The nuances of commercial development on WordPress. How long will it take the YouDo performer to complete the task?
Nowadays, everyone who is not too lazy creates websites. One of the most popular engines is WordPress. A programmer for this engine must not only know PHP, but also know the structure of the engine itself, be able to layout and know jquery (JavaScript)
It just so happens that I quite often have to look for a WordPress developer for my website. I came across several developers. Some people do their job very poorly. I can recommend someone.
Well, now I’ll tell you the basic principles of how to choose a WordPress specialist.
The studio is not always good.
The first people who made improvements to WordPress for me were the studio. As I understand it, I was unlucky and ran into very unprofessional performers. In detail - the story about this.
Briefly, the studio takes a lot of money, you may not get results, but you waste time and money. Recommended when there is no alternative. In the studio it's always better to talk to specific performer, and not with the manager. Test how well a real programmer knows WordPress. Even if the manager praises the developers, it is better not to trust, but to check. Otherwise, you can step on my rake and repeat the story described above.
Indie WordPress Programmer
By indie I mean a developer who works for himself. It’s worth talking to the person right away to find out their level of knowledge of WordPress. When I was looking for a person, I came across Kolesnikov Sergei. The following dialogue took place:
Kolesnikov Sergey: Hello
Dmitry Evgenievich: Question
Kolesnikov Sergey: listening
Dmitry Evgenievich: How well do you know WordPress?
Kolesnikov Sergey: I guess it’s not for me to judge))
Kolesnikov Sergey: what are you interested in?
Dmitry Evgenievich: Well, let’s say how a post differs from a page other than the type of entry in the database
Kolesnikov Sergey: I don’t have time to take exams now)) if there’s something specific, I’ll listen to you
Dmitry Evgenievich: Just a second
I need this plugin
Dmitry Evgenievich: estimate the price in rubles and terms
Dmitry Evgenievich: since it’s specific
Kolesnikov Sergey: ok, I’ll unsubscribe
As you can see, the developer refused to take the test, and of course he didn’t write to me. I definitely won’t get involved with someone like that. Not only does he most likely not know voprdpress, because... couldn’t answer a simple question right away, so he still doesn’t keep his promise. Well, naturally, he didn’t unsubscribe. Such a specialist will either screw you over by abandoning the project in the middle of the deadline, or will do everything so crookedly that you will be tortured to correct mistakes.
You need to find the right WordPress specialist
Stepasyuk Andrey gives a completely different idea of himself (http://stepasyuk.org.ua/)
The development price per hour from 15 dollars is, in principle, a very reasonable price. When communicating, it is immediately clear that the person knows WordPress, because... asks the right questions after reading the technical specifications. There is no need to test a person's knowledge of the engine. Work on prepayment this specialist one of the guarantees of a discount and that a specialist will complete your project.
The key condition for choosing a candidate is interest in your project, questions before starting the project and during the course of work. If there are no questions, it’s a reason to wonder if the work is going well...
There are also failures
I also had failures. A person took on a job and did not complete it on time. Therefore, before giving a person a job, you need to test the developer and understand his level. To do this, you can ask simple questions
- How is a post different from a page?
- Can a person code and how well does he know JS?
- What table are posts stored in?
- What are additional fields and how to set them
You can come up with a lot of questions. They depend on your technical savvy. If you are not familiar with the engine yourself, you can ask other questions:
- What is the most difficult thing in technical specifications and why?
- What's the most challenging project you've done? Ask for an example and clarify what is difficult
- Have you developed plugins?
Typically, a WordPress programmer will have experience developing a plugin good experience. An advance payment for the work can be made in the amount of 10-30 percent, with the condition that if the project is delayed, the advance payment is returned without any obligations.
My Blacklist of WordPress Developers
Here I will provide contacts of those who did not complete the work or did it poorly.
The first office I wrote about was BVB Logic. They did the job crookedly and very poorly.
Second person: Skype: spider13_ - instead of the stated 1 week, my project took 3 weeks. As a result, I abandoned the long-term construction. Implementation questions constantly arose. It seems that the person doesn’t know the engine itself well, although he got to work and seemed to be doing something. For the second week I did not provide anything. Then he stopped responding to messages on Skype. The collaboration had to end.
P.S. By the way, our website is still open.
In this article we will talk about the cycle WordPress development, about who is developing it and how, and how any of us can help. WordPress is an open source project owned by a non-profit foundation, so everything is done as publicly and transparently as possible.
WordPress Development Stages
The development of each new version of WordPress is divided into five main stages:
- Planning
- Design and development
- Beta testing
- Release candidates
- Release
First, the scope of work, deadlines and roles for this version are determined. Then the development of new functionality begins until the release of the first beta version, after which debugging, refinement and preparation for the candidate release stage take place. A release candidate is a product that is already ready, according to the developers, but there is still a possibility that some major problem will be discovered. Depending on the errors found, there may be several beta versions and release candidates, for example in version 3.5 there were three beta versions and four release candidates.
In total, one release takes approximately 4 months: 2 for design and development, 1 month for beta testing and 1 month for release candidates. After the *release* of a new version, the cycle of its support begins with the help of technical releases, such as versions 3.5.1 and 3.5.2, which do not contain new functionality, but eliminate errors and vulnerabilities of previous versions.
In parallel with work on technical release planning begins for the next major version.
Who develops WordPress
Today there are five leading developers and the project leader. These are the people who make the final decisions, develop the kernel architecture, and determine the project's roadmap. This list changes from time to time.
In addition to these people, more than two hundred designers and developers from all over the world are involved in the development of the project: some as part of their main work, and others as a hobby. This list grows with every release.
There are quite a few companies whose business is somehow related to WordPress, these companies dedicate one or more employees to work on WordPress. The most vivid examples- These are hosting providers Bluehost and DreamHost, theme developers WooThemes and Theme Foundry, and of course Automattic.
Subversion
The original itself WordPress code stored in a version control system called Subversion. This is an open repository where anyone can look. It has the following structure:
- /tags - all releases are placed in this directory: both main and technical ones
- /branches are branches that always contain latest changes in a specific major version. For example, if this is a 3.5 branch, then it will contain all the changes in 3.5.1, 3.5.2, etc.
- /trunk - contains new version, which is in development and has not yet been released. Today it is version 3.6
To access the repository, you will need a Subversion client, such as Versions for OS X, or TortoiseSVN for Windows.
Trac
To manage a WordPress project, the Trac system is used, which is somewhat reminiscent of a regular forum.
Anyone can create new topic(or "ticket") and report a bug in the kernel, or suggest some new feature. In the same topic, any developer can post a so-called “patch” or patch. This is the file that changes source code programs in order, for example, to fix an error.
This patch is tested by several developers, and if it does indeed fix the bug, it is accepted and included in the next release, and the bug topic is closed. If the problem recurs, the same topic can be reopened.
Testing
And finally, usability testing. This is the name of the testing process, when a person is given a series of tasks, and while completing everything is filmed, which is then analyzed. This is done in order to understand how people work with the WordPress interface, where and what problems arise.
Communication
All communication between project participants occurs mainly in three places. These are IRC chats, the “make” blog network and the Trac project management system, which we already talked about.
Every Wednesday WordPress developers hold a meeting via chat. This is the #wordpress-dev channel on the Freenode IRC server. Anyone can join and participate in the discussion, offer their own solutions to the problem, or simply learn about how and where development is moving.
In addition to chats, there is also a network of blogs called make/*, for example make/core for developers, make/ui for designers, etc. All the planning is done on these blogs. Developers share ideas, make sketches (screenshots), publish announcements and other information.
How can we help
Anyone can take part in the development of WordPress, and it is not at all necessary to be a programmer. You can choose an area that interests you and provide whatever assistance you can.
For example, if you are into design, you can subscribe to the make/ui blog, which is dedicated to creating user interfaces, participate in the discussion and share your ideas. This group's weekly chats take place on the IRC channel #wordpress-ui.
In addition to design, there is a group of translators. If you own English, you can participate in translating documentation, themes, plugins, and WordPress itself. If so, you should visit the make/polyglots blog and check out the translate.wordpress.org system.
If you enjoy helping people, you can answer questions in the support forums on WordPress.org and the #wordpress IRC channel. Check out the make/support groups - dedicated to support, and make/docs - dedicated to documentation.
For WordPress theme and plugin developers there are make/themes and make/plugins groups. Here we discuss repositories of themes and plugins on WordPress.org, rules for getting into directories, etc.
For application developers mobile devices there is a make/mobile group. To date, mobile applications have already been developed for WordPress on iOS platforms,Android, Windows Mobile and others. Just like itself WordPress core, development mobile applications is conducted publicly.
For WordPress event organizers there is a group called make/events. Organizers of informal meetings, meetups, WordCamp conferences participate here, discuss ideas and share experiences.
And finally, the developers. There is a make/core group for developers. This is the main group where you can find out where WordPress is going and when the new version will be released.
If you have the time and desire to help develop a WordPress project, but don’t know where to start, we will be happy to help you. We will be happy to answer any questions about the WordPress development cycle. Write to us at
Good day, dear reader. Fate turned out to be such that I am one of those who is responsible for developing projects for an online agency in my beloved city of Khabarovsk. And I would like to tell you about how we maintain the proper quality of the product for customers, given fairly low budgets, compared to central part Russia, which affects the requirements for the speed of project assembly. And my goal is to reduce the costs of development and further maintenance, which results in the need to make a website as quickly as possible with the best possible a large number elements edited in the admin panel.
For the most part, the information will be “technical”, regarding CMS Worpdress, “on the top.” I’m only talking about our path, for whom the use of technologies, ways, techniques, etc. question of religion - please refrain from holivars. Let's get started.
First, a small digression. In general, our projects are divided into several types according to the principle of development:
- HTML template with themeforest -> assembly on CMS;
- Design -> layout -> assembly on CMS;
- Development of individual solutions.
I’ll make a reservation right away that in this article I will only consider the first two points, because it seems to me sufficient to generalize the third challenging task, because favorite / the best / all the rest are bad Everyone has their own technologies and in small towns it can be difficult to find a developer good level on RoR/Flask and others like them. And I’ll go through them briefly. If there is interest in this topic, why not include a detailed tutorial article “How to build a website on WP in 4-8 hours, which the client will be happy with.”
Why Wordpress?
Low budgets and the desire to bring less entropy into the world justified the choice. More details:
- Convenience of the admin panel for clients. I'm serious, after the introduction of this CMS, all customer training was reduced to the fact that we send the administrator password. Memories of recording the video “How to create news”, “How to change the phone number on the site” no longer appear in my dreams.
- Website build speed. About 4-8 hours per project is great. Competitive advantage.
- Developer learning curve for building projects. So far, my record is 1.5 weeks of training from scratch (that is, the HTML abbreviation seems like a spell calling Satan) to a full site assembly in a period that suits me.
- Beautiful graphics for clients with CMS rating :)
- Freeware, no need to purchase licenses.
And yes, I won't knock on your door with a brochure in my hand and say, “Would you like to talk about WP?” We just use this CMS and that’s what this note is about. In fact, here is a monologue in printed format that I give to all new webmasters who come to us.
What nuances should be taken into account when designing a project?
I believe that you should think about the nuances of website assembly already at at this stage. Here are some general and specific recommendations, perhaps obvious, coming from the set of plugins and snippets that I use.
The template should be easily divided into the “site header”, the actual content and the “footer”. If you need to hide some header/footer elements, WP provides quite a few great conditional features. ( is front page(), is_404() etc.). If you need to change the appearance - CSS can, body_class() available.
When creating various menus that will be controlled through Appearance-> site menu, you must adhere to following structure:
- Menu item
- Menu item
- Menu item
The important thing here is that submenus must have a css class sub-menu. This will save you from having to write a custom walker when building the site for the function wp_nav_menu($args);.
I'll be obvious as captain, but all dynamic positions in the layout should be either individual elements(if a phone, then, for example + 7 XXX XXX etc. without distortion), for further replacement of the placeholder, or be similar to the following logical structure:
Layout to list
List element layout
…
List element layout
Layout after the list
Be sure to create a separate rule in CSS for the content that clients insert through wysiwyg in the admin panel. Something like this (let it be LESS):
User-content( ... a( &:hover( ... ); &:active( ... ); &:focus( ... ); ) p( ... ) table( thead ( ... th ( ... ) ) tbody ( tr( ... td( ... ) ) ) h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, h7( ... ) h1( ... ) ... h7( ... ) ul( ... li( ... ) ) img( … ) )
In the future, it will save you from calls like “Why did I insert a picture and everything worked for me!”
If you have image galleries on your site (three in a row, six in a row, etc.), then you need to match the layout of these galleries to the layout generated by WP with the gallery shortcode. Or redefine this shortcode and make the layout simply by adhering to the rule “Layout before the list, Layout of the list element, Layout after the list”, if the WP functionality in terms of the number of columns and other things is redundant.
Layout page navigation, generated by WP, takes approximately the following form:
Layout " bread crumbs" is trivial. Either ul li list or , separated by " >> " and others like them.
I also want to say that the entire block of the above fits into one phrase - type it up by stylizing the markup generated by WP/plugins/function snippets and you will be happy.
We received a set of html/css/js files, what next?
At this point in time, the practice is that we have a repository that we call kosher_wordpress, so that on each project we do not have to install a bunch of plugins again every time. What it contains and what, in my opinion, is sufficient at the moment:
- The latest version of WP.
- Not the default administrator password ;).
- Builder of new types of posts with custom fields from the admin panel. We use Magic fields 2. Used to create elements of the form List of elements -> Separate page element. View templates archive-$type.php And single-$type.php, or output using WP_Query.
- Builder of new fields for taxonomy, using Tax-Meta-Class
- Customizer for editing screens. I use Advanced CustomFields. Indispensable for the next case. There is a contact template, for example tpl-contacts.php, with written inside Template Name: Contact Page Template. And it is necessary that when you select this template in the admin panel, on the contact editing page, additional fields, such as map coordinates, linked form feedback etc. And here he helps us.
- Builder of callback, feedback, order forms, etc. Contact Form 7
- Builder global settings site. Used for header phones, social networks and other information of this type. Theme Options.
- Functions.php with functions covering almost all the remaining functionality:
- Menu theme support. register_nav_menus();
- Support for post thumbnails. add_theme_support("post-thumbnails");
- Image resize, with support for smaller->larger and caching. resize_image($attach_id = null, $img_url = null, $width, $height, $crop = false)
- Bread crumb generator. the_breadcrumb().
- wp_corenavi($wp_query)
- Custom walker for wp_nav_menu() for extension. class My_Walker extends Walker Nav Menu ( original WP code }
- Groundwork for changing the gallery shortcode. remove_shortcode("gallery", "gallery_shortcode");add_shortcode("gallery", "my_gallery_shortcode");function my_gallery_shortcode($attr) ()
- Page navigation generator. wp_corenavi($wp_query)
- File with snippets as a reminder.
And the entire project assembly boils down to the following:
- Creating a virtual host on a computer
- git clone...
- Importing the database, entering three SQL commands to tell WP what the current URL is (gist)
- Copying snippets from the second monitor and filling the layout with meaning.
- Deploy to the server and a cup of coffee
Approximate contents of the file with snippets:
ID)); $image = vt_resize(null, $url, 220, 220, true); if (!$image["url"]) $image["url"] = "http://placehold.it/220x220&text=NO IMAGE"; ?>
By this algorithm collected for last year There are already more than a hundred websites, on average it takes from 1 to 3 working days, depending on the complexity of the design and various motion effects. The assembly itself takes about 4-8 hours. This may not be the result, but I don’t have anything to compare it with yet, I’ll be grateful for the dialogue.
Only registered users can participate in the survey.
In this series of articles, we plan to cover the fundamental points to consider when developing a WordPress plugin or theme.
The goal of this guide is to present you with a set of best practices that will be useful for both new and experienced developers getting started with WordPress.
Most of the approaches described in this series are already covered in the Code, but I know that the Code contains so much information that it can be difficult for newbies to navigate it.
In this article we will cover the following topics:
- WordPress Coding Standards;
- How to avoid function name conflicts;
- Comment code;
- Safety tips.
We will try to be as specific as possible in this series, so the articles will include both examples of effective application of methods and examples typical mistakes. This will give you a clear understanding of how certain things work in WordPress.
Please note that not everything described in this series is required to be used when developing plugins. However, if you are already starting to learn, why not learn how to do it correctly?
I will try to make the articles in this series easy to understand. I will include some examples of well-written code and examples of errors in the articles. Not everything described here is required when creating a plugin, but if you're getting started with WordPress, why not do it right?
Once this becomes a habit, you will automatically adhere to standards and it will be easier for you to protect yourself from mistakes.
WordPress Coding Standards
Honestly, this is one of my biggest weaknesses. If you are developing tools for WordPress, you should simply follow WordPress Coding Standards. This helps improve code readability and avoid common mistakes.
WordPress is a publicly accessible and supported CMS, which means simple thing that everyone writes code that is easy to read, edit, and maintain by everyone involved in the process.
In the beginning, you may find it difficult to change the coding style you are used to, but eventually you will find that it becomes second nature and your code becomes cleaner and much more readable.
IN WordPress Guide The standards are divided into four main languages used:
- CSS Coding Standards
- HTML coding standards
- JavaScript Coding Standards
- PHP Coding Standards
Examples
Below I will show you some simple ones PHP examples- code so you receive general idea, what we are talking about.
Errors:
if(condition) action0($var); if(condition) ( action1(); ) elseif(condition2) ( action2a(); action2b(); )
Examples of correct coding:
if (condition) ( action0($var); ) if (condition) ( action1(); ) elseif (condition2) ( action2a(); action2b(); )
The second code example is much more readable, isn't it? IN Coding Standards Guide Lots of examples to help you make your code cleaner. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to dramatically improve the readability of your code with just a few spaces and indentations.
While I was writing this article, I had just purchased a theme for a client, and when I wanted to change the code a little, I was shocked at how difficult it was to do so.
Here's what I mean:
Even a little scary, isn't it? After working with this code for a few minutes, I sent the topic author an email with a link to the coding standards manual page.
How to Avoid Function Name Conflicts
Name conflicts occur when a function has the same name as a function that has already been defined previously. For example, if you have a get_the_post_terms() function in your theme, and you install a plugin that contains a function with the same name, you'll get something like:
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare get_the_post_terms() (previously declared in....
Unfortunately, this happens much more often than it should. But such conflicts are easy to avoid.
For this we have the following options:
1. Function prefixes
For example, if your plugin is called "WordPress Cool Plugin", you can use the wcc_ prefix for all its functions.
So in the example above, the name of our function would be wcc_get_the_post_terms() .
2. Wrap functions in a class
Perhaps your plugin is so simple that it doesn't even require a class, but you can still create one to organize elements. I particularly like using the singleton design pattern, but take a look at the example below of a simple class with a static method:
class Wcc_Mailer ( static function send($post_ID) ( $friends = " [email protected]"; mail($friends,"New post!", "Check my new post in " . get_permalink($post_ID)); return $post_ID; ) ) add_action("publish_post", array("Wcc_Mailer", "send") );
As you can see, in this example I just used a prefix for the class name, but my function is called "send". This method name is protected from changes through the global namespace; the method itself cannot be called directly. To call it I would need to do the following:
Wcc_Mailer::send($post_id);
Comment code
Code comments are a developer's best friend. You may not want to comment on every function or variable you create, but trust me, as your code grows—especially as it incorporates components of other developers' code—it becomes very difficult to determine what exactly a piece of code does.
Also, as I said, WordPress is a public-facing CMS. Many developers will be working with your code, and leaving hints for them will greatly help them figure out what's what.
Personally, I use PHPDoc syntax for commenting functions, using Sublime + Docblockr this is very easy.
Let's see how the WordPress guys comment the wp_mail() function located in the wp-includes/pluggable.php file:
/** * Sends email messages similar to PHP mail * * Returning true does not automatically mean that the user received * the email. This only means that the method used completed * the request without errors. * * Using the calls "wp_mail_from" and "wp_mail_from_name" allows you to * set the sender's address in the following format "Name"
As you can see, they describe what the function does, what parameters it needs, and what it returns.
Quite informative, isn't it?
Comments are not intended to be used only with PHP. In HTML, for example, I like to useat the end of large blocks of code, so it's much easier for me to navigate the code later.
In CSS, I use comments to divide the code into different sections.
For example:
/********************* GENERAL STYLES *********************/ body ( font- family: Arial; color: #333 ) /*********************************** ************************* STYLES H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 ************* **************************************** ***/ h1, .h1 ( font-size: 2.5em; line-height: 1em; font-family: $vag-bold; ) /***************** **** NAVIGATION MENU STYLES *********************/ nav ( color:red ) [...]
Safety must be taken very seriously! If your plugin or theme becomes popular, trust me, you don't want thousands of sites to be hacked because of you.
If you think I'm exaggerating, look at Checkmarx research their 2013 ranking of the top 50 WordPress plugins.
Now let's look at some WordPress development security tips:
XSS vulnerabilities
To prevent XSS we must do two things. Check the security of incoming data And check the security of outgoing data.
There are several methods for checking security depending on the data and the context in which it is used. As a general rule, you should not trust any input, and you should not trust any output.
For data input, you can use, for example, sanitize_text_field() , which checks for invalid UTF-8 text, converts single characters into an object<, убирает все теги, удаляет разрывы строк, отступы и лишние пробелы, а также убирает октеты. В зависимости от контекста, существуют разные функции, которые помогут вам обезопасить данные.
The same thing happens when you output data. Take a look at the following example of how a link is rendered:
">
- esc_url rejects invalid URLs, eliminates invalid characters, and removes dangerous characters;
- esc_html encodes & "' when outputting HTML.
Again, depending on the data you have, there are various functions that can help you. For JavaScript you can use esc_js.
In addition to checking the data itself, do not forget to check the date.
Preventing direct access to files
Most hosts provide direct access to files. For your plugin, this means that there will likely be some PHP errors occurring, and these errors will become valuable information for attackers.
To prevent this you can place very simple code at the top of your script:
// Exit if direct access is granted if (! defined("ABSPATH")) exit;
This will generally prevent the script from executing if it is not accessed through WordPress.
Remove all warnings and notifications
It's not just PHP errors that attackers can take advantage of - notices and warnings also include a lot of valuable information for them. Each plugin must be coded using DEBUG mode.
This will also prevent attackers from figuring out outdated functions in your plugin. To enable DEBUG mode simply find this line in your wp-config.php file and set it to TRUE:
define(WP_DEBUG, true);
Use Nonce values
Nonce is an abbreviation for numbers used once, they are used to protect against cross-site cross-site request false requests, or CSRF.
In other words, these are unauthorized or duplicate requests that can result in permanent unwanted or even irreversible changes to the website, particularly the database. This can happen due to the fault of attackers or due to mistakes of trusted users.
Depending on where you need to apply the Nonce value, you can create it in different ways.
For links use wp_nonce_url() :
$complete_url = wp_nonce_url($bare_url, "trash-post", "my_nonce");
For forms - wp_nonce_field() :
wp_nonce_field("trash-post", "my_nonce");
Elsewhere - wp_create_nonce() :
wp_localize_script("my-script", "my-var-name", array("nonce" => wp_create_nonce("trash-post", "my_nonce"));
If you look at the example above you can see how I use wp_localize_script ( which will be discussed in the next article) to include a nonce in a block of JavaScript code. I'm doing this because I plan to later use JQuery to make an AJAX request, and you should always include a nonce in AJAX calls too.
After that, in the script, just to check the nonce, use the following code:
if(! wp_verify_nonce("trash_post" , "my_nonce")) ( die("Busted!"); )
Use WordPress Features and Libraries
Always check if you can do what you need with the core WordPress features and libraries. This way, your scripts will be less vulnerable, and if they contain unsafe parts, WordPress developers will know about it and notify users.
In this article you will learn how to create a website using WordPress. With the help of a step-by-step guide, you will create a high-quality and functional resource suitable for attracting and converting traffic.
Why WordPress – what it is and 5 reasons to use it for a website or blog
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS). According to Web Technology Surveys, as of November 2018, this engine powers 32.3% of the total number of existing sites, as well as 59.5% of sites using a CMS. In 2015, WordPress used only 24% of CMS resources. Listed below are the main reasons for the popularity of WordPress.
The free CMS engine WordPress is distributed under an open license agreement (GNU GPL). You are free to use this product for any purpose, including commercial purposes. Almost unlimited possibilities Using WordPress you can create an online store, personal blog, corporate website, information portal, industry resource, multimedia gallery. Flexible customization of appearance and functionality WordPress website owners have access to paid and free templates that can be used to customize the appearance. And with the help of plugins you can solve technical problems and provide the necessary functionality of the site. Ease of administration You don't need any special knowledge to work with WordPress. The principles of working with the engine are clear on an intuitive level. The ability to create a website and publish the first content within 5 minutes Of course, you will have to spend much more time to turn a template product into something new and interesting. But spend no more than 5 minutes on your first publication.
Well, have you decided to make a website on WordPress? Then proceed to the step-by-step guide.
Step No. 1: how to choose hosting and register a domain
If you have a non-profit project, choose free hosting. For example, you can share photos of cats with the world or keep a diary of a young bodybuilder on the WordPress platform. The site address will look like this: primer.wordpress.com. If you are implementing a commercial project, for example, creating a thematic blog, corporate website, or planning to make money using a resource in any way, choose paid hosting.
To choose a reliable hosting provider, . If you don’t have time for this, use the services of one of the companies listed below:
The choice of domain zone does not affect the technical characteristics of the resource or position in search results. However, theoretically, this parameter can influence audience trust. All other things being equal, users are more willing to trust sites with the address vasya-pupkin.ru or vasya-pupkin.com than resources like vasya-pupkin.wordpress.com or vasya-pupkin.blogspot.com. Therefore, for commercial projects, try to choose top-level domains, for example, .com, .info, .org, .net, .ru, .ua, .by, etc. Pay attention to the recently appeared first-level domains, for example, .club, .guru, .ninja, .expert and others.
Step #2: How to Install WordPress Do-It-Yourself
After purchasing hosting and registering a domain name, install WordPress. Please note that some hosting providers offer plans with a pre-installed CMS. If you choose one of them, skip straight to the third step of the guide. If you purchased hosting without an installed engine, follow the instructions:
Go to the WordPress website and download the distribution.
Unpack the archive.
How to Russify a WordPress Theme
It is convenient to Russify a theme using the free program Poedit. Download and install it on your computer. Then download the language files of the selected template to your computer. This will require FTP access. It can be obtained using an FTP client, such as FileZilla, and also using plugins, such as File Manager. If you have installed this plugin, follow the algorithm described below.
In the console, select the FileManager – Configuration menu. Set up the configurations as shown in the illustration.
In the FileManager – FileManager menu, select the wp-content – themes folder.
Select the theme folder you want to Russify. In it, open the languages folder.
Download the en.mo and en.po files to your computer. If there are no such files, download the file with the .pot extension to your computer.
Open Poedit and select the “Create new translation” option.
Open the translation file and specify the language code.
Start translating. In the "Source text" field the program displays the text in English. In the “Translation” field you need to add text in Russian.
Save the translation. The program will download two files to your PC’s hard drive: ru_Ru.mo and ru_RU.po. Use the Upload files function to upload files to the languges folder of your template.
You have Russified the template.
Instead of the Poedit PC program, you can use the Loco Translate plugin. After installing and activating the add-on, the template translation interface appears directly in the site admin panel.
Step No. 5: Solving Practical Problems Using WordPress Plugins
Plugins are one of the problems for novice WordPress website owners. Having barely registered a resource, newly minted webmasters search Yandex for articles like “100 best plugins for WordPress”. They install dozens of extensions. This negatively affects the development of the resource. It's not a matter of slowing down your site, although too many plugins can cause that problem.
The question is the concentration of attention and effort of the site owner. Instead of creating and publishing quality content, he spends hours searching for plugins, installing them and configuring them. Such a webmaster does not see the forest for the trees: he forgets that plugins are needed to solve specific practical problems.
To successfully develop your site, use plugins with caution. Install extensions only when you want to solve a specific problem. Using plugins you can do the following:
- Ensure site security.
- Fight spam.
- Optimize the resource to meet the requirements of search engines.
- Increase functionality and improve usability.
How to Use Plugins to Secure a WordPress Site
The site is exposed to two global threats. The first is yourself. The desire for perfection and innovation can force a webmaster to take risky experiments with code and programs that can lead to the loss of information. You can protect yourself from this by using plugins that create backup copies of your site.
The second threat is unauthorized access to the resource. Attackers may try to gain access to your site in order to install malicious code on it or simply steal it.
To regularly back up your site, use one of the following plugins:
To install the selected plugin, go to the “Plugins – Add New” menu. Enter the name of the extension in the search field in the upper right corner and press Enter. You can also download the plugin from the developer's website and install it using the "Download Plugin" function at the top of the admin panel screen.
Click the "Install" button. After installation, activate the plugin. Now configure your backup settings. Select the "Tools - WP DB BackUp" menu. Click Create New Database BackUp. You have created an on-demand backup.
Set up regular scheduled backups. Go to the Sheduler tab, enable automatic creation of backups, select the frequency of creating archives.
On the Destination tab, enable automatic saving of the archive to Google Drive or sending by email.
To protect your site from unauthorized access, use the Loginizer Security plugin. The add-on reliably protects the site from brute-force or brute-forcing hacking.
How to fight spam on a WordPress site
Anti-spam plugins are relevant if you use the default WordPress commenting system. Third-party commenting systems, such as Disqus, protect themselves from spam.
You can protect yourself from spam using plugins, for example, Akismet or Antispam Bee. After installing Antispam Bee, the plugin runs in the background. Usually the default settings are suitable, but if you need to change something, go to the admin menu “Settings – Antispam Bee”.
How to ensure website SEO on WordPress
WordPress is an SEO-friendly CMS by default. But there are tasks without which a site cannot be considered fully compliant with the requirements of search engines. Here they are:
- Creating and updating a site map.
- URL canonicalization.
- Optimization of title pages.
- Automatic generation of page metadata.
- Blocking indexing of duplicate content.
- Creating micro-page markup.
To solve these problems, you will install one SEO plugin from three groups: programs for creating a sitemap, programs for technical optimization of a resource, and programs for creating micro markup. To create a sitemap, use one of the following plugins:
- Google XML Sitemaps.
- Simple WP Sitemap.
- Google Sitemap.
Google XML Sitemap. To configure the plugin, go to the “Settings – XML-Sitemap” menu.
Beginner webmasters should leave the default settings. After activation, the plugin created a sitemap, added its address to the robots.txt file, and prepared to notify search engines about resource updates.
If you consider yourself an experienced webmaster, you can change the plugin settings. In the Additional Pages section, you can manually include URLs in your sitemap that were not automatically included in your sitemap. In the Article Priority section, determine how content indexing priority is calculated. In the “Change Frequencies” and “Priorities” sections, you can recommend to search robots the types of content that you think are the highest priority.
To technically optimize your resource, use one of the following plugins:
- All in One SEO Pack.
- WordPress SEO by Yoast.
- Platinum SEO Pack.
Install and activate your chosen plugin, for example, All in One SEO Pack. Use the default settings if you are just getting started with WordPress. If you consider yourself an advanced webmaster, you can change some settings of the SEO module. To do this, select the All in One SEO menu in the engine console.
Please note the settings listed below.
In the “Basic Settings” section, uncheck the box next to Use Schema.org Markup. It is better to mark up the page using a separate plugin.
If you use the posts page as the main page, in the “Home Page Settings” section, specify the title, description and keywords. If a static page is used as the main page, check the “Enable” box.
In the “Settings for webmaster” section, enter the resource verification code in the Google webmaster account. To do this, add a new resource to “Webmaster Tools” and select alternative verification methods. Copy the portion of the HTML code shown in the illustration.
Paste it into the “Google Webmaster Tools” field on the plugin setup page.
Save the plugin settings. In the webmasters account, click the “Confirm” button.
To mark up pages, use one of the following plugins:
A combination of WPSSO and WPSSO JSON The first plugin is basic, and the second is an extension. Using the basic solution, you can add Open Graph markup to your site. The second implements Schema.org markup using JSON-LD. WP SEO Structured Data Schema With this plugin, you can add several types of Schema.org markup to your site, including Article, BlogPosting, and Review. The markup is implemented using JSON-LD. Schema App Plugin Using this program, you can add different types of Schema.org markup to your site. It is implemented via JSON-LD. The free version supports basic markup types. You can also implement the markup using the online generator Schema.org JSON-LD Generator.
Install and activate the WPSSO and WPSSO JSON plugins. In the console, on the plugin settings page, in the Essential Settings section, specify information about the site, as well as information for the Open Graph markup. Do not change other settings.
Go to the Schema Markup section. In the Organization Logo Image URL and Organization Banner URL fields, specify the URL of the site logo and banner. These images can be used on the search results page.
Use the drop-down menu to select the base layout type for your blog post page, Static Home Page. You need the following types: Blog and Website respectively.
Select the layout type for publication pages, static pages, and media pages. Article and BlogPosting markup types are suitable for post pages. The choice depends on the format of blog posts.
The BlogPosting markup type is a derivative of Article. In addition to BlogPosting, the Article section includes the News Article or “News” markup type. That is, BlogPosting contains all the semantic data of the Article markup.
Use the BlogPosting type if you publish short notes, personal observations and impressions. Use the Article type if you publish reviews, analytical articles, or guides. Here’s an example: for publications on the Texterra blog, the Article markup type is suitable, and for Ekaterina Bezymyannaya’s diary in LiveJournal, the BlogPosting type is suitable. For static and media pages, set the markup type to WebPage.
After saving the settings, the plugin will automatically add the selected type of markup to the site pages. Including semantic data will appear on existing pages. You can verify this using Google's structured data inspection tool.
What to do if you publish different types of materials: longreads, short notes and news? In this case, it is better to choose the appropriate markup for each publication. Instead of the WPSSO JSON add-on, use the WP SEO Structured Data Schema plugin.
After installing and activating the plugin, an additional section will appear on the post editing page. With it, you can select the type of markup and specify structured data.
The disadvantage of the plugin is the need to mark each publication manually. And the benefits include support for additional markup types, for example, Review, Product and Aggregate Ratings. The free version of WPSSO JSON does not support these types.
How to improve the functionality and usability of a resource
You can and should constantly improve functionality and usability. As noted above, some WordPress site owners are so passionate about this process that they install dozens or even hundreds of plugins. To avoid this mistake, start increasing functionality and improving usability not with plugins, but with identifying the problems and tasks you want to solve.