A common mistake we’ve seen new and seasoned WordPress website owners make is sharing their administrator account information (username and password) with others. Although this may be the quickest way to provide someone with access to your account, it is not the best way to do so. Here are 3 reasons not to share your […]
The start of a new year is a great time to evaluate your WordPress website, looking for ways to improve it. A website is never finished; it can always be improved. Let's start evaluating your site! Get Access Run Site Evaluators Run these site evaluators: The first two evaluators also evaluate SEO, which is a […]
One of the most common questions about WordPress is, "is it secure?" Many get the impression that it's not, mostly from reading scare-tactic headlines. Let's look at the facts, and answer the question, "is WordPress secure?" Perception WordPress attracts more hacking attempts than other platforms because of its popularity. It powers about 23% of all websites, and […]
Note: The No Longer in Directory plugin was, ironically, removed from the WordPress plugin directory in 2018. There's no direct replacement. The Vendi Abandoned Plugin Check plugin will show on your Plugins screen the number of days since a plugin was last updated, which is useful for detecting abandoned plugins. For plugins that aren't in […]
SiteGround is an excellent WordPress-optimized shared host. They're fast, secure, and reliable, yet inexpensive. They're the host I most frequently recommend to small business and nonprofit clients. From firsthand experience, I've found their plans to be superior to similar hosting plans from GoDaddy, Bluehost, DreamHost, Hostmonster, HostGator, iPage, and small local hosting companies. For clients with larger and/or […]
"What does a small business website need?" This was one of the many questions asked at the Small Business Tech Panel at the Warehaüs, a coworking space in Holland, Michigan in March 2014. Here's an expanded version of the answer I gave. The items (in no particular order) are as follows: Effective content (text, images, video) Too […]
Learn why it's important to update WordPress core, plugins, and themes, and how to safely update.
I use two methods for creating passwords: Password security factors In most cases, a password's length and uniqueness are more important than its entropy (randomness). Why? Steve Gibson has an excellent explanation on his Password Haystacks page. He says, The only thing an attacker can know is whether a password guess was an exact match . . . […]
I had the privilege of speaking to students of a high school for their Career Day 2013. First, an IT pro spoke about IT support and software development. Next, I gave the presentation below, which is an overview of careers in Information Technology (IT). How could I improve this presentation for next time? Tell me […]
I've been impressed by the Wordfence Security plugin after running it on several sites for a few months. Here are some of my favorite features of this plugin: Scans core files, themes and plugins against WordPress.org repository versions to check their integrity. Lets you see how files have changed, and optionally repair changed files. Scans […]
Since we started using the CloudFlare (free plan) on a few sites a few months ago, it's greatly reduced comment spam and contact form spam. According to our CloudFlare dashboard, it's also blocked many botnet zombies and other threats, reducing the risk of sites being hacked. It also serves as a CDN (content delivery network), but sites […]
WordPress' popularity makes it a frequent malware target. If you suspect your site has malware (and even if you don't), you should scan it for free with Sucuri SiteCheck. The scan checks for several types of malicious threats. Here's a screenshot of what you want to see; all green checkmarks. If the scan finds malware […]
