Jasmine Web Starter

There's no disputing that a large part of today's internet is made up of WordPress websites. Sometimes these WordPress sites are sold as a simple website starter package which can have mixed results.

We have found over the last few years it can be really useful if you understand a little bit of background on WordPress to get better results in the long term.

Firstly WordPress is open source and free to use, or is a paid hosting option on wordpress.com

WordPress needs a server with PHP installed and a Database.

WordPress uses a theme to delivery the websites look that you show your users.

WordPress offers addins to allow you to offer non standard features.

It gives you a web based admin section to manage the site and add new content and pages.

Important steps to keep up to date

Nowadays WordPress can be setup to automatically download and install WordPress updates. It then sends you an email to tell you its updated.

But you still need to make sure that any third party/paid themes and addins are kept up to date.

On top of the internal updates, you should keep your eyes on the current PHP version. Some hosts update PHP once a month for the minor version updates.

But PHP also releases new major versions from time to time, which often bring great speed improvements to your site. Any major release would require you to change the used version in the hosting control panel.

Backup and Restore

As you can publish new content and upload new images within the browser, its important to think about backing up the database on a regular bases.

But the most important part of a backup is how you restore it and how long it takes to do so.

Some hosting provider packages offer a staging environment. Which means you can clone your WordPress install into another copy, once you have this you could restore into this staging copy from your backup, then test and record the steps. However the database paths will be wrong for the staging environment as they all point to the live install space, some staging options allow you to update the paths or you may need to do this manually.

Its also important to remember you might have configuration files that control WordPress, so backing them up is important as well.

If you’re not using it, get rid

Deleting what you are not using such as addins, Themes, even Users plus some standard PHP features, can all be turned off to improve security.

Don’t give anything away - Change some Standard settings

The WordPress standard Admin user is called Admin but you should change its name, so its not so easy for someone to try to login to your WordPress account. Also define an additional account to publish content, so that you don't have to use the main admin user all the time. You can also Change the WordPress table prefix which is a simple way to make things just that little bit harder for automated attackers.

Always make sure you use strong unique passwords.

Webp Images

If your website is image heavy we recommend that you use Webp formatted images. Webp images typically have a smaller file size so are much better for downloading. Which will be a win for you with less bandwidth needed, and a win for your users seeing a faster site.

WordPress supports Webp images out of the box enabling you to upload and use them in a theme. But if you have already uploaded your images into WordPress using another format, you can take a look at the addin they offer to covert them to Webp format.