

Moving to the WordPress is definitely a better plan. However, the process requires you to learn a couple of new things. In this detailed guide, I’ll be covering everything that will help you migrate a website from Joomla to WordPress.

Prerequisite

Before you move ahead with the actual procedure, there are a few things need attention.

Before making any changes, it is important to take a full backup of everything which is part of Joomla website. Once the backup is ready, keep this file on the local system.

WordPress is simple, but it features tonnes of elements inside. Also, the way tools work in WordPress is different in Joomla. So, it will be a wise decision to get familiar with how WordPress works and what all it features inside.

It if feels too much of work, then staying with Joomla is the safer option. Or, you can join a course and learn new things about WordPress. The main point here is to get familiar with the new ground.

There is a Joomla website in the scene, but there is no WordPress website at this time. So, the first thing is to get a new domain, a new web host, and install the WordPress script in this new configuration.

Once the host is bought and the domain is configured, you need to login into the cPanel and hit the SimpleScripts or the WordPress icon available inside.

It will take you to the WordPress installation procedure which is very simple. You just need to select the domain, enter login details and hit the button which takes care of rest of the things.

The procedure will be over within 1-2 minutes, depending on the speed of the server and you’ll be greeted with login details and access to the Dashboard area of the newly installed WordPress site.

This was the prerequisite section of this guide on how to migrate Joomla site to WordPress. Considering the Joomla website is already ready, you are ready to proceed.

How to Migrate Joomla to WordPress?

The procedure is simple, but you need to have proper attention at every step. Make sure you follow each and every step, as mentioned below.

Step 1 – As I mentioned about the number of plugins available for WordPress, there is also a plugin to handle this migration. FG Joomla to WordPress is the one you need to look for. So, login to the Dashboard area and click on Add New button under Plugins heading.

Step 2 – Now, enter the name of the plugin and hit the Install Now button once found. As the installation procedure is over, hit the Activate Plugin button.

Step 3 – Login to the Joomla site and under the System heading, click on the Global Configuration option. Yes, it’s available on the drop-down menu.

Step 4 – Inside this, click on the Server option which holds the information related to the database. Take a screenshot or note down these details or keep the tab opened.

Step 5 – Get back to the WordPress Dashboard, and click on the Import button available under the Tools heading. At this page, the plugin you installed earlier will be mentioned and you need to click on the same.

Step 6 – Hit the Empty WordPress content button which dumps everything which is available on this website right now.

Step 7 – Moving next, you need to enter the URL of the Joomla website and then the Database details which are opened in the other tab.

Step 8 – There are a bunch of options which can be selected as per the configuration you wish to set. Like the new posts can be imported in Draft or can be directly Published, as it is.

Step 9 – If the media files on the Joomla site are not that heavy, then go ahead with the same set of configuration for the Media files. If they are heavy, you can either skip it (later upload them manually) or use the Force media import option to set a timed out limit.

Step 10 – Select the last option which imports meta keywords as tags in the new WordPress site. And, hit the Start/Resume the Import button available at the bottom.

Step 11 – At last, once the import part is over, head over to the same plugin page again, and inside, click on an option which is labelled as, Modify Internal Links.

Conclusion

Now that everything seems to be over, only the migration part is finished. WordPress has more options than Joomla, depending on the theme and plugins installed.

So, you need to invest more time configuring everything before making the website public again. In case you don’t want the users to see the configuration details, you can take help of a maintenance mode available inside the WordPress.

There are also a few free plugins and themes available which can set a maintenance page for a short while.

How was the procedure of migrating Joomla to WordPress at your end?

The post Migrating Joomla to WordPress: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on SoftwareFindr.

Written by - Visit Website

Gone are the days when you used to create websites from scratch. These days, it is all about choosing a website builder platform and get started with a stylish template. These platforms prepare the groundwork and handle all the basics of creating a website. Thanks to these platforms, creating a website has become a lot simpler now.

While that is a good news, it also brings the question of which website builder platform should you use? There are lots of platforms with various types of features, options, and capabilities. How do you know which one would be the best choice for you?

That was the question which led to this mega comparison post of Wix Vs Squarespace Vs Virb Vs Weebly Vs Jimdo Vs WordPress Theme Builders. In today’s post, I am going to take an in-depth look into each of these platforms and find out which one is best for you.

Are you ready? Let’s get started.

The post Wix vs Squarespace vs Virb vs Weebly vs Jimdo vs WordPress Theme Builders appeared first on SoftwareFindr.

Written by - Visit Website

WordPress Theme Customization comes loaded with a plethora of possibilities. Having tried a large number of techniques for styling my WordPress website’s theme, I’ve been totally impressed with the way things go. Child theme is one such stunning way oftweaking an existing WordPress theme for a fresh look and feel.

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing some vital basics of WordPress Child Themes. I’m sure the pointers covered here would alter your thinking about WordPress theme development. So, let’s move on with knowing everything about these child themes.

What exactly is a WordPress Child Theme?

WordPress child theme is basically a theme which inherits the styling and functionality of a different theme, called the parent theme. If you intend to preserve your theme modifications, then working with a child theme is what you can do without getting confused. Plus, using a child theme is also an excellent means of speeding up the overall WordPress theme development time.

Understanding the file structure for a WordPress child theme

Child themes are located in /wp-content/themes/ just like any other WordPress theme. Plus, they can be activated via the WordPress admin panel, as done in case of a traditional WordPress theme. Every child theme has a style.css file and a functions.php file, excluding a theme file. Additionally, it also includes image folders, include folders and script folders.

Creating and activating WordPress Child Theme

As the very first step, you need to create a child theme directory which will then be placed in wp-content/themes. It is not necessary to append the name of your child theme directory with -child. Next, you need to create the child theme’s stylesheet, called style.css. This stylesheet must begin with the following:

/*

Theme Name: Twenty Fifteen Child

Theme URI: http://example.com/twenty-fifteen-child/

Description: Twenty Fifteen Child Theme

Author: Takashi Irie

Author URI: http://example.com

Template: twentyfifteen

Version: 1.0(svn)

Text Domain: twenty-fifteen-child

*/

In the above text, you’ll be expected to replace the word ‘example’ with details that are relevant to your WordPress theme. Also, the template line represents the directory name of the parent theme. In this post, I’ve kept the parent theme as Twenty Fifteen, so the template name is twentyfifteen.

Finally, you need to enqueue the parent and child theme stylesheets using wp_enqueue_script() in your child theme’s functions.php file. The function associated with this step is shown below:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_enqueue_styles' );

function theme_enqueue_styles() {

wp_enqueue_style( ‘parent-style’, get_template_directory_uri() . ‘/style.css’ );

}

The above code function works only if the parent theme uses a single main style.css to hold all the css. However, if your parent theme has multiple .css files(for eg: style.css, ie.css, main.css etc.), then you need to maintain all parent theme dependencies.

With that your child theme is ready for activation. Simply login to your site’s admin area and go to Administration Panel-> Appearance-> Themes where you can see the child theme listed. Now, simply activate the child theme.

The method for importing parent theme styles

You just need to add the below mentioned single line of code to your ChildTheme style.css in order to import the parent theme styles:

/*

Theme Name: Fission

Description: A Child Theme of Fusion

Template: fusion

*/

@import url(../fusion/style.css);

With the use of above code, you’ve simply created a safe area for making changes to your parent theme, without the need for touching any of the original theme files.

Internationalization of WordPress Child Themes

Much like the wide variety of extensions available for WordPress websites/blogs, even the WordPress child themes can be easily translated into different languages using the gettext functions. Just follow the below steps for doing the same:

Step 1– Add a new languages directory with a format as: my-theme/languages/

Step 2– Add language files to this languages directory. Each language filename must have the format like: he_IL.mo and he_IL.po.

Step 3– Load the textdomain

You can define the text domain in load_child_theme_textdomain() in the child theme’s functions.php file during the after_setup_theme action. This text domain will be used for translating all the strings available within the child theme. Plus, you can use GetText functions for adding i18n support for these strings.

Here’s the code snippet associated with textdomain:

 

The gettext function is shown below:

 

Therefore, all strings which use “my-child-heme” textdomain can be translated into different languages. These translated files will be stored in “/languages/” directory.

That’s it!

Summing Up

Hopefully I’ve succeeded in offering you a basic understanding of a WordPress child theme. Perhaps one of the smartest ways of modifying WordPress themes, these child themes make WP theme customization an absolutely stunning experience.

The post WordPress Child Theme: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on SoftwareFindr.

Written by - Visit Website