wordpress

All about wordpress related tips and tricks, codes, snippets etc.

You should NOT edit your Blog Posts frequently

18th July 2015

·

wbxpress

We often edit our own blog posts and make correction. Do you know that this may harm your blog.

When you publish a new post or you edit a post, WordPress automatically notifies to the pingomatic service.

Whenever you hit publish button of an existing post or page, wordpress inform the update service that new contents added to the post or page. Search Engines come and visit the updated page and find no additional content as such. So, search engines consider you as a ping spammer.

We faced similar problem for one of our popular site. When we discovered that we are marked as ping spammer, we immediately removed update service url. And after a month or so, we found the ban has been withdrawn. There after we never actually used any update service, however, we get search engines visit very frequently to our site and whenever we publish a post, it is listed in google search engine within a day.
Free Genesis Child Theme for WordPress Blog

1st July 2015

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wbxpress
WordPress is believed to be the best blogging software and almost 20% of the websites in the world are powered by this piece of software. WordPress come with few free default theme; twenty fifteen, twenty fourteen, twenty thirteen. These themes are totally free and good to use. There are thousands of free themes also available in theme repository of wordpress.

However, there are premium themes available for wordpress. Premium themes have certain advantages over free themes. They have the following pros generally:-
1. Built in SEO Option. Optimized for search engines.
2. Code Built with Speed in consideration. Website becomes fast loading.
3. A variety of Theme Options. Pu anything to anywhere.
4. Customization is relatively easy. No programming skill is required.
5. A Professional Look and Feel.
There are many premium themes in the market. But not all of them have the above characteristics. Few are pathetic and worse than a standard free theme.

The best among all premium themes is undoubtedly Genesis Theme Framework. There are many genesis child themes which are absolutely rocking. The child themes alongwith framework are available at Studiopress.com.

You may be little bit confused and wander how WordPress, Genesis Theme framework and child theme are different. Let me explain, Compare your Blog with a Car. WordPress is the Engine. Genesis is the Body. Child Theme is the Body Colour. Similarly your blog appearance depends upon Child theme only.

If you have purchased Genesis Theme Framework you get one child theme for free. But there are limited number of free genesis child themes. We will showcase here the best, simple, minimalistic free genesis child theme.

Click images for a demo.

Genesis Child Theme Developed by WBXPress

1. Sample Child Theme

This is the default free theme that come with Genesis theme framework. It can be used as your foundation theme for custom theme development. It has 6 page layouts, custom background, custom header, custom menus, footer widgets, threaded comments etc.

Download Link

2. Twenty Seven Pro Theme

This theme is developed by Brian Gardner who is the founder of Genesis Theme Framework. This theme has two Menus; Left Menu and Right Menu, One Sidebar, Before Header and Before Footer Widget area. There is also a sticky message.

Download Link

3. The Mobile First Theme

This theme is also developed by Brian Gardner. It is a foundation theme based on which beautiful themes may be created. It has 3 page layouts, custom background, custom header, custom menus, sticky message, footer widgets, threaded comments etc.

Download Link

4. The Endless Theme

This theme is also created by Brian Gardner. This theme supports single layout, custom header, backstretch image, background image, header menu, threaded comments etc. This theme do not have any widgets.

Download Link [You need to register to download the theme]

5. The Minimalist Theme

It is also a creation of Brian Gardner. This theme supports single layout, custom header, background image, header image, primary and secondary menu, threaded comments etc. This theme also do not have any widgets.

Download Link [You need to register to download the theme]

6. Mobile First Adaptation Theme

This theme is provided by artofgenesis.com. It has 3 page layouts, custom background, custom header, custom menus, footer widgets, threaded comments etc.

Download Link

7. Center Child Theme

Center is a simple blog child theme for Genesis. It is a single layout, 2 color schemes (light and dark) theme. It supports 2 footer widget areas, one header widget area, and one widget area below primary navigation menu. The grey background is very elegant.

Download Link

8. Jemma Child Theme

Jemma is a simple blog child theme for Genesis. It is 6 layout, 6 color schemes, responsive theme. It supports 3 footer widget areas, one header widget area.

Download Link

That’s all folks. If we ever come across any other useful theme, we shall update the list.
Registration, Comment, Trackback Spam in WordPress

28th June 2015

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wbxpress

The most daunting task in WordPress is to fight with Spammers. Be it registration spam, comment spam or trackback spam. There are numerous plugin to prevent spam in wordpress but unfortunately there is no simple, effective and complete solution. In this article we will discuss few strategies adopting which one may prevent almost all spammers.

First thing first. You decide whether to allow user registration in your site. If you have no intention to create a membership site then you may turn off user registration. Then you will be 100% protected from registration spammer. Goto Settings-> General and untick the following.

But this is not desired always. Many blog owners want people register in their site. So, the above is not a solution for them. The best possible solution is to add the following plugin:

Registration Honeypot

This is the simplest plugin that prevents only registration spam and it performs excellent. This plugin do not create captcha but it creates a simple, hidden field to trap registration spammer.

If you allow comments in your article, the best thing to prevent comment spam is to allow only registered member to comment. Goto Settings->Discussion and tick. This combination with registration plugin works great.

However, this is always not the desired case. You may want to keep comments open for all member, registered member and guest member. In that case you should install the following plugin:

Anti-spam

No captcha is used in this plugin. It also works the same way as the registration honeypot plugin. It creates a hidden field to trap spam commentator. Simply it works in 99% cases.

Lastly to fight trackback spam, you need to untick the highlighted option from Settings->Discussion.

That’s all you need to prevent registration spam, comment spam and trackback spam in your wordpress blog.
Customizing Meta Widget in WordPress

21st June 2015

·

wbxpress
When you are logged in the Meta Widget looks like: When your are logged out the Meta Widget looks like:

This widget is helpful in a membership site. This widget have some redundant information like Entries RSS, Comments RSS and WordPress.org link. You may keep it as usual otherwise remove at least the last two links. But there is no clean and easy way to remove these links. Because it is inbuilt with the core feature of wordpress. However, if can remove these links editing the core template of wordpress. That’s why we call it the dirty way.

Here is how you edit:

1. Open the following file in your wordpress installation.
```
your_wordpress_install_directory/wp-includes/default-widgets.php
```
2. Find “Meta widget class“. (Around line 384)

3. If you want to delete the last three links, then remove the following chunk of codes:

Line 410 is for Entries RSS
Line 411 is for Comments RSS
Line 412 to 427 is for WordPress.org link

So, if you need to remove any of the above just remember which code is for what.

That’s all.
Why WordPress is Superior than Blogger?

6th June 2015

·

wbxpress
Blogger offers free hosting for blogging. It is a good option for new blogger. But can it handle a considerable traffic when your blog gets popular? There is a debate on this issue. After exploring different parameters of blogger free hosting and self hosted blog with WordPress blogging Software, I conclude with the following findings.
1. Loading time will be as much faster as 130% in self hosted blog. (tested on http://whichloadsfaster.com/)
2. User Database is readily available for creating newsletter / email to selected users. In Blogger even you can’t get your follower’s email address. The user database is not available to the blog owner.
3. Tons of excellent free wordpress theme available which are much faster than blogger’s theme.
4. WordPress themes have option to edit different sections individually. But in Blogger theme only a single file to edit the whole blog; which has a chance of devastation.
5. WordPress is proven better than Blogger in respect of security (Akismet, comments moderation, customizing moderation), SEO (categories, tags have great impact if properly used), flexibility (editing of comments), etc.
Do I need any SEO plugin for Genesis Theme?

31st May 2015

·

wbxpress

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of any website. WordPress is also not an exception. There are tons of SEO plugins out there. The best one is WordPress SEO by Yoast. This plugin may be used for any wordpress website.

Genesis is a premium theme framework. If you are using this theme, there is an SEO option built in with this theme. In my opinion that options are as good as WordPress SEO plugin. So, you don’t need to install any SEO plugin for Genesis theme.

At first Enable Theme SEO settings and Excerpts from Screen Options.

Below your Post content you can see the following:-

Enter your Post Title and Meta description.

Remember that your Post Title should be less than 60 characters.
And, Meta description should be less than 180 characters long.

Lastly, copy Post Meta and paste it into Excerpt box as shown below:

That’s all. Your content is now optimized for Search Engine. Save Draft.

Last but not the least you should edit your permalink to remove any unnecessary word.

Then Publish.