Welcome!
Please note that you are welcome to access this page 24/7.
If you registered on WordPress.com please have your login details handy. Please note that the class will continue even if you cannot access your correct login details. The login details for your website are not necessarily the same as the login details for WordPress.com.
Password: WordPress-2023-11 – NO PASSWORD!!!!!!!!!
Navigating a website
Registering at WordPress.org is different from your registration with WordPress.com and different from your registration on your own website.
- Registration at WordPress.org
- Registration at WordPress.com
- Registration on your own website
Hosting Companies
- Afrihost >
- axxess.co.za >
- Hetzner.com (Germany) – Excellent!
- hostnet.nl
- Xneelo (ex-Hetzner.com) – For now… excellent!
- WordPress.com (USA) – probably the very best hosting for a WordPress website but super expensive for South Africans due to the value of the South African Rand.
Free WordPress Plugins Must Have – 2023
Read the blog post and watch the video >
- Akismet
- Jetpack
- WooCommerce
- Wordfence
- WP Search
Themes
Some of the best WordPress Themes: ‘Astra‘ Theme, the ‘Divi’ Theme, ‘Kadence’ Theme and the ‘Neve’ theme.
Note: The Astra Theme and the Kadence Theme are far more lightweight and performance-optimized than the average WordPress theme and both can help you build fast-loading sites.
Astra is fast, fully customizable & beautiful WordPress theme suitable for blog, personal portfolio, business website and WooCommerce storefront. It is very lightweight (less than 50KB on frontend) and offers unparalleled speed. Built with SEO in mind, Astra comes with Schema.org code integrated and is Native AMP ready so search engines will love your site. It offers special features and templates so it works perfectly with all page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, Divi, etc. Some of the other features: # WooCommerce Ready # Responsive # RTL & Translation Ready # Extendible with premium addons # Regularly updated # Designed, Developed, Maintained & Supported by Brainstorm Force. Looking for a perfect base theme? Look no further. Astra is fast, fully customizable and WooCommerce ready theme that you can use for building any kind of website!
If you are new to WordPress start with the Twenty Sixteen theme until you are used to WordPress and then move to the Astra theme (free version).
The Most Popular Page Builders
- Live Composer by Live Composer Team: 20,000 Active Installations
- Visual Composer by visualcomposer.com: 70,000 Active Installations
- Brizy – Page Builder by Brizy.io: 90,000 Active Installations
- Beaver Builder – WordPress Page Builder by The Beaver Builder Team: 200,000 Active Installations
- Page Builder by SiteOrigin: 900,000 Active Installations
- WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress by wpbakery: 2+ Million Active Installations??????? (is the number inflated?)
- Elementor Website Builder by Elementor.com: 5+ Million Active Installations
Gutenberg Blocks
There are more than 90 default blocks available in the current WordPress version. They cover texts, media, widgets, theme elements, and embeds.
You can use Gutenberg blocks:
- that you get by default on your WordPress
- from Gutenberg Addons. I use Spectra (previously known as the Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg).
Further reading: The 12 Best Gutenberg Addons You Must Have >
Note: Both the Astra Theme and Spectra Addons were developed by Brainstorm Force.
Auto-Updates
I have the following auto-updated on all my sites:
- WordPress
- Theme
- Plugins
Site Icon
- Upload a Site Icon – Help People Recognize Your Website in Browser Tabs >
- How to Create a FREE Logo, Site Icon, Site Title and Tagline for your WordPress Website >
Editing
- Canva.com > (Free!)
- Adobe Photoshop – Photo editing for all levels. The software has become the most used tool for professional digital art.
WordPress Theme and Plugins Detector
Have you ever wondered… What WordPress theme is that awesome site using?
Images
High Quality Stock Free Photos
There are quite a number of websites offering free stock images. Two of the most popular include:
Image Dimensions
- Featured image should be a min. of 1200px (width) x 675px (in height) BUT NOT MUCH LARGER!
- Landscape images should be between 600 – 800px wide
- Portrait images should be between 600 – 800px in height.
Resizing Images
Always Resize and Compress images before uploading. One can easily resize in bulk. You can also compress images in bulk (time saver).
Online Photo Editor
ILoveimg >
Smart WebP, PNG and JPEG Compression
tinypng > (ideal if you need to compress WebP images)
Online Image Converter – Convert Image Files of any Format Online
Every tool you need to work with PDFs in one place
iLovePDF – Every tool you need to use PDFs, at your fingertips. All are 100% FREE and easy to use! Merge, split, compress, convert, rotate, unlock and watermark PDFs with just a few clicks.
HTML Color Picker
Source of the Images you are using on your Website
If you are using someone else’s photo have the courtesy to give credit by mentioning name of the photographer and linking to his/ her own page for example: Photo by Nina Uhlikova on Pexels. They are helping us so the least we can do it to give them credit for their work.
My YouTube Channel – Free Training Videos
https://www.youtube.com/@tonysousa
Backlinks – Search Engine Optimization Training Course-Syllabus
Backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node.
The number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page (this is one of the factors considered by Google to determine the PageRank of a webpage). Outside of SEO, the backlinks of a webpage may be of significant personal, cultural or semantic interest: they indicate who is paying attention to that page.
Link Exchange
Note: Create a ‘Links Page’ whether on the menu or not. Do link exchanges with friends, suppliers and customers. DO NOT allow spammy links on your website.
Note: Have the courtesy to inform those you did link exchanges with should you delete your website or change your website’s name.
FAQs
Why is Astra so popular?
If you’re wondering why Astra enjoys such popularity and why you may want to consider it: Astra is lightweight and fast: Page load time is one of the major factors to consider when choosing a theme. Out of the box, Astra pages can be as light as 50KB.
Gravatar – Add your Profile
Go to Users > Profile: Profile Picture: click the ‘Gravatar’ link and follow the prompts.
Where to enable and disable auto-updates of
- Plugins – Go to Plugins > Installed > Enable auto-updates
- Theme – Go to Appearance > Themes > Theme Details > Enable auto-updates
How to Remove Author’s Name from a Single Blog Post
Astra Theme
Navigate to Appearance> Customize> Blog> Single Post. Here, under the ‘General’ tab, click on ‘Post Title‘, and you can see the ‘Meta’ module. Here, you can hide any element in the list by clicking on the “eye” icon on it (click the “eye” icon one more time if you decide to have the element displayed again).
Other websites
Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS
CSS code
/* Remove meta data */
.entry-meta .byline, .entry-meta .cat-links { display: none; }
.entry-meta .posted-on { display: none; }Using a Plugin
Are there additional Templates?
A: Yes, there are many to choose from, for example the Astra Theme offers ‘Template Kits‘ >
How to Export and Import Specific Pages in WordPress
Make sure you have the same plugin(s) on the site you want to export from as well as on the website you want to import to.
Go to ‘Tools’ > Export…
Stats
You can check your website’s stats on Jetpack or WordPress.com. Should you have more than one website WordPress.com will be faster because you can quickly check out the Stats for each of your WordPress websites.