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

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.