Small Buisness Web Sites


WordPress Plugin Updates

December 15th, 2020 ernie Posted in Wordpress Blogs No Comments »

There is a great deal to look after if you are operating a blog. They tell us that keeping the content original, up to date and current is important. Use valid keywords. Make it look nice and add interesting content that readers want to read. There are many more factors, but one important item is making sure that your WordPress Plugin updates are up to date.

Recently, I was upgrading my WordPress installation. Usually, all that is needed is to click upgrade the WordPress icon, then the templates, and then any plugins that indicated upgrading is needed. This time, an error was generated,

“There has been a critical error on your website. “

I could not log on to the site, nor view any pages or posts. This was serious since my blog was out of commission. Fortunately, I have other blogs, I can check and verify before considering an upgrade. I was concerned that the database was corrupted. Always make sure you have backups of everything before doing any upgrades.

WordPress Plugin Updates – Trouble Shooting

I also use Yoast to help manage SEO issues. On another site, the plugin was telling me that several plugins were out of date and had not been upgraded in several years. This is often a good sign that there may be an incompatibility issue with the latest release of WordPress. This issue could cause the entire blog to fail.

I decided to remove all of the plugins and reactivate them one at a time after I was able to get my WordPress blog working again. In order to do that, I needed to revert back to the older version of WordPress. I used the following step by step approach and it worked for me.

Step by Step WordPress Plugin Updates

I was running WP 5.5.X and got the message to upgrade to 5.6,

Here are the steps I used
1. Download the older version of the WP version 5.5.x to my computer

2. Using FTP, I changed the file names of wp-content, wp-admin, and wp-includes folders by adding xcopy in front of each

3. Uploaded the older version of 5.5.X to my Host (wp-content, wp-admin, and wp-includes folders)

4. Confirmed that I could log on and view a page minus all of the plugins, images, etc.

5. Changed the file names of all of the plugins in the xcopy-wp-content folder

6. Transferred all of the plugins to the new wp-content folder

7. Activated all of the plugins at the WP 5.5.x level and confirmed they worked, one at a time

8 Changed the plugin folder names to add xcopy for each plugin folder

9 Upgraded WP to 5.6

10 Confirmed that I could access WP and access all pages and posts

11 Activated each plugin one at a time and confirmed that WordPress still worked

12 Transferred all uploads, which are the images etc from the old WP to the new WP folders
13 Confirmed that it all works, which it does

14 Deactivated old plugins that were not used

15 Deactivated old plugins that had not been upgraded in some time and replaced them with new plugins that were more current and supported the functionality I was looking for.

This was a lot of work to recover a blog that was down. But the database was fine and everything worked!

Upgrading Other Blogs

Before upgrading any other blogs, I took the step of deactivating all plugins that were not active and also those that were no longer current. These were replaced. Fortunately, all of the other blogs upgraded to WordPress 5.6 with no issues.

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WordPress speed – Improve server response time

March 21st, 2017 ernie Posted in Wordpress Blogs 10 Comments »

Improve server response timeOne of the most frustrating experiences is waiting for a web page to load. Everyone expects instantaneous results. No one wants to wait for any kind of lineup these days. If your website does not load a page quickly onto the user’s device, they may give up and move on. In addition, the search engines will rank your site even lower due to poor response time. If this happens, you have gone from bad to worse. No one is going to find your web page. Fortunately, there are solutions to Improve server response time and help your server deliver, such as content caching and other ideas. We have included a few in the following narrative that may help your site perform better.

Improve server response time.

Host – Shared hosting may be less expensive compared to dedicated hosting. However, you are impacted by the traffic on that host, whether yours or someone else’s. In addition, ensure that the host runs the latest software and has the latest server available.

Processes – too many processes running simultaneously can also slow your site’s response time. Processes can be plugins driving backup routines, scans, etc. Space them out over time so that they all do not run simultaneously.

Plugins – are excellent and provide the functionality needed for your website. All are not created equal. Run a performance analysis on your site to confirm that no plugin is slowing load time.

Image Size – smaller images load much faster than large images. it is just that simple.

Improve server response time – Much More – you can do many other things to improve page load times. For example, many sites are attacked by bots attempting to learn your password. Employ a throttling plugin and one that blocks IP addresses that are trying to guess your password.  You will greatly improve page load times if your server is not dealing with denial of service attacks and password attacks.

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Building Your Own Web site vs. Low Cost SEO Services in Ottawa

March 7th, 2014 ernie Posted in Wordpress Blogs 11 Comments »

Building Your Own Web siteYou are small business owner contemplating designing and Building Your Own Web site. If you have some basic technology and IT knowledge there’s no question that you can figure out how to build your own website. The question is this the best use of your time?

As a small business owner you have many challenges every day to keep your business running, to drive sales, to produce and deliver the services that your company provides and solve many customer issues that you have. Every day is a busy day and everything must be prioritized to ensure that you focus on the most important things to your business. Cash flow is king.

As with all of your business activities, some of the things that need to be done will be contracted out to contractors, or you may even hire employees to focus on specific aspects of your business.

Building Your Own Web site

Building and designing your own website falls into exactly the same category. Why would you not hire a contractor, or an IT company to build and design your website for you following the guidelines that you provide?

Assume that you have made this decision to hire an IT company to build the website for you. The next question is what kind of website should you build and how much did you want to pay? If you’re new to this we suggest you start with the basic website that documents and tells your visitors a little bit about your company, the services or products that you provide and how best to get in touch with you.

You may even want to allow visitors to leave comments on your website for later follow-up by yourself or one of your employees. There is a commitment implied that spans several areas. One is the cost to develop and implement the web site. Another is to maintain it and keep the information current on the side. Finally there is the need to support your customers on your site in terms of providing them with current information. This can be a lot of work depending on the business.

A Viable Alternative to Building Your Own Web site

We can provide you with the basic website. It will contain five or six pages with both text and images that you choose. You have an option of being able to update these pages on your own once they are created. Customers can also add new pages based on topics that you would like to provide. We can also add pages for you based on input and requirements that you specify.

This is a great way to get started with your own company’s website at very little cost. You can later add to on your own or have one of your employees do it for you. Or have us add the pages describing your services and products. There is lots of flexibility which allows you to meet your own business goals.  Give us a call or send us an email at your convenience for more information.

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Small Business Needs Web Site Support

August 31st, 2013 ernie Posted in Wordpress Blogs No Comments »

Web Site SupportWhether you are a new business in start-up mode or a business that has been around for a while, you have probably realized that you need to have a website. You want your customers to learn about your company online.  Many online companies just charge too much to get started. Then they want an arm and a leg to make any changes, add product pages and images, etc. You would like to make some changes yourself. But they tell you it is either too complicated or they will not give you access. One company we know pays $500 a month for updates and minor changes. Anything that is more significant and it is not clear just what qualifies requires a work order and a hefty hourly fee.  There is an alternative to Web Site Support, and it costs a lot less.

Well, now you can have both. A business website to get you started and an interface that is easy to use. As a result, it allows you to create your own content without having to learn a lot of computer code or HTML, PHP, etc, etc. A startup is inexpensive. You can choose between doing updates yourself. Or have us make changes or embark on a full marketing program to increase your contact results. For more details, click here.

Website Support – WordPress

We use WordPress as our blog engine. Which has been used by millions of websites all over the world? It has many plugins or widgets and theme templates that allow us all to create websites that are easy to view, update, and add to. This system can easily be used by many people who are not familiar with blogs or designing websites. We set up the basic site for you. We will create the look and feel that you want to present to your potential customers. There will also be a contact page that they can use to contact you if they have more questions or would like someone to call them to set up an appointment.

Many small business owners have found that by having a website, they can increase sales and customer contacts. A list of frequently asked questions can also reduce your overall load on your sales team and your reception. You also ensure that your own people are using standardized answers for all of the questions that customers typically ask.

Give us a call or send us an email today for Web Site Support. We will be pleased to discuss your needs with you. We can set up a website that meets your company’s personal needs.

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