Building a Website with the WordPress Blogging Platform
- Securing Your WordPress Blog.
One of the most horrible things that could ever happen to a blog or website is to get hacked. There are chances that one in one hundred people who visit your site will try to hijack your site most especially if it’s loaded with valuable content. This is the reason WordPress is constantly updated, if you have a WordPress blog you will get a notification from time to time to update to the new version of WordPress.
The updates will mostly include security updates, bug fixes and other improvements to the previous versions. This offers nothing but peace of mind that the team at WordPress are constantly looking for ways to improve the security and performance of this amazing blogging software. On the other hand, you also need to do some research about protecting your site from potential attack because updates from the WordPress team is just the starting point.
Some of the things you need to be aware of are stuff such as, different forms of password protection not just for your site but also for your content. You can choose to partly protect some part of your content for private viewing. There are plug-ins that can help to protect your content from being copied by someone else, such plugins disable the highlight and copy function. In other cases, you can choose to make part of your content accessible to:
- Authors
- Contributors
- Members
- Registered users
- Building a Website – Domain Name
The domain name is part of the foundation of the business, if you intend to build a website for your business then you will need a domain name. GoDaddy is a popular website where you could register a domain name for your business. A search through their portal will reveal if the domain name you’re trying to register is available. Your domain name must be a name that talks about what your website represents. You need to be careful when you register a Domain name, for example, I offer a WordPress tutorial on my other blog and decided to register a domain name called WordPress Tutorial. I later got an email that this was an infringement. I had to register a new domain name and started my blog all over. The hassle has worth it not therefore ensured you’re not infringing on a trademark domain name.
- Hosting Your Blog/Website
Your blog/website needs a house to live in and this is where the hosting aspect comes in, hosting is not free but are affordable. If you have any problem, you can always contact them through live chat or via email for solutions. A caveat – don’t think that host companies are liable to help solve all your problems, for instance, if your site is infected with malware, your hosting company will not clean up the mess and if at all they do, it will be done for a fee.
- Building a Website – Site Configuration
Themes – This is the outlook of your website or blog, the first thing that people see when they land on your page. The type of theme installed determines the look of your website. If you’re using the WordPress blogging platform for your blogging activities, there are free themes that come with the package. If you’re getting free themes from other sources you need to be careful because such themes might contain malicious codes that could lead to loss of control of your site. Be careful!
Building a Website – Plugins – There are lots of plugins that helps to configure your site. They range from security, SEO performances, content protection, and blog post layout, moving content from pages of posts and vice versa. These plugins can be found in the WordPress dashboard and the main thing about plugins before installations, is to check the last time the plugin was updated. If a plugin has not been updated in a very long time, then it’s advisable not to use such plugins because of security threats.
