My clients want a website that looks beautiful, engages their audience, and highlights their product/service… But they also want one that they can manage on their own without having to learn a whole new skill set or pay someone each and every time they need to post to their blog or update their hours. This is why I work with WordPress: it’s completely customizable and user-friendly. However, it’s always necessary to provide some guidance, hence this, the second installment in a series of “Your WordPress Website” articles designed to help you better manage your Loki Loki-made WordPress website.
Maintaining your WordPress website by keeping it up-to-date is vital to keeping if functioning properly and keeping it secure from hackers. Because some updates can cause hiccoughs with your site, always make sure you have a current back-up and a bit of extra time in case you need to do some reformatting after an update.
Let’s get started: Log in to the back-end of your site (http://YourURL.com/wp-admin) with your WordPress username and password.
Now: Update your plugins.
On-Going: Update them regularly throughout the year
WordPress makes it easy to update your plugins automatically—Bluehost.com has easy-to-follow instructions. After you’ve updated, check your site to make sure everything’s looking okay and functioning properly.
Now: Do a full back-up of your website and then upgrade to the most current version of Wordpres.
On-Going: Make sure your site is scheduled for regular, automated back-ups throughout the year and regularly update your version of WordPress as upgrades are offered.
To do a full back-up of your website, log in via FTP and copy all of your website’s files to your computer.
Next, to ensure your site is regularly backed-up, choose a backup plugin, install, and configure for automatic updates.
Now: Update your copyright dates in the footer of your website
On-Going: Create lots of new content in 2012!
If you have a Loki Loki-made website, chances are your copyright info is either in the footer hook or a footer widget.
To update copyright info in the footer hook:
From your WP dashboard, go to: Appearance > Thesis Openhook
Scroll down to the bottom and find the ‘Footer’ Openhook.
Update your copyright to include 2012, i.e.: © (that’s computer speak for ‘©’) 2008-2012.
To update copyright info in a footer widget:
From your WP dashboard, go to: Appearance > Widgets
Look for the widget with your copyright info in it (i.e. ‘Footer 4′).
Update your copyright to include 2012, i.e.: © (that’s computer speak for ‘©’) 2008-2012.
Further reading: Your WordPress Website, Part 1: Adding and Updating Posts, Pages, and Pictures
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