Since its founding in 2003, WordPress has grown into an indispensable tool for bloggers and self-publishers of all stripes—and knowing how to navigate WordPress has become an essential skill for writers, editors, designers, developers, and pretty much anyone else tying to navigate the choppy waters of digital media. But as amazing as WordPress can be, it’s not without its hiccups and hassles. On Tuesday, WordPress expert Jesse Friedman will address some of the most common WP pitfalls in an hourlong live tutorial, Your WordPress Problems Solved. Below, Friedman answers some questions about two particularly thorny challenges: securing a WordPress site and moving a WordPress installation from one server to another. Register for his live DesignCast now.
Problem: How to secure a WordPress website to prevent malicious attacks
Why is this something people struggle with?
WordPress is so popular that it only makes sense that hackers learn about WordPress vulnerabilities to maximize their abilities. This doesn’t make WordPress more vulnerable than any other CMS, just more likely to get attacked.If not done properly, is there any guarantee that someone will hack your site? What makes it so important?
Whether you host a small website or a blog that gets thousands of hits a day, a loss of control or content is severely detrimental. You can’t risk getting hijacked or losing your hard work. Most of the security steps are so easy that it just doesn’t make sense to ignore them.
What’s the one thing that people mess up when trying to secure their site?
Passwords! In this day and age, people still using their dog’s name as a password is unacceptable, but it’s still happening all the time. Also, a lack of backing up data is plaguing users everywhere.
.Problem: How to move your WordPress installation from one server to another
Why would someone want to switch servers?
Whether you’re working on a development server to make improvements to a site, or your current hosting provider isn’t doing a good job for you, it’s good to prep your sites for a move. I know a lot of people who dealt with poor hosting services because it “seemed” too difficult to move.
What makes this so challenging?
A lack of education. Moving a WordPress website is actually rather simple, but if you’ve never done it before it can seem daunting and time-consuming.
What kinds of solutions will you talk about in the live session?
Backing up your data (in combination with security), running an export, and importing that data and even a manual move straight from your database.
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