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Security

Weekly Links Roundup – Backup Plugins, HTTP Errors, Hackers, Managing Ads

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

Having a recent backup stored safely offsite (think Dropbox, Drive, Amazon S3…) is one of the best insurance policies you can get for your business site. Get hacked? No worries. Just restore that fresh backup!

Here’s a review of 7 of the top WordPress backup plugins. My go-to plugin is BackupBuddy (not free), and for a less expensive alternative I’d pick the free version of UpdraftPlus.

Ever seen that enigmatic “HTTP Error” pop up when trying to upload images to WordPress? The reason may be a mystery… Here’s a post on 10 ways to fix the HTTP error – and a warning, this gets just a little bit technical, but the instructions are clear.

Do you know why hackers target WordPress sites? They do, it’s a well-known fact – WordPress is a huge target and there are almost 100,000 attacks on WordPress sites around the world every minute! If you’re interested in reducing your site’s risk by patching its biggest weaknesses, this post is worth a look.

Finally… if you’re running ads on your WordPress site, are you doing it right? You may be making mistakes and not even realizing it. Learn about some common mistakes with ad management that can impact advertising ROI and traffic growth.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – Broken Links, Missing Images, Stripe

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

Looking for an easy way to check for broken links on your WordPress site? There is a plugin for this (of course there is!) called Broken Links Checker, but this plugin is banned by some hosts because it puts a high load on the server. Fortunately there are other ways to check for broken links including using the free Google Search Console formerly Google Webmaster Tools) to check for crawl errors.

I ran into this problem on a client’s site just this week. If you ever open up the Media Library and some or all of your uploaded images are displaying blank thumbnails, this post on fixing Media Library blanks is for you.

Finally… If you are not using an ecommerce, membership or forms plugin that works with the Stripe payment gateway but would still like to use Stripe, you’re in luck! This post is all about using a free plugin to sell with Stripe. Your site will need an SSL certificate and use HTTPS to set this up.

Questions? Opinions? Please leave a comment!

 

Weekly Link Roundup – Security Plugins, Server Issues, Permalinks, 301 Redirects

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

For WordPress security, I’ve been using and recommending Wordfence for a few years, but with a recent update they totally changed the interface , greatly reducing the quality of the user experience, in my opinion. I find the new version hard to navigate, and that doesn’t bode well for my clients who use it. So I’m experimenting with other security plugins to find a replacement; right now the candidate is All-in-One WP Security & Firewall. This plugin has been around a long time and true to their claims, it is quite easy to configure. If you’re looking for a security plugin try this post with quick reviews of 17 top WordPress security plugins.

When there’s a problem with your site, it’s common to assume it’s your site causing the problem – but that’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s your host’s server. Here’s a guide to 8 common server issues that can affect your site in various ways: making it slow, not delivering email, or even showing the dreaded ‘no database connection’ error.

Do you know what permalinks are on your WordPress site? A lot of clients have never heard of them, until they decide to change them on an established site, which can cause big problems. Learn all you need to know about permalinks here, but pay special attention to the part about not fooling with them unless you have a brand new site. In order to make changes later, they also talk about 301 redirects which are a way to make changes safely.

And speaking of 301 redirects, here’s a guide to 7 top redirection plugins (this is an older post but all still valid information). My current favorite, which I last used just this week, is Redirection.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – SEO Title, Membership Plugins, Security Plugins, Firewalls

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

What’s the difference between the post title and the SEO title? Ever asked that question? Here’s a definitive explanation from Yoast.

If you’re thinking about creating a WordPress-based membership site, this is the post for you! Here’s a roundup of 15 of the top membership plugins to handle subscriptions, membership tiers and levels, payments, content restrictions and more. Personally I’m a big fan of MemberPress (which I use to run WP Minder’s membership program) – it should definitely be on this list too.

Wordfence has been my security plugin of choice for several years, but their recent redesign and changes in functionality leave a lot to be desired. Another good option is Sucuri – here’s a comparison of Wordfence and Sucuri.

While we’re on the topic of security, here’s a very fresh review of the top WordPress security plugins and services for 2018.

Let’s wander just a bit further down the security road and look at firewalls for WordPress. Best in class is Sucuri’s Web Application Firewall (which is included in WP Minder Small Business and higher plans). My experience with Sitelock support on behalf of clients was very poor and I cannot recommend them. If you want the most secure firewall for your business site and are not using managed WordPress hosting like our recommended partner WP Engine, Sucuri is the one to look at.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – Lockouts, Backup Plugins, Gallery Plugins, Form Plugins

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

Ever been hacked? And as a result, locked out of your own website? If you want to try to recover from it and clean up on your own, here’s a great guide from WPMUDev. This is a bit technical, be warned. And you can always get in touch with WP Minder if you need help after a hack.

If you’re locked out for another reason, such as entering the wrong login credentials too many times, you might find a quick fix in this post about accessing WordPress when you can’t get to wp-admin/.

Here’s a review of the 7 best WordPress backup plugins of 2017. My favorite of these is BackupBuddy for commercial, or UpdraftPlus for free. BackupBuddy makes it super-simple to migrate a site from one server to another, and to recover files and folders without recovering an entire backup.

I have a new favorite gallery plugin – Unite Gallery. I’ve been a fan of the simple-to-use FooGallery for quite a while, and Unite is a more capable step up from that, but still very easy to use. It’s a reasonable $19 from CodeCanyon.

Finally – here’s a head-to-head comparison of two popular form plugins for WordPress: Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms. I’m a long-time fan of Gravity Forms for its great interface and flexibility (user registration, payments and subscriptions, etc.) but both of these are really high-quality plugins.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – Analytics, WordPress Security, Domain Names, Travel Blogging

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

Even if you use Google Analytics (and especially if you don’t) you might find adding one of these Google Analytics alternatives plugins to your WordPress site useful.

Are you protecting your website? Is it enough? Learn about the 5 most common WordPress security breaches and how to protect yourself and/or recover from them. Critical to remember: always have a fresh backup of your site stored somewhere other than your hosting account!

Got a new business? Looking for a good (and available) domain name and getting frustrated? Try one of these 5 blog name generators; the article provides a detailed review of each generator and why you’d want to use it (or not).

While on the subject of new business – here’s a beginner’s guide to starting a travel blog. This article includes setting up a domain, hosting and WordPress; finding a theme (assuming you’ll want to start with very little budget); and plugins for travel blogging.