![]() The Free option will provide you with everything that you need to direct your site to iThemes Hosting, however, we do recommend that you take a look at the other options to see if they may suit your needs more. You will then need to go through a number of different selection processes in order to determine the package you wish to have with Cloudflare. From there, you will go to a page where it will ask that you enter your site's domain which you are choosing to add. Once you have your IP address, you will then want to go to CloudFlare's site and go through the signup process and get your account created with Cloudflare or, if you already had an account, when you log into their system you should be greeted by a page similar to the one below.Īs soon as you're ready to proceed, you will want to select the +Add a Site option. You will want to copy this down to be used later on. You will find that under Hosting > Site Information. ![]() The first thing you will need to do is access your iThemes Hosting panel and get the IP address of your website. It is worth noting here that Cloudflare is not a domain registrar and you will need to purchase your domain name elsewhere to use this service. They have a fantastic track record and provide a product that many of us at iThemes use regularly! If you decide to go with their products this tutorial will help you get your domain properly pointing to your iThemes Hosting account. If you check off this list, and review your site regularly, you’ll have more peace of mind that your web presence is safe and serving up a faster, cleaner site.Cloudflare is one of the largest managed DNS providers available. Just don’t try them all at once! And, check out your site after trying each of them – they can sometimes cause errors on your site and YMMV. You can also cache via plugins - W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache are some favorites.Check if your host already has a caching service included for free before buying in elsewhere. ![]() Some great CDNs are CloudFlare and MaxCDN. So make your site fast: A CDN delivers static content (JavaScript, images, CSS) from the closest server to that user, to speed delivery. Google loves fast sites, and it’s been said that users leave a site if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Consider activating caching from your host, and a CDN (content delivery network). See how you’re being found, what keywords work best, and which sites are worthwhile to link to - should you still pay for that ad package? Get up to speed with a training program like the Google Analytics Academy. Learn more about your users with Google Analytics. A fair number of folks are not using any web analytics programs to track their site, and are missing out on prime information.These plugins automate many of the processes that are usually done manually to protect sites and are worth reviewing regularly. A personal favorite is Sucuri but I’ve had success with Better WP Security and Wordfence. Secure your site. Since WordPress is becoming so pervasive, securing your site is key.Akismet is a great way to clean it up (and depending on your plan, can be anywhere from free to $5-10 per month). Activate Akismet. I’m often amazed at how many spam links are hanging out – sometimes tens of thousands! This not only bloats your database but keeps you a spamming target.Do a check on dead links. My favorite is Broken Link Checker, which searches out missing pages or images and lets you update or unlink.Delete plugins and themes you aren’t using, because they’re still backdoors for hackers. After you’ve backed it up, update everything: Your plugins, any themes and the core WordPress installation.Set up a schedule – weekly, daily, monthly, depending on how often your site changes. It also comes in handy in security breaches, since you can go back to a clean site. The most important part of any site’s care, backup. Whether you use my favorite Backup Buddy, or free options like BackWPup Free, backup is key.Here’s a list of items I check off every time I take on a site: The best part is, some of these are automated and require little more than setup from you. I’ve often found clients aren’t practicing some of the most basic of these, and it can lead to site downtime or even data loss. The time is always right for updating and protecting your site.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |