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How to optimize a WordPress website using plugins.

hivelocityadmin — Thu, 07 May 2015 20:04:35 +0000

WordPress is a very popular CMS used for creating websites. However, WordPress sites can be slow, which can harm conversions and search engine rankings. This article explores the most frequent performance issues with WordPress sites and offers some solutions.

To speed up your WordPress site you need to streamline everything: plugins, server, themes, content, etc. The idea is to minimize the use of plugins and external resources and use as much native WordPress functionality as possible.

Multiple plugins can slow down WordPress sites. Remove unused plugins and replace old ones with the latest versions (good for security as well). Ideally, replicate the plugin functionality you want in native WordPress code or custom PHP. The fewer plugins you use on your site, the less chance there is of performance and upgrade issues. Plugins can also call external resources, which introduce uncertain delays by relying on external servers.

Let’s see how to optimize the WordPress website with Plugins.

In this article, we are going to use a couple of plugins that will help a WordPress website load faster.

Once you have your WordPress website developed and designed properly

1) Login to the WordPress admin area with

https://wordpresswebsite.com/admin

(this path may be different as per the location of the admin folder)

2) Once you are logged in to the admin area of the website, on the left-hand side click on Plugins and click on Add New.

On your right-hand side pane, Scroll down and in the Search Plugins window, search for “W3Total Cache Plugin” and press Enter

Now click on the Install Button and wait for it to be installed.
After installation, on your left-hand side pane you will now notice a new section in your admin sidebar called “Performance.”
Point to the Performance option with your mouse and click on General Settings.

Under “General,” Check “Toggle all caching types on or off at once”
Since W3 Total Cache will turn on all its caching features, there are a few that may not apply to you. The common ones are a CDN and the CloudFlare feature. Uncheck “Enable” on these features if you don’t have them.
Under the Minify subsection, There is an option called Minify mode. Check the Box to Enable and Select the Auto option.

Once done with making the changes ,Click on Save All Settings .

Note: If you make any changes to your WordPress plugins, the W3 Total Cache plugin may ask you to Empty the Cache. This is done to make sure the plugin doesn’t serve a cached version of any changed files.

On the next step, on the sidebar, click on the Minify sub-section. Under HTML & XML, check Enable in the HTML minify settings. You can also check the other options, but make sure to test your site to see if it breaks.

Again On the sidebar, click on the Browser Cache sub-section.
Under General, Cascading Style Sheets & JavaScript, HTML, and Media & Other Files headings enable the following:

Set expires header
Set cache control header
Set entity tag (eTag)

Click on Save All Settings
The next step would be to install one more plugin that WP Smush it Plugin
Repeat the steps .. step no. 2 & 3 to install the plugin
This plugin will optimize every image you upload henceforth since you activated it.

There are no options for this plugin and nothing to set up!

In the newer version of WP Smush, there is a Bulk Smush feature that can smush all of your uploaded images. It has worked for us on smaller media libraries and it is very convenient, however, it is experimental (we’ve experienced some errors with it on larger media libraries). Have a look at the feedback forums if you are looking for support.

That’s it! You’re finished.

The post How to optimize a WordPress website using plugins. appeared first on Hivelocity Hosting.

How to Migrate a WordPress Site

hivelocityadmin — Wed, 06 May 2015 20:01:08 +0000

If you’re looking to migrate your WordPress Site from one host server to another via cPanel and aren’t sure where to begin, read on to learn how to easily transition your site without losing your data.

Migrating Your WordPress Site with cPanel

To migrate your WordPress site using cPanel, just follow these key steps.

Exporting Current WordPress Databases

Before you can move your WordPress site, you first have to export your databases.

Log in to FTP with your cPanel username, either using Filezilla or your preferred FTP program.
Next, navigate to the public_html folder and download the WordPress files, including .htaccess, onto your local computer.
Now, log in to cPanel using your username and password. Under the Databases options, open the phpMyAdmin application.
Within phpMyAdmin, select the database that contains your WordPress installation from the list on the left hand sidebar.
Once you’ve selected the WordPress database, click on the Export tab on the navigation menu in the right hand side panel and save the file onto your local computer.
Once the database export and the FTP transfer of your files have both completed, it’s time to move onto the next stage.

Creating a WordPress Database on the New Host Server

To create a new MySQL database for your WordPress site:

First, log in to the cPanel account on your new server and, under the Databases options, click on MySQL Databases.
Next, under the Create a New Database option, create a new database with an appropriate name for your website.
After creating the new database, you’ll need to create a new MySQL User and assign them a secure password.
Under the Add a User to a Database section, select your new user from the dropdown menu and add them to your new database.
Be sure to grant your new user all privileges by checking the box labelled All Privileges and then clicking on Make Changes.
When you’ve finished, write down the name of your new database, the new MySQL username, and its password. You will need these for further configuration.

Editing the wp-config.php File

After creating your new database, the next step is to edit your WordPress site’s configuration files.

You can do that by browsing to the folder on your local computer where you downloaded your website files to in the first step of this tutorial. In that folder, you will find a file called wp-config.php. This file controls access between WordPress and your database.

Start by making a copy of this file and storing it in another folder on your local computer. Should anything go wrong during the process of making changes, this will allow you to restore to the previous version of the file.

Now, open the original version of the wp-config.php file with your favorite text editor and make the following three changes:

Change the Database Name
In the configuration file, locate the following line:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘db_name’);

The db_name portion of this line will currently be set to the MySQL database name of your old web host. You must change this to the name of the new database you just created.
Change the Database Username
After changing the database name, locate the line below it which says:
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘db_user’);

In this line, you will need to change the db_user portion from the username of your old host to the new username you just created for your new database.
Change the Database User Password

Finally, after editing the database name and user, edit the third line:
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘db_pass’);

As with the others, the db_pass section of this line must be changed to the new secure password you created for your new MySQL user.

Once all changes are complete, save the configuration file and close your text editor.

Importing Your Database onto a New Server

Now that your configuration files are ready, the next step in your site migration is to upload your WordPress database onto your new server.

First, log in to cPanel and under the Databases options, open the phpMyAdmin application.
Select your new database from the list on the left hand sidebar. Once it opens, select the Import tab from the navigation menu.
In the File to Import section, click the Choose File button and select the WordPress SQL file you exported previously onto your local computer.
Under Partial Import, un-tick the check box, and make sure the Format is set to SQL. Then, click the Go button. The database import will now begin.
You should receive a confirmation message informing you of the success of the import once it has completed.

Uploading the WordPress Files to Your New Host

Once you’re databases are set and ready to go, it’s time to upload your WordPress files to your new hosting provider.

Log in to FTP with your cPanel username, either using Filezilla or your preferred FTP program, and access your new host server
Navigate to the public_html folder
Now, upload all the WordPress files from your local computer that you downloaded previously, including the newly updated version of wp-config.php.

Updating the Permalinks

At this point you should be just about finished with migrating your site. If you had permalinks set up on your dev site, you may notice that when you initially start clicking around the new, live site, that none of your pages are showing up when navigating away from the homepage.

To fix this:

Log in in to your WordPress Admin Panel.
Navigate to Settings.
Locate the option for Permalinks and simply click Save Changes. WordPress will now create a new .htaccess file on your new server.

*Note: Sometimes WordPress will give an error message when trying to save your permalink settings, telling you it couldn’t create an .htaccess file. You can fix this by going into your web host’s file manager and creating a new file, named “.htaccess”, then making it writeable (permissions 777).

And there you have it! Your WordPress site should now have successfully migrated host servers without the loss of your data.

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How to publish the site via http frontpage?

hivelocityadmin — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:13:18 +0000

Frontpage has inbuilt HTTP which helps us to publish a site via HTTP.

Please refer the following steps to publish a website using Frontpage:

a.To publish your website via HTTP you must have Frontpage extensions installed on your server.

b.Before you publish the site, locate the web files on your local computer

c.After the files get opened up, Click on File and select Publish Destination which will ask you to enter your public destination.

d. Enter the UserName and Password as provided by your web host in the textboxes.

e. After you login you should see the location at which we will be publishing our files.

If you have more than one web host setup in front page, you may switch to that location.

f. You will see all your local files on left side and remote files on other side. You have to upload your file to the specific folder for example if you have cPanel as a control panel then your files would be in public_html and for Plesk the files would be in httpdocs.

g. Once you decide the folder, just drag and drop the files from left side panel to right side.

After an upload you will see a message that all files have been uploaded successfully.

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