WordPress is the most popular content-management system in the world. For that reason alone, it is vulnerable to hackers who delight in finding large pools of potentially insecure websites. Cleaning up a hacked site is not fun or easy. So, it's important to take some simple measures to protect your site. My Recommendations Choose a reliable webhost that ensures a safe platform for your site.All user accounts should use strong passwords: at least 12 characters, including a number and a … [Read more...] about What Should I Do to Protect My Site from Hackers?
Web Design
20 Best Google Fonts
So Many Choices! According to Extensis, there are at least a half million fonts in the world today! No wonder we sometimes labor over which typeface to use. Let me ease that task a little bit by sharing with you what I consider the 20 best Google fonts. Why Google Fonts? For web work, Google Fonts are my primary source because they are open-source and free, and offer a huge number of typefaces. All of these offerings are viewable through a user-friendly interface with filters to help … [Read more...] about 20 Best Google Fonts
How Can I Change the Typeface in WordPress?
While the terms "typeface" and "font" are often used interchangeably, there are clear distinctions in their actual meaning. "Typeface" refers to an entire family of type styles: Neuton, Garamond, Goudy Old Style, and Lato are examples of typefaces. "Font" is the individual member of a typeface family: roman (or regular), italic, bold, and bold italic are font examples. It's very simple to change the font in WordPress. You just have to select the word(s) or sentence(s) and click on the "B" (bold) … [Read more...] about How Can I Change the Typeface in WordPress?
My Web Design and Development Toolset
My web design and development toolset includes desktop as well as cloud-based applications. I use the tools for brainstorming, thumbnail sketching, design comprehensives, and implementation of code. I'm always open to trying new things. Sometimes, I'll explore a new program, love it, and make the switch. PINTEREST Visual discovery platform I use Pinterest to find, store and categorize images and ideas. It serves as a great reference archive for my designs and artwork. It's part of my … [Read more...] about My Web Design and Development Toolset
Migration and Cloning Tools for WordPress Sites
Migration is the process of cloning a website and moving it to another location. Some of the more common reasons for migrating a site are a change of web host, a change in domain name, or creating a development site to test things. There are many migration and cloning tools for WordPress. Plugins are the easiest tools to use for this purpose. In this tutorial, I'll review 3 of my favorite plugins that replicate all of the files and the database from one site to another: Duplicator, Backup Buddy, … [Read more...] about Migration and Cloning Tools for WordPress Sites
SEO for WordPress Content Creators
In January, I facilitated a discussion about SEO at the WordPress Southwest Florida MeetUp. This blog post is a detailed outline of my presentation. SEO Defined SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is an ongoing process of preparing your website content for discovery by search engines. Better preparation equals better optimization. Search engines find and sort information relevant to the user, based on key words and tags. There are many search engines, but Google, Yahoo, and … [Read more...] about SEO for WordPress Content Creators
Site Migration from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
Free hosting on WordPress.com is a great choice when you don't want the hassle of maintaining the site yourself. However, there are limitations. If you want the freedom to customize, add plugins, and monetize the site, you could upgrade to a premium account or migrate the site to WordPress.org. Migration You copy the content (text and images) and database from one site to another using a process called “migration”. There are a few basic steps to take when migrating a site from … [Read more...] about Site Migration from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
Why and How You Create WordPress Child Themes
Why You Create Child Themes Child themes are customized versions of an original (“parent”) theme. If you make changes to the parent theme directly, you risk losing those changes whenever the theme is updated. The key benefit of a child theme is that you retain all of your customizations when the parent theme is updated. I usually create the child theme myself, but there are plugins that will do it for you. Furthermore, if you're using a framework like Genesis, you use child themes in addition … [Read more...] about Why and How You Create WordPress Child Themes