WordPress Update

How to update Wordpress: Automatic update

In WordPress 2.7.x you can easily update your application directly from the admin area. When a new version is available, you will see a notification in the WP admin area.

Before you proceed with the upgrade, we strongly advise you to make a backup of your WordPress.

When you are ready, click Please update now to proceed with the upgrade.

On the next page you can choose whether to upgrade automatically or manually.

Click Upgrade Automatically :)

If everything goes smoothly, your WordPress will be successfully upgraded.

How to Upgrade Wordpress: Manual upgrade

Step 1: Backup the Database Tables and Files including .htaccess. You can refer to the WordPress backup tutorial for further instructions on how to complete this step.

Step 2: Deactivate Plugins

Deactivate all the Plugins you use from the plugin management page.

Some plugins might not work with the new WordPress version and in order to avoid discrepancies it would be best to deactivate all plugins. This will ensure that you won't end up with an upgraded but broken installation of WordPress after the upgrade process.

Step 3: Overwrite Files

• Overwrite option 1: Get the latest WordPress version from Wordpress download page and upload it to the WordPress directory, overwriting all the files that exist there. This will preserve your images and themes.
• Overwrite option 2: Deleting your old files on the server and uploading the newer files from the new version you've downloaded is an alternative which will ensure that the files on the server have been replaced for sure.

If you are not sure how to do this, we recommend you to refer to our FTP tutorial where you will find step by step instructions how to upload files.

Which option is better?

Generally, it is a good idea to delete whatever is possible because the uploading (or upgrading through cPanel) process may not correctly overwrite an existing file and that may cause problems later.

DO NOT DELETE these folders and files:

wp-config.php file;
wp-content folder;
wp-images folder;
wp-includes/languages/ folder--if you are using a language file, do not delete this folder;
.htaccess file--if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it;
Custom Content and/or Plugins--if you have any images or other custom content or Plugins inside the wp-content folder, DO NOT delete them.

DELETE these Files and Folders:

wp-* (except for those above), readme.html, wp.php, xmlrpc.php, and license.txt; files; Typically files in your root or wordpress folder. Again, don't delete the wp-config.php file.
wp-admin folder;
wp-includes folder; If using a language file remember don't delete the wp-includes/languages/ folder
wp-content/cache folder; You only see this folder if you are upgrading FROM WordPress 2.0.

Step 4: Run the upgrade script

Visit your blog's Upgrade Page (http://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php) and follow the instructions that are displayed.

Step 5: Reactivate Plugins one by one

Activate your plug-ins, one by one, at the Plugin Management Page. Check if everything works as expected.

If any plugin does not work, deactivate it and then you might contact the plugin author to encourage the author to upgrade the plugin.

WordPress Security

How to secure your WordPress blog?

Below we have listed the most common security breaches in Wordpress, from which you can fend your site. Additionally, you can check our articles on:

• How to protect Wordpress from spam?
• How to optimize your Wordpress site?

Pre-Installation Measures

If you have not installed your WordPress yet, it is a good idea to change the default database prefix before making the installation.

You can easily do this by modifying the following line in the wp-config-sample.php file; 

$table_prefix  = 'wp_'; 

Change it to something more complex, for example: 

$table_prefix  = '1w27p_'; 

Once you make this change, rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and proceed with the WordPress installation. 

• This can be done also by using the WordPress installation web interface. You should simply enter the desired database prefix in the Table Prefix field of the web installer interface. 

 Post-Installation Measures

If you have already installed your WordPress blog, here are some steps through which you can improve the security of an existing WordPress installation:  

• If you have manually installed your WordPress, the default administrator username will be admin.  You should change this to something harder to guess. To do this, log in to your WordPress admin area, go to Users and create a new user with Administrator role.  Once the account is created, log out from your admin area, log in with the new account you created and delete the old one. 

• Restrict access to the wp-admin folder only for your IP.  You can easily do this by placing a .htaccess file in the wp-admin folder containing the following lines: 

Deny from all

Allow from <Your IP> 

You can see what is your IP at this URL. 

• Restrict the access to most files in the wp-includes and wp-content folders. The access to everything except images, CSS and JavaScript files can be blocked. To do this, create a .htaccess file and place the following rules in it: 

Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
<Files ~ ".(css|jpe?g|png|gif|js)$">
Allow from all
</Files> 

• Protect the wp-admin folder with a password. You can easily password protect the folder by following this tutorial. 

• Keep your WordPress, as well as the Wordpress plugins updated to their latest versions. 

• You can check your WordPress installation for vulnerabilities using this online scanner.

WordPress AdSense

How to add AdSense to WordPress

With WordPress you can easily add your AdSense code to your blog. In order to do this, first login to the administrative end of your website. Then, go to the Appearance -> Widgets menu.

In this page select to add a "Text" widget and click on the "Add" button next to it.

Then a new window with your widget will open. Click on the edit link in its right part in order to open the edit panel of the widget. You should add a title (in our case - Advertisement) and right under it the actual code that you have obtained from Google. Next, click on the "Done" button and after that on the "Save Changes" button right under it.

Well done! You have just added your AdSense code to your WordPress blog.

WordPress SEO

This tutorial will show you how to improve the SEO of your WordPress blog. You can check our SEO General Guide for more information about SEO.

How to SEO WordPress

• Permalinks - WordPress' tool for customizing your blog links;
• Meta descriptions - set a correct meta description for each page/post you make to improve your ranking in the search results;
• Optimize your images - allow search engines to correctly index your images;
• Use Headings - the proper structure of your articles will rank your content higher;
  

How to use Permalinks to optimize your WordPress website

WordPress gives you the freedom to set your links the way you want them to look like. In the administrative area of WordPress go to Settings -> Permalinks. On this page you can choose from several predefined options or use a custom structure for your links.

You can choose the Custom Structure option and enter /%postname%/ for example. This will make your links look like http://yourdomain.com/the-name-of-your-post/. Or you can enter /%category%/%postname%/ if you want to include the name of your category in the URL. You can also add custom text or other WordPress variables. The full list of available variables that you can use in your permalinks can be found at the WordPress official website.

How to optimize your meta descriptions

You should enter the meta description for each one of your pages. Use simple but informative sentences. The search engines will check how relevant your description is to the actual content of your page so  make sure that you describe only the current page and avoid adding irrelevant information in this description.

It is a good practice to categorize your posts in articles. Once you go to the Posts -> Categories page in your admin area, note the description field available for each category. WordPress will take what you enter in this field and insert it as meta description for the category.

How to optimize your images

It is essential to have the "title" and "alt" tags specified for each one of the images you use in your posts. The search engines will then know what this image is supposed to represent. Typing the title and alt tags for each image you use, however, can be a time-consuming task. Instead, you can use the handy SEO Friendly Images plugin. For more information on how to install this plugin, you can check our tutorial on How to install WordPress plugins.

Once you install the plugin, go to Settings -> SEO Friendly Images in your WordPress admin area. On this page you can specify the ALT and TITLE tags for your images. The plugin gives you the option to use internal variables such as %title, %name and %category. With them you can set the ALT and TITLE tags of your images to the title of your post for example. The plugin does the rest. This saves you a lot of time  and keeps your images SEO-friendly .

How to use Headings to optimize your WordPress blog

You should make sure that you use the <h1> tag only for the titles of your posts.

You should use a few <h2> tags and as many <h3> tags as you need for the other headings in your posts. Doing this will allow the search engines to index the important information from your website better. A good document has headings and subheadings, because headings make it easier to determine the subject of the page.

For blog websites the best SEO practice is to set the title of your post in a heading1 tag. Most of the good WordPress templates do that. If not, you should modify the theme in order to achieve a correct output of your pages.

WordPress Plugins

How to install a Wordpress Plugin?

Plugins are tools which provide additional functionality to your application. To install a plugin you generally just need to put the plugin file into your 'wp-content/plugins' directory. Once a plugin is installed, you may activate it or deactivate it from the Plugins menu in your WP administration.

Generally the Plugin installation is a straight-forward process. In most cases it is enough to upload the plugin under the 'wp-content/plugins' directory for the WordPress installation and activate it from the administrator backend.

In WordPress 2.7 and above you can install plugins directly from the admin area. Downlod the plugin to your computer, then log in to your WP admin area and go to Plugins > Add New. Browse to the plugin archive and select it. Then click Install Now and the plugin will be installed shortly.

The removal is also straight-forward in most cases. Simply remove the directory for the plugin you would like to uninstall and it will be automatically deactivated.

Still always bear in mind that not all plugins are easy to install, so always refer to their documentation and installation instructions first.

Wordpress Themes

In the default WordPress installation, there are a couple of themes you can choose from. You can find the themes in your WordPress administration area > Appearance > Themes.

You can change the theme simply by clicking on the desired theme and then Activate <theme name>.

How to install a WordPress Theme?

If you would like to use a different WordPress theme for your blog web site, first of all you will have to download it to your local machine. You can visit our Wordpress themes gallery and download free themes from there:

Once you have the new Wordpress theme on your local hard drive, you have to upload it under the 'wp-content/themes' directory of your website. You have two options to do that:

• You can upload the .zip file of the theme in the 'wp-content/themes' directory via the File Manager and extract it online, or
• Extract the file in your computer and then to upload the content in the desired folder via FTP.

Now, that you have the new theme uploaded on your site in the right folder, you can see it in your WP admin panel and select it as a default theme for your site.

WordPress Installation

How to install WordPress

Please, follow the step-by-step guide below in order to activate Wordpress on your hosting account:

Step 1: Please, login to your CPanel and locate the Fantastico De Luxe icon:

Step 2: Find and click the WordPress link.

Step 3: Then choose New Installation:

Step 4: Decide upon the location of your blog - if you would like to have it as your site front page, leave the directory box blank, otherwise fill in the appropriate folder name. Next, fill in the administrator details and the e-mail account configuration then click the Install WordPress button.

Step 5: A new confirmation page will be loaded for the installation. Click the Finish Installation button if no errors are reported.

If else you will have to go back and rectify the specified issues.

Step 6: After completing the installation the final screen will load, providing you with the installation details. You will be able to e-mail the details to a specified address also in order to keep them for future reference.

Well done! You have successfully installed the Wordpress application!

Start up guide for blogs

How to use WordPress?

• How to start a WordPress blog?
• Where to login for the Wordpress admin area?
• Writing a post in WordPress
• Creating pages in WordPress
• How to create a category in Wordpress?
• How to post comments in WordPress?
• How to change a WP theme?

How to start a WordPress blog?

All you need to do is sign up for a hosting account, and have the Wordpress application installed. Here at SiteGround we offer FREE Wordpress installation! With our Wordpress hosting package you can start creating your site right away! If you already have a hosting account and would like to change your host, we offer free website transfer of WordPress sites.

Where to log in?

Once you have your Wordpress blog installed, you need to log in to the WordPress administration area from where you can write posts and articles, manage comments, change your theme, etc. To log in the WP admin panel, navigate to the WP login page or directly type the URL in your browser:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/

Writing a post in WordPress

Writing posts and pages is the core activity in WP. You can start your editorial experience by clicking the Add New button located in the Posts menu:

 

You can proceed with entering the desired content. Once you are ready, the new post can be published just by clicking the Publish button.

Creating pages in WordPress

Creating individual pages in WordPress is quite similar to writing a post. You should simply click Add New in the Pages menu.

When you are ready with your new page, click Publish to save it.