Slides from the Web Princess Professional Blog Clinic at #pbevent 2014 at QT Gold Coast. A talk on how to manage the back end of your WordPress website responsibly

1. Responsible [digital]
Home Ownership @thewebprincess

2. c Maintenance
Insurance c
c Security c Pest Control c Efficiency

3. Insurance

4. Back me Up
How will your back up get created?
Where will it be stored?
How will you restore from that backup?

5. How to Back Up
Let your host take care of it
Learn how to do it manually
(for those of us who are technical)
!
Install (and use) a WordPress backup plugin
Pay someone to do it for you.

6. Backup Plugin Options
1. VaultPress - $5-$15 monthly
2. Backup Buddy - $80USD (annually if you want to
be able to update it)
3. WP Backup to Dropbox - Free with paid
extensions

7. Where will the backup live?
Hint: NOT on your server - send it offsite

8. How will you restore it?
Hint: Practice restoring it

9. Schedule
regular backups
credit:photosteve101 https://www.flickr.com/photos/42931449@N07/6812481635/"

10. Maintenance

11. Stay up to Date
WordPress core
Allow auto updates
Update your Plugins
Update your Themes (a word of caution re child
themes)

12. Take Out the Trash
Delete extraneous revisions
!
Delete draft posts
WP Clean up (plugin)
Delete unused plugins and themes
credit: epSos.de - https://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/5575089139/

13. Declutter
Optimise your Database
WP Cleanup (plugin)

14. Keep on top of Broken Links
Google Webmaster Tools - Web based
!
Broken Link Checker (plugin)
!
Screaming Frog - Desktop Tool

15. Security

17. Stay up to Date
WordPress core
Allow auto updates
Update your Plugins and Themes
Delete unused themes and plugins

18. Avoid Defaults
Don’t have a user called admin
(or siteadmin, webadmin, administrator etc.)
When you install WP, change the database table prefix
from wp_ to anything else
Change DB Prefix (plugin)

19. Keep the Doors Locked
Use a strong key - enforce strong passwords for all users
- passwords like this (note: this is not my password)
AgDBJpxfcid7BnaTi9Eg
!
Use a password keeper
1Password, Last Pass
Pro tip: Don’t use the same password for everything

20. Use a Security Screen - (plugin)
1. WordFence - Free (has a Pro option)
!
2. iThemes Security - Free (has a Pro option)
3. Sucuri Malware scanner - Free to scan, (but
cleanup and real time scanning - annual subscription)

21. Get an SSL Certificate for your Site
Transfer of data is secure and encrypted
!
Particularly useful on login pages and contact
forms where customer data, sales information
and passwords are being transferred
!
Google is starting to give sites with an SSL
certificate a better ranking

22. Pest Control

23. Spam, Spam, Spam
1. Akismet - Spam Plugin
Free for personal sites - $5 p/m if you make any money i.e.
advertising/affiliate
!
2. WP SpamShield - Free
!
3. Disqus - alternate comment system and plugin
!
4. Registration Honeypot - for those with open
registration on their sites

24. Efficiency

25. The Need… for Speed
1. Bounce rate
2. Search ranking
3. Conversion
4. Page views
5. Reader satisfaction
6. Revenue
http://www.copyblogger.com/website-speed-matters/

26. How to Test your Site Speed
1. http://webpagetest.org
2. http://tools.pingdom.com/
3. https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
4. http://gtmetrix.com/

27. How to Read Results
1. DNS redirection - Pink
2. Server Response - Blue
3. WordPress/Application response - Yellow
4. Content download

28. Page Speed Performance
1. Read the Recommendations
2. Find solutions that help remedy these
issues
3. P3 Profiler is a useful WP plugin to see
which plugins are slowing your site down

29. How to Improve Results - in WP
1. WordFence - has a caching engine built in to
store static pages of your site.
2. Other caching plugins include WP Super
Cache, Hyper Cache, W3 Total Cache
3. Page Speed - will help sort out a couple of the
top recommendations from tests like Enable
Compression and Leverage Browser Caching

30. How to Improve Results - on the Server
1. Add a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to
serve your static content.
2. Consider a service like Cloud Flare - a lot of
hosts offer free Cloud Flare integration with
your site.

31. c Maintenance
Insurance c
c Security c Pest Control c Efficiency
http://thewebprincess.com/pbevent14

32. thewebprincess.com/pbevent14
Coupon Code
PBEVENT1490
Dee Teal
http://thewebprincess.com/pbevent14
@thewebprincess
facebook.com/thewebprincess
$90.00 off a WordPress Site Inspection
to get you started.
valid until Sept 5 - only 12 available

33. Questions?
Dee Teal
http://thewebprincess.com/pbevent14
@thewebprincess
facebook.com/thewebprincess

34. Image Credits - (Mostly found via Photo Pin photopin.com)
Insurance - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
dhilowitz/4560586060/
- David Hilowitz
Backup - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
moionet/3752752293/ -
moionet
Server Room - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/
4773457853/
- Tom Raftery
Lego Postman - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
stavos52093/12361203415/
- stavos
Restore - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
woolner/753867268/
- Wooly Matt
Calendar - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
42931449@N07/6812481635
- photosteve101
Maintenance - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
75905404@N00/7126146307/
- OZinOH
Trash Bins - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/
5575089139/
- epSos.de
Shreddings - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
didmyself/7685630558/ -
Daniel Kulinski
Security Locks - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
josemanuelerre/11434605616/
- josemanuelerre
Avoid Defaults - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
kaptainkobold/5181464194/
- Kaptain Kobold
Door Locks - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
pizzagirl/4578900453/
- jainaj
Security Screen - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
donut2d/36831870/
- donut2D
Pests - https://www.flickr.com/
photos/uncoolbob/
8405718181/
- uncoolbob
Speedometer - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
thibaud_saintin/13441220173/
- Thibaud Saintin
Tunnel - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
w4nd3rl0st/12491208355/
- w4nd3rl0st
Other uncredited royalty free images purchased from Bigstock Photo, or created by the author

35. Dee Teal
http://thewebprincess.com/pbevent14
@thewebprincess
facebook.com/thewebprincess