2. Agenda
• Plugins
• How to select and test
• Review of some basic and advanced plugins
• Themes
• How to choose and properly edit themes
• How to find quality themes
• SEO – on-site preparation and how to
• Security – how to protect your site from Spam, robot attacks
• Backup and Recovery – updates, how to implement your own process
4. Themes
Where to find themes
•
Reputable resources
•
Free vs. premium
How to test themes
•
Theme Preview
•
Theme Customizer
Editing Themes
•
WordPress File Editor
•
Child Themes
5. Child Themes
• Inherit the functionality of a parent theme
• Typically override:
• Styling (colors, fonts, margin/padding)
• Addition or removal of functionality
• Templates
• A good way to modify third party themes without hacking the original code
• Provide several “flavors” of a parent theme
• Video of Jonathan May‟s presentation: http://youtu.be/t8npHrg-teI
7. Child Theme Files
•
style.css
‣ Replaces parent theme‟s style.css stylesheet
‣ You must manually import the parent theme‟s stylesheet
•
functions.php
‣ Loaded automatically, in addition to the parent theme‟s functions.php, and
loaded right before it!
8. How To (style.css)
/*
Theme Name: Twenty Eleven Child
Theme URI:
http: //example.com/
Description: Child theme for the Twenty Eleven theme
Author:
Your name here
Author URI: http: //example.com/about/Template:
twentyeleven
Version:
0.1.0*/
@import url("../twentyeleven/style.css");
h1 {font-size:24px;}
#header {margin-bottom:10px;}
10. How To (templates)
•
Any template file with the same name
‣ Overrides parent theme‟s template file
•
New template files
‣ Made available to website when using child theme
•
More specific template files
‣ category.php in place of more generic archives.php
11. Plugins
Be skeptical of any plugin that does not live on WordPress.org
Plugin Support
• Plugins on WordPress.org rely more on community support and the good graces
of the plugin author
• Most premium plugins offer support as a core part of their business model
How To Find Good Plugins
• Check plugin ratings and reviews
12. Security
• Upgrade WordPress core, plugins, and themes!
• Password strength across all entry points (Hosting control panel, FTP,
WordPress admin)
• Don‟t use default username “admin”
• Download code directly wordpress.org
• Public WiFi caution: your traffic is probably not secure
• Disable unused/unneeded features (e.g., remote publishing)
• File permissions (FTP)
13. Akismet
Built-in spam remover created by Automattic
●
Requires registration of plugin
●
Works extremely well with WordPress
○
●
There may be some hiccups with forums or other plugins
Works only as good as you use it
○
Emptying spam folder sends data to Automattic
14. Wordfence
Free or premium plugin for security
•
Repairs files
•
Scans site for bad links/URLs
•
Scans for malware
•
Built-in firewall
•
Manage IPs and crawlers
15. Updates/Upgrades
• Upgrade often, but maybe not too often
• Don‟t wait for minor updates that fix critical bugs or security issues
• Wait a bit longer on major releases (3.0, 3.2, 3.3)
• Follow the WordPress Development Blog: http://wordpress.org/news
• WordPress, themes & plugins are open-source & community developed: embrace
but be cautious
• Keep plugins & themes updated, too
• Be careful & mindful of what files you‟ve changed (ideally, don‟t change any “core”
files in themes, plugins or WordPress itself)
• Before upgrading, backup your site & check plugin compatibility
16. ManageWP
• Access all of your WordPress sites from one dashboard
• With one click, all of your plugins and themes will be updated
• Uptime Monitoring
• SEO Analysis
• Automated Backup Scheduling
• Mass Migrations
• Bulk Posting
https://managewp.com
17. Backups
• Automated backups provided by your hosting provider (but don‟t back
up to the same server your site is hosted!)
• Remember: A WordPress site lives in two separate worlds
simultaneously
• Files in a folder you can see via FTP (especially /wp-content)
• Data in tables in a database server (you can see and manipulate using 3rd
party tools, often provided by your hosting provider)
• Secure your backups!
More Tips: http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
20. VaultPress
• Monitor Backup Activity in Realtime
• Restore Backups Automatically
• Download a Backup
• Scan Your Site Daily
• Review & Fix
21. SEO
“WordPress takes care of 80-90% of (the mechanics of) Search Engine
Optimization (SEO)” - Matt Cutts
• Beyond the benefits provided by a stock WordPress install…
• Theme used & author‟s ability to write semantic HTML
• Additional meta data you supply using an SEO plugin
• How you write and organize your content (HTML, taxonomy, etc.)
• Permalinks w/ a good link structure (the default works wonders)
• Google Webmaster Tools (monitor your site‟s ranking performance)
23. Caching
• What is it?
• Practice of storing data in a way so that future accesses are much
faster.
• Types
• Server-side: Expensive, repeated operations like large database queries
are performed once, saved in a cache, and served from cache (until
data changes or cache expires)
• Client-side (browser): Images, CSS, JavaScript assets are saved locally
on the visitor‟s computer until a specific expiration date or until assets
change
24. W3 Total Cache
• Server & client side caching tools for WordPress
• Recommended by notable hosts MediaTemple, HostGator, etc.
• Used by smashingmagazine.com, mashable.com, etc.
• Promises at least 10x performance increase
• Reduce web server load
• Up to 80% bandwidth reduction ($$$!)
• Comes from Boston!
25. HostGator
• Cheaper hosting with unlimited storage, bandwidth and domains
• Great if you plan on starting more than 1 WordPress site
• Plenty of support for the server and you don‟t need to have WordPress
on it (self-install)
• Lots of software, room to experiment!
Use code WordCampBoston for 25%
discount
26. WP-Engine
• WordPress only hosting
• Cheap, integrated, automatic backups and updates
• Set it and forget it!
• Secure, fast and reliable
Use code WPMeetupBoston2013 at
http://j.mp/boswpshop for 1 month free
