1 VIEW VIDEO TUTORIALS
2 ADD DOWNLOADABLE PDF FILES TO YOUR WEBSITE
How to add a PDF downloadable file to your website page…
3 FIND OUT HOW MUCH TRAFFIC YOU HAVE ON YOUR WEBSITE.
If you have Google Analytics installed on your website, you will be able to view a wealth of information on traffic to your site. Go to this link to login to your Google Account: http://www.google.com/analytics
4 FONT STYLES
Your website via WordPress editing comes with 6 pre-set font styles (you can access these on your toolbar when you are editing a page on your site). For most websites, this gives you plenty of options for font sizes. You can also create a custom color for any one of these font styles on your toolbar when editing a page.
You can also create custom colors and sizes on your pages using html coding (not required or necessary). To make it easy for you to know what those preset font style are, I created a page on your site where you can view the pre-sent font styles on your website, go to the page named “font” on your website. Go to EDIT PAGES, and find and view the page named “font.”
TIP — Take the video tutorials to learn how to edit your pages, and once familiar with writing and editing pages and posts, the font styles will make sense.
5 BACKUP YOUR WEBSITE
It’s important to periodically make a backup file of your pages, blog posts, and website. Every blog entry and page that you create or edit is stored on your website hosting company’s server. However, the best way to guarantee that you have a current backup, in the unlikely event your host company server fails or your website is hacked (it’s rare, but it can happen), or in the unlikely event that you forget to renew your hosting account (and your site disappears)… is to create backup files.
If you prefer not to make your own backups or do your own upgrades, contact us to do this for you (we charge $50 to backup all files, upgrade wordpress software, update plugins, update BackupBuddy plugin. BackupBuddy plugin is an annual cost of $80 if you were to buy this yourself… so you’re saving money by getting your license renewal included in our $50 service)
To request upgrade and backup service, you can send online payment to order this “UPGRADE & BACKUP SERVICE” here:
REQUEST UPGRADES & BACKUPS
a) Make a full backup of all your files: Login to your website and use the “BackupBuddy” Plugin that was installed on your website, allowing you to make a quick backup of both your database and your entire website. Login to your website and go to the BACKUP BUDDY menu on your toolbar to make a quick backup. You can download a copy of the backup file to your computer desktop, by clicking on the “.zip” backup files that you created. Make BOTH a “DATABASE ONLY” and a “FULL” backup file of your site.
If you are continually uploading images to your site, and making changes to your pages, or adding blog posts – this is IMPORTANT to download backup files of your content and all your files / images. If you download to your computer a FULL backup from your BACKUPBUDDY plugin, then you do have all your images in that folder.
b) Backup Your PAGE & POST content: Login to your website and go to TOOLS, EXPORT on your menu/dashboard. DOWNLOAD “ALL CONTENT” to your local computer, and save. You will need this “.xml” file in case your site goes down or gets hacked, in order to restore your pages and posts to your site. See this screenshot:
6) ONGOING MAINTENANCE – UPGRADING SOFTWARE
As software and browsers (Internet Explorer; Firefox; Chrome; Safari) update, it’s important to keep the software that your website runs on up to date also. Upgrades assure your site continues to operate and have better security. Regular maintenance (full backup and upgrade) is highly recommended.
REALLY IMPORTANT: BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO ‘UPGRADE’ WORDPRESS
You have administrator login to your website. Occasionally when you login, you will see a notice to “upgrade” your WordPress software. BEFORE you click the “UPDATE/UPGRADE” link – you MUST MAKE AND DOWNLOAD BACKUP FILES OF YOUR WEBSITE.
It’s also advisable to DEACTIVATE all your plugins prior to clicking “update/upgrade”.
If your website has the GENESIS framework, you FIRST UPDATE GENESIS BEFORE you update WordPress. GENESIS link is on your dashboard, go to GENESIS “THEME SETTINGS” – open the window for INFORMATION, and select the box for ENABLE AUTOMATIC UPDATES — a link appears at the top of your screen asking you if you want to upgrade GENESIS.
IF YOU DO NOT SEE “Genesis” menu item on your Dashboard, go to your PROFILE page (USERS >> PROFILE… scroll down and check the boxes under USER PERMISSIONS that enable you to see the GENESIS menu items:
STEPS: Upgrade Your Website Yourself
1) Update “GENESIS” FIRST before doing any WordPress update
2) Deactivate plugins
3) Update WordPress (be patient and wait for the process to COMPLETE before clicking anywhere else on your site!)
4) Reactivate plugins
5) Update all plugins
6) Check the website to assure it’s functioning properly
7) Make new BACKUPS, using BACKUP BUDDY and download your backups of the site for safekeeping
To request upgrade and backup service, you can send online payment to order this “UPGRADE & BACKUP SERVICE” here:
REQUEST UPGRADES & BACKUPS
7) SECURITY of Your Website
We are seeing hacking of websites increasing tenfold in the last year. The best security you can do yourself is to USE ONLY A VERY SECURE PASSWORD on your website logins… don’t give out your logins, and don’t store your login passwords in your browser.
The cost to repair a hacked site is typically between $200-300.
For additional security, you can install the WP SIMPLE FIREWALL plugin – and activate some of the basic features/functions in the Dashboard.
An additional level of security includes:
$12/month – We can add you to our automated security scanning system – this checks your site and auto-updates some plugins and WordPress – and advises us of any unusual activity on your website, so that we can be pro-active and prevent hacking on your site.
$20/month – In addition to adding your site to our automated security scanning system, we physically check your site (Login and run a security scan on your site) on a monthly basis.
To request upgrade and backup service, you can send online payment to order this “UPGRADE & BACKUP SERVICE” here:
REQUEST UPGRADES & BACKUPS
8) SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Your website contains some built-in SEO features – allowing you to customize every PAGE and BLOG POST with a unique PAGE TITLE and META DESCRIPTION. (If you install an SEO plugin, such as “yoast seo” – you will disable this feature.)
For every PAGE and POST, you can help search engines better see your content by adding a unique TITLE and DESCRIPTION to your page or post. On the EDIT PAGE screen for the page or post, scroll down to below the content area (where you type your page content), to find the window titled THEME SEO SETTINGS. See screenshot here below:
