Wordpress Archives - FreshWebz Web Design Colchester

New Website Development Project for JS Leisure

September 24, 2016 By freshwebz

JS Leisure is a family business, that provides entertainment for corporate events, fund-raising fun days, children's party or social events, by way of hiring a range of products including Trampolines, a Roundabout, Traditional Hook A Duck, Victorian Style Strikers, Inflatable Slide and Bouncy Castles!

The existing website was built around 10 years ago and although it had some tweaking done by us a few years back, the owner's decided it's now time for a completely new site.

There are a number of elements that don't even work in certain desktop browsers any more, so it's definitely not going to view well on a phone and as over 50% of searches are now carried out on phones, it's vital that a business website works well on them!

The client has given an example of a website they like the look of and another that they definitely don't, so it should be fairly straightforward to create something that will do the job and look the part!

They want to be able to update the site themselves, add new services and pictures of them on location, so the website is being developed on WordPress. This is the easiest and cheapest way of providing them with a content management system (CMS), on a flexible platform.

Work is already under way on the website development, so we'll update this post once it's up and running!

The new JS Leisure website was completed and has been up for some time, so we thought it was time to update this post!

The new site is responsive, so it looks good on mobile/smartphone and tablet, as well as traditional desktop/laptop screens. We're shortly about to carry out some SEO on the site, in order to target specific keywords for the client.

WordPress Malware Scanning Now Powered by Sucuri SiteCheck in iThemes Security

September 16, 2015 By freshwebz

Our recommended WordPress Security plugin, iThemes Security, now has Malware Scanning powered by Sucuri SiteCheck, which uses a 10-point site check to scan your site for known malware, blacklist status, website errors and out-of-date software.

Sucuri scanners use the latest in fingerprinting technology allowing you to determine if your web applications are out of date, exploited with malware, or even blacklisted. The scanner also monitors your DNS, SSL certs & WhoIs records.

To start using Malware Scanning in iThemes Security, visit the Settings tab. From the dropdown menu, select Malware Scanning.

WordPress Malware Scanning

From the Malware Scanning section, click the Scan Homepage for Malware button.

Sucuri SiteCheck will go to work and then give you the results of the malware scan. You can also view the results from the Logs page.

The free version of iThemes Security allows you to manually run malware scans on the homepage of your site. To run automated malware scanning you will need to upgrade to iThemes Security Pro.

Backing Up a WordPress Website

August 9, 2015 By freshwebz

We wrote in our previous article about the popularity of WordPress as a foundation for websites around the world and resultant attempts by hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the code of not only WordPress itself, but also the plugins that extend its functionality.

We explained that it was possible to secure your WordPress site way beyond the standard level offered by a default installation, but even a reasonably secure website could be exploited and malicious code injected into it and unfortunately once infected, it's pretty much curtains for your website, unless you want to spend around £150 having it cleaned.

A much better option is to back up your website files and database on a regular basis! Our web hosting has the facility to back up files and databases but it means logging into your hosting control panel to manually run the backups and let's face it, no small business owner wants to be messing around like that!

Our preferred WordPress security package, iThemes Security, has the option to backup files and databases, but we have found it to be a bit "glitchy"; not backing up for certain reasons and requiring manual adjustments to parts of the website that everyday users won't want to do.

We decided to turn off the backup feature of iThemes and use a dedicated backup tool instead, namely UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration. This is the highest ranking backup plugin on WordPress.org and allows you to backup in a variety of ways and restore with a single click. The best thing is that it's a completely FREE tool and allows backup via Amazon S3 (or compatible), Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace Cloud, DreamObjects, FTP, Microsoft OneDrive, SFTP, SCP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift and email, although certain of the offered cloud backup services (Microsoft One Drive for example) require paid-for add-ins to be purchased.

However, we configured our sites to utilise our free Dropbox account and backups to this are included with the standard plugin. Backups of files and database can have separate schedules, with every 4, 8, 12 hours; daily; weekly; fortnightly; monthly on offer and the ability to customised further. You can also specify the number of backups that should be kept, which is useful because it might be a few days before you realise your website has been compromised and you will want to have clean historical backups to restore from!

How To Protect Your WordPress Website Against Hackers

August 8, 2015 By freshwebz

Because it's the most popular content management system in use on the Internet, WordPress websites are a common target for hackers and spammers. That is why it is vital to take measures to make your WordPress website as secure as possible.

Whilst most people would assume that a hacked website would simply be defaced and the site replaced with a message to visitors such as "Your Website Has Been Hacked by SOMESILLYNAME!", in reality, the aim of most hacks is to infect your website with malware without you or anyone else knowing! Some of the common malware threats include:

Pharma Hacks – Injects spam into the website database or files
Backdoors – Allows hackers to gain access to the website at any time via FTP or the WordPress admin area
Drive by Downloads – A script downloads a file to the users computer, either without their knowledge or by misleading the visitor and saying the software does something useful
File and Database Injections – Inserts code into the files or database that lets the hackers do a number of different things
Malicious Redirects – Redirects website visitors to a page of theirs that misleads people into downloading an infected file
Phishing – Used to acquire usernames, passwords, email addresses and other sensitive information

The reason that hackers generally want their hack not to be noticed is because the longer you don't know your website is infected, the longer they can use it to send spam emails and infect your visitor's computers.

In order to keep a WordPress installation secure, you need to ensure that you keep plugins to a minimum and update them as soon as new versions are released! It can be very tempting to add dozens and dozens of plugins to your WordPress site and give it loads of bells and whistles, but the more plugins you have, the more chance there is that one of them could have a vulnerability. Only install the plugins you need and remove any you aren't using........you can always install them again later if need be.

If a plugin hasn't been updated for a long time, then it's possible that the developer has stopped supporting it and you should consider whether it's safe to keep using. You can find out what plugins have known issues by visiting the WPScan Vulnerability Database. Alternatively there are plugins(!!) that utilise the database to tell you whether any of the plugins you have installed have issues. A scan of this very site with Plugin Vulnerabilities revealed that none of my current plugins have vulnerabilities, but earlier versions did have:

Google Analytics by Yoast4.2-5.3.2 - persistent cross-site scripting (XSS)
Page Builder by SiteOrigin2.0-2.0.4 - reflected cross-site scripting (XSS)
Wordfence Security3.6.1-5.1.2 - reflected cross-site scripting (XSS)
Wordfence Security1.1-5.2.2 - persistent cross-site scripting (XSS)
Yoast SEO1.5.0-1.5.6 - cross-site request forgery (CSRF)/SQL injection
Yoast SEO1.6-1.6.3 - cross-site request forgery (CSRF)/SQL injection
Yoast SEO1.7-1.7.3.3 - cross-site request forgery (CSRF)/SQL injection

This shows the importance of updating plugins as soon as a new version is released!

Further to this, it is recommended that you install a security plugin, which can walk you through all the steps required to make your site more secure. We use iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) and it is best to install this as the first plugin you use, as some of the recommended changes cannot be made after you start to build your site and add content. However, even installing and implementing the basic changes on an established WordPress site WILL make it more secure.

As even a secure WordPress website can be hacked without the owner knowing, it is important that you also scan your website regularly to detect if any hidden malware has been injected into your site! As a web host, we shut down sites as soon as we realise they are compromised, but by then it might be too late. Your site is lost and your domain might even be blacklisted!

Our web hosting plans allow you to carry out a full back-up of your website and database, but this involves manually running the back-up. There are automated ways to back-up your website, which we will discuss in the next article. Plus, in a future article we will tell you about the various services and plugin solutions that will help you detect if malicious malware has been injected into your WordPress website, so you can take immediate action!

Great WordPress Plug-ins For Your Site

October 13, 2010 By freshwebz

Looking at the abundance of business websites powered by WordPress, it’s apparent that it has tremendous appeal to internet marketers. When you think about this, it doesn’t come as a surprise. This content management platform is free to use, easy to install and even easier to manipulate. You don’t need to be some kind of coding wiz to configure your site. More importantly there are thousands of plug-ins available. By using plugins, you can make your site do almost anything and look almost any way you choose. Downloading is done via the WordPress codex site, and you just follow the instructions within the Dashboard and you’ll be all set to go. Here are some of the WordPress Plug-ins that every internet marketer needs to have in his arsenal. Having a good income stream is important online, so have a peek at this Empire Formula web site.

The FD Feedburner plugin is something all online marketers will find extremely useful. So just imagine that you can have the benefits of Feedburner because this plugin makes your blog feed into a feed for Feedburner. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is how people follow your site without having to visit the actual pages every day. What happens is all your RSS subscribers will receive an alert when your content/blog is updated with new content. So it’s really convenient because it eliminates the need to check a bunch of sites for fresh content each day. The Feedburner Plug-in is good because Feedburner feeds are accessible by just about every feed reader on the internet.

A standard plugin for SEO is the All in One SEO Pack, and it’s highly recommended. Basically it helps your blog be properly configured for ‘on page’ SEO factors so you don’t have to mess with it. Whenever you make a post, or create a page with a post, it will optimize all the relevant on-page factors for you. You can use certain settings on specific pages to avoid getting slapped with a minus for dupe content.

So what you’ll do is for those pages, just make them noindex in the settings and no problem. All online marketers realize the importance of SEO for their success. Come see this innovative online money making method at this Empire Formula page.

The WP Greet Box Plug-in is a great way to personalize your site for your viewers. You’ll set it up so visitors hear a personal message/greeting from you if they arrive from certain sources. For example, if someone finds your website through Digg, a message will pop up that says something along the lines of “Welcome Digg user!” So depending on your marketing, you’ll customize the message to greet people from any website. It’s just a way to help make visitors feel appreciated for following a link to your site. Hopefully it will encourage your visitors to bookmark your site on your behalf. You’ll really ramp-up your marketing online if you take advantage of WordPress. This used to only be viewed as something ‘bloggers’ used, but online marketers don’t look at WordPress like that, anymore. WordPress can be used effectively by almost anyone. Internet marketers who have always avoided marketing with blogs are turning to them more and more. So it’s even easy for those who have never even thought about it before. You can customize your site for any use with plugins and WordPress.

Additional Resources:
Home Based Business

New Website Development Project for JS Leisure

WordPress Malware Scanning Now Powered by Sucuri SiteCheck in iThemes Security

Backing Up a WordPress Website

How To Protect Your WordPress Website Against Hackers

Great WordPress Plug-ins For Your Site

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