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Dennis Nind
By Dennis Nind
• 76 articles

How to disable comments in WordPress

Although allowing comments can be a great way for visitors to engage with your site content, however sometimes you may decide you want to disable commenting. Whether that is because certain posts don't require any commenting, or just to prevent potential comment spam on your WordPress site. Disable comments on future posts: If you would like to disable comments on all posts that you create in the future, this can be done via the WordPress discussion settings page. Note: This does not disable comments for any previously published post. For that you would need either edit the post individually, in bulk, or using a plugin. Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over 'Settings' on the left menu, then click on the 'Discussion' option. On the Discussion settings page, you will want to find the 3rd option down: 'Allow people to submit comments on new posts' and un-tick this. Note: You can also adjust other settings for commenting on this page, such as whether the WordPress site should notify you when a comment is made, or whether users need to register first before being able to comment. Once done, click on 'Save Changes' at the bottom of the page. Comments will then be automatically disabled for any new post that is published. Disable comments on an individual post: If you only need to disable commenting on a single post, then the quickest way to do this is via the 'Discussion' options within the WordPress post. Firstly, locate the post that you would like to turn commenting off for, and edit the post. On the editor page, click on 'Screen Options' at the top of the page. This will then open a drop down box at the top of the page. Tick the 'Discussion' option You will then see a new box appear below the editor for 'Discussion' Within this box, un-tick the 'Allow Comments' option. Once done, click on the 'Update' button on the right hand side of the page to save the changes. Disable all comments using a plugin: If you would like to disable commenting site wide, on both previous and future posts - the easiest way to do this is by using a WordPress plugin. In this guide we will be using the 'Disable Comments' plugin, however there are other alternatives available should you wish to use something else. Firstly, from your WordPress dashboard, hover over 'Plugins' on the left menu, then click on the 'Add New' option. Next, In the Search box in the top left of the screen, enter 'Disable Comments' then press enter. This will search for the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository, and also show related plugins in the search result. You should see Disable Comments** **appear as the first result. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin on WordPress. Once installed, the button will change to a blue **Activate **button. Click this to activate the plugin. Once activated this will take you back to the Installed Plugins page. You will then need to go to the plugin settings to configure the comment settings. hover over 'Settings' on the left menu, then click on the 'Disable Comments' option. Alternatively, you can also click on the 'Settings' button below the 'Disable Comments' plugin listing on the 'Installed Plugins' page. On the Disable Comments page, you will then be given several options which can be adjusted as needed, such as disabling comments everywhere, or only on Posts, Pages, or Media. In this guide we will be disabling comments site-wide and have selected the 'Everywhere' option. Once you have made your selections click on the 'Save Changes' button. Comments will now be disabled on the WordPress site as per your setting choices. Disable comments in bulk: Lastly, if you have several posts that you want to disable comments on (whilst leaving comments enabled on other posts), you can use WordPress to bulk edit. Firstly, go to your 'All Posts' page. Then using the tick boxes on the left hand side of the posts, select the ones that you would like to bulk edit. Once you have selected the posts you would like to edit, click on the drop down box above the posts, and select 'Edit' Then click on the 'Apply' button This will then open a drop down box above the posts with various quick edit options. Click on the 'Comments' drop down box and select 'Do not allow' Once done, click on the 'Update' button to save changes. Comments will then be disabled on the posts you have just edited.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to duplicate a post or page in WordPress

If you ever need to make a copy of an existing post or page within WordPress, either to test out some changes in draft mode, or to duplicate content across your site, this can easily be achieved using WordPress plugins. In this guide we will be using the Duplicate Post plugin to show you how to make copies of your WordPress posts, or pages. Installing the duplicator plugin:\n\n Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over Plugins on the left menu, then click on the Add New option. Next, In the Search box in the top left of the screen, enter 'Duplicate Post' then press enter. This will search for the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository, and also show related plugins in the search result. You should see **Duplicate Post **appear as the first result. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin on WordPress. Note: This guide is using the Duplicate Post plugin, however there are many others that will be able to do the same, should you wish to use a different plugin. Once installed, the button will change to a blue **Activate **button. Click this to activate the plugin. Duplicating a Post or Page:\n\n Once you have activated the plugin, go to either your 'All Posts' or 'All Pages' area, for this guide we will use 'All Posts' as the example. Next, find the post, or page that you would like to duplicate. Hover over this and click on the 'Clone' Option The page will then refresh, and you will see a Draft copy of the page at the top of the list.  In this example we have duplicated the default 'Hello World!' post in WordPress. You can now edit the post or page as normal, updating / changing the content as required before publishing. Alternative option for duplicating:\n\n Alternatively, if you're already editing a post or page, you can also make a duplication without needing to go back to the posts / page list. Simply click on the 'Copy to a new draft' option within the Publish box on the right hand side of the page.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Getting Started with PrestoWebsite

#Getting Started This tutorial will show you the basics of the PrestoWebsite builder. By the end you'll have created and published the first page of your website. To edit your website we reccomend using the Google Chrome browser, this will provide you with the fastest and most relaible editing experience, but the PrestoWebsite builder will work with all modern browsers. ##Creating your Homepage Your homepage is the first page a user visits on your website when going to your domain name. Creating a page in PrestoWebsite is very easy and once you know how to create one you know how to create them all. We'll start with your homepage. To start editing, select the Site icon in the top left, if it's not selected already. The site section is where you manage and edit all of the pages of your site, and their content. ###Editing Page Settings Page settings allow you to set things such as the page name, and the browser title. To edit the page settings select the cog icon next to the Home Page. The page settings window appears. To begin with we'll change the Title In Navigation and the Title In Browser. The 'Title in Navigation' is the text that appears in your sites navigation menus. As an example we'll change this from 'Home Page' to 'Home'. The 'Title in Browser' is the text that appears in the users browser tab. We'll change this to 'Home - John's Recruitment'. It's always a good idea to include your company name in the page title so people can easily identify which site they're looking at via the browser tab. As an optional step you may want to add some search engine keywords and description to this page. 'Keywords' are how search engines such as Google know how to match your site to what people are searching for. 'Description' is the short bit of text that appears under your domain name in the search engine results. Once you've entered your settings click Save. You will notice that the main navigation of your site has changed to 'Home'. ###Editing Page Content The main part of the editor shows your page, virtually any item on the page is editable, or movable just by clicking it. To start, lets set the company name at the top. ####Editing Titles Each page has a main title, to edit this, click on the title (in this case it's 'Company Name'), the edit panel will opens on the left. Edit it to your choice and click Save. ####Editing Page Text Now, you can do the same for the other page text, simply click it, and edit it in the window that opens. Now lets edit the homepage text. Click on the large text area that you want to edit, and enter the text for your website's homepage. This is a great place to give people an intro to your company and what it does. Note that as well as editing text, you can also change the style, such as add bold, change justification or insert links to other sites. Once you've made the change click Save. ####Adding Images The PrestoWebsite builder keeps a library of the images you upload so you can easily browse and reuse them. It also has a powerful image editor, where you can do all sorts of effects and modifications to images you have in your library (read more about this in the Editing Images tutorial). Lets add a new image and make the mini image on the homepage. To start, click on the image you want to edit, the 'Image' panel will open on the left. On this panel click the Select Image button. If you have images in your library already you'll be able to use one of them, or upload a new image. In this case we're going to upload a new image. To do this select the Add Images button On the next screen select Choose Files and navigate to the image on your computer. You can select multiple images by holding the CTRL key while clicking. Once you've chosen them select Open. After a few seconds for the image(s) to upload, they'll be added to your library: Simply click an image to apply it to your page, the end result will look something like this: ####Editing the Feature Section A feature section is the most prominent section on a page, it's the place the user's eyes will focus on when they first open your site. We're going to add a image to this section and edit the button. To begin, click on the feature section and the 'Feature' panel opens on the left. To begin we're going to customise the background image. If you have your own image you can upload it, or you may prefer to leave it as the default image for now. If you wish to add your own background photo, select Use your own image in the feature panel and then click Choose Image. Your image library will open up and you can choose an existing image or upload a new one using the steps above. In this case we've used an existing image, and the result is below: You can also drag the image to reposition it (click and drag the preview image in the feature panel). Now that we've added an image, lets add some captivating title text. In the Header Text option enter a few words or a short sentence, it should summarise what you do. You can also use the Strapline Text which will add smaller text under your main title if you need more room for more words. Lastly we need to make the button do something, and change it's text. In our example, this button is going to link to a contact page, as we don't have a contact page built yet, we'll just point the button back to Home, we can then build a contact page and change the button's link when ready. To do this, drop down the Button Link menu, select Internal and then click Save to set the link to 'Home' for now. We're also going to change the button's text to 'Get In Touch': Once complete click Save and your feature area will update - it should look something like this: ##Previewing Now we've covered the basics to building a page in PrestoWebsite you should be able to take this knowledge and build more pages. For now though we want to preview our page, and then publish it to the web. To preview the page click on Preview in the top menu bar. You can now see your site in full page preview mode, this is how it will look to the user when visiting. Give it a quick check over, and change back to the Edit mode by clicking Edit again. ##Publishing To publish your site it's as simple as a couple of click, click the publish button in the top menu bar. Then confirm the publishing: After a few seconds your site will be live on the internet! You can click on Go to Site to view it on the internet, and then give this link to your friends! ##Changing your Theme You may have already chosen a theme you like for your website during the signup process. If so you may wish to skip this step, but remember - you can change the theme of your site at any time and all of your content will stay intact. This is handy if you decide you don't like the theme you've chosen and you've already built most of your site, or perhaps if you just fancy a change. Themes are made up of a template, you can then customise items of the template such as font and background colour (read more about this in the the Customising your Theme tutorial). For now we'll just choose a Template. To choose a new template select the Theme option on the left menu, and then select Browse Templates. You can then browse the available templates and choose the one that suits your site best. The template choices available to you depend on the PrestoWebsite package you have, you may wish to upgrade to use a specific template. You can click on the templates to preview them, when you find one you like select the Use Template option in the top right. After a moment the template will load and you can begin editing. This concludes the getting started tutorial of PrestoWebsite, you should now be able to carry on and add new pages, more photos and content. Don't forget to checkout our other tutorials on advanced topics, or just have a play!

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Customising the Wordpress Sidebar

As standard a WordPress website has a sidebar on the right hand site. This sidebar contains a search bar and links to recent blog posts, recent comments, monthly archives, categories and meta information. You may find, however, that you would like to customise this section to either remove some items or add additional ones in. This article explains how you can do this. Appearance Customisation Log into your WordPress admin panel. From the left hand side menu, mouse hover the 'Appearance' menu item and select 'Customize'. You are now in customising mode. To change the sidebar, select 'Widgets' from the menu. Choose the 'Widget Area'. You can now see all of the menu items that exist in your WordPress sidebar in the left hand side list and you can also see them for real on your website on the right hand side. Add a Sidebar item To add a sidebar item, choose the 'Add a Widget' option. WordPress provides a number of possible widgets that can be added to the sidebar. If your website has any plugins, you will see widgets for those too. In this example, we're going to add a calendar and therefore choose the 'Calendar' widget option. Giving the new widget a name will update the heading on WordPress. Move a Sidebar item If you would like to change the order for the sidebar items, you can move them. Simply click the item that you would like to move and then drag it into the respective position. Once moved, you should now see the correct new ordering. You can repeat this process and choose the order that you would like to have. Remove a Sidebar item If there's an item that you would like to remove, firstly click that item to drop open the options. To remove it, choose 'Remove' as shown below. Save Sidebar changes Once you have made the changes that you see fit, save them by selecting the 'Save & Publish' option at the top of the customising area on the left hand side. This process will now make the new sidebar customisations visible to your website visitors. By following the procedures in this article for changing the WordPress sidebar menu items, either by adding new items or removing old items, you should now understand how to customise the WordPress sidebar.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Wordpress showing 'Error Establishing a Database Connection'

If your WordPress website is reporting that there's an error establishing a database connection, you can run through various steps to ensure that the database connection details are setup correctly, that the database exists, and even change the database password if you think that this is the problem. Check WordPress wp-config.php database credentials In your WordPress files on your server, there is a file named wp-config.php where you can review your WordPress database connection information. In cPanel, scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose 'File Manager'. The file manager has access to all of the files on your server, including your WordPress files which is where we need to view the wp-config.php file. Using the left directory listing, open the 'public_html' folder and then click onto the folder that contains your WordPress installation. Once in the WordPress folder, locate the wp-config.php file and mouse click onto it. Choose 'Edit' from the top menu. Open the file in the text editor by selecting 'Edit'. When the file loads, review the section for the 'MySQL settings'. This will contain the database name, user and password that it has been configured to use in order to gain a database connection. These are shown as in our example: - define('DB_NAME', 'example_wp156'); - the database name consists of our example account username 'example' followed by an underscore and the database name alais 'wp156'. - define('DB_USER', 'example_wp156'); - the database user, again our example account username and underscore, followed by the database username alais 'wp156'. - define('DB_PASSWORD', '9SyPd2((8R'); - the database password. - define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); - the database host, always localhost. Please note that your database connection details will differ from what has been shown here. Check phpMyAdmin for the database Now that we know what database WordPress is trying to connect to, lets check that the database exists. Whilst still logged into your cPanel account, scroll down to the 'Databases' section and choose 'MySQL Databases'. At the top under the 'Current Databases', you should find your database listed to verify the database as per the wp-config.php file is correct. By creating a new MySQL database, you will need to update the wp-config.php that was earlier viewed as per the new MySQL database and user that you create. If you can see your database and you believe that your wp-config.php file is correct, but you are not confident the password is correct, you can change this. Reset the WordPress database password A database does not have a password, only the database user that has access does which we can reset. Whilst still in 'MySQL Databases', scroll further down to the 'Current Users' section. Select the 'Change Password' option on the database user as noted from earlier. Type in your new password for the database user in the 'Password' box and repeat again in the 'Password (Again)' box. Note that there's a 'Password Generator' option if you would like the system to generate you a strong new password. Once your new password has been entered, complete the process by choosing the 'Change Password' option. Now go back to the earlier wp-config.php file viewed in the 'File Manager' and update the database config with the new password that you've set. Remember to save the changes to the file before closing the window. This article helps explain the database information that WordPress has been configured to and how to troubleshoot what might be the problem if your website is experiencing an error establishing a database connection.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Migrating Wordpress from another Account or Host

If you've chosen to migrate your WordPress website from hosting another account or WordPress.com, you may be concerned about losing your website or any of the associated information. However, once you have backed up your database and made a copy of your Wordpress files, transferring your WordPress site is a quick and easy task to perform. The migration will be supported by us at every step of the way. Migrate from Another Host Backup your WordPress Database Log into your database Wordpress site currently is and select the WordPress table. Select 'Export' from the top navigation menu. Select 'Quick'. Select 'Go' button. This action will prompt the export to start downloading via your web browser - you may be prompted to save this file depending on your web browser type. Depending on the size of your database, this may take a few minutes to start. Your database should now be downloaded. Back up your Wordpress files using FTP Open your preferred FTP program and connect it to where your current Wordpress site is. Locate the directory for your Wordpress installation - this could be either in the public_html folder or named in it's own directory depending on how it was installed. Once located, right mouse click on the holding folder and select 'Download' - if you do not have a download option, mouse click and drag to a local folder on your computer. Depending on the size of your directory, this may take a few minute to complete. Create a new database for Wordpress Under the 'Databases' title, click onto 'MySQL Database Wizard'. Write in a 'Database Name'. Select 'Next Step' button to continue. Write in: - Username: - username for the database user. - Password: - password for the database user. - Password (Again): - repeat of the password. At this stage it is recommended that you note down your database name, the database username and password because this will be needed later for the Wordpress config. Select 'Create User' button to proceed. Select 'All Privileges'. Select 'Next Step' to complete. Your new database has now been created. Import your Wordpress database Whilst still logged into your cPanel account with us, under the 'Databases' title, click onto 'phpMyAdmin'. Choose the new database that was created from the left hand side of phpMyAdmin. Select 'Import' from the top navigation menu. Select the 'Choose File..' button and locate the database file that was downloaded earlier on your computer. Select the 'Go' button to import. Your WordPress database has now been imported. Upload your Wordpress files via FTP Open your FTP program and locate the quick connect option- this example uses FileZilla. At this stage you will need to know your login details for the FTP - this information can be found in your welcome email from us titled 'New Account Information'. - Host - your domain name (without the www) - Username - your cPanel username - Password - your cPanel password - Port - by default this will be 21 Once your information has been entered, click 'Quickconnect'. Once connected, your FTP program will provide on screen confirmation. You can now start exploring your hosting directory, by clicking '+' and '-' to expand and collapse the folders. Locate your Wordpress files that were downloaded earlier (the files within the folder downloaded) and upload them into the 'public_html' directory. This process may take a few minutes depending on the size of the files. Your WordPress files should now be uploaded. Edit the Wordpress config file Whilst connected to your hosting via FTP, navigate to the directory where your Wordpress files are. Browse through the files list and locate a filed called 'wp-config.php'. Right mouse click on this file and select 'View/Edit'. You will need to change the database connection details to the new database that we created earlier. At the top of the document, you will see three important configuration settings listed under the heading 'MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host'. // ** MySQL settings ** // /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define('DB_NAME', 'cPanelName_databaseName'); /** MySQL database username */ define('DB_USER', 'cPanelName_databaseUserName'); /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'databasePassword'); Please replace the information with your respective account details / database name, username and password. Select 'File' followed by 'Save'. Once the changes have been saved, you may disconnected from the FTP program. Your Wordpress blog should now work. However if you are experiencing problems, please contact support. Log into your 'Client Area' and select 'Open Ticket' from the navigation menu. Migrate from WordPress.com You can now migrate your WordPress website if it is hosted with WordPress.com by following the export and import below steps. Export WordPress From your existing WordPress host, you can create a full export. This will store all of your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories and tags into one XML file that will be downloaded onto your machine. To create the export, log into your existing WordPress host. From the left hand side menu, mouse over 'Tools' and select 'Export'. Choose the option to export 'All content'. Proceed by then choosing 'Download Export File' at the bottom of the page. You should now see a download initiate with all of your important WordPress information. The file is now ready to import to your new host. Import WordPress If you haven't already installed WordPress with your new host, please see 'How to install Wordpress'. Once WordPress is available on your new host, log into the WordPress admin panel. From the left hand side menu, mouse over 'Tools' and select 'Import'. The import section gives you the ability to import data from many types of website software. Choose 'WordPress' from the list. You will now need to install WordPress Importer onto your website in order to import your WordPress website. Choose the 'Install Now' option. Once the software has been downloaded and installed, active it by selecting the 'Activate Plugin & Run Importer' option. Select the 'Choose File' button to open a new window where you can browse your file system. Navigate to the folder where the exported XML file was downloaded to from earlier and double click it to open. Choose 'Upload file and import' to start the import. Depending on how big your export file is, the process may take a few minutes to complete, but once done, your WordPress website information with your old host should now be copied on your new host account. The export and import process is complete. Please note - this process does not copy WordPress themes or plugins. Themes and plugins would need to be installed again.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Changing your Wordpress Domain

There may come a time when you need to change the URL of your WordPress website. In this article three different methods are explained how you can do this, depending on your circumstances. Please note that all three methods are not required - following one method will make the URL change. WordPress Admin If you have access to the WordPress admin section, log into this. From the left hand side menu, mouse hover over 'Settings' and choose 'General'. In the general settings you can set the 'WordPress Address (URL)' and also the 'Site Address (URL)'. Make your changes carefully and remember that both addresses need to either start with http:// or https:// (if you have an SSL certificate), and that they do not need a trailing slash on the end of the address. Once the changes have been made, scroll to the bottom of the settings page and select 'Save Changes'. You should now find that your WordPress URL has been changed. Edit the wp-config.php File In your WordPress files on your server, there is a file named wp-config.php where you can set the WordPress URL. If you do not have access to your WordPress admin area, this is an alternative solution for you. In cPanel, scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose 'File Manager'. The file manager has access to all of the files on your server, including your WordPress files which is where we need to edit the wp-config.php file. Using the left directory listing, open the 'public_html' folder and then click onto the folder that contains your WordPress installation. Once in the WordPress folder, locate the wp-config.php file and mouse click onto it. Choose 'Edit' from the top menu. Open the file in the text editor by selecting 'Edit'. You should now find that the wp-config.php opens. Scroll to the bottom of the wp-config.php file and add: define('WP_HOME','http://example.com'); define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com'); Take note to change the example.com shown with your WordPress URL. Remember the URL must have http:// or https:// (if you have an SSL certificate), and no trailing slash on the end. Select 'Save Changes' to complete the file edit process. You should now find that your WordPress URL has been changed. Update the WordPress Database The WordPress URL is set in the WordPress database which is where it can also be changed from. Please note making incorrect changes in the database can cause signficant problems, so please be sure to double check the changes that you are doing. In cPanel, scroll down to the 'Databases' section and choose 'phpMyAdmin'. From the left hand side menu, expand the option to see the databases on your account. Select the WordPress database. This is typically prefixed with _wp. Select the '_options' table. You should note that the first two rows in the _options table includes WordPress URL in the option_value fields. Tick both of these rows using the select box on the left hand side of the row. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, select the 'Change' option. You can now edit the rows. Be careful to replace the existing WordPress with your new required URL. Remember the URL must have http:// or https:// (if you have an SSL certificate), and no trailing slash on the end. Once your changes have been made, scroll to the bottom and select the 'Go' option to save the data rows. You should now find that your WordPress URL has been changed. In this article, you should now understand how to change the WordPress URL either in the WordPress admin, by editing the WordPress config file, or by editing the appropriate record in the WordPress database.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Changing your Wordpress Admin Password

If you need to change your WordPress admin password but you do not have access to the WordPress admin section, you can change it via either three methods - Softaculous, phpMyAdmin or by editing the WordPress functions.php file. Change the Password via Softaculous If you installed your WordPress website via Softaculous, you can change the admin password by editing the installation information. Scroll down to the 'Softaculous Apps Installer' section. Select 'WordPress' from the available scripts list. Scroll down to the 'Current Installations section. Where your installation is shown, choose the 'Edit pencil icon'. The installation information will now all be shown. Scroll down to the 'Admin Account' section. Enter your preferred admin username and your new admin password into the respective boxes. Scroll to the bottom of the page and confirm the WordPress admin password change by selecting 'Save Installation Details'. Your WordPresss admin password has now been changed through Softaculous. Change the Password via phpMyAdmin Scroll down to the 'Databases' section and choose 'phpMyAdmin'. Once phpMyAdmin has loaded, from the left hand side, you should see your account name. Click on the '+' icon to expand the available databases on your account. Select your WordPress database. Select the '_users' table from the table list. Locate the 'admin' user record and select the 'Edit' option. For the 'user_pass' field, choose from the function dropdown menu 'MD5'. This will encrypt the plain new text password that you are about to type. Type in the new admin password into the 'Value' field. Save the new password change by selecting 'Go' at the bottom. Your WordPress admin password has now been changed through phpMyAdmin. Change the Password by editing WordPress functions.php file You can hardcode the WordPress admin password by editing the functions.php file. In cPanel, scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose 'File Manager'. The file manager has access to all of the files on your server, including your WordPress files which is where we need to edit the wp-config.php file. Using the left directory listing, open the 'public_html' folder and then click onto the folder that contains your WordPress installation. Again using the left directory, click to open the 'wp-includes' folder. Locate the functions.php file in the files listing and mouse click onto it to highlight it. Choose 'Edit' from the top menu. Confirm that you would like to edit the file in the text editor by selecting 'Edit'. Add the following line to the top of the functions.php by below the opening <?php tag, replacing the example 'yournewpassword123' with something more suitable as your new WordPress admin password. wp_set_password( 'yournewpassword123', 1 ); Save the changes by selecting the 'Save Changes' option. Changing by your WordPress admin password by editing the functions.php file is now complete. However please note that once you have access, you may wish to delete the line added to avoid complications in the future.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Post Migration Help

If you've received an email to inform you your account has been migrated to a new server but are having issues with your website/email etc then this guide is for you. Website is working but email is not The first thing to check is your email settings within your mail client (e.g. Outlook, Windows Live mail, Mac Mail, Thunderbird etc), specifically the incoming and outgoing mail server setting (see here for specific client configuration guides). Check the email we sent you regarding the migration, it would have contained both the old and new server information, if your incoming/outgoing mail server settings are currently set to the old server host name, update it to the new. If your incoming/outgoing mail server is set to mail.your-domain.com chances are you're using SSL and there's no certificate no mail.your-domain.com, in this situation you should also change your incoming and outgoing mail server to the new server hostname. All other settings, the protocol (IMAP/POP/SMTP), ports, username password information should remain unchanged. Email works but the website does not. First thing to do is work out the type of issue your website has. The most common ones you will see are: Website not found / Site cannot be reached / Hosting Suspended If you’re seeing these types of error in your web browser (the wording and display may vary between browsers, below are a couple of examples) The most likely cause of this error is DNS related, does your domain name not use our name servers? E.g. ns1.enixns.com, ns2.enixns.com or ns1.hpdns.net, ns2.hpdns.net? If not then you are probably managing your own DNS records, this means you will manually need to update the IP your website and email points to, this can be done via your DNS host and the IP address to use would have been sent in the Pre/Post migration emails. Important - Most people who manage their own DNS do so because either their website or email does not use our services, in this situation the setting should stay the same for the service you’re not using us for, all of our IP addresses start 91.238 if the IP for website/email is currently different it should most likely remain the same. Server error / Internal Error / 500 Error / Webpage redirect loop problem If you’re seeing this type of error then the most likely cause is your .htaccess file. Although the new and old servers are almost identical in setup the web server software is slightly newer and is more sensitive to syntax/logic errors. If you have experience / knowledge working with the .htaccess you can check your error logs to see the specific line/command that is causing the issue and either fix or remove it. Alternatively get in contact with support for further assistance. Neither website or email is working If neither your website or email services are working then the issue is likely DNS related. See the above on how to resolve DNS issues. If you still require further assistance on resolving post migration issues then please contact support

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How To Create An Image Gallery In WordPress

Rather than adding your media one by one to your Page or Post within WordPress, you may sometimes want to insert multiple images at once as an image gallery. In this guide we will show you how to quickly create a gallery using the built in WordPress gallery function, however there are also various image gallery WordPress plugins you can install to provide you with additional options and customisation. Creating a new image gallery: Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, either create a new Page / Post, or alternatively open up the editor for an existing one that you would like to add the gallery to. On the editor screen, click on the 'Add Media' button This will then open up the Add Media screen. On the left hand side click on 'Create Gallery' For this guide we have already uploaded the images that we would like to use, so click on the 'Media Library' tab at the top to show all media currently uploaded to your WordPress site. If you need to upload the images still, then use the 'Upload Files' tab to do this. You will then need to find, and select the images you want to add to the gallery. If you click on each image this will add it to the selection. It will also show you your current selection at the bottom of the screen. Once ready to proceed click on the 'Create a new gallery' button WordPress will then take you to the 'Edit Gallery' screen to confirm the images you've selected for your gallery. Here you can add a caption underneath each image if needed. On the right hand side of the page you will also find the gallery settings: - Link to: This determines what will happen when you click on a gallery image - Colums: This is how many columns you would like the gallery to be split in to - Random order: Displays the images in a random order - Size: Determines the size of the images being displayed in the gallery Don't worry if you miss any of those options, or change your mind at a later time - you can still come back to adjust this at any time. Once ready to proceed click on the 'Insert Gallery' button WordPress will then insert the gallery in to your Page or Post. If you ever need to edit the gallery at a later date - either to insert or remove images, or adjust the gallery settings, simply click on the Gallery within the editor, then click on the edit (pencil icon) button.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How To Enable Debugging Mode In WordPress To View Errors

Are you experiencing unknown errors or bugs with your WordPress site? If the answer is yes then it may be worth enabling WordPress debug mode via your sites wp-config file to check for any errors. The wp-config file controls not only your WordPress configuration settings but is also a powerful debugging tool. This tool can help you find any errors plaguing your site by identifying the offending script or plugin that might be causing the issue and can be invaluable to WordPress developers as a result. In this guide, we will explore how to enable WordPress debugging, and also how to output the debug to a separate log file if needed. Enabling WordPress Debug Mode: Note: This guide provides examples to enable Debug mode via cPanel hosting. If you are not on cPanel hosting the same outcome can be achieved by locating & editing your WordPress wp-config.php file via FTP / an alternative file manager. Then once logged in - under the 'Files' heading, click on 'File Manager'. Once the File Manager is open, you will need to locate your WordPress wp-config.php file. By default this is located within the root folder of your domain / site. Firstly, go to the folder your WordPress site is installed in. In this example we have WordPress installed against our main domain on the hosting, so the file will be located within public_html. Next, locate the 'wp-config.php' file, right click on this then click on 'Edit' Alternatively you can click on the file to select it, then click on 'Edit' from the options at the top of the File Manager page. File Manager will then give you an edit prompt to confirm that you would like to edit the file. Click on 'Edit' to proceed. The file will then open in a new web browser tab for you to edit. Scroll down your wp-config.php file until you see the line: / That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. / Just above this, you will then want to add the following line of code: define( 'WP_DEBUG', true); It may be that this line already exists as: define( 'WP_DEBUG', false ); If so, simply change the false to true. Once you've added in the lines you need, click on the 'Save Changes' button at the top of the page. This line enables WordPress debugging. Any errors or warnings from PHP will then be shown at the top of the page when viewing the site. Saving the debug output to a log file: If you would also like to have the debug output logged, simply add the following line of code in as well: define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true); This will then log any debug output within your /wp-content folder of your WordPress site as a file: debug.log Once you've added in the lines you need, click on the 'Save Changes' button at the top of the page. If you ever want to disable this, simply go back to the wp-config.php file and change the WP_DEBUG  / WP_DEBUG_LOG lines to 'false'

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Testing With the Hosts File

You may want to view your domain before the DNS changes propagate or you are testing your domain before you point your domain name to us. You can achieve this by editing the hosts file on your computer. To edit your hosts file on either Windows 7 / Vista, Windows 10, Mac OS X and Unix based systems, follow the respective instructions. Windows 7 and Vista Browse to 'Start' -> 'All Programs' -> 'Accessories'. alt text Right mouse click 'Notepad' and select 'Run as Administrator'. alt text Click 'File' -> 'Open'. alt text Browse to 'C:' -> 'Windows' -> 'System32' -> 'Drivers' -> 'etc'. alt text Change the file down file menu from 'Text Documents (*.txt)' to 'All Files (.)'. alt text Select 'hosts' and click 'Open'. alt text In your hosts file, you may already see a line as such: 127.0.0.1 localhost What you would need to do is add a line at the end of your hosts file with the server IP that we have provided you (replacing IPADDRESS shown below) along with your actual domain name. 127.0.0.1 localhost IPADDRESS www.your-domain.com alt text Please check that the line you've written does not start with a hash character '#' character because this will not work. Close Notepad and 'Save' the changes when prompted. alt text Ensuring that all web browser windows have been closed, if you now visit the domain that you specified, you should find that it loads from the specified IP address. Windows 10 On Windows 10, to edit the hosts file, navigate to 'C:WindowsSystem32Driversetc'. Copy the 'hosts' file onto your Desktop. alt text Right mouse click the copied file and choose 'Open with. alt text Select 'Notepad' as the chosen application. alt text Append your new mappings at the bottom of the document (replacing IPADDRESS with the server IP address) in this format: IPADDRESS www.your-domain.com alt text From the Notepad menu, choose 'File' > 'Save'. Next, move the copy and paste the file to its original location. alt text You will be asked if you want to overwrite the file. Choose 'Replace the file in the destination'. alt text Windows will ask for Administrator permissions. Click 'Continue'. alt text Ensuring that all web browser windows have been closed, if you now visit the domain that you specified, you should find that it loads from the specified IP address. Mac OS X Head into your launchpad and search at the top 'terminal'. alt text Once the Terminal application loads, open the hosts by typing on the Terminal that you have just opened by typing the following followed by enter: sudo nano /private/etc/hosts alt text Type your Mac OS X user account password when prompted and press enter. alt text Ensuring that all web browser windows have been closed, if you now visit the domain that you specified, you should find that it loads from the specified IP address. Append your new mappings at the bottom of the document (replacing IPADDRESS with the server IP address). You can navigate the file using the arrow keys. IPADDRESS www.your-domain.com alt text Press control-o to save the file. Press enter on the filename prompt, and control-x to exit the editor. alt text UNIX On Unix-based systems You can find the hosts file at /etc/hosts. You will need to open the terminal (on most distributions is located at the following): 'Menu' > 'Applications' > 'Accessories' > 'Terminal'. Open the hosts by typing on the Terminal that you have just opened by typing: sudo nano /private/etc/hosts Type your system user account password when prompted. Append your new mappings at the bottom of the document (replacing IPADDRESS with the server IP address). You can navigate the file using the arrow keys. IPADDRESS www.your-domain.com alt text Press control-o to save the file. Press enter on the filename prompt, and control-x to exit the editor. Ensuring that all web browser windows have been closed, if you now visit the domain that you specified, you should find that it loads from the specified IP address.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to re-enable the classic editor in WordPress

If you aren't getting on with the new Gutenberg editor in WordPress, or you're unable to properly edit your old posts / pages - you can re-enable the Classic Editor within WordPress. Our guide below will show you how to quickly and easily set this up. Note: By default WordPress uses the new Gutenberg editor, which is intended to be the standard for WordPress going forward. The Classic Editor plugin that we will be installing however is an official WordPress plugin and will currently be supported and maintained until at least 2022 Installing the Classic Editor plugin in WordPress Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a url such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over Plugins on the left menu, then click on the Add New option. Next, In the Search box in the top left of the screen, enter Classic Editor then press enter. This will search for the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository, and also show related plugins in the search result. You should see Classic Editor appear as the first result. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin on WordPress Once installed, the button will change to a blue **Activate **button. Click this to activate the plugin. This will then take you back to the Installed Plugins page, where you will see the Classic Editor highlighted blue, to denote that it is currently activated. If you need to edit the plugin settings, you can do this using one of two methods: - Click on Settings underneath the plugin, as marked on the image below Or - Hover over the Settings link on the left hand menu of the WordPress dashboard, then click on Writing. The WordPress writing settings page contains two options you can adjust relating to the Classic Editor, Which have been marked in red on the image below. - **Default editor for all users: **Here you can select Classic Editor (this is the default setting), or Block Editor, if you'd prefer to have the new Gutenberg editor be the default still. - Allow users to switch editors: Here you can select Yes or No (No is the default setting) which will determine if a user can switch editors whilst creating, or editing a page / post. Finally to check that the Classic Editor is working, either create a new post / page, or edit an existing one. You should then see the Classic Editor instead of the Gutenberg editor. As an example for this guide we've also switched on '**Allow users to switch editors' **- The option to change editors is now shown on the right hand side of the page in the Editor block.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Using SSH / SFTP

By default SSH / SFTP access is enabled on accounts, you can access your hosting account using the settings below. In cases where you receive an 'SSH Access is not enabled on this account' error please contact us via the 'Client Area' and raise a support ticket regarding enabling SSH access to your account. Once your account has SSH enabled, you can SSH and SFTP to your account using: - Username: Your cPanel/FTP username - Password: Your cPanel/FTP password - Port: 88 - Host Address: Your account server IP found in your welcome email from us titled 'New Account Information' This article helps explain how you can SSH to your hosting account if you are using Windows 10 and Mac OS X. Windows 10 As of writing this article, Windows 10 doesn't have a program installed that allows SSH connections. Therefore in order to do this, you will have to download and install a SSH client program. In this example, we will be using PuTTY. Install PuTTY Visit the following website - PuTTY download page. On the PuTTY download page, scroll down to the Windows section and click onto the installer package as shown below: alt text Once the installer program has finished downloading, double click it to run the setup. When the setup opens, select 'Next'. alt text Confirm the installation direction is acceptable and then select 'Next'. alt text Select 'Install'. alt text Once the setup finishes, select 'Finish'. alt text You should now find that the PuTTY setup has completed and that PuTTY is now open. Connect via PuTTY In PuTTY, at the top you need to type in: - Host Name (or IP address): You should type in your cpanel account name followed by @ then your server IP address i.e. youraccountname@yourserverIPaddress - Port: Replace the SSH port numbered 22 to 88 alt text Once you have entered your account SSH information, select 'Open' at the bottom. alt text If you are connecting for the first time, you may see a security alert. This is absolutely normal, so you should choose 'Yes'. alt text The SSH connection should now be established. You will be asked for your SSH password (your cPanel account password). Carefully type this in (you won't see what you are typing) and then press your enter key. alt text You have now successfully connected to your hosting account via SSH on Windows 10. alt text Mac OS X Mac OS X comes installed with an application that you can use to SSH to your hosting account called Terminal. Open Terminal Open your Launchpad and use the search at the top to type in 'terminal'. alt text Click the Terminal application to open it. You should now see a command prompt. alt text You now need to type in the following command with the appropriate replacements. ssh youraccountname@yourserverIPaddress -p 88 For example, our account name is hpdemouk and our server IP from our account information email is 91.238.165.2. Therefore we would need to type in: ssh hpdemouk@91.238.165.2 -p 88 You should now be prompted to enter your SSH password (this is the same as your cPanel and FTP account password). Carefully type this in and press your enter key. alt text You have now successfully connected to your hosting account via SSH on Mac OS X. alt text

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How To Disable the WordPress Admin Bar

Whilst the Admin Bar at the top of the page in WordPress can be convenient for some people, for others, such as designers, it can become a pain when trying to view the site whilst logged in. In this guide we will show you a couple of different ways of disabling the Admin Bar. Please also use the links below to skip to a section if you have a preferred option Disable the WordPress Admin Bar on a per user basis Disable the WordPress Admin Bar site-wide via your theme functions.php file Disable the WordPress Admin Bar on a per user basis: Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over 'Users' on the left menu, then click on the 'Your Profile' option. Note: If you are looking to disable this for a different user, hover over 'Users' on the left menu, then click on the 'All Users' option, and then edit the required user profile. On your WordPress profile page, un-tick the 'Show Toolbar when viewing site' option Then click on 'Update Profile' At the bottom of the page, to save changes. The black admin toolbar will no longer show at the top of the page when viewing the site (when logged in as your user). Disable the WordPress Admin Bar site-wide via your theme functions.php file: You can also disable the WordPress admin bar for all users, by adding a small piece of code in to your themes function.php file. Note: Where possible we would recommend adding this to the functions.php file via a child theme. If you add this to your main themes function.php file the code will be removed if you update the theme in the future. Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over 'Appearance' on the left menu, then click on the 'Theme Editor' option. On the Theme Editor page, find the 'Theme Functions (functions.php)' File from the right hand file list and click on it to open that in the editor. Next, Scroll to the bottom of the functions.php file, and add in the following code: /* Disable The WordPress Admin Bar for all users */ show_admin_bar(false); Once done, click on 'Update File' to save changes. The black admin toolbar will now no longer show at the top of the page when viewing the site and logged in. Note: You can also update your functions.php file via the file manager of your cPanel hosting, or via FTP.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Creating Addon Domains

Addon domains allow you to add several domains to a single cPanel account. They are ideal if you want host multiple websites with different domains and different content. Addon domains share the same cPanel and resources (disk space usage etc) as your main account. To begin using an Addon Domain, you must have the domain purchased and pointing to our name servers. If you purchased the domain through us, this will already be done for you. Please note If you recently purchased the domain or changed the name servers, it can take several hours for them to update, and your addon domain won't work until this time. To Add an Addon Domain 2 Under the 'Domains' title, click onto 'Addon Domains'. alt text 3 Enter the domain in the 'New Domain Name' box. Please note Enter your domain name without the www. part. alt text 4 After clicking away from the 'New Domain Name' box, cPanel will automatically complete the rest of the details. You can leave these by default or change them should you want to do so. alt text 5 If you want to create a seperate ftp login for this addon domain then click the checkbox labelled "Create an FTP account associated with this Addon Domain.": alt text 6 Click 'Add Domain' to complete the process. alt text FTP to the Addon Domain 1 Enter the login details to open the FTP connection, if you chose to create a new ftp account you should use the following details. - Host Address: Your main domain name, or your addon domain name without the 'www.'. - Username: username@your-main-website.com (where it was recommended to note the 'FTP username' from step 6 above, and 'your-main-website.com' is the address of your main domain name on your cPanel account (NOT the addon domain). - Password: The password you chose in step 1 above. If you did not create new details and plan on using the existing ftp login be sure to either browse to the addon domain directory or set the remote directory within your ftp client to it, the remote directory was the "Document root" setting in the earlier form. 3 Upload your files

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to add a coming soon or maintenance page to WordPress

A coming soon, or maintenance page can be essential to help let your customers know if your website is currently unavailable. You may want to set up a coming soon page if you're developing a brand new WordPress website on a live domain, or a maintenance page for when you need to do WordPress updates / design updates that may cause disruption to visitors of your site. There are plenty of ways to achieve this, however one of the easiest ways to do this is to set up a plugin within WordPress called Coming Soon Page, Under Construction & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd which we will show you how to install and set up below. This will allow you to have a coming soon, or maintenance page that anyone visiting the website will be shown (once enabled), however you will still be able to view and edit your WordPress website as normal once you are logged in  as an administrator. Please note that there are various other coming soon and maintenance mode plugins available directly from the WordPress plugin repository which can help you achieve the same results if you do not wish to use the plugin used in this guide. Installing the plugin: Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over Plugins on the left menu, then click on the Add New option. Next, In the Search box in the top left of the screen, enter Coming Soon Page then press enter. This will search for the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository, and also show related plugins in the search result. You should see Coming Soon Page, Under Construction & Maintenance mode by SeedProd appear as the first result. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin on WordPress Once installed, the button will change to a blue **Activate **button. Click this to activate the plugin. After you click on the Activate button you will be taken to the main settings page for the plugin, which will look like the below image. This is where we will set up our coming soon or maintenance page. Firstly, before enabling the coming soon, or maintenance page in the General settings box, you should design the page that you would like visitors to see when they load your website. Note: Once you do enable the coming soon, or maintenance page - The page that you have designed will be all that visitors will see when viewing your website.  However once you log in to your website as an administrator via wp-admin you will see the website as normal so that you can continue working on it as required. The first items that you will want to adjust are found in the Page Settings box on the main plugin settings screen. Update the following as required: Logo - Browse your WordPress media library, or upload and add your websites logo here, to be displayed on the page. Headline - This is the main headline text that will be shown at the top of the page.  For our guide we're going to set up a Maintenance Mode page, and so we've entered "Back Soon!" Message - This the main bulk of text you would like to appear underneath the page headline.  Again as we're setting up a Maintenance Mode page in this guide, we've entered a short sentence to state the site is currently down for routine maintenance. As this box acts the same as the standard WordPress editor, you can also add in short codes, links etc should you wish to add any interactivity to your Page - such as a contact form, or newsletter signup. Once you're happy with the content you've entered, click on the Save All Changes button. At the bottom of the main plugin settings page (on the content tab), you will also find a section for adding your websites Favicon, As well as an SEO Title & Meta description - to be shown on search engine results (which can be useful if your page will be enabled for some time). Finally you can also enter your Google Analytics code here. Again - if you update any information in this section, click on the Save All Changes button once done. At this point, if you want to quickly check how the logo you've chosen, or text entered looks on your page - the plugin offers a Live Preview mode for you to check this before you fully activate the page. Simply click on the Live Preview tab at the top of the plugin settings page, and this will open a new window or tab in your web browser to show you how the page will look. Note: You will need to Save All Changes in the content box you were editing before clicking on the Live Preview button, to ensure all edits / changes are shown in the preview. You can go back and use the Live Preview as much as you need whilst designing your page. This is how our page preview currently looks with the example content we entered in the last step: When you're happy with the Logo / Text content you've entered in during the previous step, you may then want to further edit the page design - such as background image & colour, text and link colours, or even custom CSS. To do this, click on the Design tab within the plugin settings. This page will give you plenty of flexibility to fine tune the design of your page.  If you need to use custom CSS code, use the Template box at the bottom of the Design page to enter this. In this example, as we're only creating a basic maintenance mode page, all we will do is adjust the background colour to Grey, and then change the font colour to white. Once done, click on the Save All Changes button. Next, if you have any custom scripts that still need to be loaded or run on the page when someone visits the site, this can be added via the Advanced section. To do this click on the Advanced tab of the plugin settings. On this page you can enter scripts for either the Header or Footer (For example - perhaps you have a live chat, or tracking script you would still like to be active on the page, if so you can simply add the code to the "Header Scripts" section). If you already have a complete HTML template for your coming soon or maintenance page, you can also paste this completely in to the Custom HTML box, which will override the plugins page template. Again, once done click on the Save All Changes button. The final step, once you have your page designed and are happy with the Live Preview, is to enable the page via the plugin settings. To do this, firstly ensure that you're on the Content tab of the plugin settings. Then near the top you will see the General box, which has the page "Status" options.  By default this is set to Disabled - meaning that visitors to your site will see your WordPress site as normal. Once you're ready to enable your page, select the option which best suits the page you have created: Enable Coming Soon Mode - This will enable your page, and allow search engines to start, or continue to index the website. This is the option you would choose if you're in the process of setting up a new WordPress site. Enable Maintenance Mode - This will enable your page, and tell search engines that the website is unavailable via a 503 code in the header, which should not negatively effect your WordPress sites reputation on search engines. For a more in depth explanation and comparison of the two modes, please see this article directly from the plugin developers. When you've chosen the page mode to enable, click on the **Save All Changes **button. That's it! your coming soon or maintenance mode page is now enabled. We would suggest having a check of this to ensure it's loading and displaying ok, by either logging out of your WordPress site and trying to view the homepage, or visit your WordPress site in another browser / private browsing window. If you ever need to disable the page, this can be done by logging in to your WordPress site and then set the status to: Disabled

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Creating Cron Jobs

You can create a cron job to do a certain task at specific times of the day. The 'job' could be maintenance to your website or any other unmanned server duties such as deleting temporary files to give more disk space.   Scroll down to the 'Advanced' section and choose 'Cron Jobs'. If you would like to receive an email each time your cron runs, you can do so by entering your email address in the 'Email' section. You may find this useful to begin with to verify that your cron is running. Save the entered email adress by selecting 'Update Email'. To setup the cron, in the 'Add New Cron Job' section, you need to define when the cron needs to run and what command the cron is executing. Take advantage of the 'Common Settings' for when the cron needs to run by opening the dropdown menu. If there's not one that suits your needs, enter the settings accordingly using the minute, hour, day, month and weekday options. Entering the cron command that needs to be executed is the most critical part. In our example, we want to run our cron.php file that has been placed in our public_html directory. To do this, we have written: php /home/hpdemo/public_html/cron.php Please note, you must set your account name in place of 'hpdemo'. Once you are happy with your settings, select 'Add New Cron Job'. If you require multiple crons to be executed, please follow this article again inserting the alternative command(s). Creating a cron for your website is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to manage page redirects in WordPress

If you've recently edited your WordPress site and made changes such as: adjusting your WordPress permalinks, changing page / post urls, or deleting old pages - it's always a good idea to ensure website traffic / visitors are correctly redirected from any old or no longer available content, to the updated or alternative page. There are various ways of carrying this out, such as manually adding each page redirection in to your sites .htaccess file, however you can also manage all redirections from directly within your WordPress site thanks to WordPress plugins. In this guide we will show you how to install and create a basic redirect with the Redirection plugin for WordPress.  This will enable you to add, remove and monitor all of your WordPress page and post redirects quickly and easily. If you already have the plugin installed and set up, please feel free to skip straight to the Adding your first Redirect section Please note that there are various other redirection plugins available directly from the WordPress plugin repository which can help you achieve the same results if you do not wish to use the plugin used in this guide. Installing Redirection: Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over Plugins on the left menu, then click on the Add New option. Next, In the Search box in the top left of the screen, enter Redirection then press enter. This will search for the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository, and also show related plugins in the search result. You should see Redirection appear as the first result. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin on WordPress Once installed, the button will change to a blue **Activate **button. Click this to activate the plugin. You will then be taken back to the Installed Plugins page of your WordPress site. At the top of the page you will see a notice stating: Please complete your Redirection Setup to activate the plugin.  Click on the link within this notice when ready to start setting up the plugin. If for any reason you refresh or leave the page before doing this, simply go back to the Installed Plugins page then click on Settings below the Redirection plugin, or alternatively hover over Tools, then click on Redirection from the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard. This will then allow you to continue the plugin setup. Initial setup of the Redirection Plugin: Once you've clicked on the Redirection Setup link mentioned in the previous step, you will be greeted with the Welcome to Redirection setup page. This will give you a very brief overview of what the plugin is used for, as well as as basic "how to use". Please have a read through this + any of the associated feature links that may be of use to you. Once ready to continue setup click on the Start Setup button. The next page of set up will be the Basic Setup screen. Here you will be given a couple of options as listed below. In this example we've gone ahead and enabled two of these as they are generally useful to have enabled.  Note: the options can be enabled / disabled at any time via the Redirection settings page if you change your mind. Monitor Permalink Changes in WordPress Posts And Pages - This will allow the Redirection plugin to automatically monitor any changes you make to your WordPress page or post permalinks and create the redirect for you.  So for example if you had a page: mydomain.com/about  and you decided to change the page permalink to mydomain.com/about-us, Redirection would automatically detect and add the redirect for you. Keep a log of all redirects and 404 errors - As the name suggests this will allow the Redirection plugin to log if anyone hits a 404 (not found) page on your site, or if anyone has hit one of the redirects you have in place.  This can be very handy for keeping track of site issues, or which page redirects are still seeing quite a lot of visitors.  Note: enabling this option will store the logs within your WordPress database, which can cause the database size to increase. If you have a high traffic site it may be advisable to only enable this option temporarily, then disable once you are happy redirects / any 404 issues are resolved. Store IP information for redirects and 404 errors -  This option becomes available if you select the above "Keep a log" option. In our example we'll leave this disabled, but if enabled it will also store the IP address of the visitor that hit the redirect, or 404 page.  As stated by the plugin you will need to adhere to your local laws regarding the storage of this information, for example: GDPR. Once you've chosen the options you would like to enable, click on Continue Setup The next page of set up will then be the **REST API **page. Normally there's nothing to do on this page.  The Redirection plugin will automatically test the WordPress REST API (which is used to communicate with WordPress). If there are no issues then after a short moment you should see a note on the page stating REST API: GOOD Once you see the above message click on the Finish Setup button to continue. If for any reason you see an error instead of the "Good" message, please refer to the troubleshooting tips mentioned on this page - It can be that the REST API is being blocked by a firewall / security plugin (such as WordFence / Cloudflare ), or a caching solution (such as Cloudflare). In that case please allow or whitelist the Redirection plugin within the service you are using, and test again. If you are still having issues getting the REST API to work after the above troubleshooting then please submit a support ticket to us, by logging in to your client area then clicking on the "Open Ticket" option. After clicking on Finish Setup Redirection will then process the settings you've chosen and complete its setup. Once the bar on this page hits 100% click on the Finished! button. Adding your first Redirect: Once set up is complete, you will be taken to the main Redirection settings page. If you ever need to access the settings page for this plugin, simply hover over Tools, then click on Redirection from the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard, or go to the Installed Plugins page then click on Settings below the Redirection plugin. Whilst on the main settings page, we will add in our first redirect. For this example we're just going to use a basic redirect from one page to another, however you can click on the cog icon next to the "Add Redirect" button for more advanced redirect settings - such as specific HTTP codes and URL match options. For our example redirect we've changed our WordPress contact page and so are now going to redirect anyone visiting the page: mydomain.com/get-in-touch    to the new page: mydomain.com/contact In the Source URL box, enter the old page url.   In this example we will enter: /get-in-touch Note: As the redirect is for a page on the same domain name, you don't need to include the full "mydomain.com" domain in the redirect url In the Target URL box, enter the new page url.  In this example we will enter: /contact Once this has been entered click on the Add Redirect button. WordPress will then add in the redirect, and show it in the redirect lists (as shown in the below example image). You can now test the redirection by clicking on the old url link in the redirects list, or alternatively open a new tab / page in your web browser and try visiting the old URL. If you then go back and refresh the Redirection plugin settings page - you should see the Hits column to the right of the redirect has increased to 1 (or equal to however many times the redirect has been used).  Note: If logging has not been enabled then this will not show the hit count That's it! your first redirect has been added and is now active. Handling existing redirections: If you ever need to edit, delete, temporarily disable or test a redirect, this can be done by hovering over the redirect in the redirects list (within the Redirection settings page), then choose the appropriate option (Marked in red in the below example image). Final Notes: The Redirection plugin can be a very powerful and useful tool to use on your WordPress site. In this guide we've shown you how to set up your first basic redirect, however the plugin also has various other features such as: Redirection Import: If you already have a list of redirects to add in to your WordPress site - you can import these directly in to the plugin using the Import / Export option (within the Redirection plugin settings page).  The plugin accepts .htaccess, .csv and .json formatted redirect files. As an example you can quickly create a .csv file on your local machine with all of the redirections - In the first column enter the source URL, in the second column enter the Target URL.  Then import the .csv file and the Redirection plugin will automatically add these all in to its redirection list. 404 Logging: As mentioned during setup, you can enable the logging of redirection hits and 404 page hits. If this option is enabled, and a user hits a page that doesn't exist on your WordPress site (404 page), then Redirection will log this.  The 404 hits can be found by clicking on the 404s option within the Redirection plugin settings page.  This will then list out all of the 404 pages that site visitors have tried (since Redirection has started logging), as well as how many times that page has been hit. This can be a great tool to help you find out if you're missing any redirects, or if there's an issue with a particular page on your site.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to Password Protect posts and pages in WordPress

It can sometimes be useful to hide the content of a WordPress page, or post from general visitors, but still allow it to be accessible to those you want to provide access to. WordPress allows you to quickly set this up using the Password Protect visibility option. You can set this when adding a new page / post, or you can edit an existing page / post to change it to be password protected. In this guide we will show you how to password protect both an existing page and an existing post. We will start with password protecting one of our WordPress pages. If alternatively you are looking to only password protect a post, you can skip straight to the How to password protect a post section of this guide. How to password protect a page: Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over **Pages **on the left menu, then click on the All Pages option. As mentioned we will be password protecting an existing page in this guide - In this case our "Demo Page". Hover over the page you would like to edit, then click the Edit option. Note: If you want to add a new page and password protect it at the same time, you can still follow this guide, just go to Pages - Add New from the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard, then continue with the next step of this guide. Once you are in the page editor, within the Publish box on the right hand side of the page - click on the Edit button next to: Visibility: Public This will then open up the page visibility options. Select the Password Protected option, and enter a password that you would like to use for visitors to access the page.  In this example we've set the password as: demopass Once you've set this, click on the Update button to update your page. This will then set the page visibility to Password Protected. Once you've updated the page, if you go back to **Pages - All Pages **on the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard, you will then spot that your page states "Password Protected" to the right of the page name. This confirms that the page is now Password Protected. Next it is always worth visiting the page on your website - either when logged out of WordPress, or in a separate browser / private browsing window. When visiting the page as a normal website visitor you should then see a password protected prompt, like in the example below. Enter the password you have set in to the Password: box, then click on Enter  (In this example our password was set to: demopass) If the password was entered correctly, your WordPress site will then display the page content as normal For our example - this is simply just a "Congratulations" message we've set to confirm that we can see the page. Note: Once you've entered the password to view the page, you will still see the content if refreshing the page - this is due to how the site stores cookies. If you need to re-test, either use a new private browsing window or clear your web browser cache / history. How to password protect a post: Firstly, if you are not already logged in to your WordPress site, you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over **Posts **on the left menu, then click on the **All Posts **option. As mentioned we will be password protecting an existing post in this section of the guide - In this case our "Demo Post". Hover over the Post you would like to edit, then click the Edit option. Note: If you want to add a new post and password protect it at the same time, you can still follow this guide, just go to Posts - Add New from the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard, then continue with the next step of this guide. Once you are in the post editor, within the Publish box on the right hand side of the page - click on the Edit button next to: Visibility: Public This will then open up the post visibility options. Select the Password Protected option, and enter a password that you would like to use for visitors to access the post.  In this example we've set the password as: demopass Once you've set this, click on the Update button to update your post. This will then set the post visibility to Password Protected. Once you've updated the post, if you go back to **Posts - All Posts **on the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard, you will then spot that your post states "Password Protected" to the right of the post name. This confirms that the post is now Password Protected. Next it is always worth visiting the post on your website - either when logged out of WordPress, or in a separate browser / private browsing window. When visiting the post as a normal website visitor you should then see a password protected prompt, like in the example below. Note: in this example we've simply visited our homepage, as the recent posts are set to show on the homepage when using the default WordPress theme. Enter the password you have set in to the Password: box, then click on Enter  (In this example our password was set to: demopass) If the password was entered correctly, your WordPress site will then display the post content as normal For our example - this is simply just a "Congratulations" message we've set to confirm that we can see the post content after visiting the homepage and entering the password. Note: Once you've entered the password to view your post, you will still see the content if refreshing the page / post - this is due to how the site stores cookies. If you need to re-test, either use a new private browsing window or clear your web browser cache / history. Removing Password Protection: If you ever need to remove the password protection from a page or post on your WordPress site, simply follow the above steps to edit your page or post, but change the Visibility option to: Public Then click on the Update button. When visiting the page or post, this should now no longer require a password to access, and display the content normally.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to upload your site using FTP

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method in which you can upload your website files from your computer to your hosting account. In this article we are using a program called FileZilla which is free and available on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. If you do not have this program, you can visit the FileZilla download page. For help and support regarding how to download and install FileZilla, please visit the client installation guide. The following instructions assume that you already have FileZilla installed. Open FileZilla on your system. At the top of the program, locate the 'quickconnect' bar. alt text In order to login via FTP, you will need to know FTP login details. This information can be found in your welcome email from us titled 'New Account Information'. In the quickconnect bar, enter: - Host - your FTP host name. - Username - your FTP username. - Password - your FTP password. - Port - by default, this will be 21. Once your information has been entered, select 'Quickconnect'. alt text Once connected, at the top of the program you will see confirmation 'Directory listing successful'. alt text You can now start exploring the 'Remote site:' section which can now be seen the right hand side of the program (your hosting account files), by clicking on the folders. Your website files will need to be placed in the 'public_html' directory. If you have an addon domain or subdomain, file storage for these will be in a separate named folder inside the main public_html. You can now explore your 'Local site:' area on the left of the program to find your website files on your system that you would like to upload. Once you have found the right file(s), you can mouse click and drag them across to the right hand 'Remote site:' side, placing them into the respective folder(s). alt text Once the upload has completed, you will now be able to view the uploaded file(s) on your website. alt text You have now uploaded site files using FTP.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to change your login url in WordPress

To help further secure your WordPress installation, it is advisable to change your WordPress login URLs from the default "yourdomain.com/wp-admin" or  "yourdomain.com/wp-login.php", to a unique url of your choosing. This will help to cut down on automated bot login attempts as well as brute force attacks against your WordPress login page. The easiest way to do this is to set up a plugin within WordPress called WPS Hide Login which we will show you how to install and set up below. Please note that there are various other security and login plugins available directly from the WordPress plugin repository which can also help you change the login URL if you do not wish to use the plugin used in this guide. Installing WPS Hide Login in WordPress: Firstly you will need to log in your WordPress admin area / dashboard - This will normally be at a URL such as mydomain.com/wp-admin  (replacing mydomain.com with your own domain name) Once logged in, hover over Plugins on the left menu, then click on the Add New option. Next, In the Search box in the top left of the screen, enter WPS Hide Login then press enter. This will search for the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository, and also show related plugins in the search result. You should see WPS Hide Login appear as the first result. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin on WordPress Once installed, the button will change to a blue **Activate **button. Click this to activate the plugin. This will then take you back to the Installed Plugins page, where you will see the WPS Hide Login highlighted blue, to show that it has been activated. Next we will need to configure the plugin settings in order to change the login url for our WordPress site. Click on the Settings link below the **WPS Hide Login **plugin. Note that the plugin settings can be accessed by either the Installed Plugins page, or by going to **Settings - **WPS Hide Login on the left hand menu of your WordPress dashboard. You will then be taken to the WordPress General settings page, and see the WPS Hide Login settings. There are two settings that you will need to adjust here: - **Login URL - **Enter the URL that you would like to change your WordPress login page to.  This will then prevent the default "wp-admin" and "wp-login.php" URLs from being accessible to website visitors.  In this example we've set this box to "hidedemo", meaning our WordPress login would now be: mydomain.com/hidedemo   rather than mydomain.com/wp-admin. - Redirection URL - Enter the URL that you would like visitors to be redirected to if they try to access yourdomain.com/wp-admin or yourdomain.com/wp-login.php. By default this is set to "404", and so will go to your sites 404 page. If for example you left this box blank, anyone trying to visit wp-admin or wp-login.php would just be redirected back to your websites homepage. Once you've chosen the URLs you would like to use, click on the Save Changes Button to save the settings. WordPress will then save the WPS Hide Login settings, and display a "Settings Saved" message at the top of the page, along with a link to your new WordPress login URL. Please be sure to either bookmark the new login link, or make a note of this somewhere. Note: If you ever forget your custom login URL, or are having issues accessing this, you will need to manually disable the **WPS Hide Login **plugin. The quickest way to do this would be to access your cPanel File Manager, go in to the folder your site is installed, then go to wp-content/plugins folder  and rename (or delete) the folder called wps-hide-login.   This then sets your WordPress site back to use yourdomain.com/wp-admin  for login.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to change your cPanel Password

You may wish to change your cPanel password to something more memorable or for security reasons. It is recommended, for security purposes, that the password is changed every month, with the password itself being mixed alphanumeric characters to make it difficult to guess. Log into cPanel via your Client Area To log into your client area, go to the following - Client Area. You will then be required to enter your login credentials for your account by completing the 'Email Address' and 'Password' sections followed by the 'Login' button. If you have forgotten your password, you can reset this via the 'Forgot Password?' option. alt text Select 'Services' from the top menu followed by 'My Services'. Click on the row for the account you want to change the password for. alt text From the left hand side menu, under 'Actions', choose 'Change Password' alt text Enter your new password in the 'New Password' box. alt text To help with security, you may want to consider using a password generator tool such as 'Strong Password Generator'. Enter the same password again in the 'Confirm New Password' box. alt text Click the 'Save Changes' button to complete the change of password. alt text You will have now successfully changed your cPanel password. Please note - changing the cPanel password changes the password for cPanel and FTP main login only, your client area login (e.g. the one where your username is your email address ) stays the same.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Exporting a MySql Database

You can export a MySQL database via phpMyAdmin, available in cPanel, if you want to keep a backup of your records yourself or move the data (or structure) to another database. alt text Scroll down to the 'Databases' section and choose 'phpMyAdmin'. alt text Once phpMyAdmin has loaded, from the left hand side, you should see your account name. Click on the '+' icon to expand the available databases on your account. alt text Choose the database that you wish to import your database to from the same left hand side menu. alt text Once the database has loaded, select the 'Export' menu option from the top navigation. alt text You can choose either Quick or Custom as an export method and then choose the export format - SQL format is selected by default. - Quick - selecting the quick export method is recommended for the average user. This will generate a default dump of your database if you are looking to cover all the bases. - Custom - selecting the custom export will provide several more options that more advanced users may require such as database choice, specify the output (filename / compression), format specifics (comments, foreign key checks, structure and/or data dumps), object creation options (add statements) and data dump options (insert delayed / ignore statements, update or replace, syntax, max query lengths, further dump requirements). alt text Once you have chosen your export method (and made any other specifications), select the 'Go' button. alt text The process will start the export which will be downloaded via your web browser - you may be prompted to save this file depending on your web browser type. Depending on the size of your database, this may take a few minutes to start. alt text Exporting a MySQL database via phpMyAdmin is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to Upgrade Software Using Softaculous/Fantastico

Keeping up to date with software installers such as Softaculous and Fantastico can bring new features to your website and remove any bugs found in previous version releases. It is important that you considering taking a backup of your website before proceeding with any software updates. No liability is accepted should an update that you make effect parts of your website. The following instructions shows a WordPress update using Softaculous. Scroll down to the 'Softaculous Apps Installer' section. If there are any updates available, you should see a prompt available letting you know this. Click onto the notice to start the update process. Under the 'Version' heading, click the two circular arrows. Select the 'Upgrade' button to complete the software upgrade. Depending on the script software that you are updating, additional instructions may be required after this step. For example, with Wordpress, database changes may be necessary but this will be prompted to you on screen to complete. If you're looking to upgrade to the latest version but can't see this version in Softaculous, it may be because upgrades are slightly delayed as we have to wait for the software makers to integrate the new versions. As soon as they do that this will become available for upgrading. If you want to keep up to date with the immediate latest versions, then you'd have to manually install the software and keep up to date with the upgrades manually thereafter. Upgrade software using Softaculous is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Installing Software / Apps Using Softaculous

Software installs such as Softaculous are a simple and fast way to install a script onto your website. Using a very popular example such as Wordpress, you can create a website within minutes. Softaculous boasts having 394 great scripts, 1000 PHP classes and they plan on adding many more in the future. Browse Softaculous Apps Log into your cPanel account and scroll down to the 'Softaculous Apps Installation' section. This area will provide a variety of applications that can be installed on your account such as WordPress, Joomla, OpenCart, phpBB and WHMSC. In this article, we're going to show how to install 'WordPress'. Install WordPress using Softaculous Select 'WordPress' from the available scripts list. Choose 'Install' positioned on the left and highlighted as follows: The installation requires you to complete the following: Software Setup - 'Choose Protocol' - The protocol of your website. - 'Choose Domain' - This should be automatically completed as per your account's domain. - 'In Directory' - If you'd like the WordPress software to be the primary page of your website, leave this section empty. However, if you wish to set it up in a separate directory because you already have a website, choose a directory such as 'blog' or 'wordpress'. No forward slashes need to be added. Site Settings - 'Site Name' - The site name will be featured in the header of your WordPress website and show on every page. - 'Site Description Domain' - The site description, or welcome message, that will accompany beneath your website name. - 'Enable Multisite (WPMU)' - Only required to be ticked if you plan on creating multiple WordPress websites. Continue down to further options. Admin Account - 'Admin Username' - The username of your admin account, most commonly 'Admin'. - 'Admin Password' - The admin account password. - 'Admin Email' - The admin account email address. Choose Language - 'Select Language' - Your native language. Select Plugins - 'Limit Login Attempts (Loginizer)' - This option will limit the amount of login attempts that your WordPress admin area receives. This is a helpful option in case there's a malicious user trying to gain access to your website. Select Theme You can choose a stock theme provided to you by the script. Make your choice using the 'Select' option beneath the theme, otherwise continue ahead. Choose 'Install' at the end of the page to progress to the next stage. If you would like to receive an email following the installation, you can add your email address at the bottom of the page. After a few moments, you should see visual confirmation that the software has been installed successfully along with your WordPress account information. If you now go ahead and visit your the website address where WordPress was installed to, you should see the website as per the installation settings that you provided. Installing software using Softaculous is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How to Install Wordpress

Through your cPanel account, you can easily install WordPress via an installer program called Softaculous. This method is a simple and fast way which takes no longer than a few minutes. Wordpress can create a fully working website which you can easily customise according to your requirements. Install WordPress using Softaculous Once you have successfully logged in, scroll down to the 'Softaculous Apps Installer' section. Select 'WordPress' from the available scripts list. Choose 'Install' positioned on the left and highlighted as follows: The installation requires you to complete the following: Software Setup - 'Choose Protocol' - The protocol of your website. - 'Choose Domain' - This should be automatically completed as per your account's domain. - 'In Directory' - If you'd like the WordPress software to be the primary page of your website, leave this section empty. However, if you wish to set it up in a separate directory because you already have a website, choose a directory such as 'blog' or 'wordpress'. No forward slashes need to be added. Site Settings - 'Site Name' - The site name will be featured in the header of your WordPress website and show on every page. - 'Site Description Domain' - The site description, or welcome message, that will accompany beneath your website name. - 'Enable Multisite (WPMU)' - Only required to be ticked if you plan on creating multiple WordPress websites. Continue down to further options. Admin Account - 'Admin Username' - The username of your admin account, most commonly 'Admin'. - 'Admin Password' - The admin account password. - 'Admin Email' - The admin account email address. Choose Language - 'Select Language' - Your native language. Select Plugins - 'Limit Login Attempts (Loginizer)' - This option will limit the amount of login attempts that your WordPress admin area receives. This is a helpful option in case there's a malicious user trying to gain access to your website. Select Theme You can choose a stock theme provided to you by the script. Make your choice using the 'Select' option beneath the theme, otherwise continue ahead. Choose 'Install' at the end of the page to progress to the next stage. If you would like to receive an email following the installation, you can add your email address at the bottom of the page. After a few moments, you should see visual confirmation that the software has been installed successfully along with your WordPress account information. If you now go ahead and visit your the website address where WordPress was installed to, you should see the website as per the installation settings that you provided. Installing WordPress is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Password Protecting Folders

If you would like to restrict access to certain parts of your website, you can do so by password protecting the respective directories through your cPanel control panel section.   Scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose 'Directory Privacy'. In the direct privacy section, you will see the folders that exist on your account. Choose the folder from the list that you would like to password protect. Tick the option 'Password protect this directory' and type in an alais name to describe the folder in the 'Enter a name for the protected directory' section. Choose 'Save' to set up the password protection. The process will now confirm that the password protection permission was successfully set on the chosen directory. We now need to setup a user who can access the directory. Select 'Go Back' to return to the directory privacy options. Scroll down to the 'Create User' section. A user now needs to be created with a password who can have access to the folder. Enter your chosen username in the 'Username' section along with the password in 'New Password' and 'Confirm Password'. There is a 'Password Generator' option if you would like the process to automatically create a password for you. To create the user, select the 'Save' option. The process will now confirm that the user has been successfully created and confirm back to you what password you chose. It is recommended at this point to write this information down, if required later to access the folder. You can repeat this process again on as many folders as you choose. You can also create multiple users who will have access if required. The process to password protect a folder is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Viewing and Understanding Disk Space Usage

In cPanel you can access an overview of the total disk usage for your account's folders and databases. You can also drill down into individual files and access a MySQL page for individual databases (if you have more than one). Your disk space allowance will also be shown in this section. Scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose 'Disk Usage'. In the 'Disk Usage' section, you can see the information about your file directories and how much disk usage those directories are using. Your disk usage and quota will be shown at the bottom of the directory summary bottom right as indicated. If you find that you are struggling for disk space, you may want to review what directory is using up the most. Commonly, you may find that logs, mail, public_html and MySQL are the most used areas. We'll take a look and explore those directories further. Click onto one of your directories shown that you would like to explore further. You will find that the section is then loaded into the 'cP File Manager'. In our example we've headed into the public_html section. You can quickly see what files are taking up the most space by taking advantage of the 'Size' order. Rather than going back and looking at another directory, from the left hand side you can change directories, or open and close the respective directories, by clicking the '+' and '-' options shown. You should now understand viewing and understanding the disk space usage on your account.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

My Site is Infected with Malware

Malware is the plague of the internet. It comes in many forms such as unwanted pop up adverts or an .exe file that will infect any visitors to your website, should they click on it. However some malware may not show any obvious signs at all. As the website owner, it is your responsibility to deal with malware by taking action as soon as you're aware of it which may even include taking your website offline. Identifying Malware Information It is always recommended that you use a virtual machine to test any website for malware due to the risks of you infecting your own machine. Inserting code is a common method of hacking that will exploit security vulnerabilities - any form that is open to a guest or member which can be submitted is a target. Check that any comment boards, or similar areas alike, aren't displaying any adverts or links that you've not placed. Also looking for any strange looking gobbledygook code or text as it may show a sign of an attack. You can check your website using Google SafeBrowsing diagnostics by visiting this web URL and changing the example shown to your website address - http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=your-domain.com. Test any downloaded software that may be available on your website and also download your website's files and conduct an anti-virus and/or anti-spyware scan. Please again remember to use a virtual machine if doing this. Removing Malware It may be a hard decision, but if your site has malware you may need to consider taking it offline to avoid putting customers and visitors at risk. Remove all offending code and fix any underlining security vulnerabilities must be done. It is important that you remove all links and adverts to malware sites from your site. If your website also provides any software downloads, disable these until you are sure that they are not infected. Edit or remove any user content where malware is present. Check for any 'backdoors' that unwanted guests may have left for another attack in the future. Preventing Malware Prevention against a malware attack in the future is the most important thing. The most commonly targeted websites are ones that use 'off the shelf' platforms such as Wordpress and Joomla. These are open scripts that a potential malicious visitor could have investigated to find an exploit for. It is for this reason that you ensure that your software is up to date because new releases may patch any exploited sections or code weaknesses. Using strong passwords are consistently recommended because if you have weak FTP details for example, a malicious user could place whatever files they like onto your site and make any changes that they wish to do. If you've written the code for your own website, it is important that you are protecting every possible input (such as forms) as standard. This will prevent cross site scripting or worse, your database being hacked. Keep your software up to date and even consider a daily site scanning utility.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Migrating a Wordpress Installation

Once you have backed up your database and made a copy of your Wordpress files, transferring your blog to from another host to us is a quick and easy task to perform. The migration will be supported by us at every step of the way. Step 1 - Backup your Wordpress database in phpMyAdmin 1 Log into your current cPanel account where your Wordpress site currently is. 2 Under the 'Databases' title, click onto 'phpMyAdmin'. 3 Select 'Export' from the top navigation menu. 4 Select 'Quick'. 5 Select 'Go' button. This action will prompt the export to start downloading via your web browser - _ you may be prompted to save this file depending on your web browser type_. Depending on the size of your database, this may take a few minutes to start. Step 2 - Back up your Wordpress files using your FTP program 1 Open your preferred FTP program and connect it to where your current Wordpress site is. 2 Locate the directory for your Wordpress installation - this could be either in the public_html folder or named in it's own directory depending on how it was installed. Once located, right mouse click on the holding folder and select 'Download' - if you do not have a download option, mouse click and drag to a local folder on your computer. Depending on the size of your directory, this may take a few minute to complete. Step 3 - Create a new database for Wordpress 2 Under the 'Databases' title, click onto 'MySQL Database Wizard'. 3 Write in a 'Database Name'. 4 Select 'Next Step' button to continue. 5 Write in: - **Username: ** - username for the database user. - **Password: ** - password for the database user. - Password (Again): - repeat of the password. Information At this stage it is recommended that you note down your database name, the database username and password because this will be needed later for the Wordpress config. Select 'Create User' button to proceed. 6 Select all privileges followed by 'Next Step' to complete the process. Step 4 - Import your Wordpress database 2 Whilst still logged into your cPanel account with us, under the 'Databases' title, click onto 'phpMyAdmin'. 3 Choose the new database that was created from the left hand side of phpMyAdmin. 4 Select 'Import' from the top navigation menu. 5 Select the 'Choose file' button and locate the database file that was downloaded earlier on your computer. 6 Select the 'Go' button to import. Step 5 - Upload your Wordpress files via FTP 1 Open your FTP program and locate the quick connect option- this example uses FileZilla. 2 At this stage you will need to know your login details for the FTP - this information can be found in your welcome email from us titled 'Your Hosting Info'. - Host - your domain name (without the www) - Username - your cPanel username - Password - your cPanel password - Port - by default this will be 21 Once your information has been entered, 'Connect'. 3 Once connected, your FTP program will provide on screen confirmation. You can now start exploring your hosting directory, by clicking '+' and '-' to expand and collapse the folders. Locate your Wordpress files that were downloaded earlier (the files within the folder downloaded) and upload them into the 'public_html' directory. This process may take a few minutes depending on the size of the files. Step 6 - Edit the Wordpress config file 1 Whilst connected to your hosting via FTP, navigate to the directory where your Wordpress files are. Browse through the files list and locate a filed called 'wp-config.php'. 2 Right mouse click on this file and select 'Edit'. 3 You will need to change the database connection details to the new database that we created in Step 3 - Create a new database for Wordpress. At the top of the document, you will see three important configuration settings listed under the heading 'MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host'. - // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // - /** The name of the database for WordPress */ - define('DB_NAME', 'cPanelName_databaseName'); - /** MySQL database username */ - define('DB_USER', 'cPanelName_databaseUserName'); - /** MySQL database password */ - define('DB_PASSWORD', 'databasePassword'); Please replace the information with your respective account details / database name, username and password. 4 Select 'File' followed by 'Save'. Once the changes have been saved, you may disconnected from the FTP program. After Step 6, your Wordpress blog should now work. However if you are experiencing problems, please contact support. Log into your 'Client Area' and select 'Open Ticket' from the navigation menu.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Setting Up The Wordpress Cron

Before setting up the WordPress cron, it is beneficial to understand what job the cron performs. Crons are used to execute processes at certain intervals - for example if you've written a WordPress post that you would like to be published say first thing tomorrow morning, when that time comes around, the cron will do that process for you. WordPress does have a built in process that runs the cron every time someone visits your website, however, this method is deemed insufficient if sadly your website doesn't attract many visitors, or alternatively, your website has lots of visitors and therefore the cron is being executed unnecessarily too often. The following explains how to disable the built in WordPress cron and then add a more reliable cron process. Disable the old WordPress Cron Scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose 'File Manager'. The file manager has access to all of the files on your server, including your WordPress files which is where we need to edit the wp-config.php file in order to disable the old WordPress cron. Using the left directory listing, open the 'public_html' folder and then click onto the folder that contains your WordPress installation. Once in the WordPress folder, locate the wp-config.php file and mouse click onto it. Choose 'Edit' from the top menu. Open the file in the text editor by selecting 'Edit'. Add the following line to your wp-config.php file below the opening <?php tag. define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true); Save the changes by selecting the 'Save Changes' option. The old WordPress cron is now disabled. Create the New WordPress Cron In cPanel, scroll down to the 'Advanced' section and choose 'Cron Jobs'. If you would like to receive an email each time your cron runs, you can do so by entering your email address in the 'Email' section. You may find this useful to begin with to verify that your cron is running. Save the entered email adress by selecting 'Update Email'. To setup the cron, in the 'Add New Cron Job' section, you need to define when the cron needs to run and what command the cron is executing. Take advantage of the 'Common Settings' for when the cron needs to run by opening the dropdown menu. If there's not one that suits your needs, enter the settings accordingly using the minute, hour, day, month and weekday options. You should find for WordPress, running the cron every hour is sufficient. Enter the WordPress cron command in the 'Command' section as follows: php /home/hpdemo/public_html/wp-cron.php Please note, you must set your account name in place of 'hpdemo'. Once you are happy with your settings, select 'Add New Cron Job'. Creating a reliable cron for WordPress is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

How do I use the site builder?

Information Your web browser will need to support Javascript to use the site builder. 2 Under the 'Software/Services' title, click onto 'RVSiteBuilder'. 3 You will now need to provide some information for your new project, including a name, your site name, how you would categorise your site and what web pages you would like to create. - Project Name - this is the name for the project (mandatory requirement). - Company Name - your company / website name. - Slogan - your company / website motto. - Category List - the industry that best suits your company / website. Once the details have been completed, select 'Create' to continue. 4 You can now choose a template for your website. The site builder will select various designs for you depending on how you defined the category. You may at this point choose to take some time to browse through the various options or if you want to do so, you can create your down DIY template. Information You can hover your mouse over various templates and either preview the design so you can see it up closer or some templates offer alternative colours to choose from. 5 Once you have found the design that it right for you, click on the template, and this will select it, and take you to the Pages section to design your homepage 6 You can now adjust the page design of your website. If however you have changed your mind about the template that you chose or any of the details such as the site name, slogan etc. this can all still be modified by clicking on Design along the top menu. On the Design screen you will now have access to a sub-navigation menu that includes: - Header - adjust the logo, company name and slogan. - Navigation - set or remove the navigation menu. - Content - Adjust the background, body and breadcrumb colours - Footer - Adjust the footer style and settings - Site Properties - change head tags, body tags and CSS (more suited to experienced users). After any changes, select the 'Save' button on the settings menu you were on. Once done, you can simply click on the Pages option along the top menu to continue adding / setting up your sites page content. 8 Once you have completed creating your site content, and are ready to go live click on the 'Publish' button in the top right corner of the page. 9 If you have more than one domain on your account you will need to use the drop down menu to choose the domain (or section) that your new website is going to be published to. Please note Please review the options carefully because this will overwrite your existing website unless specified otherwise. Select 'Publish' once again to complete. RVSiteBuilder is well supported throughout the internet and many alternative templates and tutorials are available should you require something more advanced for your design. You can find further information on the following website - RVSiteBuilder Support.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Upload using Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is a software application used by web designers and developers which gives the ability to build and publish your own website to your hosting account. This article will explain how to configure and upload your website via FTP using Dreamweaver. Before you start, you will need to know: - Your FTP server/host name - Your FTP username - Your FTP password You should have this information sent to you by email in your welcome from us titled 'New Account Information'. Open up Adobe Dreamweaver. Click on the Site option from the top menu followed by Manage Sites. alt text In the 'Manage Sites' option, select New. alt text Select Site from the drop down menu. alt text You now need to enter in the information for the new website. Type in your website name into the 'Site name' section. Select the 'Folder icon' next to 'Local root folder' and select the local system folder that contains your website files. Select the 'Folder icon' next to 'Default images folder' and select the local system folder for the folder that contains your website images. alt text Select the Remote Info link from the left hand side 'Category' menu. Select the 'Access' type from the drop down list as 'FTP'. alt text Now enter your FTP connection details, including the 'FTP host', 'Login' and 'Password'. You may wish to tick the 'Save' checkbox to remember the password. alt text Select OK to confirm. Complete by selecting Done. alt text You can now upload your files in Dreamweaver using the file manager menu to publish the respective files by choosing 'Put Files' upload arrow button. alt text Uploading using Dreamweaver is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Using the File Manager

Your account access includes the ability to easily access, view, edit or delete any files that exist on your account. This is effortlessly done through the cPanel control panel file management section. Accessing the File Manager Once you have logged in, scroll down to the 'Files' section and choose the option 'File Manager'. File Manager Options Take a moment to familiarise yourself with the options available in File Manager. Down the left hand side, we can see the folders that on are on the account. Each of those have options to expand and collapse the folders to explore further into the respective directories. alt text At the top, we can see a series of menu options giving us the ability to create files, create folders, upload, delete, rename or edit files. alt text Create a New File Firstly decide where you would like the new file to be placed. Usually you'd choose the 'public_html' folder because this contains all of your website folders and files. Click this folder to open it. alt text To create the new file, select the 'File' button from the top menu option. alt text Next give the file a name in the 'New File Name' section and remember to provide the extension i.e. text, .html or .php. Once entered, 'Create New File'. alt text We can now see that the new file has been created in the respective folder with the respective name. alt text Edit a File To edit a file, click onto its name (you should find that it is now highlighted). Select 'Edit' from the top menu. alt text This process will now open the File Manager Text Editor. Select 'Edit'. alt text The file will now open with the respective content. In our example, our file is blank. alt text Add the desired text into the file. Note that if you prefer to write in HTML, take advantage of the 'Use Code Editor' menu option. alt text Once you are happy with the changes, choose 'Save Changes' from the menu. alt text To verify the changes, select the file again and choose 'View' from the top menu. alt text You should now see a preview of your file. alt text Upload a File If you have a file that you would like to upload, choose the 'Upload' option from the top menu. alt text Choose the 'Select File' button and locate the file on your system that you would like to upload to your site. alt text Once selected, the process should automatically start the upload and confirm the progress. alt text Once marked as 100%, return to the File Manager by selecting the 'Go Back' option. Returning to the File Manager, choose the 'Reload' menu option. alt text You should now note your new file upload has been added. alt text Delete a File If you would like to delete a file, locate the file and select it (you should find that it is highlighted). Choose the 'Delete' menu item from the top. alt text The process will now ask you to confirm that you are deleting the file. To confirm, select the 'Confirm' option. alt text From this article you should now be confident on how to explore your account files in File Manager, how to create a new file, how to edit a file and how to delete a file.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Upload using Serif WebPlus

Serif WebPlus is a website building application for Microsoft Windows systems. It allows users to design, build and publish your own website to your hosting account. This article will explain how to configure and upload your website via FTP using Serif WebPlus. Before you start, you will need to know: - Your FTP server/host name - Your FTP username - Your FTP password You should have this information sent to you by email in your welcome from us titled 'New Account Information'. Open Serif WebPlus. Choose the 'Publish site' icon from the top menu. alt text Choose 'Accounts' from the top right hand corner section. alt text When prompted, enter your 'Account Details' that can be found in your account welcome email, look for cPanel/FTP information. - Account name - A name for your account. - FTP address - Your FTP address - Port number - 21 - Folder - public_html - Username - Your cPanel/FTP username - Password - Your cPanel/FTP password - Passive Mode - Ticked by default (try unticking if it does not work) - Website URL - Your website URL i.e. www.your-domain.com alt text Once you have entered the respective information, click OK. Confirm that your details are correct and select 'Update Account'. alt text You now need to choose what files that you would like to upload to your account. To select all files, check the 'Publish All Pages' option and proceed to selecting 'OK'. alt text The upload process will now initialise. Depending on the size of your files, the upload may take some minutes to complete. alt text Once the upload has finished, choose the Close option. The website publising process should now be complete. You can now choose the 'View this URL ->' option to browse your website in your preferred browser. alt text Once you are finished, choose Close. Uploading files using Serif WebPlus is now complete.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Introduction into Plugins and Widgets

Two components of WordPress are plugins and widgets. However, what do these mean? In this article we'll explore what these options are and how they effect the WordPress website. Plugins The typical use for WordPress is for writing blog posts or serving as use for a small site, being a holding point for a couple of pages of content. However, perhaps you need an added 'extra' to that? WordPress is an open-source program which means that many developers across the globe have access to the core lines of code and can see gaps where they feel that they can make improvements. They can do this by writing and realising a plugin which you can then add to your website. It's like buying a vacuum cleaner and then buying a separate hose attachment that suits your cleaning. It's separate from the main vacuum cleaner, but when it is added, there's an improvement to suit your needs. Would you like to add a contact form to your website? Make it load quicker? Add a forum or Google analytics? Would you even like to sell products? At the point of writing this article, 44,600 plugins have been written for WordPress. You can either browse the plugin directory online via the official WordPress site or you can browse them via your WordPress admin panel. Browsing Plugins To browse the available plugins, log into your WordPress admin panel. Use the left hand side menu to select 'Plugins'. alt text Once the plugins section loads, select 'Add New'. alt text You can now take a look at the 'Featured' plugins or even browse the 'Popular' plugins to get a feel on what everyone else commonly use. alt text Alongside each plugin will be some information about whether you can install it. There's also a simple 'Install Now' option to immediately added it to your WordPress site. Plugins can be updated and removed through the same management section. Widgets Widgets play a part in the overview look and feel of your WordPress website. They are fixed sections that usually appear on the right hand side of your site as such. alt text They are useful at providing information to website visitors. They can be fully customised and new widgets can be added to suit your website needs. Customise Widgets To customise the widgets, this is done in the WordPress admin panel. Down the left hand side menu, choose the 'Appearance' section. alt text Once the section loads, choose 'Widgets'. alt text The widgets management will show the widgets that you currently have in place and provide a selection of available widgets that you can add. alt text To add or remove a widget, you can simply click and drag the widget. For example if you wanted to add the 'Calendar', mouse click and drag that across into the 'Sidebar' section. You can position it where you feel is right. The widget changes are automatically saved. The widgets aren't just limited to the sidebar section of the website, you can also add them to the footer section by using the 'Content Bottom 1' and 'Content Bottom 2' widget sections. This article should explain the basic principles about plugins and widgets which you can use to understand how to they work with WordPress. Having full control of your website is paramount and knowing more information about these two elements should have now been achieved.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

What Are My Database Credentials?

Your database credentials will comprise of a hostname, your database name and your database user, which is prefixed with your account name. In this article, we'll provide an example what a database config should include and where you can get this information from. Your Database Hostname Your database hostname credential will always be 'localhost'. Therefore in the connection config, this should include: /** MySQL hostname */ define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); Your Database Name and Database User If you know that you have a database on your account but you are unsure what the database name is or what database user has access, you can review this via the control panel. alt text Scroll down to the 'Databases' section and choose 'MySQL Databases'. alt text At the top under the 'Current Databases', you should find your database listed. Note that this includes the database name under the 'Database' heading and the database user under the 'Privileged Users' heading. alt text We therefore now know that our database credentials consist of our account name (hpdemouk in this example) followed by an underscore and the database name (new in this example). Coincidentally, our database user is the same. Therefore our database config will now also include: /** The name of the database */ define('DB_NAME', 'hpdemouk_new'); /** MySQL database username */ define('DB_USER', 'hpdemouk_new'); Your Database Password A database does not have a password, only the database user that has access does. If you know your password, add the following line to your database config replacing the password example with your actual password. /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'PASSWORDEXAMPLE'); If you are not sure what this password is, you can change the database user password. Still in 'MySQL Databases', scroll further down to the 'Current Users' section. Select the 'Change Password' option on the database user as noted from earlier. alt text Type in your new password for the database user in the 'Password' box and repeat again in the 'Password (Again)' box. Note that there's a 'Password Generator' option if you would like the system to generate you a strong new password. alt text Once your new password has been entered, complete the process by choosing the 'Change Password' option. alt text Now update the database config with the new password that you've set by adding this line: /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'NEWPASSWORDEXAMPLE'); Full Database Credentials Your database config should consist of: /** MySQL hostname */ define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); /** The name of the database */ define('DB_NAME', 'youraccount_yourdatabasename'); /** MySQL database username */ define('DB_USER', 'youraccount_yourdatabaseuser'); /** MySQL database password */ define('DB_PASSWORD', 'PASSWORDEXAMPLE');

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Creating a SSH Key to connect to your account

Your can create a SSH key to connect to your hosting account using the cPanel control panel. This key will serve a purpose of being an authorised remote connection to your account. This article explains how you can create a SSH key and then use this either on Windows 10 or Mac OS X to connect to your hosting account. Create a SSH Key Scroll down to the 'Security' section and choose 'SSH Access'. Choose 'Manage SSH Keys', Generate the new SSH key by choosing 'Generate a New Key'. Type in a password for your SSH key into the 'Key Password' and 'Reenter Password' sections. You can also make use the of the 'Password Generator' if desired. Once the password has been entered, choose 'Generate Key'. The key generation is now complete. Choose 'Go Back' to continue the process. Under the 'Public Keys' section, we can now see our new key. However, at the moment the 'Authorization Status' is set to 'not authorized' which we need to change. We do this by selecting the 'Manage' option. alt text Authorise the key by selecting the 'Authorize' option. alt text The process will now confirm that the key is authorised. Select 'Go Back' to continue the process. alt text We now need to download the private key to the local system (the machine that you will connect to your account from). To do this, in the 'Private Keys section, choose the 'View/Download' option. alt text Convert the key to PPK format by firstly typing in the password that you set earlier for your SSH key. Once entered, select 'Convert'. This will then start a download on your system which is your private key. alt text This key will need to be configured on your SSH application in order to successfully authenticate. If you are using Windows, put the downloaded 'id_rsa.ppk' SSH key file in a secure folder on your system. Windows 10 - SSH with the SSH Key Open PuTTY and type in: - Host Name (or IP address): You should type in your cpanel account name followed by @ then your server IP address i.e. youraccountname@yourserverIPaddress - Port: Replace the SSH port numbered 22 to 4873 alt text Next down the left hand side, choose 'SSH' followed by 'Auth'. alt text Under 'Authentication parameters', select the 'Browse' and then locate where on your system your SSH key is. Once found, double click it to return back to PuTTY. On the left hand side, return back to the 'Session' section where you were before. Select 'Open' at the bottom. alt text If you are connecting for the first time, you may see a security alert. This is absolutely normal, so you should choose 'Yes'. alt text The SSH connection should now be established. You have now successfully connected to your hosting account using your SSH key. alt text Mac OS X - SSH with the SSH Key Using Mac OS X, you will need to put the downloaded 'id_rsa.ppk' SSH key file in '/.ssh/authorized_keys/'. Open your Launchpad and use the search at the top to type in 'terminal'. alt text Click the Terminal application to open it. You should now see a command prompt. alt text If you've not yet moved your SSH key to the right folder on your system, you can do this by typing these commands with the respective replacement. cd ~/YourDownloadFolder mv id_rsa.ppk ~/.ssh/authorized_keys/ sudo chmod 700 ~/.ssh sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys Using sudo, you may be asked for your system password. Now that the SSH key has been moved and the correct folder permissions set, you will now need to load up your SSH key. sudo ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/authorized_keys/id_rsa.ppk This may again ask for the system password. However, it will ask the SSH key password that you set earlier. When entered, the SSH key will be loaded. You now need to connect to your hosting account. Use the following command with the appropriate replacements to connect to your hosting account. ssh youraccountname@yourserverIPaddress -p 4873 For example, our account name is hpdemouk and our server IP from our account information email is 91.238.165.2. Therefore we would need to type in: ssh hpdemouk@91.238.165.2 -p 4873 You should now be successfully connected to your hosting account via SSH on Mac OS X using your SSH key. alt text

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Getting Started with Wordpress

WordPress is a very powerful blog posting and website content management system. It is free and open source which has proven its worth in being one of the best website creation tools with little prior technical experience. Anyone can use WordPress and create a website within minutes. In this article, we'll discuss how to get started with WordPress and understand the basic functions that are available to use. WordPress Admin Panel If you already have WordPress installed on your website, you can usually access the WordPress admin panel by adding '/wp-login.php' to the end of the website address. However, please note that if during the installation process you have chosen to setup the admin panel in a different location, you will need to type that instead. If you are unsure, check back to the email you received after completing the installation which should include all of the relevant information. To access your admin panel, type in the username and password that you again setup in the installation. WordPress Menu Once you have logged in the admin panel, take a glance down the left hand side menu. Straight away you can see that the 'Dashboard' is highlighted blue which is the current position in the admin panel. Further down there are additional menu items that include 'Posts', the section to create new blog posts, 'Media', the section for uploading new photos or videos, 'Pages', the section for creating new content for the website and 'Comments', the section that holds any comments that your blog posts or pages have received comments from visitors on. More intermediate sections follow that include 'Appearance', for customising the WordPress look and feel, 'Plugins', intended for adding any extra functionality to the website, 'Users', records of those with access to the site, 'Tools', for import and export requirements, and 'Settings', set from the installation but they can be changed again if need be. WordPress Dashboard It was mentioned earlier that the dashboard was the current page that was shown. This is the page that you will normally see when first logging into the admin panel. The dashboard will summarise the website as it currently is and provide some helpful links. Straight away we can see that WordPress has compiled some useful options to customise the site. It is encouraging the first blog post and offering the option to add a new page, such as the 'About' page. Writing a New Post Selecting the option to 'Write your first blog post', we can see what is required when doing this. WordPress is asking for a title for the new post and offers a decent sized text area for the blog post information to be written. If we take a little closer look at the menu, there are a number of formatting options available that are similar to what you would see using email or word processing software. The typical options are bold, italic, underline and alignment. Publishing a New Post WordPress provides you the option to publish a new post immediately or save it for later. If you are half way through writing your blog post, you can simply save it as a draft and carry it on later using the 'Save Draft' option. Want to see how so far it is looking? You can choose the 'Preview' option to do that. Happy to go ahead to post your first blog post? Be brave and hit the 'Publish' option. The blog post will go immediately live on your website for your visitors to see. If you change your mind, there's a 'Move to Trash' option. Writing a New Page If we take another look at the dashboard, the prompt to 'Add an About page' takes us to the section to write a new page. How does that look? As you can see, it's almost identical to what we've seen before when you add a new post. Adding pages to your site can help provide information to visitors and plays an important part of the core website structure. Again similar to writing a new post, the publish functions are the same. You can draft, publish or trash any page according to your needs. Changing the Website Appearance The ability to change a website's appearance is an important element. You want your website to stand out and advertise you as best that it can. Referencing again back to the dashboard, the 'Customize Your Site' option gives easy access to this. If we scan down the left hand side menu, there are many options offered to set the 'Site Identity', 'Colors', 'Header Image', 'Background Image', 'Menus', 'Widgets' and 'Static Front Page'. You can invest as much or as little time as you like in these options, tweaking what you feel is right, seeing the changes come live on the right hand side preview. Making these changes inline couldn't be easier. In this article we've discussed the very basics of WordPress and the functions that are available. It's important to understand that anyone can create a website in WordPress. No prior technical knowledge or understanding is needed, as the options are very clear and very user-friendly. If you've not already, take the plunge and start using WordPress today!

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Installing a Theme

WordPress has a variety of themes available to make the average looking blog website into something much more interesting. You can choose a theme that fits the feel of your website, from a professional portfolio to a gamer news blog. From the WordPress panel, you can change the appearance and set a theme of your liking. You can choose from the approved WordPress selection or upload your own. Changing the Theme To browse the WordPress themes, log into your WordPress admin panel. Use the left hand side menu to select 'Appearance'. This section will provide a list of your current website theme (likely the one that you chose when you installed WordPress). To change the theme, select 'Add New'. Choosing a WordPress theme Note the top navigation includes some categories - Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. If you haven't already set your mind on a new theme, you can browse these sections for some inspiration on what you'd like to choose. You will find that by mouse hovering over a theme, you can see two options - Install and Preview. If you want to see how the theme will look on your site, take advantage of the 'Preview' option. If you're happy with your theme choice, choose 'Install' as shown. The installation process will take a few moments to download the package, unpack it and install it. Once complete, you should see confirmation that the theme was successfully installed. You can now activate the theme on your website by selecting the 'Activate' option. Your new theme should now be live for you to see on your website. Upload your own WordPress theme If you would prefer to upload your own theme (perhaps you have created your own), you can alternatively choose the 'Upload Theme' option. Your theme files needs to be in a Zip format. Use the 'Choose File' to navigate through your system files to locate your theme. Once chosen, select 'Install Now' to go ahead with the installation. When the theme has been uploaded and activated, you should find that your new theme is on your website. From this article you should now understand how to install a theme in WordPress. There are no WordPress limits, so you can install as many themes as you like and choose the one that suits you the best.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Updating Wordpress

Despite being completely free to use, WordPress is under continual development by its parent company Automattic. This means that in order to keep your WordPress website up-to-date, you should always follow the update procedures. Updates tend to either provide general improvements or essential security patches, so it is worth investing the time applying the new updates. Check for WordPress Updates To check to see whether any WordPress updates are available, log into your WordPress admin panel. alt text Straight away, down the left hand side menu we can see that a menu item has appeared that is informing us that there's five updates available. At the top of the dashboard, there is also a prompt that there's a new version of WordPress available. Clicking the prompt will explain more information about the update. Installing WordPress Updates WordPress makes it very easy for us to update by offering an 'Update Now' clickable button. Select that to proceed with the update. alt text WordPress will now automatically start downloading the new version, installing the files and performing any database structure updates. This should take nothing more than a few minutes and then confirm once it has completed. alt text With the successful confirmation shown, WordPress provides a showcase of information about the new updates and how easier life will now be. Other WordPress Updates From earlier, we saw that WordPress was letting us know that we had five possible available updates. One of those was for WordPress itself, so if we select the 'Updates' menu item again, we can see what else needs updating. In our example we can see that we have some outstanding 'Plugins' and 'Theme' updates. Lets start by updating those plugins. In the plugins section, tick the 'Select All' option. alt text Now click the 'Update Plugins' button. alt text After a moment, the plugin should be updated with confirmation shown. alt text Select the 'Return to WordPress Updates page' to head back for the other update(s). Now in the themes section, repeat exactly the same process. Tick the 'Select All' option. alt text Now again click the 'Update Plugins' button. alt text Again after a moment, the themes should be updated with confirmation shown. alt text Looking back into the 'Updates' menu item, you should find that there's now no outstanding updates required. Following this article you should now be comfortable about updating WordPress itself and any plugins or themes that your website has installed.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Changing the Wordpress Appearance

When you have a new WordPress website or perhaps an out of date website, changing the appearance is an important factor. Giving the website a new look and feel, changing the website name or improving menu items can all easily be done through the appearance customise wizard that lives inside the WordPress admin area. Customise WordPress Once you have logged into your WordPress admin panel, from the left hand side menu, mouse hover the 'Appearance' menu item and select 'Customize'. The customise section makes changing the WordPress appearance very easy, offering all the tools that are needed to do this as menu items. It applies the changes that you make online so you can see exactly what changes are going to happen to the site. Don't panic though, the changes won't be visible to any visitors until you've opted to save them. Customise Menu From the customise menu we can see: - 'Active Theme': Choose 'Change' to see a selection of new themes that can be added. - 'Site Identity': Change the name and tagline of your website. - 'Colors': Change the font and background colours. - 'Header Image': Set a header image. - 'Background Image': Set a background image. - 'Menus': Add or revise menu items. - 'Widgets': Change the widget area. - 'Static Front Page': Decide whether you'd like blog posts to be featured on the front page or another section. All of these sections give you full control of changing the appearance of your WordPress website, without you needing any technical knowledge or understanding. If you've looking to make improvements, you may find trial and error is the best process, making small changes according to your requirements. As an example, we would like to change the colours on the website to give it a less white feel. To do this, we selected 'Colors' from the menu. The left hand side menu now offers a variety of colour options. We've chosen an option from the 'Base Color Scheme' to see how that effects the site look on the right. We've certainly achieved a less white feel. With the customisation now made which we are happy with, at the top of the left menu, save by selecting the option 'Save & Publish'. Selecting this will save the changes to the website for visitors to now see. You can continue to make as many changes as you like. However, it's important to understand that there's no undo option to reverse what has been done, so it's worth bearing that in mind. Take confidence and continue to build your website's appearance to how you think it should be. This article explained how to change the basic WordPress appearance to suit the theme of your website or any new requirements that you had, using the online appearance customise options.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025

Recommended Wordpress Plugins

WordPress plugins can transform a simple blogging website into something much more interesting. You can also use plugins to make management improvements for the webmaster and speed optimisations for visitors. To browse recommended plugins, log into your WordPress admin panel. Use the left hand side menu to select 'Plugins'. Once the plugins section loads, select 'Add New'. From the top menu, choose 'Recommended'. WordPress will showcase a list of recommended plugins that are based on what you have installed so far (if any) and what other WordPress users are installing. Each plugin will explain whether it is compatible with your version of WordPress. A plugin can be installed incredibly easy by selecting the 'Install Now' button. Once activated, the plugin will be available to use immediately. Top 5 WordPress Plugins There are thousands of plugins to choose from that you could install on your WordPress site. However, we feel that the following should be recommended. Contact Form 7 It's bread and butter that every website should have a contact form and Contact Form 7 is one that stands out from the crowd. It is used by over 1 million websites which truly shows how good it is. With full control on what information you would like to appear on your contact form and good spam protection, having this plugin is a good decision. WP Super Cache Time is money and it makes sense to have your website load as fast as technically possible. With WP Super Cache, it offers a fast method of serving your WordPress pages from a memory store, so there's absolutely no delay loading up the information at lightening speeds. All in One SEO Pack You want to be able to bring in as many visitors as you can to your website by having a strong position in search engines such as Google. With All in One SEO Pack, it helps provide the necessary improvement to search engines, and fine tunes the content on your website to make you more favourable for showing in the search engines as high as possible. In includes XML sitemaps and Google Analytics support, making other plugins that offer the same services unnecessary. WooCommerce If you've ever thought about the e-commerce world to sell products to your visitors, WooCommerce is an excellent solution. It will fit alongside your existing website and makes adding products incredible easy. Visitors can simply order directly from you and not even realise that your website started off as a blogging site. It includes all of the necessary facilities to send order confirmation emails, raise invoices, create shipments and so forth. JetPack JetPack is a plugin from the same company who built WordPress, so they truly know what they are doing. They claim to be able to increase traffic, site speed and most importantly, offer protection from malicious hackers. Join over a million users and add this to your website.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2025