Author Archive

Choosing the Right WordPress Hosting Provider

Friday, August 26th, 2011

by TheNexus | hostnexus.com

As the most popular web blogging software, WordPress makes rich text and advanced multimedia support available for everyone- of any skill level. But, once you have chosen to use WordPress for your blogging needs, you still need to find a blog hosting provider.

The considerations for finding a WordPress host aren’t necessarily that different than finding the right web hosting provider. Technical support, customer service, and the ability to support your site’s growth are all central to picking the right WordPress hosting provider.

Firstly, WordPress hosting needs to provide support for the internet scripting language PHP, which is what the software uses. Information storage is also important and if you plan on utilizing video, pictures, or even music, you’ll need enough space and bandwidth to support that kind of customization. Not all WordPress hosting providers will have the right package to support that kind of need.

Other considerations include whether your WordPress hosting provider offers multiple domains or databases for your needs. Many users create more than one blog and if that’s you, make sure your WordPress host supports that kind of enterprise. And, with WordPress, readers of your WordPress website can comment on your latest blog posts so you’ll need a MySQL database to store the user data and a minimum disk space.

Providing you with access to open source software and support such as Fantastico and cPanel is also important to supporting you and your use of WordPress. Helping you to customize your blog, these things are not offered by all WordPress hosting providers.

It’s important to account for all these needs when first setting up your blog with a WordPress hosting provider. But, don’t forget to look to the future, too. Will your WordPress hosting provider be able to offer you greater bandwidth options as your site traffic grows? All bloggers seek greater readership and participation- it’s central to the success of a blog. So, if you have a provider with limited packages or a shared hosting service that doesn’t support your growth needs, look elsewhere. With so much competition in the marketplace, you have choices and don’t have to compromise quality for cost when choosing your WordPress hosting provider.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

When is the Right Time to Choose Dedicated Hosting?

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

wordpress-web-hosting.info

Dedicated web hosting is undoubtedly the most powerful type of hosting. Websites hosted on dedicated servers perform much better than the ones hosted on shared machines and VPS. However, renting a dedicated server is not a good idea for everyone. It is a very expensive venture and that’s what makes it unfit for small businesses. Still, a lot of people overestimate the performance of their sites and make the mistake of choosing this option. In the beginning you should try to keep things as cheap as possible. You can invest the money on advertisement or any other important thing.

There are some sites which have special security needs. For instance many business owners store customer data and credit card numbers in their databases. Since such information can not be compromised, shared hosting can not be used in such scenarios. If the above mentioned situation is not applicable on your website then there is no absolutely no reason to pay hundreds of dollars each month for your own server. You should always begin with shared web hosting and upgrade to a more powerful option when the need arises. Jumping directly to the last step is a very bad idea and it can make your whole business unprofitable.

You can upgrade to a dedicated machine when the following things start happening:

  • If your site starts slowing down every now and then this shows that you need an upgrade. Slow sites not only frustrate the visitors but also get penalized by Google and other search engines.
  • Downtime is another warning sign. It is an even more destructive for your search engine rank than slow speed.
  • Once you have started earning a decent amount of money each month and your revenues exceeding your expenses on a regular basis, you should start thinking about improving your site’s performance with a dedicated server.
  • Finally, if you need more control, flexibility and security then there is no better option than dedicated hosting.

Every webmaster should know when should he take his site to the next level. This knowledge can save you a lot of money. For WordPress hosting, visit our site.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

WordPress and Search Engine Optimization – Facts to Consider

Saturday, August 13th, 2011

jealouseating.com

Practicing proper search engine optimization can be difficult for a busy online business owner, especially one that does not have extensive knowledge in internet technology. Search engines use very complex algorithms to index content and judge it’s usefulness. Although these algorithms are complex, their main functions can be summed up fairly easily. Search engines look for specific patterns and then base their results on these patterns. The patterns they search for are located within the sites content, both on-page and internally. Everything from anchor text to meta tags gets indexed in a very short period of time and then used to determine the sites page ranking. Manually keeping up with all of this information can be almost impossible for the average site owner. For this reason there are tools that can be used to automate the process of properly optimizing the internal structure of a website.

WordPress and Search Engine Optimization

If you know anything about content management systems then I am sure you are familiar with WordPress by now. WordPress was originally a blogging platform but is now the world’s most popular content management system. The entire process of building and maintaining a WordPress website can be simplified. It is not surprising then that WordPress can also assist you in proper search engine optimization. WordPress itself cannot optimize you site for the search engines, but with the help of plugins and a few preferential adjustments, you can have your site’s internal content automatically structured for maximum benefit.

Custom Link Structure

One of the ways you can get more search engine traffic to your site or blog within WordPress is by changing the link structure in the permalink section of your WordPress admin. Once you’re in the permalinks section select the bubble that says “Custom Structure.” Here you can enter a variety of commands that will dictate how the URL of your pages will look. It is important to note that the structure of an URL is very important to the search engines, as it affects the result of a search query.

If you’re naming your posts based on keywords, then you are wasting your time unless your URL structure shows your post name. In order to get the most out of your search engine optimization efforts you need to change the link structure to /%postname%/. Now if your post name is ” Post Name” then the URL for that post will be “Yourdomain.com/postname.” This way one someone searches for the keyword “Post Name” your site stands a better chance of showing up at the top of the search engines.

SEO Plugins

Another way to enhance your search engine optimization efforts in WordPress is to use that plugins that automatically optimize your sites tags, meta tags, anchor texts, link structure, site maps, and other aspects. A good plugin to have which is free is the Platinum SEO pack. This plugin will automatically optimize each page and post to give it a maximum impact on the search engines.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

WordPress Web Design – The Affordable Solution?

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

by happyslappy | jealouseating.com

The greatest consideration when designing web sites prior to was what platform and web browser the web crowd was utilizing. Before, a great web style was one which looked good regardless of what browser the viewer was utilizing, and no matter what his/her screen resolution was. Nowadays, a whole lot much more emphasis is becoming given to browsing via portable devices like high-end phones and tablets. Due to the fact they are built differently than desktop computers and laptops, some facets of a design may well turn out to be obsolete and make a web page challenging to navigate. If you would like to make your web designs easier for portable device users, or want to make a mirror web site of your internet page simply for those users, here are points to keep in mind.

One of the most important thing to bear in mind is that you will find no mice in portable devices, so the hover function is impractical and obsolete. In the event you built web sites wherein links are mixed in with standard text, it may well be a better thought to location links all in one location rather than inside paragraphs of text. Not just are links harder to detect even though employing portable devices, one can’t hover over the link with a stylus, a finger or perhaps a touch of a keypad, to know where the link will lead them to. Simply saying “Click Here” may well function for traditional web sites, but for a WordPress website that is meant to be viewed via portable devices, it really is far better to be obvious as to where the links will take your users to, regardless of whether it is the Photo Gallery, or the About Us tab on the website. Also, numerous web designers use hovering for tool tips, wherein if an user hovers the cursor above a particular term, much more details would seem via the tool tip. Since hovering is non-existent with portable devices, it really is better to just plainly layout your details on the site itself, despite the fact that this could make paragraphs longer and make a web site a bit far more boring.

When surfing employing portable devices, the principal concern just isn’t really speed, but consistency. Based on the time of day along with the location of the user, world wide web speed varies greatly and can have an effect on connectivity. So if you are running a web site that provides info, ensure it loads rapidly and location the most critical bits of details at the leading, to ensure that it loads 1st. Also, if a specific page has a plethora of data, it would be simpler for users in the event you put a summary table or box at the leading of the page.

When making use of a laptop or desktop laptop or computer, it’s simple to just scroll vertically utilizing the mouse wheel, but portable devices give users a whole lot a lot more freedom because it’s less complicated to scroll both horizontally and vertically when using a portable device. So if you are designing a web site meant to be viewed via portable device, remember it is not a no-no anymore to make your users scroll through the page horizontally, as it can be actually less complicated to scroll from left to proper as opposed to leading to bottom when viewing by means of a portable device.

To determine what it would take to obtain a skilled WordPress Web Design check them out here. Plus many modest company style alternatives at affordable costs!

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

WordPress Web Design – Newest Website Design Trends in 2011

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

jealouseating.com

The year isn’t yet over, and yet it has already brought numerous adjustments to the web design industry. Whilst some techniques and practices have turn into obsolete, new trends are popping up, all attempting to alter the way net users interact and surf by way of internet sites. If you are an up-and-coming WordPress web design artist, or perhaps a long-time professional attempting to remain on best of the game, here are a number of the far more well-known trends this year had to offer so your internet designs will stay fresh and innovative.

If you’re a fan of Flash, then you’d be disappointed to know that it may possibly really well be on the strategy to becoming obsolete. Although there are still a lot of items that Flash cannot do that absolutely nothing else can, many programs and applications are giving it a run for its cash. Several web designers are starting to use HTML5 a lot more in relation to coding their WordPress websites, basically due to the fact it really is more compatible with all of the new technology available correct now. Also, Google has implemented thumbnail browsing, wherein in the event you search for a specific site by way of Google, it is possible to view a thumbnail of the web site by hovering your mouse over the link. Sadly, it doesn’t recognize Flash, so your elaborate Flash-driven major page will not show up on the thumbnail and your site may well completely get looked over.

Interaction and web page activity is all of the rage today, and world wide web users prefer websites wherein they can communicate freely and interact with other users, and maybe even the company or individual who owns the site. News sites have given users the capacity to comment and talk about news articles by putting in a comments section following every single story. Most internet sites have their own social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook to keep the public up-to-date. In creating internet designs, it’s now important that your web site incorporate all these. Gone are the days when a person’s only method to communicate with the men and women behind a website is to simply email them and wait for a response.

This year has also observed an increase in the usage of web design tricks to create a site look more 3D to its browsers. Among the newest trends in web design for this year would be to add depth to a website, to ensure that elements seem to pop out of the screen, emphasizing the website’s key points. Most designers use parallax scrolling, an approach when found only in video games, to create depth and create the illusion of a 3D-ish website. This method has proven to be really helpful specially in internet sites that have a formal really feel to it, since it adds a bit of pizzazz to the web design without having taking away its professionalism.

Even though a web page style may well be critical, an experience style artist knows that every thing starts having a good domain name. If you would like to generate your own personal site, one of the thing 2011 has taught designers was that a domain name may spell the difference between having a great deal of user traffic, and being obsolete. Quirky domain names are not only effortless to remember, but may make your website much more distinctive and simple to uncover in search engines.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

WordPress Web Hosting

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

wordpress-web-hosting.info

WordPress is the best blogging software and content management system (CMS) on the internet. It has been put together by some of the best developers in the world and is supported by hundreds of energetic volunteers. You can transform it into anything you like. People have successfully used it to build social bookmarking sites, forums, social networks and article directories. Above all, it is totally free!

To make full use of this amazing piece of software you must have a good wordpress hosting. Unfortunately, selecting a host can be quite a daunting task because of the fact that there are thousand of hosting companies out there. We have made this site to help you find the ideal hosting solution for your blog.

Basic Requirements

Following are the things that a host needs to have in order to run the script:

  • PHP 4.3+
  • MySQL 4.1.2+
  • mod_rewrite Apache module

Keep in mind that these are the minimum requirements for the WordPress engine. Most plugins have their own requirements (Some really cool ones require PHP 5.0+).

Here are some other important things to consider:

Windows or Linux?

If your server supports PHP then you shouldn’t face any problem in running WordPress. However, their official website recommends Apache or Nginx. These two servers are the best for creating a WordPress website. Some problems may arise while running the software on a Windows server because it has been coded in PHP and PHP is basically related to Linux.

One-Click Install Feature (a.k.a Fantastico):

Fantastico is a truly amazing cPanel feature that allows you to install wordpress and other famous scripts with a single click. It can save you a lot of time. If you are a newbie then installing WP on your server can be a headache. Even the the step-by-step guide provided on official WP site can seem very confusing. Famous control panels other than Cpanel have their own versions of script installers which perform almost the same function but Fantastico is the best.

Can Free Web Hosting support WordPress?

You can install WP on a free hosting account if it meets the minimum requirements given above, but it is not recommended. If your really want to enjoy free wordpress hosting then you should signup on WordPress.com. There you can experience most of the things that the original software has to offer. You can also use a custom domain name. However, some features are missing. For example you can’t install plugins, which means less flexibility. Most other free hosts require you to advertise their site on your blog and the resources are also insufficient in many cases.

Some others tips:

Here are some general tips that you must keep n mind while finding a host:

  • Before making a payment, make sure you check the customer support. Try contacting them and see whether they respond in time or not.
  • Go for a hosting company only if it guarantees 99% or higher uptime.
  • If you are starting a blog then a small amount of resources will out for you. However, if you are launching some sort of portal of community website then you should purchase lots of bandwidth and diskspace.

I hope this article will help you in finding the best wordpress hosting company. Feel free to roam around I read some more article related to web hosting.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

WordPress for Denver SEO Firm

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

by Michael Cordova | articlebliss.com

Denver SEO Firm doesn’t just offer SEO web designs; it also offers WordPress web design. WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System); it is commonly used in blogs and web designs, and is powered by MySQL and PHP. WordPress was developed initially for blogs; its predecessor was b2/cafelog which was used by about 2,000 blogs back in the late nineties. After WordPress was launched last 2003, it’s been used by approximately 130,000 of the biggest websites and web developers.

A lot of web designers choose to use WordPress because of its web template system which uses a template processor. A web template is a program that allows designers to merge one or more templates with one data model to produce one or more documents, which makes work a lot easier for them. Users also have the ability to re-arrange widgets and files without having to edit the HTML codes or PHP. Web content writers and designers at Denver SEO Firm hold a strong background when it comes to WordPress programming which enables them to provide clients with the best SEO website results.

The most basic features of WordPress are as follows:

  • Open Source – It’s free to download and use for anyone’s blog or website;
  • Has a feature rich interface – It has a rich text editor equipped with advanced multimedia support;
  • Easy to use and flexible – It can be used by a beginner or a professional web designer;
  • WordPress links – It has a link manager that allows users to effectively manage and personalize the links on their blogs or websites;
  • XHTML 1.1 – it is compatible with XHTML version 1.1 and automatically sends a 1.0 type to make sure it is compatible with any browser or website;
  • Administration Interface – it has a user friendly interface that is compatible with HTML and CSS programming;
  • Default Templates – users can choose from a wide variety of fresh templates, eliminating the need to design a new one;
  • Manual Excerpts – allows users to manually craft excerpts that can be used on their websites’ RSS feeds.

Because of the above features and benefits of WordPress websites and web advertisements are easier to design and formulate. It also helps designers save time and get optimal results for business and professional websites. Denver SEO Firm web designers can also make necessary updates on their clients’ websites anytime, and accommodate any request for changes on the website, like themes, pictures, programming, etc. without having to re-write the entire HTML or PHP program.

These days, business competition can be really tough. This is why most businesses resort to SEO web designers like Denver SEO company to help them get their business spotted online. This is not a very easy task since there are algorithms that need to be observed for a website to come up on a search engine’s top rank; this is where SEO and WordPress programming can make a difference. Those who are not knowledgeable on how this works won’t get top ranking on search engines, which leads to unvisited websites and low profitability.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

What is WordPress Hosting

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

doteasy.com

Many internet users stay connected with their friends by regularly updating their status through Facebook and Twitter. However, there are a handful of limitations in using these social media channels. In order to have better control over your posts, the traditional way of blogging is still the best choice.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

Among the various blogging platforms, WordPress is definitely one of the most popular blogging programs. There are two types of WordPress platforms: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. For the former, your site is hosted by WordPress and you will be assigned a subdomain website (e.g. yourname.wordpress.com). The benefit of WordPress hosting is that it costs you nothing. However, you won’t have full access to certain features (e.g. WordPress.com does not support plugins, which are one of the most important features of WordPress). In addition, WordPress.com is “ad-supported”. This means that ads may be randomly displayed on your blog.

For WordPress.org, you need to find your own web hosting firm and install the program yourself. Hence, you also need to register your own domain name. However, since it’s a program, it is customizable (you can modify and edit the CSS, themes, and html codes). Simply, you have full control over modifying your blogs to better suit your needs.

Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org have their pros and cons. But since WordPress.com cannot offer full access to the features of WordPress, it is better to use WordPress.org. On average, the cost of web hosting and domain name registration is around US$100 a year. But, you can place ads on your WordPress website to support the hosting costs (e.g. Google AdWords).

WordPress Requirements

In order to use WordPress.org, you need to find a web hosting package that is compatible with WordPress. To use WordPress, your hosting plan needs to have MySQL and PHP support. Therefore, when you search for a hosting package, you must check with the hosting firm to see if their package meets the WordPress requirements.

Migrating from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

If you have a WordPress.com blog but would like to try the full features of WordPress platforms, you can setup your WordPress.org blog in just a few steps. First of all, you need to subscribe a hosting account that supports MySQL and PHP. You should check with your hosting firm if their hosting accounts are WordPress compatible. Once the compatibility is confirmed, you need to install the WordPress program to you hosting account. Most of the web hosting firms offer script installer programs which can help account users install WordPress in just a few clicks. Here is a tutorial article about how to install WordPress with a script installer called “Fantastico De Luxe”. Next, you need to migrate your original content from WordPress.com to your newly hosting account. From WordPress.com account, you can export all the posts in one file and upload it to your new hosting account.

To move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, please follow these 5 easy steps:

First of all, you will need to make sure you are subscribed to the Doteasy Ultra Hosting or Unlimited Hosting plan – you will need PHP and MySQL support on your account to run the WordPress software on your account.

Then, once your Doteasy Ultra/Unlimited Hosting account has been activated, login to your Member Zone and click on the “Site Admin Panel” link – this will log you into your account admin panel for the one-click WordPress installation via Fantastico De Luxe.

Once your WordPress software has been installed:

  1. Login to your WordPress.com account and select TOOLS – EXPORT from the menu on the left side. The export tool will compile your posts, pages, comments, categories and tags. This information is placed into a WXR file, or WordPress Extended RSS file.
  2. Once you’re finished, click on the Download Export File button to save it onto your computer.
  3. Then, login to your WordPress.org account admin panel (ie. http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin if you have installed in the root directory of your Doteasy hosting account)
  4. Next, click on TOOLS – IMPORT from the menu on the left. From the list of blogging systems, click on WordPress.
  5. Next, click on the Browse button and locate the WXR file you downloaded earlier. This will upload the file into your WordPress.org blog and will unpack all of the data contained in the file.

*Note: If your WXR file is large, you might want to contact us first to increase your account’s upload file size limit.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

How to Build a Small Business Website with WordPress

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

smallbusinesscomputing.com

If you’re toying with creating a small business website or blog, allow me to detain you for a moment.

Maybe you’re considering hiring a website designer to create, maintain and update your site. It’s a perfectly reasonable option, especially if you have no knowledge of — or zero interest in learning — website programming.

But there is a DIY option well worth considering: creating a site with WordPress.

WordPress is essentially a highly flexible content management system that can serve as the foundation for a blog or a fully-fledged small business website for online marketing or ecommerce. With a WordPress-built site, you can easily add new pages and blog posts yourself; no knowledge of HTML, CSS or any other mind-numbing acronyms is required.

You can customize the look of your site so that it’s unique. You can add new capabilities via hundreds of plug-ins. Plus, your site will be search-engine friendly from the get-go. And using plug-ins such as the All in One SEO Pack, you can optimize each page and post to boost its search engine rankings.

To build a site like this, you need to download WordPress from WordPress.org. The software is free because it’s open source. Even better, many WordPress themes (design templates) and plug-ins are free. The only thing you may need to pay for is Web hosting, which can be as low as $6 a month. (Alternatively, you can host your WordPress website on your own server.)

The following is a how-to guide for building a small business website or blog using free WordPress.org software. The steps I’ve outlined are based on my experience creating a new site for myself, at www.jamesamartin.com. For what it’s worth, I have no website design experience whatsoever (which may or may not be obvious if you view my site).

FYI, this article doesn’t cover using WordPress.com to build a new site or blog. WordPress.com is a free blogging platform that doesn’t require you to have your own hosting service. The downside is that it doesn’t provide all the customization (or access to plug-ins) that a WordPress.org-built site offers. For a comparison of WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, read “Power Your Small Business Website with WordPress” or this support article from the WordPress.com site.

Step 1: Choose a Web Hosting Service

You’ll need a service to host your new site or blog. Technically speaking, you’ll need a Web hosting service that supports PHP version 5.2.4 or greater and MySQL version 5.0 or greater. WordPress.org recommends Apache or Nginx “as the most robust and ‘featureful’ server for running WordPress” and says the Web hosts listed in its directory meet all these requirements “with no problems.”

After reviewing the options listed in WordPress.org’s directory, I chose Bluehost. The service is featured prominently in the WordPress.org directory; offers unlimited disk storage, email addresses and monthly data transfers; and is a good value at it’s regular $6 per month price. Currently, the company’s running a special $5 per month rate for the next few weeks.

More importantly, Bluehost made installing the WordPress software to my Bluehost hosting account extremely easy. I just clicked to install it using Bluehost’s Web-based control panel, rather than having to go through steps 2 through 6, as described below. If you don’t have much website design/setup experience, this is definitely the way to go.

The two times I needed help, I called Bluehost’s 24-7 toll-free tech support. They answered right away and gave above-average support, though the second rep I spoke to wasn’t quite as helpful as the first.

Have you already purchased a domain name for your new site elsewhere? If so, you’ll need to log into your domain name registrar account and configure the nameserver settings so that they point to your hosting service’s nameservers.

Example: If you bought your domain name from GoDaddy but you’ve chosen Bluehost as your hosting provider, you’d log into your GoDaddy account, select the domain you want to use for your WordPress site, select ‘Set Nameservers,’ and enter Bluehost’s nameserver addresses (ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com). You don’t have to transfer your domain from GoDaddy to Bluehost.

Steps 2 — 6: Download WordPress; Create a Database; Upload WordPress

If the hosting service you’ve chosen doesn’t offer one-click WordPress installation, you’ll most likely need to follow steps 2 through 6 below:

2. Download the latest WordPress software to your computer. WordPress 3.2 is the latest version as of this writing. All the files come packaged together in a .zip archive.

3. Create a database for WordPress on your Web server and a MySQL user with privileges for accessing and modifying the database. The WordPress.org site offers detailed installation instructions for this and all other steps in the process. (If you go the manual route, I highly recommend printing and reading the installation instructions.)

4. Unzip the archive and find the file named wp-config-sample.php. Change the name of that file to wp-config.php. You should edit the file to include your database information, such as the database name and users. Use a basic text editing program — Notepad on Windows, for instance, but not Microsoft Word, which automatically adds formatting to text files.

5. Upload all the WordPress files to your hosting account with an FTP client. FTP software is required to manually upload files to your hosting account. Among the more popular programs are FileZilla (for Windows, Mac and Linux) and Cyberduck (for Windows and Mac), both of which are free.

6. Next it’s time to run the WordPress installation script. If you placed all your WordPress files in the root directory for your domain, type the following in your Web browser’s address bar: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php, substituting example.com for your actual domain name. If you placed all your WordPress files in a subdirectory entitled blog, you’ll need to type the following in your browser’s address bar: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php. WordPress will step you through the process from there.

Step 7: Choose a WordPress Theme

A WordPress theme gives your site a particular look and feel. Some are free; others cost money. Some are highly customizable, others not so much. Given the thousands of available themes, you could spend weeks trying to settle on one.

I chose the DIYthemes Thesis theme ($87). Of the themes I investigated, I found Thesis the most easily customizable. A WordPress web design novice such as myself can easily tweak fonts and colors, create drop-down navigation menus and tons more. For reassurance after making a change, you click the Big Ass Save Button. And the Thesis theme comes with lots of SEO options as well, such as the capability to customize the title tag and meta description of each page and blog post.

Once you choose a theme, download the necessary files as a .zip archive to your hard drive. For me, installing Thesis was just a matter of logging into my new WordPress site, clicking Themes under Appearance, clicking the Install Themes tab, clicking the Upload button, and then choosing the .zip archive I downloaded.

Other WordPress themes and theme sets recommended to me by colleagues include:

  • Theme Forest: Currently offers more than 4,000 WordPress and other website templates, many of which are inexpensive.
  • Theme Foundry: Vigilance in particular is a crisp, clean, SEO-friendly theme with both a free and pro version ($68).
  • Studio Press Pro-Plus: For $299 you get a variety of child themes you can use, all based on the search-engine-optimized Genesis ‘foundation’ theme. Or you can just purchase a single theme.

Step 8: Download and Install Plug-ins

WordPress plug-ins add functionality to your site. There are hundreds from which to choose, but here are a few to get you started.

  • All in One SEO Pack — for optimizing your posts and pages
  • Google Analytics for WP — an easy way to add Google Analytics code to your site so you can get data on your site’s traffic
  • Jetpack by WordPress.com — lets you easily add WordPress.com features to your site, such as a widget to stream your Twitter feed
  • SMS Text Message — enables visitors to receive text-message updates when your site is updated
  • WordPress Database Backup — an easy way to back up your site’s files
  • WP Security Scan — scans your site to ensure it is secure from malicious hackers or other threats
  • XML Sitemaps — automatically creates XML sitemaps for Google, putting you on the fast track to getting indexed by Google’s ‘bots’

And then you’re done. Now you can update and new content to your small business website whenever you want. There’s also a WordPress iPad app, so you can refresh your site on the road.

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To get additional information on link popularity, link farms, and natural search, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

To get additional information on search engine optimization, SEO company, and link farm, please visit our Denver SEO informational site.

How To Lock Down WordPress, Remove Malicious Code, and Protect your Websites

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

examiner.com

Most of the security measures outlined below apply to WordPress, and some apply to general websites, but each platform has it’s own distinct methods for protecting it’s vulnerabilities, thus I encourage you to research what will suit your case best depending on your configuration.

In my recent research and in learning how to erradicate the malicious code that infected my websites I learned that there is no ‘silver bullet’ that exists such as a simple plugin solution that solves every problem of vulnerability and protects your websites and your computer.

Securing WordPress

The following is a summary of the steps that I took over the course of 2 weeks to secure WordPress and to erradicate a malicious virus that had infected my websites (with some further explanation and detail provided later in this post). I would recommend taking all of these measures (and perhaps more) as soon as possible to protect your WordPress website and to protect all of your websites from malware:

  1. Keep WordPress updated to the latest version (always backup first…the same goes for any other web platforms you may have installed such as Joomla, Drupal, etc).
  2. Identify if you have malware on your website.
  3. Remove any identified malicious code within your web pages by reviewing the remote pages either via FTP or using the web console provided by your web host; particularly look for and delete anything outside of the < / html > tag (global search and replace doesn’t always work here since the threat may be disguised in various ways).
  4. Install the recommended essential security plugins for WordPress.
  5. Keep all of your plugins up-to-date (check for plugin updates daily if you can, or at least once per week).
  6. Keep your computer protected with anti-virus software (for my Mac only Norton Antivirus for Mac detected any viruses, where ClamXav and iAntiVirus did not detect anything).
  7. Use strong passwords (try this password generator from pctools; don’t re-use the same passwords for many different accounts).
  8. Update your passwords frequently (if you are suspicious of a keylogger resident on your computer try calling in to your host provider to make changes over the phone and see if the virus persists, thereby ruling out keyloggers to some degree if the problem returns).
  9. Change the security keys in wp-config.php (use the WordPress security key generator to replace the existing keys).
  10. CHMOD web file attributes (using the file manager within the web console provided by your web host):
    1. .htpasswd files to 640
    2. .htaccess files to 644
    3. index and default files to 644
    4. php files to 600
    5. chmod files that you really dont want people to see as 400
    6. any requested 777 to 766 instead (NEVER chmod 777, if something requires write access use 766)
  11. Place .htaccess files where needed (see securing your website using htaccess section of this post).
  12. Place empty index.html pages within the following directories: WordPress root, wp-content, wp-content/plugins, wp-content/uploads, and wp-includes (wp-content and plugins folders mandatory, the others only for extra measure).

Other security options to consider for advanced users:

  • Rather than uploading your files using FTP try using SSH (PuTTY is free SSH software)
  • PHPIDS (PHP-Intrusion Detection System)
  • Maximum Security (not available yet)

Essential WordPress Plugins for Securing Your WordPress Installation

These are the WordPress plugins that I am currently using related to security:

  1. Akismet (rated 9 out of 10)*: Part of a standard WordPress installation that identifies and blocks comment and trackback spam on blogs.
  2. Bad Behavior (rated 9 out of 10): Blocks link spam and the robots which deliver it.
  3. WordPress Firewall (rated 9 out of 10): Investigates web requests with simple WordPress-specific heuristics to identify and stop most obvious attacks.
  4. WordPress Table Rename (rated 9 out of 10): Facilitates renaming all WordPress tables with a custom prefix helping prevent SQL injection attacks.
  5. WP Security Scan (rated 9 out of 10): Scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions.
  6. DigoWatchWP (rated 8 out of 10): Scans your blog posts and pages for changes and sends email notification of any changes.
  7. Secure WordPress (rated 8 out of 10): Performs basic security housekeeping for WordPress like remove error information on login page; adds index.html to plugin directory; removes the wp-version, except in admin area.
  8. WP Scanner (rated 8 out of 10): Scans your WordPress installation and provides a measure of your WordPress security level (requires install of WP-Scanner Activator; at time of this writing their site was down and throwing an internerl server error).
  9. Paranoid911 (rated 8 out of 10): Checks your WordPress directory with all subdirectories on the server’s filesystem and a few WordPress database tables for changes and sends an email when changes occur.
  10. Safer Cookie (rated 8 out of 10): Ties the WordPress session cookie to the user’s IP address which ensures the cookie can’t be used to access the admin panel from another computer.
  11. Tinfoil Hat (rated 8 out of 10): Provides users with more configuration options regarding what information is sent by WordPress to sites other than your own.
  12. HTML Purified (rated 7 out of 10): Replaces the default WordPress comments filters with HTML Purifier, a super HTML filtering library to remove all malicious code (better known as XSS) from within comments (will also make your documents standards compliant).
  13. Limit Login Attempts (rated 7 out of 10): Limits the number of login attempts possible, therefor reducing brute-force password attacks.
  14. AskApache Password Protect (rated 6 out of 10): I was unable to use AskApache Password Protect since based on self-tests that this plugin runs my particular web host configuration was shown to not support it, but if you are able to make it work then I advise you give it a try.
  15. WordPress Tweaks (rated 6 out of 10): Adds many useful settings pertaining to comments, posts, SEO, security, the administration back-end. (Note: I discovered that 2nd & 3rd options of Comments and Pings section of WordPress Tweaks are not compatible with IntenseDebate plugin; disable these options if you use IntenseDebate).
  16. WP All-in-One tools (rated 6 out of 10): Performs basic security housekeeping for WordPress like replace WP-Version, wp-config.php SECRET_KEY edit, image upload HTTP error fix, minimum comment length, etc. (similar to Secure WordPress plugin but covers different issues).

Beware that not all plugins play well together. The plugins within this list all work together for me, along with a couple of dozen other plugins that I am using. I find that I often need to do a process of elimination (disable plugins one-by-one) to find what plugins are not cooperating with other plugins. Note that some security based plugins for WordPress directly help to protect your WordPress installation, and others only serve to notifiy you of any malicious activity so that you can take corrective action.

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