As the most popular CMS in the digital landscape the WordPress
has become the preferred platform for the malicious elements. Using advanced
technology and technologies they search for the vulnerabilities and security
gaps to hack a website to achieve their vested interests. Beginners and
nontechnical users are their prime targets due to obvious reasons. However, web
developers can play an important role here by helping such people to stay safe
from the attacks. Several beginners and nontechnical clients need to hire
WordPress developers for improving the site’s appearance, add additional
functionality or seek other technical help. The developers can utilize the
opportunity to improve site security in the following ways
Replace default naming structure in database table
The standard naming
structure pattern used by WordPress for the creation of backend database tables
is quite popular in the public. Many web developers don’t care to change the
default naming structure of database tables. That’s why the Site Database is
the most preferred “soft target” for any attacker.
As a web developer, the first thing to do is to replace the
default names of database tables with some tricky names that are tough to be
cracked easily. This quick, easy yet effective process quickly improves the
security of your WP site.
Update PHP versions
Using outdated PHP
versions for your site/plugins is another major vulnerability that invites
attackers to invade your site. It is a surprising fact that nearly 6 out of
every 10 WordPress sites use older versions of PHP that don’t get any security
updates and thus expose your site to various cyber threats.
As a developer if you are working on any existing WordPress site
then the first and foremost thing is to check and upgrade its PHP right away.
Remove unwanted and suspicious plugins
Plugins add loads of
functionality to your WordPress site and if you are a developer then you have
the privilege to makeover it more efficiently than the nontechnical user to
achieve your functional objectives.
Tell your clients to avoid installing the plugins just because
they are free or you wish to do more with your site.
Each plug-in you install adds another one more gateway to your
site that can be exploited by malicious hackers and attackers to break into
your site and create all sorts of chaos. A large number of sites are exploited
due to vulnerable or outdated plugins.
Also, many users don’t care to uninstall the plugins that were
installed for temporary or time-specific objectives. It is also not uncommon to
find multiple plugins that serve the same purpose in different ways. By
resolving these issues you can get rid of unhealthy plug-in traffic
Recommend reputed third party security tools
After getting their sites professionally developed by the
developers the site owners can independently maintain, manage and secure it
with the help of various third-party tools and add-ons. However, the
nontechnical site owners may fail to invest required efforts or attention while
buying and installing such third-party tools.
Easy availability of numerous tools with no obligation free
versions makes the choice even more difficult for the nontechnical site owners.
As a developer you can recommend them to use specific reputed
and trusted tools and also warn them about the risks of picking just any
third-party tool or service without thorough investigation.
Conclusion
WordPress is the most widely used CMS across the globe and
several malicious elements use it to hack the websites, and misuse them to
achieve their malicious targets- right from asking the admin for huge amounts
to unfreeze the website or stealing and misusing the sensitive customer data
like payment card details, social security number, etc. In this blog, we have
mentioned various ways in which WordPress developers can help in improving the
security of their clients’ sites.
As the leading CMS across the globe, the WordPress enjoys extreme popularity among the bloggers and businesses alike. Moreover, it offers several user-friendly features to help users create awesome websites without any external help and without juggling with various technical complications. With the help of ready to use themes the things become lot easier. However, due to the numerous themes available in the market, it might be difficult to find the one that perfectly meets your objective and offer user-friendly features. So we have prepared this list of some o the best WP themes for 2020 with unique features, awesome looks, and high security.
EduExpert Pro EduExpert Pro comes loaded with strong, purpose-specific features to build an impressive and user-friendly educational website. This thoughtfully designed theme offers you the perfect combination of visual elegance and utility features. One of the major requirements for any educational website is the ability to add and seamlessly integrate multiple formats like text, typography, media, etc. To take care of such requirements the theme comes with PageLayer page builder. It is a lightweight real-time editor equipped with a complete set of components and quick drag and drops features to facilitate extended customization with minimal efforts.
Two USPs of this theme are advanced customization features and easy interface. With its comprehensive toolset, EduExpert Pro enables you to create premium educational websites that are perfectly tailored to your specific needs. With this theme, you can easily manipulate the layout, color, and logo and blog style to match your needs.
The sticky menu makes it quicker for visitors to navigate through the site. WooCommerce options and one-click demo content add more value to the theme. Its testimonial slider is a multipurpose feature that can be used for different content types (course types, fee structure, packages, etc.) Finally, you also have the option of extra widgets that cater to additional, more personalized requirements.
Salient Features • Team style • Sticky Menu • Header support for Slider • Custom fonts • Custom colors • Custom Style for banner content • Testimonial Slider (You can use for multiple purpose) • Pricing table style • Custom font family • Grid blog slider • WooCommerce options • Banner overlay • Extra theme widgets • Custom footer credits • Extra Customizer Options • One-click Demo content • And much more..
Travely Pro Travely Pro is a strong theme that comes with powerful customization features, sophisticated looks, excellent utility value, and a beautiful interface. Honed to the best UI and UX standards this theme is equally useful for high-end travel houses as well as freelance travel service providers. It has a rich assortment of tools that add to the authority, utility, and elegance of any travel website like blog slider, testimonial slider, and team/pricing table.
The extended customization options allow you to reaffirm the brand value of your travel website by modifying color, controlling the layout, updating logo or blog style, etc.
This WooCommerce compatible theme comes with video in header and grid blog slider that allows you to make your travel website even more appealing. The availability of extra widgets empowers you to enjoy additional features for a more personalized appeal.
Salient Features • Custom Testimonial slider • Custom colors and fonts • Custom Team widget • Gradient Banner Background • Video in header • Header support for Slider • WooCommerce compatible • Header contact • Sticky Menu • Grid blog slider • Extra Customizer Options • One click Demo content • Pricing Table • Custom colors • Blog style • Customize button • And Much More..
Ultra This aptly named theme assures and ultra-friendly user experience with its flexible features, easy interface, and pleasing looks. It also comes with simple yet efficient building tools enabling you to build your website independently with easy drag and drop steps.
One of the best things about this theme is that the demo setup can quickly be imported with just one click. It contains the instant launch pad that contains all the key elements to build your site like menus, multiple theme settings, widgets, content, and various other infrastructure elements.
Salient Features • 6 header background options • 6 archive layouts • 15 header/page styles • 5 single post layouts • Section scrolling • 6 footer layouts • 60 complete pre-designed layouts (Library) • Parallax landing pages • Themes designed by expert designers
OceanWP Available with extensive customization and integration options the OceanWP is easy to use a theme that allows you to create awesome websites with the least efforts.
It supports most of the popular page builders and can seamlessly be integrated with Woocommerce that further elevate the utility value of this theme. Salient Features • Header layouts with customization options • Specific products section for featured products • Massive list of color options • Purpose-specific Custom widgets • Image sliders
StudioPress If you are looking for the themes with deluxe appeal and perfect looks then Studio Press is the precise choice for you. Along with the visual elegance, it also allows you to create a website with fewer efforts and more efficiency.
t is worth mentioning that Studio Press uses the Genesis framework as its base which means it can efficiently work with Gutenberg the latest WordPress editor with advanced features.
Impressed by the powerful features and high utility value of Studio Press Themes the WP Engine – a prominent WordPress Hosting company, acquired Studio Press. There are 3 ways to purchase the themes. For a single website, you can buy 1 theme but if you have multiple requirements then you can buy the entire set of themes at a single reasonable price tag. If you are looking for themes as well as hosting package then it would be best to buy a hosting plan from WP Engine and get all the premium themes without any additional cost.
Avada Avada enjoys high popularity among WordPress enthusiasts and considers alike due to its adaptability, utility value, and impressive visual looks. It is the best solution for reducing time to market without compromising on the quality or looks. Its website builder comes with drag and drop features and allows maximum customization without struggling through technical complications. The builder functions uniformly with various premium WP templates.
Salient features • Massive collection of over 255 web page designs • 41+ ready to use full-fledged websites with professional features • Friendly demo installer to quickly insert content
Soledad Especially suited of online magazines the Soledad is another prominent theme which offers awesome layouts for the magazines and also offers you numerous sliders to leverage the visual aspect of your magazine while offering an easy reading experience.
Salient features • Supported by AMP to attract and engage the mobile users • Single post templates to aptly highlight the unique posts
Hestia Hestia is a wisely built WordPress theme that can be used for a variety of websites and formats like blogs, businesses, eCommerce or e-magazines. Along with supporting almost al the popular page builders Hestia also offers seamless integration with Woocommerce thus allowing you to build a beautifully designed fully functional digital store.
Salient features • SEO friendly theme • Seamlessly functions with the Live WordPress theme customize • may Free version available with decent capabilities
Bonus…. While all the above themes look great, you may like to further extend your creative control to fully exercise your creative intent without any restrictions like using different layout formats for different pages or giving a different look to each section to offer a vivid character to your site. In that case, you don’t just need a theme but a powerful page building tool. So, here is the best tool for you……
PageLayer
PageLayer is a lightweight page builder plug-in with high competence and versatile features. It is seamlessly compatible with all the WordPress themes. The easy interface, intuitive processes and sophisticated tools make it a go-to page builder plug-in for the beginner as well as advanced users. Thanks to its drag and drop editor you can easily build an in awesome website with simple drag and drop steps.
Three USPs of PageLayer are: An impressive range of widgets to help you fine-tune nearly every element of your website design the way you want
Powerful animation features to create interactive websites for a better user experience
Excellent support through multiple mediums like forums, documentation and support tickets that are treated with immediate attention
Conclusion To attract the visitors you would need to build professional sites with excellent visual appeal and friendly interface. The easiest way too that is to buy a good WP theme. In this guide, we have presented a well-researched list of some of the best WP themes fro various purposes. The readers are advised to carefully go through the theme and match it with their business and intent to ensure its relevance. It is also important to go through the portfolio of the vendor and visit some of the sites made on those themes to see how exactly they look and work in real life.
We take great pride in announcing that wpCentral has reached 60,000+ Active WordPress installs on 20th February, 2020. We are working hard to make wpCentral the best and simple WordPress Website Management tool.
It is a great achievement which we would like to share with our users. We would like to thank our users for all their help and support.
We have faced recent security issues and we patched them immediately. The security issues have been fixed as soon as we were notified.
About wpCentral
wpCentral is a single-dashboard panel where users can manage all their WordPress Websites. By managing we mean:
Users can login to their website’s admin dashboard on just one click without the need to remember the admin credentials of each website.
Users can manage the plugins and themes (activate, deactivate, delete, install, update, etc) on just single click.
Users can manage their posts easily. Users can even Publish a post present on one website to another website on just single click.
Users can secure their websites by creating Backups.
Users can create remote backups on servers using FTP/FTPS, SFTP, on dropbox, google drive, etc
Users can also automate their backups by setting a particular schedule.
Users can also make a new WordPress install on their existing/new website using wpCentral on a single click.
Users can also create sets of their favourite plugins and themes which they can install on any website on just one click.
We are working hard in making wpCentral a single stop solution to all the management issues faced by users while managing their WordPress websites.
We welcome our user’s suggestions at support@wpcentral.co. Also, our support team is highly active in resolving any issues faced, again at support@wpcentral.co.
Starting a new WordPress site seems quite easy for beginners with some basic IT knowledge. Managing it isn’t a problem either. However, when you add more sites and start concentrating on the economical aspect of your blog or site you can easily be confounded by the sheer amount of work it requires. You have to juggle between the various routine management tasks and business development. The priorities get overrun and before you know it starts taking a toll on your business interests. Thankfully, you don’t have to wait for such an extreme case as there is a precise solution available. We are talking about wpCentral.
wpCentral- A reliable partner for managing all your sites
wpCentral is a powerful multi-purpose plug-in for managing all your sites in one place. It merges all your WP dashboards into a single dashboard thus enabling you to manage multiple sites within one screen. It solves your no.1 problem- switching among different WP dashboards. Secondly, it not only allows you to perform all your management tasks but even simplifies and shortens the processes as well. That’s a double gain- saving time on multiple site login/logouts and managing tedious tasks like backups, security management, updates, and present stats with just a few clicks. Let’s explore its features and benefits:
Stress-free updates
The exhausting task of logging to each of your WP admin panels
and updating it separately is replaced with a 2-step process of selecting the
desired sites from wpCentral panel and click on update.
Simply put, you don’t have to log in separately to different wp-admin panels for updating a theme or plug-in. Simply open wpCentral panel, select the websites that to be updated and update them all with a single click! You are all done!
Taking complication out
of backups process
Taking a backup of different sites is a cumbersome task. Even the conventional backup plugins solve just a tip of the problem as you still need to go through multiple logins and repetitive processes. Did we mention that such plugins consume far more space and resources than the benefits they provide? Relieve your sites by deleting all these bulky plugins as wpCentral not only backs up all your sites (more efficiently) but also offers you an intuitive single-click process to backup multiple sites from a single dashboard!
But its benefits even go beyond just providing you an easy way
to automatically backup multiple sites. You can even schedule your backups on a
daily or monthly basis that rids you from remembering periodical backups. Moreover,
you also have the option to select the storage location- server, Dropbox or
Google Documents! Just instruct wpCentral regarding the specific sites, backup
frequency, and storage location.
This is a one time process and there’s no need to do anything
else. wpCentral will loyally keep on taking the periodical backups and saving
copies to the selected location. You just need this single time process to save
the latest content for each site and bounce back fairly quickly even if
multiple sites get hacked or crashed!
How can wpCentral help WordPress professionals?
As a WordPress developer you possibly have at least a few
clients who want you to maintain their sites regularly. However, the increasing
competition has reduced the prices and the new challenge is to reduce the price
while maintaining the same level of services. Can it ever be possible?
wpCentral can help you a great deal here.
With wpCentral you can merge all your clients’ admin panels into
a single dashboard which saves time and efforts on repetitive login/logout.
·
The plug-in also allows you to automate and
schedule the backups while also instructing the storage location- you again
save a huge chunk of efforts and time by delegating this task to wpCentral.
·
Number three, You can also update the plugins
and themes of multiple sites with a single click
·
Add to this the other titbits of managerial
tasks that you can delegate to wpCentral and you would be amazed that you just
need a fraction of time and effort (and nil stress) to maintain dozens of the
sites.
In simple words, you charge for time and efforts and your overall income depend upon the number of projects and clients. With a unified dashboard, single-click process and scheduled automated procedures wpCentral helps you to reduce your time/efforts.
Pro Tip: Why not utilize your free time to search for new projects and further multiply your income?
Detailed documentation and complete support
One of the major complaints of many WordPress site owners is the lack of active support from themes or plugins. Many plugins seem to have some powerful features but sheer complication or lack of support discourages the site owners from the advantage. wpCentral a robust support ecosystem consisting of an active team as well as a well-documented help section where you can find a precise solution to each of your “How to” question or troubleshooting issue. All you have to do is to go through this section and most possibly you will find an exact answer to every query. In rare cases, you need more clarification then you can directly mail them on this address and in 24-48 hours you will get a detailed answer.
Here are some other benefits of wpCentral:
· Single management screen for all your sites
·
1-click admin access
· Backup multiple sites with single click process
· Autoschedule your backup process
·
Manage, modify or delete multiples themes/plugins
· 1-click process update themes, plugins or core of every WP site
How to install wpCentral?
· In the left pane of your WP dashboard click Plugins Add New
·
On the Plugins page search for wpCentral and
install and activate the plugins??
· Click on Plugins > Installed Plugins that will redirect you to the page displaying the list of installed plugins
· Under wpCentral click on View Connection keys
· It will open a link showing you the connection keys. Copy them
·
Open a new tab and visit panel.wpcentral.com
Sign up for a new account or click here
·
Note: Softaculous clients can directly login
with their Softaculous login credentials
·
Click on “Add New Website”
·
In Connection type, you would see 2 ways for
connecting a site- connection keys and your WP admin credentials. You can use
either option as per your convenience
·
Enter your required information as per the
option you selected (Connection keys/wp-admin details) and click save website
· Repeat the same steps for adding more sites
How to use wpCentral for monitoring and managing multiple sites?
· The welcome screen will show you a quick overview of vital site status like:
· The welcome screen will show you a quick overview of vital site status like:
Websites: See the key stats of all your sites in a quick format
· Updates: Check if any of your site(s) needs updates and initiate the update process right from there
· Backups: To monitor and create a backup for all your websites
How to manage themes and plugins with wpCentral?
Click on the Website List in the left pane and select specific website URL
It will open a page where you can manage update and backup. You would also see two more options:
You would also see two more options:
· Plugins: List of installed and active plugins with version details
· Themes: List of installed and active plugins with version details
·
Clicking on any specific theme/plugins will take
you to the detailed page
·
This is the master control page for monitoring
and managing all your themes or plugins across multiple sites
· Here you can view vital stats and perform various theme/plug-in related actions across all the selected websites like adding new plugins/themes, Activating or deleting themes, and all other major controls related to themes or plugins
Conclusion
wpCentral is a powerful plug-in with
multipurpose capabilities to manage multiple WordPress admin panels from a
single, unified dashboard. It is a great asset for the owners of multiple
sites/blogs, freelance WordPress developers and even the agencies. It actively
helps in streamlining the process, update plugins/themes. By unifying
dashboards and automating multiple tasks, wpCentral actively reduces the
management tasks and allows site owners to focus better on business growth and
increase their income potential.
WordPress is all set to roll out its newest version – WrdPress 5.4- on 31st March 2020.
The new version would come to some key improvements n terms of both performance and security. The beta version is already out.
WordPress 5.4 FeaturesList– A Quick Overvew
Here’s the quick list of new features in WordPress 5.4
Welcome popup guide
Social
Icons Block
Buttons
Block
Advanced Block Editor
Adding Caption Below a Table Block
Featured Images in recent posts Block
Wider
Colour array and options for Blocks
Easy
way to upload featured image with drag and drop
Editing text color inside paragraph block
Floating
Block Toolbar in Mobile Version
Quick
Setting of Image size in a Gallery
Intuitive
select tool for quick block selection
Embed
Block for TikTok Video Embedding
New
Calendar widget’s HTML output
do_shortcode
() function replaced with appl_shortcodes() function
Unused
customizer classes will be formally deprecated
Enhanced
Button component
Major improvements in WordPress 5.4
Block editing and development are two key areas that have been significantly improved for better user experience in terms of functionality and interface. There are some key improvements on development front as well.
One thing worth mentioning is that the WordPress may still edit,
change or remove the new features (discussed here) in the final version.
However, no extra or additional feature will be added now as the version is in
a feature freeze state.
The Block editor of the new version would be equipped with more
advanced features enabling the users to exercise better control over
presentation style.
Welcome popup guide
A user-friendly easy popup slide show will quickly take the new
users through a simple welcome tutorial explaining new block features. For
further assistance, it will also lead them to the comprehensive tutorial link.
If you want to return to the welcome guide then just click the three-dot menu in the top pane of the editing screen.
New Blocks
WordPress 5.4 will ship with 2 new blocks dedicated to social media and better button formatting
Social Icons Block
Social Icons block offers you an easy functionality to quickly insert your social media profile links directly into the WP posts/ pages and offer them a more personalized touch.
Next, you can click the add button to insert the desired social media icon. By clicking on the inserted icon, you can also link it to your desired social media page.
Buttons Block
The button block has also got some extended features making it
possible for you to add multiple buttons side by side.
You can either choose the gradient background colo
rs for your button or add your colors and text to give it a fully personalized appeal.
Advanced Block Editor
There would be a noticeable array of improvements to the
WordPress block editor in the new version. The individual blocks will also be
enhanced with similar feature improvements providing an overall better and more
friendly ecosystem for the content creators.
Adding Caption Below a Table Block
WordPress 5.4 will allow you to add a caption below a table block
Featured Images in latest posts block
The latest posts block of WordPress 5.4 will allow you to display related featured images for every post
Wider Colour array and options for Blocks
The new version will offer a wider palette of colors for
specific blocks like group, cover and column block.
It also allows you to select uniform font/background
colors for all the blocks of a specific group block.
It will streamline the content presentation process and save
lots of time and effort.
You can also pick the desired font/background colors for the
specific column block.
Easy way to upload featured image with drag and drop
The new version will also make it easier to set the featured
image. All you have to do is to easily drag the desired image to the featured
image section and drop it there. This drag and drop feature will save you from
the long process of manually uploading an image conventionally.
Editing text color inside paragraph block
One of the limitations with the paragraph blocks in the current
version is that the selected text color gets applied to the entire paragraph
block by default. There is no option to change the text color of individual
words or lines in the same paragraph block.
The upcoming version will allow you to change the text color of
individual words/lines in the same paragraph block. For instance, you can
highlight the specific words/lines in the same paragraph block by individually
changing their text color. You just need to select the desired text and change
its text color.
Floating Block Toolbar in Mobile Version
The new versions will also make it easier to compose/edit your
blogs in a mobile device. In the current version, the block toolbar keeps on
moving across the blocks when you type. It creates a kind of visual disturbance
and interferes with the smooth typing process.
In the upcoming version there would be a floating toolbar fixed
at the top of the screen instead of moving across the blocks. The toolbar will
automatically change based on the type of block you work on.
Quick Setting of Image size in a Gallery
The new versions will enable the users to pick and apply the
uniform size to all the images of the gallery.
Intuitive select tool for quick block selection
WordPress 5.4 will provide you an easy to use select tool for
quickly select the desired block that needs to be modified. It will make it
easier to modify the columns, group blocks or other types of nested blocks.
Embed Block for TikTok Video Embedding
The new version will offer you an embed block for the purpose of
adding TikTok videos in the desired blog posts or pages.
Developer oriented
changes
There would be multiple changes on development part as well:
·
The Calendar widget’s HTML output will be
changed for creating a valid HTML. To be precise the navigation links will be
moved to a <nav> HTMLelement just after the <table> element.
·
The do_shortcode () function wile b replaced
with apply_shortcodes () function>>
