WordPress Theme Basics Explained

After you have installed WordPress you are going to need a WordPress theme to give your new blog or website it’s look and functionality. There are various places to get a WordPress theme from. You can select one from the WordPress Theme Directory, a WordPress theme site or have one custom created for your blog/site.

WordPress was originally created as a blogging software package but over time it has also been used as a content management system for a regular website. Even though we use the word blog below, the information is still applicable if you have decided to use WordPress as the content management system for your site.

What are WordPress Themes?

A WordPress theme is a collection of files that determine the look and features of your blog or website.

When you install WordPress there is a default theme included with your WordPress installation under the themes directory in the wp-content folder on your web server.

The WordPress programming decides which file(s) to use based on what is it going to present to the visitor. Some basic WordPress jargin:

A post is an article you wrote within your blog or site.

A page is a static page within your blog or site.

A category is the filing system you use to sort the posts within the site so like articles are grouped together. When the user clicks one of the category names in your navigation the page they see is a list of all the articles filed under that category.

A sidebar is the navigation column and the third column of your WordPress theme (if you use a 3 column design).

WordPress Theme Files

Your Worpress theme is broken up into pieces in the theme folder which are assembled by the programming included in WordPress.

Below is a list of the basic theme files used by WordPress themes. Your chosen theme may have more files than the following, it depends on how the WordPress theme developer/designer built your theme. Some of these files are parts of the visual look of the posts and pages on your blog. Others are templates for specific types of pages on the blog.

  • 404.php

    A 404 page is an error page presented when someone follows a broken link to your blog or types the url (web address) to a post or page on your blog incorrectly. The 404.php template is used when a page or post is not found on your blog.

    It is advisable that you take some time to customize your 404 page to make it useful to the visitor so they can find their way around the site instead of just leaving.

  • archive.php

    The archive.php template is used for your blog archives. It lists all the posts (articles) you have in chronological order based on month, day or year. You may have noticed some blogs have yearly archive pages listed in their sidebar.

  • author.php

    On a blog where you have multiple authors writing articles you may decide to show an about page for each author. The author.php template is used for this purpose.

  • category.php

    Categories are for organizing your articles into logical groups to make it easier for visitors to get to a specific topic they wish to read about. The category.php template is used to present the list of articles in a specific category.

  • comments.php

    The comments.php is part of your post page. It inserts the boxes for people to fill in when they wish to leave a comment on your article.

  • footer.php

    At the bottom of each page and post of your blog is a footer. The footer.php file is what inserts this information.

    The footer.php file usually contains the closing tags for the container that is around your theme design (called wrapper usually) and the closing tags for the body and html tags required for the coding of any web page.

  • functions.php

    There is some default programming that comes with your WordPress theme in the functions.php file. These are special programming instructions that make your theme work.

  • header.php

    In the header.php you will find the top coding for each page and post of your blog. It is inserted into each page and post on your blog through programming.

    Some basic things included in your header.php file are:

    • The DOCTYPE declaration for the pages/posts. This tells the browser what coding standard the theme is following.
    • The character set used by the blog is fetched from the administration side of your blog and inserted via programming into the head section of your pages.
    • The title set of tags for each page/post on the site are inserted based on the title you give your post/page when you create it via programming as the page is compiled before presenting to the visitor.
    • You will find the path to your CSS (Cascading Stylesheet) file is also created dynamically in the header.php.

    The above items plus some other lines of coding are inserted between the opening and closing head tags. ( <head> </head> ) Information between these tags are not visable to the visitor but is used by the browser and search engines to get information about your pages.

    Also in the header.php you will find the beginning of the coding that actually creates the visual part of your pages and posts.

    • The opening tag for the body of the pages/posts. (<body>)
    • The opening tag for the container which holds the contents of the pages/posts. Usually called wrapper. e.g. <div id="wrapper">
    • The head section of the pages/posts. This container could include the coding for your top horizontal menu if you have one.
      <div id="header">

      <coding to insert your logo and other things you have across the top of your pages>
      <coding to create your top horizontal navigation (if you have one)>

      </div>
    • Opening tag for the container that wraps around the actual content of the individual pages/posts. e.g. <div id="main">

    All these id names will become important to you later if you want to customize the CSS file for the theme to suit your own personal taste.

  • index.php

    The index.php file is the default template used when there is not a specific template available for a certain page or post type in the theme. It is also used for the home page of your blog unless a specific home page template has been created.

  • page.php

    The page.php template is used for pages you create. Pages are different from posts (articles). They are not sorted into categories like posts. Pages are usually used for your About Me, Contact Us and other static pages on the blog.

  • search.php

    On a page where there is a search function, the search.php is inserted into the page/post coding.

    A search form is usually located in the top of the pages/posts or in the sidebar (side navigation column). It can be inserted into your search results page and your 404 page.

  • sidebar.php

    A sidebar is the side navigation/column of your theme in WordPress. You can have one located either left or right of the main content of the page/post or down each side of it.

    When there is a sidebar down each side of the main content look for two different sidebar files. One would be for the left side and the other would be the right side.

    For a WordPress theme with one side column the sidebar.php contents are manipulated to be on the left or right of the main content using the CSS file.

  • single.php

    Your posts/articles are presented using the single.php file. A basic single.php template fetches the header.php, sidebar.php, comments.php and footer.php along with the main contents of the article to create the page.

  • style.css

    All the presentation styling of your blog’s theme should be in this file for easy maintenance.

    The id names you found in other files for your theme should be referenced in the style.css file. This is how the browser is told how to format (present) the contents on the pages/posts.

WordPress Theme Hierarchy

WordPress uses a hierarchy system to decide which of the theme files to use when presenting a page or post to your visitors. If a specific template is not found for the page/post it defaults to the index.php template.

  • Home Page

    Looks for a template named home.php first.

  • Post

    As already explained, a post (article) uses the single.php file.

  • Page

    First WordPress looks for a template with the specific page name. If not found it uses the page.php template.

  • Category

    A specific category can have it’s own template. WordPress looks for a template with it’s id (category number) attached to the name.

    In instances where a specific category template is not available, WordPress will use the categpry.php template. If there is no category.php it will use the archive.php file.

  • Serch Results

    When someone uses your search form the results are displayed using the search.php template.

  • 404

    We already explained this one. WordPress uses the 404.php template when a page is not found.

There are other templates that can be used within your WordPress theme also. The above are the basic ones and how WordPress decides which one to use. As already mentioned, if WordPress cannot find a specific template for the page/post it wants to display it will use the index.php template.

WordPress Theme Basics

Within your theme there may be more files than what we have covered here. This was just a rundown on the basics a WordPress theme would have and how the basic theme files and templates are used.

When you decide on a theme for your WordPress site have a look at what files are contained in the theme folder. The easiest way to get a better picture of what is included in your theme is to download it to your computer from the source or from your WordPress installation on the web server via a FTP client/software.

Familiarize yourself with the WordPress theme your blog/site will be using. Particularly the style.css file for any typical styles used over and over again. e.g. a style to center some content. Using the provided styles instead of using the WordPress HTML editor as a word processor will save yourself some work and maintenance time. Using or creating custom styles in the stylesheet provided provides one spot to make site wide changes instead of changing each post/page you have created.

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How to Set Up a Google Analytics Account

Whether you just want some basic information about the visitors to your site or are a data fiend Google Analytics can give you a variety of data about your visitors. You might also consider Google Analytics if you do not have a website logs stats program on your web hosting account.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a website statistics service provided by Google. With a basic Google Analytics report sent to you can:

  • Get information about your website visitors
    • Number of visitors in the last week
    • Number of page views
    • Number of pages per visit
    • Your bounce rate
    • Visitor average time on your site
    • Percentage of new visitors
  • See an overview of your traffic sources
    • Direct traffic to your site
    • Percentage of referring sites
    • Search engine traffic (including search engines other than Google)
    • Top keyword phrases
  • A technical profile of your visitors
    • Percentage of Internet Explorer (IE) visitors
    • Percentage of Firefox (FF) users
    • Percentage of Chrome users
    • Percentage of Safari users
    • Percentage of Mobile users
  • Top content viewed
    • Top pages viewed
    • Number of page views for each page
    • Percentage of total page views
    • Increase (or decrease) from last week
  • Countries your visitors come from
    • The country they came from
    • Number of visits from that country
    • Number of pages per visit
    • Average time on your site from that country
    • The percentage of new visitors this country brought this week
    • The bounce rate for that country
    • The changes of each since last week

As you get more familiar with Google Analytics you can adjust the amount of information you wish to track. For more detaied information of each of the above sections you can log into your Google Analytics account.

What Do I Need to Signup for Google Analytics?

There are just a few things you need to be able to signup for Google Analytics:

  1. A Google account

    Note: You should set up your Google Analytics account yourself then give the coding Google gives you for insertion into your pages to your web designer/SEO specialist/web developer for inclusion into your web pages. If you let someone else do it for you they will have access to all the Google services you use including your Gmail, Google Places, Google Plus profile, etc.

  2. A website or blog
  3. Access to the web hosting account where your site is (if you are going to do this yourself)

Set Up a Google Analytics Account

  1. Go to the Google Analytics home page.
  2. On the right there is a button that says Access Analytics, click it.

    You are taken to a page where you need to sign into your Google Account.

  3. Sign into your Google account.

    You are taken to the home page of your Google Analytics account.

  4. Click the +Add new site link.

    If you can’t see it, it is under the Day|Week|Month|Year buttons at the top of the center section of your Google Analytics home page.

    The Sign up page for Google Analytics appears.

  5. Click the Sign Up button in the bottom left of the screen.

    The box has the title: Sign Up for Google Analytics.

    You should be at the Analytics: New Account Signup screen.

  6. Enter your website/blog information:
    • Website URL

      At the beginning of the enter website url line there is a dropdown where you can select http:// or https://. Http:// is for your regular public website or blog. Https:// is for the secure part of your site.

      If you want to keep the stats for your public portion of the site separate from the secure section of the site (for example an ecommerce site) create 2 sets of codes. One for the public side, one for the secure site. Do one set now. Once you have completed the one set, you can add the other set from your Google Analytics home page.

      Note:When promoting your site online you should use the same version of your website url. e.g. www.basiccomputerinformation.ca is different from basiccomputerinformation.ca in the search engine’s eyes. It’s called the non www vs with www versions of your url. Pick one version to promote for best results in other calculations Google (and other search engines) make as to the quality of your site like the number of incoming links from out side sources. Incorrect versions can be corrected with your .htaccess file but that is another post. For now, pick one version, make a note of it and fill in the box with the version you decided to use.

    • Account Name

      Account name is a name for you to recognize which stats you are looking at in your Google Analytics home page and reporsts sent to you. For example, if you are doing this for your ecommerce site you could put Website Name – Front End for the public side and Website Name – Secure for the secure section of your site.

    • Time zone country or territory

      From the dropdown list to the right of this label select the country or territory of the site you are adding.

    • Time zone

      Select your time zone from the dropdown list to the right of this label. Selecting your time zone will help you understand the stats you see that are time related in your reports.

    When you have completed all of the above click the Continue>> button at the bottom left.

    The Contact Information screen appears.

  7. The Contact Information screen is pretty self explanatory, enter your Last name, First name and your country.

    Click the Continue>> button in the bottom left once you are done.

    Accept User Agreement screen appears.

  8. Read through the Google Analytics User Agreement.

    Left click in the box in front of the “Yes, I agree to the above terms and conditions.” line at the bottom of the frame containing the user agreement.

    Once you have read the agreement and clicked the agree box click the Create New Account>> button in the bottom left of the page.

    The Tracking Code screen appears.

  9. Tracking Code

    The tracking code screen has 3 tabs: Standard, Advanced and Custom. We are going to walk through the Standard tab.

    Down the left of the screen there are some options you can select:

    • A single domain is selected by default and your url is displayed below.
    • One domain with multiple subdomains.

      A subdomain is another part of your site. The url of a subdomain appears as subdomainname.yourdomain.com. You may have noticed that sites like Yahoo! use subdomains to organize their site for news (http://news.yahoo.com/), real estate (http://realestate.yahoo.com/), etc.

    • Multiple top level domains

      A top level domain is a domain name like basiccomputerinformation.com, basiccomputerinformation.ca.

    We will continue with the default single domain option.

    On the right is a block of code you are to put into each page you wish to track.

    Copy the code given and paste into a plain text file then save it on your computer for safe keeping. A plain text file is created with Notepad and has the extension .txt at the end. Pasting into Word or similar word processing file could add some unwanted invisible characters that will cause your script to fail.

    The instructions on this page says to paste the coding into the head section of your web pages. The head section is between the <head> and </head> tags of your page coding.

    Note: If there is a problem with the connection to the Google web servers your page will hang up (stall) while it waits for the connection to be made. For this reason I put my coding at the end of the web page coding, just before the closing </body> tag. I might miss some stats if the visitor bounces off the page but my pages rendering quickly is more important to me. How fast your pages load is one of the many things Google looks at when evalutating your site. It is up to you if you choose Google’s instructions or follow my example. Kind of weird they tell you to put this in the head section because elsewhere they tell you to put 3rd party scripts at the end of your coding for better load speed, should the 3rd party script fails.

    Once you have copied and saved your code, click the Save and Finish button in the bottom left of the screen.

    You are taken to the home page for this Google Analytics account.

  10. On the home page for this Google Analytics account there is going to be a caution symbol under the Status column.

    This makes sense because you just made this account, haven’t added the code to your pages and Google hasn’t had a change to collect data yet.

Add Google Analytics Code to Your Site

This is where the text file you made above is used. Open the text file you saved to your computer, copy and paste the coding you were given into the appropriate place.

How you actually add the Google Analytics code to your site will depend on how your site is constructed.

A static (regular) website you can add the code to the web pages you wish to track. Open each page and insert the coding Google Analytics gave you either between the head tags or just before the closing body tag.

If you are using a blogging software like WordPress there are a couple of options:

  • Add the Google Analytics code the head.php file of your theme.
  • Add the Google Analytics code to the footer.php file of your theme.
  • Use a plugin that does this for you. Not crazy about using plugins to do simple stuff like this. Each plugin you add to your WordPress blog adds to the load time of your blog.

For ecommerce sites run using ecommerce software you are going to have to refer to the documentation of the software as to where in your backend you add the code or you can add the coding to the template that runs your site.

Set Up Google Analytics

Setting up a Google Analytics account is not too difficult. You can expand on the basic instructions provided in this tutorial by setting up reports, goals and linking it to your Adwords account.

Google Analytics is a great supplement to your web log reports available on your web hosting account or if you don’t have web log stats available with your hosting account.

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How to Change Web Hosting Companies – Step by Step

Sometimes there comes a time where you have to change web hosting companies due to out growing your web hosting package or bad service. Once you have an established website or blog it is important that you change web hosting service providers seemlessly so the site appears to have no downtime (is not available) during the move.

Once you have researched what your new web hosting account requires and selected the new web hosting provider there is a certain way to conduct the move so the search engine bots and visitors don’t notice.

Selecting a New Web Hosting Company

Some search engine optimization considerations to take into account when changing web hosting companies are:

  • If you are already targeting a specific country for your search results success and decided to use a web hosting in your target country previously then keep this in mind when selecting a new web hosting company.
  • On the other hand, if you want to target a specific country in their country specific search results then finding a web hosting company that has web servers actually in that country would be a plus in your overall search engine optimization plan.

In either case above, make sure the web hosting company’s web servers are in your selected country. Dealing with a local company does not necessarily mean their web servers are actually in that country. A lot of web hosting companies lease space from data centers elsewhere. You need to know the IP address of the server you will be hosted on and make sure it is in the country you want.

Matt Cutts, Google Spam Department, specifically addresses this in his GoogleWebmasterHelp video on Youtube: Can the geographic location of IP address affect SEO?

As Matt Cutts explains in the video referenced, changing web hosting companies within the same country should not have an ill affect on the search engine optimization of your site (as long as the service is not poorer than the company you just left).

Make sure you have a web hosting checklist handy before making a commitment to the new web hosting company. Also check the contract you have with the old web hosting company for any conditions as to how long you have to stay there for the pricing you secured and if you are going to loose your domain name. Loosing your domain name because you cancelled a web hosting account is one of the things you have to consider when looking at the deals offered on the net. This is one reason we recommend keeping everything separate. 3 different companies: your domain registrar, your web hosting and your web desinger (if you hire one). This goes for hosted ecommerce software sites also.

Preparing to Change Web Hosting Companies

Once you have selected your new web hosting company and signed up you need to do a couple of things before changing the DNS (domain name server) information at your domain registrar. Don’t cancel your old web hosting yet!

Back Up Your Website/Blog

To move web hosting companies you will need to backup your website/blog to your computer using FTP software.

Upload Site to New Web Hosting

Next you need to upload (transfer) the website/blog files from your computer to your new web hosting account. Using FTP software will make this easy. Your new web hosting company should provide instructions as to which folder to upload your site to.

If your site uses a content management system, blogging software or an ecommerce software (that you own) then you are also going to have to set up the database(s) required to run the site at the new web hosting account also.

Change the DNS Information at Your Domain Registration Account

Once you have all the files uploaded to your new web hosting, look in your account information section to find the DNS (domain name server) information. You will need this to change the DNS information at your domain registration account.

Log into your domain registration account. Change the old DNS information you have to the new information from the new web hosting company. Save the information and logout.

How Long Do I Keep the Old Web Hosting Account?

The stock answer to the question of how long it takes for the DNS information to be updated around the world is 24 – 48 hours. One way to see if the information has changed is to make a little change at the new location version or put a comment tag in the head section of a page so when you view the source code of the page and see it you are looking at the new location.

If you are not seeing the new location there could be a few reasons:

  • All the domain name servers around the world have not updated yet.
  • Your browser is using the cached version of your site on your computer. Try clearing your browser history.
  • Your ISP (internet service provider) is caching the net. If their proxy server is not available to you try a proxy server like Proxify® to view the site.

Once you are sure that everyone is seeing the new location it is safe to cancel your old web hosting account.

Changing web hosting companies is not that hard. All it requires is for you to be well organized and patient. Moving web hosting companies in the fit of anger is not a wise move. Take things slowly and do things methodically for a successful web hosting move without any downtime.

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Improve Internal Linking Using Google Webmaster Tools

One of the services provided within Google Webmaster Tools is a report of the internal links Google has found while visiting your site. Internal link building is important to any site. Not only does it drive visitors to other pages within the site/blog but also guides the search engine bots to those pages also.

Internal Link Report

This information can be found under Your Site on the Web >> Internal Links.

The Internal Link screen gives you valuable information on which pages within your site need some internal link loving. Each link pointing to a page within your site or blog counts as a vote for the page besides the benefit of driving visitors and search bots to them. The more links pointing to a page, the better if related.

The list of pages is in the order of internal links pointing to them from highest to lowest. This is a great opportunity to bring some of the old posts on your blog or neglected pages on your website back to the forefront by going through your existing content and finding places to add a link pointing to another page on the site. With a blog particularly, sometimes we forget what we have written about previously that is related to the current article we are writing or have written inbetween the start of the site and now.

Use Google Webmaster Tools to Improve Internal Linking

To use Google Webmaster Tools Internal Link report as a guide of which pages need some incoming internal links you will need:

  1. A Google account if you don’t have one yet.
  2. To have verified ownership of the site/blog long enough ago that Google has had a chance to have visited your site and indexed at least some of the pages on the site.
  3. Be logged into your Google Webmaster Tools account and have the Internal Links report open.

    If you don’t like working between tabs or windows within your browser you could print out the report to use as a checklist of which pages you worked on or if you want to keep a record or some kind of stats, you could copy the list into a spreadsheet. There are download links at the end of the report to download the table or links if you prefer.

  4. Your site or blog open in another browser tab or window.
  5. Open up the find function in your browser.

    In Internet Explorer it is under Edit >> Find on this page in the menu bar.

    If you are using Firefox it is also under Edit >> Find.

  6. A search function on the site/blog would be helpful so you can search for keywords related to the neglected pages. A site map will do if there is no search function available on the site.

With all the above ready we can begin.

  1. Find Pages with Low Internal Links in the Google Webmaster Tools Internal Links Report

    Scroll down the report to the end of it. Remember the list is from highest to lowest and we are looking for pages needing some incoming internal links.

    Note: Google never tells it all that it knows about our sites. They want to keep some information close to their chest so their search results are not manipulated. We just have to work with what they are willing to tell us sometimes. But that’s ok, a little info is better than none.

    Pick a page at the end of the list needing some incoming internal links. We’ll use this one to find some other pages on the site that could link to it.

  2. Find Related Pages on Your Site or Blog

    Switch over to the tab/window with your site or blog in it.

    Go to the search function (or site map if that’s the method you are using).

    Conduct a search for a keyword or phrase related to the page that needs the internal incoming link help. You now have a list of potential related pages/articles that can link back to another page on the site.

  3. Go Through Existing Pages and Find Opportunities to Link to Other Pages on the Site

    Go through each of the search results you have and read the page in the search result.

    Find a keyword or phrase within the page that could link to the page needing the incoming link. Don’t pick any word or phrase. It has to be related to the page being linked to and beneficial to the reader to jump over there and read that page while concentrating on the original topic they were reading.

    To make this go a bit faster use the Find function you have opened in your browser. The find function will highlight and jump to the instance of the keyword/phrase you entered to find.

  4. Add a Link to the Low Internal Linked Page

    Edit the suitable page content to include a link to the page you want to improve internal linking for.

  5. Improve Internal Linking for All Pages

    Repeat the process above for all the pages that need internal links pointing to them.

Looking through the Internal Link report at Google Webmaster Tools is something you should do every once in while. As time progresses we forget about older pages as we create new content for our sites.

Remember that each link pointing to a page is a vote for it whether the link is from within the site or an external one. Internal link building is one of the easiest search engine optimization things you can do yourself and have total control over.

Try this out then come back and let us know how this technique improved the performance of your pages.

Posted in Google Services | 3 Comments

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Create a Gravatar

Have you ever noticed people’s pictures or logos beside their comments in a blog or on a social networking site and wondered how they do that without registering with every single site you see them on? The sites you see these on quite possibly support the use of Gravatars.

It is quite easy to create a gravatar of your own. All you need is an email address and an image.

What is a Gravatar?

You will have seen avatars on forums if you have visited them for example. Well, Gravatars are the same as avatars only you can use them globally.

Gravatars are images associated with an email address the commenter. The person registers an email address they own at Gravatar.com and uploaded a picture or logo to be associated with that email address.

Once you have registered, whenever you leave a comment on a site that supports Gravatars and use the email address associated with your Gravatar registration your image will appear beside your name. Pretty cool!

Why Would I Want to Create a Gravatar?

When working on building a reputation for yourself or your business one of the ways to get remembered is by an image associated with you (besides your name and/or business name). Just like the well-known brands. You recognize their logo and therefore know the product, brand and/or company. With the evolution of social networking you also see these images on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites besides the old faithfuls like forums.

It’s all about getting known in the big Internet world.

Once you have setup your Gravatar each time you leave a comment somewhere and they ask for your email address (like a blog), use the email associated with your Gravatar. Each time someone sees your comment complete with your Gravatar they will become to know you. When you are making valuable contributions to the discussion it will add to your overall branding and reputation. People will remember your Gravatar (if not your actual name).

How to Create a Gravatar

Creating a Gravatar is pretty easy. You will need:

  1. An image. One you want associated with you personally, with your blog or business.

    You can use an image uploaded from your computer, located somewhere online or take a picture with your web cam.

    Hint: Pick or create something that fits in a square. There is an option to crop the image as you upload it but if your image is rectangular you may have to crop something important off.

  2. An email address. This is an email address that you will actually check.

    A confirmation will be sent to this email address when you signup for Gravatar. Also, if the site has a “email me when there is a reply” feature you will get a notice when someone comments after you. Part of blog commenting is joining the conversation, not just posting a comment for the link back (if they provide this). (smiles)

To get started creating your Gravatar go to gravatar.com’s signup page.

  1. Enter the email address you want associated with your Gravatar. Remember to use one you check regularly so you don’t miss your confirmation notice and any comments on the site after yours.

    Hint: An email address at your domain name would give a more professional appearance to the site owner moderating the comments.

  2. Click the Signup button below the box where you entered your email address.

    There is a note on the page a confirmation email will be sent so you can set your password

  3. Check the email address you just used for your confirmation email.

    Click the link in the confirmation email to be taken back to the Gravatar site.

  4. Once you are back at the Gravatar site you will be asked to provide a user name.

    Enter your chosen user name. As noted on the page, use a user name that people would recognize as this will be part of your user profile address on the Gravatar site. This is a permanent user name.

  5. Check the user name is available using the Check button to the right of the box where you entered your user name.

    If it is not in use you can continue.

  6. Enter a password.
  7. Reenter your password in the next box.
  8. When done, click the Signup button at the bottom.

    You will be taken to the Manage Gravatar screen. If this is the first Gravatar using this user name you will see “Whoops, looks like you don’t have any images yet!”. Click the link to the right of that message to add your image.

  9. The next step is to choose where you want to get the image from.
    • Your computer
    • An image somewhere on the internet.
    • The webcam attached to your computer.
    • A previously uploaded image option is available but if this is your first Gravatar you of course don’t have an image uploaded yet.

    Gravatar will automatically resize images that are too big.

    Click which ever option you would like to use.

  10. Crop your image as necessary. Click Crop and Finish to continue.
  11. Next screen you will be asked to rate your Gravatar. The ratings are just like movies, G, PG, R and X.

    Click the appropriate rating for your Gravatar.

  12. You are taken back to the Manage Gravatar screen. You are done!

With your Gravatar you get a profile page. Next we’ll set that up.

Set Up Gravatar Profile

When you signup for Gravatar you get a profile page. On this page you can add information about yourself.

  1. At the top of the screen when you are logged into Gravatar is a link My Account. Clicking it exposes a dropdown menu.

    Select Edit My Profile from the dropdown menu.

  2. On the Edit My Public Profile page you are taken to is where you can provide any public information you wish to share:
    • Your First and Last Name is available publically but not displayed on your profile page.
    • Display name – displayed on your profile
    • Location
    • About Me

    Click Save Profile at the bottom before checking out the other options on the left if you filled these in.

  3. Over on the left are links to other types of information you would like to add to your Gravatar profile:
    • Image you wish to share.
    • Contact Information like email, instant messenger ids and phone numbers.
    • Verified Services – other sites where you have a presence and would like to associate with your profile.

      If you select one of these to add you may have to authorize Gravatar’s application access. e.g. Twitter

    • My Links – add your website links.
    • Custom background – customize the background of your Gravatar profile with an image and/or a custom colours.

With your options set, view your Gravatar public profile.

View Gravatar Public Profile

While on the Edit Public Profile page,

  1. There is a link on the right across from the Edit My Public Profile heading, click it to view your public profile.
  2. If everything looks ok, you are done.

    If not, go back to the Edit Public Profile page and make changes.

  3. While on your Gravatar public profile page, make a note of the url.

    Look at the address bar of your browser.

    Bookmark the page if you like.

    There is also a link at the bottom of the page for your profile.

Using Your Gravatar

Now that you have created a Gravatar, each time you make a comment somewhere use this email address when asked. If the site supports Gravatars then yours will appear next to your comment.

As pointed out previously, using a Gravatar whenever possible is a great way to create your branding and otherwise build recognition for your blog or business. Use it when ever you can on the net. The more times people see it, the more reputation you build for yourself. What are you waiting for? Create a gravatar today!

Join the V7N Official Server Sync Up Contest running May 1-31, 2011 to win 6 Months Free Dedicated Server with ServerClub (or $500 cash), $250 cash or $100 cash. Extra prizes include a free directory listing at V7N Directory.

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Backing Up Your WordPress Blog

Backing up WordPress isn’t much different that backing up your website. You copy all the files and data that is used to run your WordPress blog to your computer for safe keeping should you mess up tinkering with your blog, it gets hacked or the hosting goes down.

Why Do I Need to Backup My WordPress Blog?

Working Live is a Dangerous Situtation

As WordPress has developed over the years, it has become user friendly (in their opinion) by providing a screen where you can edit your WordPress theme and functions files on the fly, meaning do it live. The problem with this is that should you make a disasterous mistake (even the pros do) you have no back up copy to put things back the way they were before the oops without hunting down the theme again and downloading a good copy.

There is also the problem of you learning more about how to customize or secure your WordPress blog. (Not really a problem until things go south on you.) Without a working back up copy on your computer to upload should things not work out as planned you will have to reinstall WordPress (possibly opening a whole new can of worms because you weren’t using the latest version of WordPress due to your favourite plugin(s) or theme not being compatible).

With your own copy of the blog in working order on your computer you can put the file(s) you just played with and broke back the way they were.

WordPress Auto Install is Equally Dangerous

If you have kept your WordPress install up to date (you should by the way) there is an option to automatically update WordPress in general, automatically install plugins and themes and to update existing plugins.

What if… the update doesn’t work and breaks your blog? Now what are you going to do? You are going to have to find all the stuff you had running on the blog and reinstall it to troubleshoot what caused the problem. If the issue has broken access to your WordPress dashboard disabling a plugin isn’t going to work because you can’t get to the dashboard. (wink) With your own back up copy of your WordPress blog you can put things back the way they were via FTP then problem solve what it was that broke your blog.

Recovering from a Blog Hack

Another instance when a back up copy of your WordPress blog would be useful is when your blog gets hacked. Sometimes it can take quite a bit of time to hunt down where the blog install was hacked.

To find the actual point and time that the blog was hacked you can compare file for file, the copy on your computer with the copy on your web hosting account via your FTP software or by downloading a copy of the hacked version to a separate folder on your computer for examination later. Files not in your computer copy or the date has been changed are the ones you need to investigate why they are there and/or why the date was changed if you did not do it. You can use this information also to track down the hacker in your web hosting logs.

To get back up and running quickly after a blog hack you can reinstall it (if necessary) or upload the files as they were before the hack incident.

But… My Web Hosting Backs Up Everything

Are you sure they back up everything?

What if you just put in hours of work on your blog and the server fails or you get hacked before the web hosting company does their back up?

What if the web hosting’s latest back up is the hacked version of your blog? Not much good restoring that copy is it.

If the server has had a general failure they will put things back the way they were at their last back up and no matter how much you scream/rant they are going to get their high paying customers back up and running before your little blog.

Having your own back up of your blog will cover these problems. You can be back up and running in a jiffy with your own back up copy.

But… There are WordPress Back Up Plugins

Does the plugin back up everything? Including the database? I just searched for WordPress back up plugins and the first one in the results doesn’t back up the database. It just backs up your uploads folder, theme and plugins. What about your actual WordPress install and database?

And where exactly does it save the back up copy? It isn’t much good on your web hosting account if the problem is that the web server failed, now is it.

There is also a security risk if your chosen WordPress back up plugin backs up everything including your database then stores the copy on your web server and you do not remove it. Smart hackers can figure out where it is, download it and have all your passwords.

How exactly are you going to reinstall the back up from the plugin? Have you researched that?

Back Up WordPress

Note: If you can not do any of this then you probably have used the quick install button at your web hosting account which in turn installed their customized version of a WordPress install. You should consider moving to a self installed version of WordPress so you are in total control of the back up of your WordPress blog.

As pointed out above, there are many reasons you need to back up your WordPress blog your self. You will need:

  1. Internet access
  2. Your login information for your web hosting account and your FTP login information.
  3. FTP software
  4. A folder on your computer to FTP your file back up to.
  5. A folder on your computer to store your database back up in.

Back Up WordPress Files and Folders

First, back up all the files and folders on your web hosting account for your WordPress blog using your FTP software. This includes all the WordPress files and folders, your theme, your plugins and upload folders. It should be pretty easy to select all the items in the folder where your blog is on the web server within your FTP software. Put this back up in a separate folder from your working/tinker copy of your blog (you have one, right?) so while tinkering with your blog the “good” copy remains untouched until your next back up.

Back Up WordPress Database

Next, you need to back up the database connected to your WordPress blog. You will have to log into your web hosting account and find the MySQL database section.

Each web hosting is going to handle database back up differently so here is the basic things you need to do (refer to your web hosting documentation for specific instructions):

  1. Get to the spot in your web hosting control panel to create a back up of your database.
  2. You want to export the tables in the database.
  3. Note where the database back up is stored and it’s name.
  4. Use your FTP software to download the back up copy of the database.
  5. Remove the back up copy of the database from the web server. As noted above, leaving this back up on the web server is a security risk and useless if the whole web server goes down.
Database Back Up Resources

Here are some database back up resources for you if you can not find the instructions on your web hosting account:

Back Up Your WordPress Back Up

Through this article we have told you to back up your WordPress blog to your computer but now you also need to back up your back up. Backing up your computer should be a regular task in your computer maintenance program anyways (smiles) so just add the folders with your blog stuff in them to your computer back up.

Join the V7N Official Server Sync Up Contest running May 1-31, 2011 to win 6 Months Free Dedicated Server with ServerClub (or $500 cash), $250 cash or $100 cash. Extra prizes include a free directory listing at V7N Directory.

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Self Install WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging software programs available. Today we are going to review how to self host WordPress and create a self install instance of it.

Self Install WordPress vs Hosting Install of WordPress

You are probably asking why would you want to bother to learn how to self install WordPress when your hosting package has a one click button to do it for you. Well, here’s some reasons (from past experience):

  • You don’t know what version of WordPress the hosting’s one click button will install.

    WordPress is constantly improving it’s security. Quite often the one click install buttons at your hosting company are not kept as up to date as if you had gone to the WordPress site and picked up a copy yourself.

  • You don’t know what features the hosting company has disabled.

    Especially as a new blogger, you won’t know what features come with WordPress and which of those features the hosting company has disabled.

  • Some make it difficult to backup the database and your WordPress files.

    Another mystery why they would do this, but it does happen. One should not rely on the web hosting to backup your site as you never know when they do it. You could have spent a whole day tweaking your WordPress blog and adding content and then a few hours later the web server crashes. If this happens between the web hosts last backup and their next one, all your work is lost if you have not backed up the site yourself.

With a self installed instance of WordPress you will have all the features that come with WordPress, be able to backup the database and backup your WordPress files.

WordPress Hosting Requirements

When selecting your web hosting company and account type to sign up for you need to check that it has the specific requirements WordPress needs to run. As of this writing, the requirements for the version of WordPress coming in the Spring of 2011 are:

  1. PHP version 5.2 or greater
  2. MySQL version 5.0.15 or greater
  3. Apache mod_rewrite module – important for making search engine friendly urls

If you have come across this article after the Spring of 2011 you can check the current WordPress requirements on the Hosting WordPress page of the WordPress.org site.

What You Need to Self Install WordPress

There are a few things you need before installing WordPress:

  1. A Domain Name

    The point of doing a self install installation of Wordpres is that your blog is hosted on your own domain name.

    If you have not secured a domain name yet here are a couple of articles to read about choosing and purchasing a domain name:

  2. Download WordPress

    The latest version of WordPress for self install is available on the WordPress.org website on the WordPress Download page.

    There is a download button over on the right.

    Download the .zip version of WordPress and save it to your computer somewhere where you will remember where it is.

  3. Unzip the WordPress Installation Package

    You will need a program to unzip the file you download from WordPress.org. We use WinZip but there are free programs available.

  4. FTP Software

    It is easier to upload the WordPress files via FTP than using your web hosting file manager screen. See our FTP software post if you need help setting up your FTP software.

  5. A Folder on Your Computer to Unzip WordPress into

    Create a folder on your computer to unzip the WordPress package into.

  6. A Plain Text Editor

    You will be editing the configuration file for your WordPress install therefore you need a plain text editor like Notepad. You can use your HTML editor in code view to do this if you wish but it has to be in code view.

  7. A Database Set Up at Your Web Hosting

    WordPress uses a database to file all the content of your blog.

    Instructions on how to set up a database on your specific web hosting account would be available through your web hosting help section.

    You will need to write down the following information from the installation of the database:

    • Database name
    • User name
    • Database password
    • Database host name

Unzip WordPress Package

Using your Zip software, unzip (extract) the files from the WordPress zipped file into the folder you made for your installation of WordPress.

WordPress creates a folder called wordpress with all the files required inside it. If you are a more experienced zip software user, you can just unzip the contents of the wordpress folder into your new folder.

Set Up the WordPress Configuration File

Within the wordpress folder is a file called wp-config-sample.php. Open it with your text editor and save it as wp-config.php.

Scroll down the file until you see //** MySQL settings. This is the start of your database information that needs to be filled in. There are comments within the file indicating what information goes where so there is nothing to be nervous about.

e.g. The first part of the database information you enter is the database name.

/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’);

Replace putyourdbnamehere with the name of your database you wrote down. Now
fill in the rest of the database information in the next spots:

/** MySQL database username */
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’);

/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’);

/** MySQL hostname */
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

The next two sections leave as is. Scroll down to

/**#@+
* Authentication Unique Keys.

WordPress uses a key for security. The instructions on how to get the key are right in the cofiguration file below the comments shown above. Once you have done that, scroll down where it says

/**
* WordPress Database Table prefix.

By default WordPress uses the prefix in your database table as wp-. For better security, change the wp part to something else.

That’s it for the wp-config.php file. Save the file and close it.

Upload WordPress Files

Using your FTP software, upload all the files within the wordpress folder to the location where you want to install WordPress.

If you want your blog at the root of your domain name (www.myblog.com/) then these files are uploaded to the root of your webspace. For situations where you decided to add your blog to an existing site you upload the files to the folder for your subdomain or folder that is going to contain the blog.

That’s it. Close your FTP software.

Start WordPress Installation

Open your browser and type in the path to where you want WordPress installed with wp-admin/install.php at the end. e.g. If installing WordPress in the root of your domain name the path would be www.mydomain.com/wp-admin/install.php

This part is really easy! Just follow the instructions on your screen as WordPress installs itself. Write down the password you are given! You will need it to login and make further changes to your WordPress install.

Experiment with Your Self Installed Worpress Blog

Now that you have installed WordPress you can experiment with different themes, create a post and create a page.

As you experiment and learn more about WordPress you will really appreciate that you went the self install route with WordPress.

Having problems installing WordPress? Contact us and we will give you a hand.

This post was created as part of the V7N Blogging Challenge with a Twist

V7N Blog Challenge Official Participant

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Create a Google Profile

Thought of creating a Google profile? With a Google profile page you can:

  • Share your content on the web.
  • Links to your blogs.
  • Online photos from Picasa and Flickr.
  • Links to your other online profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • Create a bio about yourself on your About tab.
  • Provide contact information and enable send me a messge.

Create a Google Profile

  1. You will need a Google account first.
  2. Go to Create Your Profile at Google.
  3. Over on the right is a button Create my profile, click it.

    Switches to Google account login box

  4. Log into your Google account.

    Next screen asks you to update your password recovery information. Update it then click Save and continue button at the bottom of the page.

    You now are taken to your profile page.

  5. In the top right, beside your login name there is a Edit my Profile link, click it.

    You are taken to the Edit your profile page. On your Edit your profile page the About tab is activated.

About Tab Google Profile

  1. On the About tab the first part is where you:
    • Fill in your first and last name.
    • Upload a picture of yourself.
    • Fill in your nickname.
    • Other names.
    • What sex you are. There is the option to not to say if you prefer to keep this confidential.

    To the right of your name section you have the following choices:

    • To display your full name so you can be found in searches.
    • Allow people to contact you without knowing your email address.
    • To display those who you follow and the people who are following you.
  2. The second part of your About tab is where you can enter more personal stuff about you:
    • Where you grew up.
    • Where you live now and where you have lived.
    • What your profession is, current employer, past employers and schools you are currently attending or have attended.
  3. There is a box a bit lower down on the About tab where you can add a short bio.

    An HTML editor is available to format your text and add links.

  4. Below the bio section is where you can add links.

    This is where you can add links to your other online profiles and website.

  5. Check your information over. Google shows you your profile link to share.
  6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page can click Save changes.

That’s it! You have now completed the About tab of your Google profile.

Photos Tab Google Profile

The photos tab is where you add a photo strip at the top of your profile.

  1. Click the Photos link beside the About link at the top of the screen.

    Switches to the photo editing screen.

  2. Picasa is selected by default.

    If you do not have a Picasa account yet or if you photos are not public, Google will let you know it can not find one for you using this user name/Google account.

    Click add photos if you have a Picasa account under this user account.

  3. The next option is Flickr.

    Click the circle (radio button) beside Flickr if you want to add photos from your Flickr account.

    Enter your Flickr username, ID, or email address the click the Check button to the right.

    Click the Add photos button below to add photos from your Flickr account.

  4. The third option is where you can add another photo service you use.

    Click the circle (radio button) beside Other photo service.

    Fill in the url or feed of your photo service you wish to add then click the Find feed button to the right.

    Click the Add photos below to add photos from your other photo service.

You are now finished adding photos to your Google profile.

Next thing to fill out is your contact information.

Contact Info Tab Google Profile

There is a note on the this screen that the information you enter on this page is not public unless you decide to make it public.

  1. Click the Contact Info link beside the Photo links at the top of the screen.

    Switches to the Contact Info screen.

  2. On the Contact Info screen you can add:
    • Email addresses
    • Addresses
    • Phone numbers including your mobile
    • Instant messenging user name
    • Your birthday (just month and day)
  3. Next select who can see this contact information.
    • Your contacts group
    • Your friends group
    • Your family group
    • Your co-workers group
  4. When you are all done, scroll down to the bottom and click Save changes.

With your Google profile now complete, you can start sharing your profile link with friends, family, co-workers and anyone else you wish.

Be sure to keep your Google profile up to date. It is yet another way for people to find you on the net!

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Site Ownership Verification Yahoo! Site Explorer

Update November 2011: Yahoo! Site Explorer is no longer available:

With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. Site Explorer services will not be available from November 21, 2011.

Site Explorer Reminder – Yahoo! Search Blog

Yahoo! Site Explorer gives you detailed information about your website or blog once registered and site ownership has been verified.

To verify ownership of your sites at Yahoo! you need to log into your Yahoo! account first. If you do not have a Yahoo! Id yet, see Create Yahoo! ID Account first to sign up.

Sign into Your Yahoo! Id

  1. Go to the Yahoo! Site Explorer page page and sign in via the link at the top right.

    Once logged in, you will be taken to your account’s Site Explorer My Sites page.

Add Your Site

  1. Enter the url of the website you wish to verify ownership of.
  2. Click the Add My Site button to the right.

    You will be taken to the authentication page in a moment or two.

Authentication

With Yahoo! Site Explorer you can authenticate ownership of the site submitted using one of two methods:

Of the two methods available we prefer the verification by file upload method. Using the file upload method you just have to remove one file if you decide to withdraw from Yahoo! Site Explorer.

With the verification via meta tag method, you may have to just add the meta tag to the home page file. This can be a problem if you are using a content management system or ecommerce software as these usually use the same head section for all the pages through their template system.

Site Authentication Using a File

  1. Click the link “By uploading a verification file to my site”.

    Instructions appear below the link.

  2. Click the Download button and save the file to the folder with your website/blog files in it on your computer.
  3. Log into your web space using your FTP client or web hosting control panel.
  4. Transfer (upload) the file Yahoo! just gave you to the root of your website/blog.

    This is the folder where your home page is. This is the same spot as you uploaded your Google site verification file if you have already verified your site for Google Webmaster Tools.

  5. Click the Ready to Authenticate button.

    The page will refresh. Over on the left in the navigation column you will see your site listed. The page will refresh again and take you to the Site Explorer My Sites page. Your site should be listed in that screen now.

Site Authentication Using a Meta Tag

  1. Click the link “By meta tag”.

    Instructions appear below the link.

  2. Yahoo! composes a special meta tag for you to insert into the head section of your home page.

    The head section of your page is surrounded by an opening head tag and a closing head tag.

    <head>

    </head>

    You are to paste your custom meta tag just before the closing head tag of your home page.

    <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" / >
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <meta name="Description" content="Your description" />
    <meta name="Keywords" content="first, second, third" / >
    <meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement" / >
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/stylesht.css">

    Put meta tag here
    </head>

    The example above is for a site using XHTML DOCTYPE declaration. The tags between the opening and closing heads for your site template might be a bit different.

  3. Upload the updated home page to your web space.

    You can do this using a FTP client.

  4. Click the Ready to Authenticate button.

    The page will refresh. Over on the left in the navigation column you will see your site listed. The page will refresh again and take you to the Site Explorer My Sites page. Your site should be listed in that screen now.

Add Your Site Feed

While you are in Site Explorer you may as well add any feeds you have for the site too.

  1. Click the 0 under the Feeds column beside the url of the site you just added.

    You are taken to the Feeds page.

  2. The url of your site is already filled in. Add the feed name to the box beside your url.
  3. Select the type of feed you are submitting.

    To the right of the box where you just put the feed file name is a selection box with the type of feed you are submitting.

    • Website feed
    • Mobile feed – XHTML
    • Mobile feed – WML
    • Structured data feed

    Select the type of feed you are submitting.

  4. Click the Add Feed button to the right.

    Screen refreshes with your feed added.

Once your feed is submitted you will notice there is a note “pending submission to Microsoft”. This is good! Now you don’t have to submit the feed to Bing.

With your site submitted and site ownership verified within Yahoo! Site Explorer after a few days you will see all the stats covered in our Yahoo! Site Explorer Overview article.

This post was created as part of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge at:

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Create Yahoo! ID Account

To use some of the services provided by Yahoo! you need a Yahoo! id. This id is used for things like your Yahoo! profile, Yahoo! Messenger, a Yahoo! email address and Yahoo! Site Explorer to name a few.

Sign Up for a Yahoo! Id

  1. Yahoo! Account Registration Page

    Go to the Yahoo! registration page.

  2. Personal Information

    The top section of the registration covers:

    • Your name
    • Gender
    • Birthday
    • Country you are from.
    • Your postal code/zip code.

  3. Select an ID and Password

    • First is you Yahoo! id and email address.

      The id portion is to have 4 to 32 characters. Your id must start with a letter and can contain numbers, letters, underscores (not hyphens) and a dot.

      Once you have filled in your chosen name (id) click the check link to the right of the email address line to verify it is formatted correctly and available.

      If not available or done incorrectly, the page will show you it is incorrect or not available. If everything is ok, the password box will appear below the email address line.

    • Enter your password.
    • Re enter your password to confirm

  4. Alternate Email Address

    Enter an alternative email address. One that you check and will be keeping like an email address at your website.

    This email address will be used if you should need to recover your password

  5. Secret Questions

    These secret questions are used to confirm your identity when recovering your password or id.

    Select a secret question and type in the answer below.

    Select a second secret question and type in the answer below.

  6. Fill in the Captcha and Submit

    Fill in the Captcha, and you are done once you click the Create My Account button below it.

You are returned to the Yahoo! home page if it did now work. If it did work, you will be presented with the Yahoo! Registration Confirmation page.

Once you log into Yahoo! as you move around different sections of the site you maybe asked to login again. This is a security procaution.

Now that you have a Yahoo! id you can customize things like your Yahoo! home page, create your Yahoo! profile and other services Yahoo! provides.

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