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Choose a Namecheap promo code above to review all the hosting benefits, features, pricing and applicable discounts.

About Namecheap

Namecheap, a domain registrar was founded in the year 2000 by Richard Kirkendall. Based in Phoenix, AZ, the ICAAN accredited registrar is often thought to only offer domain buying, selling and DNS services. Early in their history they began providing a wide range of budget-priced services including competitively priced domain registration, SSL certificates and website hosting, however.

Growing with the Internet in the explosive decade starting in 2000, Namecheap currently boasts more than 11 million users and 10 million domains. Their approach to affordable hosting services combined with industry-leading support has propelled them to the position of third largest provider of website hosting by marketshare.

Namecheap continues to operate in Phoenix, Arizona today. Their Phoenix facility boasts 3,500 data servers. U.S. Employees for their domain, hosting, VPN and other services are staffed from Phoenix, but also with remote workers throughout the nation and the world. Namecheap’s global digital footprint is made possible by physical facilities in India, Portugal and the Ukraine.

Evolving with the needs of a changing world, Namecheap today provides security certificates, VPN service and CDN service. Most recent additions to their service portfolio include small business services including a logo maker, business card maker and a legal service for incorporation and limited liability company (LLC) organization.

The post Namecheap Promo Code and Coupon List (2020) appeared first on Zuziko.

Offshore hosting, just as the name says, is hosting that is outside of the United States. Anytime you host a website on servers that are not located in the United States, you are offshore hosting.

However, when people use the term “offshore hosting” it usually means that they are doing it deliberately. Normally for the reasons of privacy, security or freedom of speech. One example is if you need hosting for alcohol, gambling, tobacco or pornography. If that sounds like your business, check out our list of the Best Adult Website Hosting companies.

Why Would You Need Offshore Hosting?

There are many situations in which you might need to host your site outside the United States. Below, I have listed the top 5 reasons many people choose to do so:

• Freedom of speech & press, or escaping censorship
• Increased anonymity for the website owner/s
• Evading national regulations on running certain businesses
• Not having to abide by national cybersecurity laws
• To avoid DMCA takedown request

Do you feel restricted by your government’s current laws limiting what you can say and show on the internet? When using an offshore provider, you will have fewer legal barriers than what you might face with hosting in your home country.

Some activities on your website may be illegal here in the states, but in other parts of the world might be completely fine. Hosting your website with an offshore server in a country in which it’s legal can keep your business out of trouble.

If your website is selling, streaming, or using pirated content (I do not condone this in any way), the original author can have a DMCA notice sent to your web host asking them to take your site offline. Most offshore hosts will just ignore these.

The Top 5 Best Offshore Hosting Providers

Now that you have a better understanding of what offshore hosting is and why you might need it for your website, let’s take a look at what I think are the top five providers.

The web host on this list are in no specific order. All of them provide high-quality services. It’s just a matter of finding the one that fits your needs the best.

Starting at
$0.80 / Month

Visit Website

Starting at
€5.99 / Month

Visit Website

Starting at
$8.95 / Month

Visit Website

Starting at
$3.95 / Month

Visit Website

Starting at
$4.95 / Month

Visit Website

#1 Hostinger

Hostinger is an extremely popular web hosting company founded in 2004. Based in Europe, they serve over 29 million customers around the world with over 15,000 signups a day!

No matter which hosting plan you choose to go with, Hostinger seems to emphasize low prices and affordability on all of their products. Some plans being as low as $0.80 a month!

You know the old saying “you get what you pay for?” That’s not the case here. You are getting much more bang for your buck when compared to other offshore hosting providers.

One feature that stands out to me about Hostinger are their strong firewalls. These are provided on all of their servers. Regardless of which plan you choose. This will help protect your website from malicious attacks such as DDOS and Malware.

Hostinger Key Features

• $0.80 Shared Hosting
• DDOS Protection
• Malware Protection
• Free SSL certificate
• Choice of Server Location

Visit Hostinger

If you are looking for a reliable company that is easy to use, has a simple web hosting interface and has incredibly low prices, Hostinger should be number one on your list. Hostinger is also a great company for your adult web hosting needs.

Related: Adult, Gambling or Tobacco? Check out the Best Adult Web Hosts

#2 AbeloHost

AbeloHost is a leading offshore web hosting provider that was established in 2012 and is based in the Netherlands. Their core values are data and customer privacy. Which they uphold by offering their client’s world-class security, data anonymity and reliability.

They also support freedom of speech on the Internet, which is shown in their very flexible content policy. They are strictly against data censorship, and they protect their clients by never sharing any of their data with third parties.

AbeloHost offers a wide range of plans including offshore shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server hosting and offshore domains. Most of their plans can scale with your company, so you can stick with them for the long haul.

Their customer support is pretty good. They have a ticket system and live chat (it’s only available during work hours). Queries submitted via their ticketing system are typically responded to within a few hours, which is nice.

Abelohost Key Features

• Multiple Operating Systems
• Anti DDoS Protection
• 24/7 Server Monitoring
• Free SSL Certificate
• Based In Netherlands

Visit AbeloHost

Abelohost is a well-rounded company. Their prices are very reasonable for an offshore host, but not at the sacrifice of performance and reliability. In my honest opinion, they are one of the most trustworthy providers on this list.

#4 Koddos

Koddos was Founded in 2007, this company focuses on standard hosting, high-risk hosting and offshore hosting. Their servers and equipment are located in Holland, which is great for evading national regulations.

Koddos utilizes the latest technologies and high-end hardware to provide the fastest possible speed while providing security against DDoS and other malicious attacks.

Their datacenter has multiple features including redundant power, 24/7 physical security, and SSAE16 compliance. As a result of its high-quality infrastructure and redundant network connections, the company features a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Koddos’s support staff is made up of web hosting and security experts. You are not going to find a group of people who are more knowledgeable in this field and they are available 24/7 via live chat and e-mail.

Koddos Key Features

• Blazing Fast Hardware
• Best DDoS Protection
• 24/7 Live Support
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• Based In Holland

Visit Koddos

If you take a look around the web you will see that Koddos takes their job very seriously. Almost every person that has used their service gave them a 5-star rating. The only drawback in my eyes would be their price. They can be quite a bit more expensive than the other web host on this list.

#3 Shinjiru

Shinjiru’s mission is to protect privacy, a fundamental human right. Based in Malaysia they have been providing offshore and anonymous web hosting services since 2000.

They are one of the most experienced offshore web hosting companies in the world, with eight offshore locations, their own anti-DDoS attack network and thousands of dedicated web servers. Shinjiru is also an ICANN accredited Domain Registrar.

Shinjiru’s servers come with lightning-fast SSD storage, multi-core hyper-threaded Intel processors and enterprise-class network equipment with Gigabit ethernet. This all adds up to extremely quick load times and unmatched reliability.

Support is available via their online ticketing system, live chat and by phone call. The Shinjiru team has over 50 experienced staff members ready to assist you 24/7. They are ISO9001:2008 accredited with a quality control management system that is recognized for customer focus and satisfaction.

Shinjiru Key Features

• Anonymous Payments
• Enterprise-Grade Hardware
• Anti DDoS Protection
• 24x7x365 Suupport
• Based In Malaysia

Visit Shinjiru

In my opinion, Shinjiru definitely serves as an impressive offshore web hosting company. With its wide but not overwhelming lineup of plans, products, and services they truly have something for everyone.

#5 BlueAngelHost

BlueAngelHost has been around since 2012 and they have three datacenter locations in Bulgaria, Russia, and the Netherlands. All servers feature unmetered bandwidth, optional DDoS protection, and your choice of Windows or Linux operating systems.

In addition to web hosting services, BlueAngelHost offers colocation at its Russian and Bulgarian datacenters. They also provide top-notch web design services and SSL Certificates are available upon request.

All of BlueAngelHost’s plans feature 1 Gbps uplink/downlink connections, Xeon processors, SSD storage, free domain registration, unlimited bandwidth, cPanel, DDoS protection, Softaculous 1-click installations, and Weebly Site Builder.

BlueAngelHost’s customer support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via email, an online ticketing system, and social media. Their support is some of the best you will find in the business.

BlueAngelHost Key Features

• 100% DMCA Ignored Hosting
• Free DDOS Protection
• Enterprise-Grade Hardware
• 99.95% Uptime Guarantee
• Multiple Operating Systems

Visit BlueAngelHost

BlueAngelHost is a good all-round hosting provider. They offer you almost everything you need to be successful online. With the most up to date hardware in the industry and a 30-day money back guarantee to back it all up, there is really no risk in giving them a try.

Closing Thoughts

Offshore hosting can be a great way to practice freedom of speech, keep anonymous and bypass censorship. But, this doesn’t mean that you can host illegal content which is strictly forbidden e.g. phishing, spamming. scamming, carding, fraudulent activities and content that supports terrorism.

The best offshore hosting company for you all comes down to the needs of your site. How much space you will need and how much traffic you are currently getting. Hopefully, this list has helped narrow it down some.

If you see anything I have missed or have a question about any of these hosting providers, let me know in the comments below.

The post The Top 5 Best Offshore Web Hosting Providers (2020) appeared first on Zuziko.

The 101 on 401

Simply put, a 401 error is what happens when communication with the WordPress hosting server is attempted without proper authentication.

This error can appear in a number of different forms. The most common error messages are “Error 401” and “401 unauthorized error”. These two numerically-based errors are usually accompanied with the message “Access is denied due to invalid credentials” or “Authorization required.”

One of the most frequent causes of a 401 error is simply forgetting to enter a password when you try to access your account. But there can be more to it than that. If there’s an attack on your site, any WordPress security plugins that you use may lock down your admin area. Which will, in turn, cause a 401 error message.

Another possibility is that your hosting company may display the error when your login pages are accessed excessively or brute-forced. Normally, these messages will appear on your admin page and login page. However, the error may appear throughout your site, especially if it’s more serious.

Now that you know the basics about the error and its causes, let’s run through the various fixes. Most of these are simple, but some require more complicated procedures.

Table of Contents

1. Disable Password Protection
2. Clear Your Firewall Cache
3. Deactivate Your WordPress PlugIns
4. Switch to a Default WordPress Theme
5. Contact Your Web Hosting Provider

Solution 1: Disable Password Protection

One of the quickest and easiest fixes for a 401 error is to temporarily remove password protection on your admin page (if you have it enabled).

To do this, you’ll need to log in to your control panel (cPanel, Plesk etc.). Then, look for the icon Directory Privacy or Password Protected Directories.

When you open one of these icons, you’ll see all the files and folders on your hosting account. Find the wp-admin directory and click the name to select it.

When you do this, your control panel will display the password protection settings. If the box is checked next to “Password protect this directory,” uncheck it and click the Save button.

Once you’ve done that, scroll down and delete the username as well. Try to log in again. If you’re successful, you can create a new username and password for the directory and proceed normally.

Solution 2: Clear Your Firewall Cache

If you’re using a cloud-based WordPress firewall service like Sucuri, the 401 error may be triggered when the firewall fails in its efforts to communicate with your WordPress site.

The basic solution for this is to go to the dashboard of the firewall and find the section pertaining to cache functions.

This will be slightly different for each firewall plugin, but that’s the basic solution, and a simple implementation will often allow you to proceed unimpeded.

Solution 3: Deactivate Your WordPress PlugIns

If a WordPress plugin is configured incorrectly or isn’t working right, this too can cause a 401 error.

To fix it, visit the plugin page Plugins > Installed Plugins and deactivate all of your plugins. This will allow you to reactivate them one by one to determine which plugin is causing the problem.

If you don’t have access to the WordPress dashboard, you’ll need to use a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) like FileZilla to deactivate the plugins.

This can be done by going to the WordPress plugin folder wp-content/plugins and renaming it, designating it to be plugins-deactivated.

Once the plugins are deactivated, you can return to the admin area and try to log in. If you are successful, switch back to FTP access.

Rename the plugin folder so that the plugins are activated again, then go back to the admin area and deactivate them one at a time to see which one is causing the problem.

When you’ve isolated the problematic plugin, you can either try to get support from the plugin creator or find another option.

Solution 4: Switch to a Default WordPress Theme

If you’re using your own WordPress Theme, this can sometimes be the cause of a 401 error. To fix it, you need to temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme.

These themes are supplied by the WordPress, and they’re shipped as part of the default version that’s automatically installed if you don’t designate otherwise.

To do the switch, go to the Appearance > Themes page and try to deactivate your own theme. Then, switch to one of the default ones. (e.g. 2020, 2019, 2018, etc.).

If the error goes away once you’ve activated the default theme, that means your theme was the issue, and you either need to contact the theme developer to fix it or permanently change to a different theme.

Solution 5: Contact Your Web Hosting Provider

In some instances, the 401 error can be generated when your hosting provider detects suspicious activity. Usually, this security precaution only affects the admin area of WordPress and makes your login page inaccessible for a brief but indeterminate period of time.

After waiting, the page should return to normal. If it doesn’t or you start seeing 401 errors on all your site pages, contact your hosting provider immediately. They can help address the issue and fix the problem.

My Final Thoughts

When it comes to WordPress, most errors are easy to understand, and correcting them is generally simple as well. But there are exceptions. The 401 error is definitely one of the more confusing ones and fixing it can be tricky business.

I think the important thing to remember is that 401 errors are caused by improper authentication. If you keep this in mind when you are trying to troubleshoot your website, it will help lead you in the right direction.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also find us on Freelancer if you need some help with your WordPress website or web development issues.

The post How to Fix a WordPress Site With a 401 Error (5 Solutions) appeared first on Zuziko.

Always create strong passwords. Use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. Your WordPress password is the first line of defense against hackers. Many users end up using short, weak passwords because they’re easier to remember. That’s not a good idea. If someone were able to guess or brute force your admin password, they will have full control of your site.

With that being said, there are three different ways you can change your WordPress password. With the first method, you will need access to the dashboard. If you don’t have access, you will need to use method two or three.

Table of Contents

1. Change Your Password on the Dashboard
2. Reset Your WordPress Password by Email
3. Use phpMyAdmin to Change Your Password

Method 1: Change Your Password on the Dashboard

To change your WordPress password in the dashboard you will first need to log in. Once you have logged in navigate to Users > Your Profile as shown in the image below.

Scroll down the page and you will see a section called Account Management. Here you will be able to generate a new password.

You can use the password that WordPress generates for you or create one of your own. Make sure you save this password somewhere safe, especially if you decide to use a generated one.

When you are happy with your new password, click on the Update Profile button. WordPress will send you a password change notification email to notify you of the change.

Method 2: Reset Your WordPress Password by Email

The above method works great if you can log in to WordPress. But what if you don’t remember your password and can’t log in?

Don’t worry, as long as you have access to the email associated with the user account, you can easily reset your password.

Just go to the WordPress login page (https://example.com/wp-login.php) and click on the Lost your password? link.

You will then be asked to enter your username or email address. Once you have entered the information, click the Get New Password button.

Shortly after, you should receive an email containing a password reset link. Clicking this link will allow you to create a new password.

Method 3: Use phpMyAdmin to Change Your Password

So, what if you have forgotten your WordPress password and you do not have access to the email associated with the account? If you find yourself in this situation, you will need to use this method.

Warning: Editing database tables directly in phpMyadmin could completely break your site if it’s not done correctly. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, ask your web hosting provider.

For this method, you will need to log into your hosting control panel. Scroll down the page and look for the phpMyAdmin icon like the one shown below.

Note: In this example, I am using cPanel on Hostgator. Your control panel might look different based on which hosting company you use.

Click the phpMyadmin icon and you will be brought to a page with a list of databases. Select the database that is associated with your WordPress website.

After selecting the database, you will see a list of tables. To change your password, you will need to select the wp_users table.

Select the user that needs a password change and click the edit link.

Delete the value in the user_pass field and type in your new password. You will also need to select MD5 from the dropdown in the function column.

Once you have everything set up, click the Go button. That’s it! You have now successfully changed your password using phpMyAdmin.

My Final Thoughts

Resetting your WordPress password can be pretty simple and straightforward. However, if you do not have access to the dashboard or the email you used when signing up, things can be a bit more complicated. The good news is, as I have shown in method 3, you can always reset your WordPress password using phpMyAdmin no matter what situation you’re in.

You may also want to see our step by step tutorial on how to change your WordPress username.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also find us on Freelancer if you need some help with your WordPress website or web development issues.

The post How to Change Your WordPress Password (3 Methods) appeared first on Zuziko.

One of the primary advantages of using WordPress is that you can tap into a huge community of developers working to make your site more effective. There are literally thousands of WordPress plugins available to download today, and they all have something unique to offer.

While anyone can create and publish a WordPress plugin, not all of these free tools are as safe as they seem. Deploying one poorly made plugin could destroy your entire website, pollute the user experience, and make it impossible for your company to grow.

So, how do you make sure you’re picking the right plugins?

Table of Contents

1. Ratings and Reviews
2. Number of Active Installations
3. Updates and Compatibility
4. Support and Documentation
5. Choosing a Safe Plugin

#1 Ratings and Reviews

The first thing to do when downloading a free WordPress plugin is to see what other people think about it. You can do this by clicking on the reviews tab shown below.

Users can give a plugin listed on the repository a one to five-star rating, depending on how good they think it is. Sticking to something with an average rating of four stars or above is usually a good idea.

There’s always a chance that the ratings in the star system could be skewed. Many people give just one star, or the full five stars, even when there are problems with the plugin.

That’s why it’s essential to manually read the reviews. Reading these reviews will give you a better insight into what’s good and bad about the solution.

Try to avoid any plugin that mentions security issues.

#2 Number of Active Installations

While the popularity of a plugin won’t always guarantee its safety, the higher a plugin’s number of installations, the more likely it is trusted by the community.

The WordPress plugin repository makes it very easy to check how many people are currently using a plugin. All you need to do is check the number of active installations in the description tab.

Fewer than 1,000 active installations indicates that there’s something wrong with the plugin, or that the solution is still new.

While a new plugin isn’t necessarily dangerous, it may have had fewer chances to be tested and is therefore not as airtight as some of the other plugins available online.

#3 Updates and Compatibility

Another great thing about choosing a free WordPress plugin that’s listed in the repository is that you’ll get to see when the plugin was last updated. Under the description tab, the developer can note when the plugin last got an update.

Recent and regular updates indicate that any security issues found in the plugin will be quickly eliminated.

If you tap through into the changelog tab, you’ll also be able to see in detail what the developer has been doing since the plugin’s initial release.

While you’re checking out the performance of the plugin, make sure that you go back into the description tab to ensure that the technology is compatible with your version of WordPress, and any theme you might be using.

This will make certain that you’re not wasting time with something that won’t work for you.

#4 Support and Documentation

Finally, all of the plugins in the WordPress plugin repository have a support forum under the support tab on the WordPress site.

Regular activity within those forums is a good sign that the developer is continuously working on getting rid of any issues that might appear.

If the support environment is incredibly lacking, then it may indicate that the developer has given up on their plugin.

There’s always a chance that the developer could be handling plugin support externally so you can check their website too.

Look to see what kind of documentation the developer offers to help you better understand the plugin.

You can find some of this information by heading to the FAQ tab on the WordPress plugin listing.

If you can’t find any documentation, then this is usually a bad sign.

#5 Choosing a Safe WordPress Plugin

Ultimately, free WordPress plugins can be a valuable addition to your website.

The right plugins give you more functionality online and allow you to take your site to the next level without spending a fortune.

Not all plugins are created equally though. A lousy plugin could damage your website in many ways and make it very difficult for you to build the reputation that you want online.

Some criminals can use plugins as a back door to put your entire server at risk. If you notice your website slowing down, and it’s not a problem caused by a known issue, then you may have an attack on your hands.

Remember, take the time to research every plugin that you consider adding to your website, and make sure it’s safe to use.

Once you’ve got the plugins that you believe you can trust, ensure that you update them frequently. Regularly updating your plugins and your WordPress website can protect you from most issues.

My Final Thoughts

Third-party plugins are a crucial part of what makes WordPress such a fantastic CMS.

However, that doesn’t mean that every plugin on the market is trustworthy. Exposing your website to poorly-made plugins can harm your website’s speed, usability, and security.

Take the time to do your research. Making sure that you’re only downloading plugins that are safe for you and your visitors. This is crucial to long-term success online.

Don’t be afraid to consider other security measures too, such as malware protection for your site, or plugins that help to check for spyware and safety breaches.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also find us on Freelancer if you need some help with your WordPress website or web development issues.

The post 5 Things to Consider Before Installing Free WP Plugins appeared first on Zuziko.

By default, WordPress sorts your posts in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest). This is okay for most people, but there are situations when you might want to change the order. For instance, you might have an old post you want to move to the front of your blog, or you might want to push a less helpful post back further out of sight. If you are using WooCommerce you might want to move a product to the top of your shopping page.

Whatever your reasons are, WordPress has no built-in feature to help you accomplish this. It would be nice to see this implemented in the future, but for now you will need to use one of the three methods I have shown below.

Table of Contents

1. Reorder Your Post by Changing the Date
2. Reorder Your Post Using a Plugin
3. Reorder Your Post With Custom Code

Method 1: Reorder Your Post by Changing the Date

In the image below, you can see that we have three different posts. “Example Post Three” is on top because it was the last post published. However, in this example, we want “Example Post One” to be on top. To do this we will need to change the publish date. Click on “Edit” under the post title in which you want to change.

On the right-hand side, there is a drop-down menu where you can select a new publish date. In this example, we will be choosing a date more recent than “Example Post Three”. Once you have selected a date, click the Update button.

Now that you have set an earlier published date on “Example Post One” it will be at the top of the list. This change will also be reflected on the frontend.

This is a fast way to change the order of your posts and works great if you only need to move a few around. If you need to do a lot at once, I recommend using one of the other methods below.

Method 2: Reorder Your Posts Using a Plugin

This is by far one of the easiest and best ways to change the order of your WordPress posts. There are several plugins out there, but I recommend “Post Types Order”. Post Types Order will allow you to reorder posts for any custom post types you have defined, including default Posts using a drag and drop interface.

It currently has over 3.2 million downloads and a near-perfect rating with over 200 reviews. Post Types Order can be downloaded from the WordPress Repository or from within your dashboard under “Add New” plugins.

After you have installed and activated the plugin, there will be a new option under the posts tab called Re-Order.

This will bring you to a page similar to the one shown below. Here you can drag and drop posts in whatever order you like.

It’s that easy! Post Types Order also has an advanced (paid) version that comes with hierarchically post types order, manual / automatic sorting, individual category order, conditionals to apply, paginations for large list, and a mobile ready interface.

Method 3: Reorder Your Post With Custom Code

Your last option of changing posts order would be to use some custom code. Below is an example of how you could sort your posts in ascending order on the front end.

function change_posts_order( $query ) {
if ( $query-is_home() && $query-is_main_query() ) {
$query-set( 'orderby', 'title' );
$query-set( 'order', 'ASC' );
}
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', ' change_posts_order ' );

This code will need to be added to your themes functions.php file. It’s always best practice to create a child theme before editing your functions.php file. This will allow you to revert back if problems arise. You could also use code snippets, an easy way to add custom snippets to your theme’s functions.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of WordPress posts and how you can change their order if the need arises. Even though WordPress does not have a built-in post re-ordering feature, setting up your own solution is very easy. In this post, I have shared what I think are the three best ways to accomplish this.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also find us on Freelancer if you need some help with your WordPress website or web development issues.

The post How to Change the Order of WordPress Posts (3 Methods) appeared first on Zuziko.

Site Kit by Google is a new WordPress plugin that works as a one-stop solution to provide you data from essential Google products like Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, and PageSpeed Insights. Site Kit is ideal for webmasters who want to have all their website insights in one place.

You no longer have to log into multiple Google services to check performance like site speed and page traffic information. They can now be found directly in your WordPress dashboard.

Google’s Site Kit is a free and open-source plugin, and will remain so. The individual Google products included in Site Kit will go by the standard terms and applicable fees (if any apply) for those products.

What Google Services Are Available Through Site Kit?

Google will be expanding this plugin’s capabilities and integrations in the future, but there are currently 4 Google product insights available through this plugin.

• Analytics: Get insights of how users navigate across your WordPress site and check whether they complete your conversion goals.
• Search Console: Track how many people saw your website content in search results. See for what queries they appear on the search engine result pages.
• AdSense: Keep track of your earnings on the site ads. Make your content work to earn a substantial amount through Google ads.
• PageSpeed Insights: Check how pages of your website perform compared to other real-world sites. Also, get actionable tips from PageSpeed Insights to improve site performance.

You can find all of the above Google insights right on your WordPress dashboard with Site Kit.

The Main Benefits of Site Kit

With Site Kit, you get an up-to-date and authoritative product, site recommendations by Google, and actionable tips and insights optimized for WordPress site owners.

Site Kit also gives you combined statistics for your website posts and pages in total views, average impressions, and average CTR (Click Through Rate). You can also check individual post and page info by clicking on the Site Kit tab in the top bar while being logged in.

On the Site Kit dashboard, you can find a summary of all Google insights in one place, and you can take a more in-depth look by clicking on them individually.

How to Set up Google Site Kit on WordPress

Setting up Site Kit is easy. You just have to follow the steps below to get it up and running successfully.

• Step 1: Verify Site in Search Console: As part of the setup, your site has to be verified. If your production site is already verified, you’re ready to go.
• Step 2: Install and Activate Site Kit Plugin: Download Google Site kit from the official site, then install and activate the plugin.
• Step 3: Start the Set-Up Flow: Now you create following the setup flow one by one like Create Client Id, Authenticate, Verify URL, Connect Search Console, and Finish.

After you have completed the steps above, you are ready to go. You should now start seeing your website’s metrics right on your WordPress dashboard. Go to the dashboard then click on the Site Kit tab to see your insights.

How Google Site Kit Shows Stats on the Dashboard

Google Site Kit shows site metrics in different sections. Currently Google Site Kit displays the following metrics from different Google products. Let’s have a look at them.

• All Traffic: First of all, it shows your site traffic in a pie chart determining how people find your site. The chart segments site traffic according to their sources (Organic, Referral, Direct).
• Search Funnel: It shows how your website has appeared in search results and how many visitors you get from those searches. Discover your total impressions, Clicks, and Unique Visitors all in one place.
• Popularity: This section displays the top search queries for your site with their impressions and most popular content with their views. It takes query data from search console and views from Google Analytics.
• Search for individual page or post information: If you want to know the data of any specific page or post, you can get it by searching that post/page here. Insert your website post or page link and search by clicking on the View Data button.
• Page Speed Insight: Know how fast your website is. It shows real user speed data and time taken to become fully interactive for both mobile and desktop devices. Alongside data, it also shows the source and scale of the speed.

Most importantly, you can see the key metrics of the last 7, 14, 28, and 90 days. You just have to select the days from the options tab on the right-hand side.

Conclusion

The Google Site Kit plugin has not been made available on the WordPress plugin directory yet. It’s still in the beta version and improvements are being made in each of its updates. If you would like to give it a try, you can download the plugin from the official Google Site Kit site.

If you have been using multiple plugins to get your Google insights, this is your chance to get rid of them. You can install Google Site Kit and get all those insights in a single place or more specifically right on your WordPress dashboard.

It’s nice to see Google getting involved in the WordPress community, and I think this can be a very useful tool for WordPress webmasters. It’s also free, so what are you waiting for?

The post Google Site Kit – A WordPress Plugin Created by Google appeared first on Zuziko.

Yes! If you care about your website, I 100% recommend that you either use a backup plugin or set up a backup schedule through your web hosting provider. Ultimately, the best WordPress backup plugin is the one that you find the best for your needs.

Creating regular backups for your WordPress website should be a part of your everyday website maintenance checklist. Having backups available gives you more peace of mind and above all helps you recover your website almost immediately in case of data loss or a security breach.

Fortunately, WordPress offers several free and paid backup plugins that can simplify the entire process and make getting automated backups of your WordPress website extremely easy.

Since there are a vast number of WordPress backup plugins, I have narrowed down the list to the top five so that you can get started backing up your websites right away.

Table of Contents

• Why Backups Are Important?
• Best WordPress Backup Plugins
• #1 UpdraftPlus
• #2 VaultPress
• #3 BackupBuddy
• #4 BackWPup
• #5 Duplicator
• WordPress Backups via Hosting
• My Final Thoughts

Spoiler: After installing WordPress, the next thing we do is install UpdraftPlus Premium. Following one too many late nights trying to resurrect a crashed WordPress site, we’ve learned that there’s no substitute for a high-quality, long-standing, frequently updated backup solution.

Why Are Website Backups Important?

Keeping your own backup is important because not even the best hosting providers can protect your data forever. Data loss is always a threat that can potentially bring down your websites and the associated business.

Even when there is no security breach, a backup can prove to be a lifesaver. There are times when changes in the code can break your website. Updates to themes and plugins can also cause issues.

The quickest way to get your website back up and running is to just restore the last backup. This will ensure that your website suffers minimum downtime. However, this is only possible when you have a strict backup schedule in place.

The Best WordPress Backup Plugins

As with everything, many third-party developers have made free and paid plugins to streamline the whole backup process for WordPress websites. The feature set of these plugins are pretty similar. However, some plugins stand out because of their smooth performance and reliability. We’ve sought out the best WordPress backup plugins and compiled our thoughts below.

As we already noted already, we feel UpdraftPlus Premium is the gold standard, and the plugin we recommend.

There are also a few other backup plugins which are worth considering.

#1 UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

The free version of UpdraftPlus is one of the most popular WordPress backup plugins, with more than two million active installations. With such a big user base, you can rest assured that the plugin has been tested for almost every scenario you can think of. Our choice is it’s big brother, UpdraftPlus Premium.

UpdraftPlus Premium restores and backs up your entire website. Once you have set up your schedule, you can choose to store your backups in cloud storage services such as: Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, DreamObjects and their very own UpdraftVault.

In case of a disaster, you can automatically restore the latest backup directly from the WordPress control panel. The premium version has a ton of extra features such as add-ons, updates, support, tokens, storage, etc. UpdraftPlus also makes it easy to migrate a WordPress site to a new hosting environment.

Features of UpdraftPlus

• Backup and restore either the entire site or individual files
• Restore backups from other backup plugins
• Configure multiple automatic backups
• Store backups on several cloud services
• Customer support available with the premium version

#2 VaultPress

VaultPress is a popular plugin for creating and restoring backups of your WordPress websites. VaultPress was founded by Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress) and his Automattic team.

It is a subscription-based service, with different plans that offer a huge combination of features. The basic services include a backup recovery solution that works in just a few clicks. The more expensive packages include a security scan service for all of your files and WordPress database.

Each package also includes protection against brute force attacks, spam control, site migration, statistics, and an activity log.

Features of VaultPress

• Backup your sites automatically daily
• 1-Click restore and repair from the dashboard
• Daily website scan for vulnerabilities and malware
• An integrated backup storage system
• 30-day money back guarantee

#3 BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy is a premium plugin that is absolutely worth buying. Every purchase comes with 1GB of storage space with providers such as DropBox, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP or Stash. This plugin can also transfer the website backup as an email attachment.

BackupBuddy simplifies the process of data restoration and can also restore the entire website to a new server in minimum time. This means that your website will experience very little downtime even after the worse of the disasters. To add to the security of your website, BackupBuddy also offers a malware scan.

Features of BackupBuddy

• Easy to use and configure with no complicated settings
• Full backups of your WordPress database and files
• Backup schedule on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis
• Configure multiple separate automatic backups
• Save backups to BackupBuddy Stash, Amazon, and more

#4 BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin

BackWPup is one of the most popular free WordPress backup plugins, with over 600,000 active users and over 8.5 million all-time downloads. It lets you create WordPress backups for free and stores the copies on cloud storage providers including Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace and more.

It is extremely easy to use and allows you to schedule automatic backups based on how often your site is updated.

Even restoring a WordPress site from a backup is very simple. BackWPup Pro has priority support, analysis tools, database optimization and restore, and backup storage on Google Drive.

Features of BackWPup

• Simple actionable wizard
• Automatic daily or weekly backups
• Save backups in.zip, .tar, tar.gz or tar.bz2 format
• Database optimization, analysis, and repair
• Customer support available with the Pro version

#5 Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin

Duplicator is the most popular plugin to migrate or clone a website from one server to another (or even on the same server). The free version allows you to manually back up your entire WordPress website or just some specific files.

The premium version, Duplicator Pro, allows you to run instant or scheduled backups. You can backup to cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3 for secure storage.

In addition, you have the option to limit the number of stored backups, so you do not run out of storage space. Duplicator Pro also offers an email notification option that alerts you in case something goes wrong with the website backup process.

Features of Duplicator Pro

• Easy to configure in a few minutes
• Back up your entire WordPress site or individual files
• Limits the numbers of stored backups
• Supports backup of WordPress Multisite configuration
• Customer support included in the Pro version

WordPress Backups via Hosting (Recommended)

When you are trying to find hosting for WordPress, automated backups (preferably free automated backups) should be very high on your list.

Also, don’t forget to check the frequency of the backups. I back my website up on a daily basis. Having daily backups means that in case of disaster, you can recover the latest data and continue your business without any problems.

Another thing to pay attention to is the number of copies that your hosting provider keeps. Generally, a good web host will keep two copies, one on the server and the second on an offsite location.

My Final Thoughts

In this article, I have mentioned what I think are the five best WordPress backup plugins to get you started with website backups. However, there are many other options out there. If nothing on this list looks appropriate, you could also check out the WordPress repository.

Whatever plugin you use to backup your WordPress website, remember that your data is very important, take backups frequently and keep your WordPress website safe.

If you use a plugin that’s not listed here, let me know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The post The Top 5 Best WordPress Backup Plugins (2020) appeared first on Zuziko.

Yes! And, that’s why we’ve compiled this Sucuri review. Even though the WordPress core files are very secure, hacks and Infections are still a huge problem. This is because most plugins and themes are poorly coded. With thousands of theme and plugin combinations out there, it’s not surprising that vulnerabilities exist and are being discovered on a daily basis.

A hacked WordPress website can cause serious damage to your business revenue and reputation. Hackers can steal information, passwords, install malicious software, and can even distribute malware to your visitors.

Every day, thousands of WordPress websites are hacked. There are many things you can do to harden your WordPress security, but nothing is going to protect you like the Sucuri plugin.

What I Like About Sucuri

As I was researching website security companies, the name Sucuri kept appearing at the top of every list of the best cybersecurity products available. It was one of the most popular security plugins for WordPress. So, I decided to give it a try myself.

Sucuri was very simple to use. It is a WordPress plugin which even a newbie blogger could easily install. All I had to do was click the “Generate API Key” then, follow the instructions on the pop-up. I had it up and running in just a few minutes.

There were a lot of advanced features that allowed me to adapt the program to my individual preferences if I wanted. These were a little more complex to set up, but I found tons of helpful resources to walk me through it, step-by-step.

As I explored all the options, my appreciation of Sucuri grew. Without doubting the ingenuity of would-be hackers, I believe this program will at least give them a serious obstacle to get through, and most likely stop them altogether.

How Does Sucuri Protect Your Website?

Sucuri not only puts in place layers of security to prevent hacking and malware, but they also constantly monitor their client’s websites. They keep logs for their customers of every vulnerability they discover and every fix they apply. They also report every potential security issue to the WordPress core team, with whom they work closely with, to protect the innocents. There are also many other, third-party vendors, with whom they communicate at the first sign of any threat, to make sure you are protected from every possible angle.

In addition to all that, Sucuri promises to help in case a hacker does somehow get through. So far, I am happy to report, I have not had the opportunity to test that part of their service. However, it is a great comfort to know that, should it prove necessary, Sucuri will help their customers with the following:

• Remove Malware from your site.
• Help you access your site if you get locked out.
• Remove you from blacklists.
• Stop hacking or DDoS attacks.

Of course, the hope is to stop the hackers before they get in. So, Sucuri uses what they call a “Website Application Firewall (WAF).” It censors traffic at the server level, before it gets to your web host. That way, it manages to block threats before they can reach your website files.

Sucuri keeps monitoring your site at regular intervals, keeping records of every log-in and failed log-in attempt, any changes to your files, and all signs of suspicious activity. Sucuri also makes sure blacklist engines aren’t blocking your site because of security issues, and they not only alert you to any vulnerabilities, but they can also remove them if you want.

For example, Sucuri will remove your WordPress version display. If you are like me and sometimes hesitate to upgrade to the latest WordPress version, then you are not protecting yourself as quickly as you can from emerging threats. You don’t want the world of potential hackers to know that you are using an older, more vulnerable, WordPress version. Sucuri will also directly protect all of your uploads, guaranteeing that they are virus-free.

A welcomed side-effect of installing Sucuri is that that my website is now running smoother and quicker than ever before. My guess is that there had been more attacks against me than I realized and that Sucuri is now stopping them.

Sucuri Review: How much does it cost?

Sucuri offers three different plans for their security system:

All of the plans come with an SSL Certificate. However, the Professional and Business plans offer one that is customizable. All plans include the website firewall, unlimited malware cleanup, attack prevention capability, blacklist removal, and Sucuri’s multi-level protection from hacks.

One thing we found missing from the Sucuri review that swayed us in its favor was price. Several reviews actually skirt around Sucuri’s price, and that’s probably because it isn’t cheap. But, pricing is annual, and you get what you pay for.

The major difference between the plans is how often Sururi scans your site. With the Basic plan, which costs only $199.99/year, Sucuri only scans your site once every 12 hours. That probably is fine, considering all the other layers of protection they include. However, I had a first-hand view of how much damage could be done to my site and my reputation by a hack in only 12 hours. Therefore, I opted for the Professional plan, which scans every 6 hours and costs $299.99/year.

If I could have afforded the $499.99/year price, I would have gone even further and bought the most powerful and comprehensive Business plan. With the Business plan, Sucuri scans every 30 minutes and offers advanced DDoS Protection, Blacklist notifications, and an instant chat option with their customer service.

How Good is Sucuri’s Customer Support?

Sucuri’s customer service is available 24/7 and their engineers are up-to-date with all of the newest developments.

They have a huge knowledgebase on their website with all the information and tutorials you’ll ever need to keep your site secure with their plugin. They also have a blog where you can find the latest WordPress security tips.

The Pro version of the plugin includes customer support from the developers via support tickets, and the more expensive Business plan includes live chat support.

If you are using the free version of the plugin, you can always get answers fairly quickly on the WordPress support forums.

Sucuri Review Conclusion

Would I Recommend the Sucuri Plugin?

Yes, we recommend the Sucuri plugin. Sucuri is the best plugin when it comes to keeping your WordPress website safe and secure from almost any kind of attack. This is especially true if you have the budget for the pro version (paid version). There is no other plugin that currently offers a DNS-level firewall.

From a personal standpoint, I have had websites get destroyed by hacking. I know how devastating this can be if you are trying to make a living online. Watching my earnings go to $0 overnight and having to submit a reconsideration request to Google to have my website reindexed was a low point in my life.

If you are serious about keeping your website safe I would definitely give them a try. They have a 30-day money back guarantee so if you are not happy with anything you can get a full refund.

Final Thoughts

The experience of getting hacked is something you never want to have to deal with. In the past, I have learned the hard way. It left me feeling very vulnerable and I seriously considering giving up my blog altogether. Thank God for Sucuri and for their protection. I can enjoy blogging again, knowing they’ve got me covered in every possible way.

Get The Sucuri Plugin

Have you had a chance to use Sucuri? Let me know in the comments below what your experiences were and if you enjoyed this review be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Sucuri Review – Best Security for WordPress (2020) appeared first on Zuziko.

If you are looking for some useful tips to make your WordPress forms convert better, then you’re at the right place. In this article, we will discuss how to implement some of the best practices. This will ensure that your forms are appealing and easy to use.

Increasing conversions is the dream of everyone who runs an online business. To help boost your conversions, you need to pay close attention to your forms. Making them so that they entice your readers to fill them out and submit. Below, I will go over some useful tips and tricks that you can use when building your next form.

Table of Contents

1. Keep Your Forms Simple
2. Add Tooltips and Placeholder Text
3. Use a Multi-Step Form (if needed)
4. Use Inline Validation
5. Insert Basic Information
6. Use Descriptive and Bold CTA
7. Don’t Use All Caps
8. Additional Resources
9. Use Semantic Grouping
10. Thank Your Users

#1 Keep Your Forms Simple

A form is a great place to connect with your users, but don’t go overboard. Ask as little information as possible. Don’t scare them away at the first step. Questions that ask for unnecessary information should be avoided. E.g. Instead of typing the password twice, you can have only a single field and include an option to show the password.

#2 Add Tooltips and Placeholder Text

When your users are filling out a form on your website, guide them as much you can. Add tooltips or help messages to let them know why you are asking specific questions. The more transparent you are about your intentions, the more likely they are to convert.

#3 Use a Multi-Step Form (if needed)

Single-step forms are for login and sign-up pages where all actions are completed in a short, single form. But sometimes you need a big form with a lot of fields to collect more data. In that case, don’t use a long form because it can be frustrating to your users. Instead, use a multi-step form based on information groups. It’s also a good idea to let the user know about their progress with a progress bar or steps, e.g. step 1/3.

#4 Use Inline Validation

Users sometimes make unintentional errors while they type, but you can help prevent this by setting up instant validation. The best practice is to show a warning for an invalid input when they have completed one field. Never validate during their data insertion. For example, when they have completed the email field and forgot to add the ‘@’ sign, let them know about it.

#5 Insert Basic Information

Help your users understand what the purpose of your form is. A form can be confusing without any description, but it can be easy with some useful guidelines. If your company provides services, then you can set up a dedicated support form for existing customers in addition to a general contact form. Moreover, mentioning information such as the wait time, reasons for using the form, etc. can help earn more trust.

#6 Use Descriptive and Bold CTA

Whatever you do with your form, the call to action is the most important feature. Make sure your forms look noticeable and lucrative, so that they never fail to grab the user’s attention. Other than making the call-to-action button bold and bright, you should also make the text stand out. Users should know what happens when they click the button. Submit means they’re going to submit their data whereas subscribe illustrates they will receive a newsletter. If you can make it more descriptive with text like “Show me the exclusive offer” or “I want exclusive access,” then do it.

#7 Don’t Use All Caps

What’s wrong with all caps? Human eyes are comfortable with what they see regularly. Sentence case is the most repeated things we look at when we read something, be it online or offline. That’s why all caps are difficult to scan. This gives an unpleasant experience for the user. When you write placeholder text and labels for the input fields, keep them in sentence case as well.

#8 Additional Resources

You can add a FAQ section next to your contact form which may reduce the rate of unnecessary form submission. At the same time, users can get a basic understanding of the form.

If you have documentation for products or other helpful resources like video tutorials or in-depth blog posts – include them in the contact page.

#9 Use Semantic Grouping

In general, human sight works from left to right and top to bottom (of course, there are exceptions). Semantic groups allow users to put their data in a very organized way which ensures a better conversion rate. Keep the personal info in one section, address and billing in the other. No matter how big your form is, or how much information you are going to collect, keep everything fragmented.

#10 Thank Your Users

They made some effort and spent the time to complete the form. Now it’s time to thank them. Right after they click the submit button, show a thank you message. You could take things to a new level by redirecting them to a custom page. This could be a product landing page or a simple blog page.

My Final Thoughts

Gaining attention from your users requires an overall improvement of your website. But, you can turn your forms into a conversion tool by applying the tips mentioned above. Don’t just consider your WordPress forms as a simple means to collect data. They can also play a vital role in building a loyal customer base.

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of how forms work and what you can do to make them convert better. Have a question? Please feel free to leave us a comment below.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also find us on Freelancer if you need some help with your WordPress website or web development issues.

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