SpeedHost.in Blog Hosted on WordPress

Surely, there are times you come across certain websites that are so beautiful that you just want the same theme for your own website. We’ve got folks who’ve bookmarked so many such websites but could never really figure out the theme that was being used.  Honestly, finding the right WordPress theme can be a real challenge. It’s not because the themes aren’t good but there are so many out there that you’re simply spoilt for choice.

Looking through the source code of a website is one way to find the theme of a WordPress website but unfortunately site owners change or modify this for security reasons making it difficult to identify the theme.  Another cool way of finding out the WordPress theme is with the help of the website whatwpthemeisthat. With the help of this tool, you will be able to find the theme of a WordPress website in no time. All you need to do is search for the website and it will give you all the details of the theme including the author, author homepage and the version of the WordPress theme. What makes this tool even special is that it also detects the WordPress plugins that the Website is using. This feature comes handy especially when you want to know the plugins responsible for adding functionality to the website.

Mind you, there are site owners who use customized or proprietary themes and this tool will not be able to help you in such cases. Else, it’s just aces!

If you know of any other way through which you can identify a WordPress theme, let us know in the comment section below.

When you are powering 1 out of every 5 websites in the world, there is no doubt that you are pretty awesome. We are referring to the most popular Content Management System – WordPress. Ease of use, thousands of available plugins & themes and abundance of online support has contributed to its thumping success. There is no doubt that you can setup your WordPress site in minutes, but maintaining it is a different ball game all together. In this post, we are going to share some ways to ensure that your WordPress site is running in top shape and at all times.

1] Never miss any updates: WordPress is an open source platform hence bugs and security flaws will always be at its tail. Occasional as they may be, updates available for WordPress are a great way to counter any issue and at times to improve the overall experience of using your website dashboard. Avoiding these updates will only leave you exposed to security threats and put all of your hard work at risk of being lost. Similarly, plugins and themes need to be updated to the latest version to avoid creating a gateway for security threats and also to ensure compatibility with the latest WordPress build.

[Note: If your website is on the latest version like 3.9, then your website will automatically update for all minor and maintenance releases.]

2] Delete unwanted Themes: There are a lot of themes out there but eventually you are going to just use one for your website. Though the rest are deactivated, they can still pose a security threat if they are not updated. Also we noticed a strange lag while browsing through all saved themes, which somehow miraculously changed when we got rid of all the unwanted themes on a demo site 😉 . All themes that are not in use must go except for one default theme for backup. You can always reinstall themes whenever you need them so deleting them won’t really pinch. Also look out for themes that are light weight and don’t put stress on your resources.

3] Delete unwanted plugins: Plugins definitely add functionality to your website but at the same time it utilizes resources allotted to your website. In such a situation, you will need to ask yourself a question, can you live without this plugin? If the answer is a yes, throw that plugin out. Also get rid of any deactivated plugins on your website, since if you don’t update them, then you are creating loopholes for any kind of security threat. Don’t fall for the all in one type of plugins where you get loads of functionality. If you are only going to use one or two functions out of the ten, then the rest is of the code is simply waste of resources. You might as well look for plugins that focus on the functions that you are actually going to use.

4] Take backups: There are times while making a few changes or trying to add new features we might end up messing our WordPress website. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to undo these mistakes and that’s when we need to take help of our trusty old backups. They also come in handy when your website has been a victim to a security threat. We recommend regular backups and you can try BackUpWordPress plugin to do that for you. Trust us when we say that this is one thing you just can’t ignore.

5] Enable Caching:  Whenever you load a website, there are files that are saved in the Cache which is in your computer’s hard drive. So whenever you revisit the same website again, the browser uses the files in the cache rather than the server to display the page. This process is called caching and ensures that less system resources are utilized and pages load quicker for all your visitors. You can use WP Fastest Cache WordPress plugin to configure caching for your website with just a few clicks.

Try all of the above recommendations and you will definitely keep your WordPress website in great shape. You will need to keep maintaining your website as much as you can. Even if you have a single page website, login to your dashboard and ensure that every element is updated to the latest version. Remember to treat your website like a baby that continuously needs love and care.

We all know that we can install WordPress on our personal computer for learning or testing purposes. There are quite a lot of popular methods, through which you can setup the local server environment and install WordPress on it. Unfortunately most of these methods are very lengthy and enough to deter you from completing all the steps. Fortunately we found a way to quickly and most importantly, easily install WordPress Locally, using ServerPress.

Now ServerPress is a local server application that is built specifically for developing WordPress, bbPress and BuddyPress websites. It comes with the feature that allows you to install WordPress quicker than any of the conventional methods. It is available for Windows and OSX. You can Grab the installer here, and follow the below instructions.

[Note: You need to install Apache and MySQL in the computer for this application to work]

1] To create a new WordPress project, select Create a new development website.

2] Give a site name, and select the WordPress version you would like to install. In the Site Root section, you will know where the files of your website will be saved, which can also be changed.

3] After you click next, ServerPress will automatically setup everything for you. In the end you just have to create an Admin user for your site.

That’s it. With just three easy steps you have your WordPress site working off your computer, ready for all your experiments. If you want to avoid all the messy ways to setups WordPress on your local drive then this is definitely the way to go.

Do drop a comment below to let us know your experience with this software.

Brute force attacks on WordPress admin page are so common these days that it doesn’t really surprise anymore. But deep down we all know that we are scared of these attacks and wish we could put an end to it. Attacking your blog is fairly easy for a hacker since the admin page of your WordPress website is an easy guess, its either yourwebsite.com/wp-admin or yourwebsite.com/wp-login. php

But what if we change the url /wp-admin and /wp-login to something that only you know? Basically you will be closing gates to anyone who wants to access your admin page. Fortunately we stumbled upon a WordPress plugin that will help us to do just that. Please welcome HC Custom WP-Admin URL. This plugin will help you change the url to anything you want without breaking a sweat. Let’s take a quick look on how we can use this plugin.

1] Login to your WordPress Website

2] Click on Plugins >> Add New

3] Search for HC Custom WP-Admin and click on Search.

4] Once you find the plugin then click on Install

5] Once the plugin is installed then click on Activate Plugin.

6] To change the url go to Settings >> Permalinks.

7] The plugin adds a new section called WP-Admin slug at the end of the permalink page with a text box where you need to add your secret url and then click on Save

8] You will then need to Log out of your WordPress Dashboard.

9] You will now have access to your WordPress admin page only via yourwebsite.com/secreturl.

You may experience issues where you are redirected to the homepage even after entering the right credentials. In this situation simply clear the cache and cookies of your browser and try again, you should be good to go. After this, anyone who tries to access your website’s admin page using yourwebsite.com/wp-admin or yourwebsite.com/wp-login.php will be routed to the homepage.

Well that’s about it. You have now protected your precious website from brute force attacks on your admin page. You can now focus on creating awesome content without the fear of being attacked at the door 🙂

A lot of times when you look at your website or your blog, you will feel that the content looks a tad bit boring and you need to add a little flair to it. You might feel encouraged to tweak the theme a bit but the lack of CSS knowledge might let you down. That’s when you look out for plugins that can help you achieve that.

It is really difficult to find good plugins out of the thousands available. But fear not because we have done all the searching and have brought it down to the 5 best WordPress plugins that will help you enhance your website.

1] Simple Pull Quote: This plugin will become your favorite if you like sharing a lot of quotes within your blog post. It allows you to easily insert pull quotes into your posts and in a stylish way. The end result makes the quotes stand out and really gives it a great look.

2] Wp Google Fonts: With an aim of making the web more beautiful, Google launched the Google fonts program making really cool fonts available for free to everyone. Though very easy to implement in your website a little coding knowledge can help. For the ones that do not have coding knowledge, the WP Google Fonts plugin will help you achieve the same results. Simply install and select the font that you need to use on your blog.

3] Text Hover: By using this plugin you can now add hover text to any regular text in your posts. This is a great tool especially when you need to provide quick explanations of names and terms mentioned in your posts.

4] Smart layers by ADDTHIS: This plugin will give your website users an easy to use social sharing buttons. These social buttons will not disturb your design as it overlays your website. You can also recommend additional content from your website which floats at the bottom of your website to promote engagement. A must have tool if you are serious about engaging with your users and promoting your content through social media.

5] WordPress Canvas – Shortcodes: You can call shortcodes a kind of a life saver. They allow you to implement complex functions with just a simple addition to your post. We dug deep into the WordPress Plugin directory and found a gem even we could not get our eyes of. We are talking about the WordPress Canvas which is a cool Shortcodes plugin with the following features [you can thank us later :-)]

• Accordion
• Tabs
• Toggle
• Columns & Sections
• Testimonials
• Borders
• Buttons
• Full Width
• Notifications
• Google Maps
• Social Icons
• Progress Bars
• Pricing
• Images with Flags
• Highlights
• Countdown
• RSVP
• Custom HTML
• Code Snippets
• Isotope / Masonry Posts

You can check each of these short codes in action here.

These plugins are guaranteed to make a positive difference to your website. So what are you waiting for? Head out to the WordPress Plugin Directory and start using them right away.

Do drop in a comment if you have any questions around these plugins.