WordPress Spam Protection

In this tutorial we will show you how to protect your WordPress blog from spam.


There are several solutions which can be completed:


1. Make sure that your WordPress script is updated to the latest stable version. Detailed instructions regarding the WordPress update can be found on the corresponding tutorial page.


2. Install a captcha plugin. A good choice is the WordPress ReCaptcha plugin. Comprehensive instruction on how to install a WordPress plugin can be found here. Once activated, the plugin will prompt for the public and the private API keys. The visualized link will take you to the corresponding Google web site where you can get the API keys for free. Paste them in the corresponding fields and activate your ReCaptcha plugin for comments and users registrations.


3. WordPress comes with a preinstalled antispam solution - Akismet.


In order to use Akismet, you should have a WordPress API key. To receive a WordPress API key, you should register at the official WordPress website. The key will be included in your welcome mail.


If you already have a registration at WordPress.org, you can see your API key by visiting the WP dashboard.


To enable Akismet for your blog, follow the steps below:


Step 1. Go to your WordPress admin area > Plugins > Installed.


Step 2. Click Activate.

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  The Akismet plugin will be activated.
  
  
  
  
  
  Step 3. Click "enter your WordPress.com API key" (you can also click Akismet Configuration in thePlugins section)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Step 4. Enter your WordPress API key.
  Step 5. Click Update options>>.
  Step 6. If you have entered a correct API key, it will be verified.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  From now on your blog will be protected from spam by Akismet. You will be able to check the comments in your blog for spam, as well as manually mark comments as spam from the blog admin area > Comments.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

WordPress Manual Installation

If you do not have the Fantastico auto installer on your account or just choose not to use it, you have the option to install WordPress manually. Please, follow the step-by-step guide below in order to activate Wordpress on your hosting account:

How to install Wordpress manually

 Step 1: Download the installation archive from the WordPress download section by clicking on "Download.zip" or "Download.tar.gz". This way you will get the latest stable release of the WordPress application.

 Step 2: Upload it to the public_html folder of your hosting account. You can do that via FTP with a client like Filezilla or via cPanel -> File Manager -> Upload file(s). This way, after the installation is completed, the WordPress blog will appear once you visit your website.

Another option is to create a subfolder in your hosting account and upload the archive in it. The WordPress installation will be accessible at:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/subfolder

 Step 3: When you are in cPanel -> File Manager, navigate to the uploaded file and extract it by clicking on "Extract". The other option is to extract the file on your computer and then to upload the content in the desired folder via FTP.

 Step 4: Once the files are extracted in the desired folder, you should create a MySQL database for WordPress. You can do that from cPanel -> MySQL Databases. Detailed instructions how to do so can be found in our MySQL tutorial.

 Step 5: Rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and edit it. Fill in your database connection details in the following lines:

define('DB_NAME', ''); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', ''); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', ''); // ...and password

Please note that you should type the full name of the database and the MySQL user. Let's assume that your cPanel username is "mynewsit" and your domain name is mynewsite.com. If the name of your database is "wpress", the user is "wpuser" and the password for the MySQL user is "0la;mip" you should update the lines in the wp-config.php file to:

define('DB_NAME', 'mynewsit_wpress');
define('DB_USER', 'mynewsit_wpuser');
define('DB_PASSWORD', '0la;mip'); 

 Step 6: Open in your browser:

www.yourdomainname.com/where_wordpress_is_extracted/wp-admin/install.php

This should set up the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again.

 Step 7: The installation procedure is finished. You can save the administrative username and the password. You will need them to access the WordPress installation admin backend in the future.

WordPress Plugins News SEO

The free News SEO module for the WordPress SEO plugin creates XML News Sitemaps for your WordPress blog, including images. It’s based on the latest standards for XML News sitemaps and should allow your WordPress site to show up in Google News.


Because of the XSLT stylesheet that comes along with it, the news sitemap is formatted easily for the eyes:

3 WordPress Plugins To Speed Up Your Blog

WordPress is one of the most popular blog content management systems (CMS) available today. This free and open source web publishing tool currently serves more than 60 million websites and blogs all around the world. What started in 2003 has now been rated as one of the top players in the world of online content management, and that is largely because of the valuable features this tool comes with.


The ever evolving WordPress is user and SEO friendly, it comes with options such as the ability to install themes that let users change the look of their websites, and there are literally thousands of high quality themes and widgets to choose from to help users personalize. WordPress also allows for easy import and export and has mobile apps for on the go management. But perhaps one of the most popular features that this tool has to offer is plugins.


The WordPress plugins directory houses thousands of different add-ons that make it possible to improve the abilities and quality of a WordPress blog. There are plugins for every objective, including plugins to help improve SEO optimization, to track post popularity, plugins for smoother import/export and the most popular type; plugins aimed to speed up your blog and for improved performance. Below are three awesome plugins that do just that.



W3 Total Cache is the impressive WordPress plugin which has received 4 ½ out of 5 stars. It promises and delivers up to 10 times overall site performance. Pages load faster, downtime is reduced and quality is drastically improved. This is one must have plugin for your WordPress blog to improve its speed and overall performance.



WP Smush.it is a behind the scenes image optimization plugin. With this add on, users can convert GIFs to indexed PNGs, enhance JPEG compression and it shrinks the images so load time is faster and more accurate. This highly rated plugin has received 4 ½ out of 5 stars.



Instant Highlighter is a really awesome social media share plugin for WordPress. With this plugin, visitors can highlight your content and quickly share it on over 100 social sharing sites including Facebook and Twitter.



WordPress is a flexible, powerful and scalable blog publishing system ripe for use by any webmaster, SEO or small business owner. You just need to know how best to use and manipulate the system so that it works for you and your intentions. A speedy, good looking and smart layout is what you want for your blog and what Google likes as well. Keep this in mind.