Getting All The Websites Up To Date

Due to many changes online I have had to get all the websites up to date

I like to follow a set plan to keep the Websites up to date.  This starts with setting the sites up correctly from the start. Now you may be wondering why bother, right…

There are a few things you must observe with your websites to comply with the handful of groups who think they run the web. You may agree or not agree that this is right. But I have found it is easier to comply with most of these changes than fight them.

So lets start from the beginning.

Setting up your Website correctly right from the beginning. WordPress is the platform used for the base websites. You can configure it into any style of website just by adding different Themes and Plugins.  From a design point of view that is great. Blog posts are are created in the WordPress 5 editor While Pages are created using the Theme Page editor. All my WordPress websites have now been brought up to date and are working just fine using this new platform.

There are a few other things to consider when setting up your websites. The biggest problem of all is securing your websites from hacking and malicious bots. You need to use security measures to make sure your site is as secure as you can make it. I have a number of plugins in place for website security now.

Select any of the free WordPress plugins from inside your site.   Use Akismet to block spam. Wordfence for the firewall. Set up Better WordPress Security and remember to change the wp-admin with this plugin to something different.  The final plugin Securi Security will track and monitor access to your site. You will need all plugins if you use the free versions to fully protect your sites.

Monitoring your websites and keeping your themes and plugins up to date is essential. Making regular backups of your site with one of the backup plugins, like Updraftplus pre to making major updates.  Backing up your Website also highly recommended before you make major changes to your site. Make it a habit to check for updates as soon as you log on to your website.

How do you keep your websites up to date if there are more than one site.

When you have many websites as I have, then you are going to need a simple method to maintain your sites.  All without logging into every website in turn. This gives you one less way hackers can access your websites.  I have one website set up dedicated to keeping the Websites up to date. 

From this one site I can update Plugins, Themes, Translations, Backup and even add content to my sites.   I like to maintain all my sites myself rather than use a 3rd party service. I use a plugin called Main WP Master Plugin.  The Plugin is set up on a secure site and all the websites link to this one site. There are extra plugins to make Fresh Start more flexible, but to get you started simply add your websites to track them. 

What else do you need to keep your websites up to date.

Your websites need to be secure (https) or the search engines are going to give out warnings and in some cases block your sites.  D9 Hosting  My hosting company supply the security certificates, so it is a simple matter of going into your WordPress General Settings and changing the http to https in front of your domain name. You will get logged out, so simply log back in under the right link and it is that easy to secure your sites.

All websites need to be Mobile compatible.  Most Themes should be mobile friendly. The simplest way to check a site is to reduce the size of the browser to check. The two big drop and drag Theme/Plugin combos I use, Optimize Press 2 and Rapid Builder 2 both are responsive themes and they are compatible with the new WordPress 5 Platform. The sites I build with these are designed for Mobile, iPad size, laptop and desktop computers.

The last thing you need to keep your Websites up to date with is to be GDPR Compliant and Google ready. That is quiet a mouthful. I could spend all day explaining all this. Plus you will need to set Permalinks, Social buttons and monetizing your site.

Or I could recommend a plugin called wp-freshstart5-pro. This plugin is going to setup your website for you. Once I have secured my sites, I use Fresh Start to add all the compliant pages, remove old pages and setup everything ready for you to add content. It makes it easy to upgrade features later, like adding Google analytics, Facebook tracking or similar code. Or maybe you will want to monetize your website.

Once you have followed this Guide to get your websites up to date you can start designing and adding content.

While on the topic of adding content there are a few rules you should follow. The main thing is to add unique content. It does not matter how many times people write about a topic. You need to get your website ranked in the search engines. So you need to be different.

So where do you get ideas… Read the next article.