Lorraine Watson 7 years, 8 months ago-
Posts
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hey folks:
right now, I have a couple of ?’s I hope someone may know how to answer.
so…WARNING…I’m not very techie…though for me I am TECHIE to the T and e c h i e !! Beyond my wildest imagination for what I ever thought I could learn/do. (ahhhhhh…so you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! lol)
So, for platform background: I’m using InMotion hosting, Generate Press this time for my theme, with both LifterLMS and Beaver Builder (yessss…I’m in Beaver Builder heaven!) and I’ve added SSL so my first question is:
Can I deactivate or remove “Really Simple SSL” plugin once it’s set up? I haven’t set up caching plugin yet (BUT definitely need to but thought I’d wait while creating and not launching just quite yet, though LIVE…
Next, I haven’t set up a caching plugin yet (BUT definitely need to but, thought I’d wait while creating and not launching just quite yet, though site is LIVE! hmmm) but I understand the best choice may be WP Rocket for this (paid) but, since I’ve heard of another Free option, called WP Fastest Cache, that’s supposed to be just great, even at Free level. Word on the street is Securi that was once THE one is now OUT and had security hacks among the problems. What’s your pick?
AND…this is the biggest confusion to me…since I uploaded WordPress without the s on the end as I wasn’t set up with SSL at first and because I’m doubly confused with www or no www or s or not s…I need to KNOW and make sure I’m configured right for Canonical (main address, I guess it is) or what is my main site address I’m supposed to use/give people, etc. and…is this all lined up so google takes any of the URL possibilities to my site? What I think I’m set up as is
Also, permalinks mix me up sometimes. Is there a way to delete all deleted/practice/trashed page and post links happening from my haphazard start (at learning every step as I go to even do this?!) and get them clean and fresh now that I think I have a better clue what I’m doing there, somewhat?
That’s a good start with my immediate tech ?’s.
Thanks in advance for any possible help…I want this site to get off on the right foot and clean and set:)
p.s. I hope it’s not a FAIL that I’ve started a new site for eCourses on a site that is NOT the course name…oh goodness, I think it’s the best I can do for now…p.s.s.s. I’m a DIYer because I have to at this point…I’ve spent way more than I’ve made so far with my online biz endeavor and I’ve done tons of FREE work and help all over to get kicked off (before looking or expecting to earn). But, now it’s imperative for me to get serious and work for some income with my online freelance work. I absolutely LOVE it and am committed!! But, between us, I started with some of the scam, bam, thank you ma’am old school Direct Response and heavy handed hard sell copy I just can’t wrap myself around or enjoy.
AND, I’m so no-tech that it took me nearly a year and 3 different tries to get my first writing website onto WordPress.org where it needs to be for a content creator’s site. This new (eCourse) site (above address) is the first I ever put up on my own so I am thrilled, no matter.
Thanks tons!
Hey Sue-Ann 🙂
Great job getting everything set up thus far!
Can I deactivate or remove “Really Simple SSL” plugin once it’s set up?
I don’t think so – part of the function of that plugin is redirecting non-https requests to the right place. The alternative to using a plugin like that is manually setting up redirects (which i dont know how to do).
Re: caching plugins:
I actually tend to not use caching plugins because i always opt for managing wordpress hosting (currently use Flywheel and Traffic Planet), which comes with a built-in caching solution that i dont even need to think about. GEA currently runs on Traffic Planet hosting – they set up W3 Total Cache on our site using their own in-house settings. Caching is beyond my realm of expertise and interest so i dont have much more to offer you there.
Re: www/https/etc:
Check your general settings in WP and make sure the one you want is in the “site URL” field. If its set up properly, you could enter any variation in your URL bar in the browser and it would take you to the one youve chosen as the “primary” – https://writemixforbiz.com/
There is some issue i spotted. If you enter https://www.writemixforbiz.com/ its showing a security error. Seems that you just need to redirect all www. requests to the non-www url. Here’s one way to do it: http://techwelkin.com/redirect-www-to-non-www-url-htaccess-wordpress
Re: permalinks
Ah yes, I remember dealing with this when i first started building sites. Basically, you have to actually delete all the old posts (beyond just sending to “trash”). If you make a post/page with a certain permalink url, then trash that post, it will still be holding that permalink until you go in to the trash and actually delete the post.
Keep up the great work – you’re on the right track 🙂
Let me know if you need further clarity on any of this!
~Andy
Andy:
Thanks for all the scoops. Here’s my update since last note and after your input—and in case anyone else will also find helpful…
new eCourse site [BIZ MIX] now has: (and I sort of lucked into getting some of what I expected as paid things for FREE!)
iThemes – free security plugin (instead of securi)
IMAGIFY – free smusher for visual files (help site load faster)
UpDraft Buddy – free for site backups to DropBox (whoa using DropBox again…look at me go…lol)
and…make sure your host and your WordPress admin are both running on php 7.0 minimally…I did this too! Holy cow:)
Finally…UT OH and OH NO…but, on the upside, site load speed increased CONSIDERABLY:
WP Rocket …for caching…a lot of hosts provide what you mentioned, Andy, and my other site is using that but, I’m working all this on the down and dirty cheapskates budget {BUT I still want it to be quality awesome/awesome/awesome!!!} oh, and one reason I’m doing this myself is I’m not at the tier of dedicated hosting at $99/month and more so I got SSL for https site to collect pay via LifterLMS platform for $99/yr instead on minimal hosting rates but at a progressive hosting company (or so I was advised in selecting them).
so there’s good news and bad:
I got what is usually a paid (like 59/yr. maybe) WP Rocket cache plugin for free via a developer who can share on as many sites and he shared with me! Yay me:)) BUT, I then broke my site by testing some of the check marks he suggested trying…Oh noooooooo
So he said un-doing it is all you need to do, then clear cache, but NOT SO… spent <b>all night </b>long trying to get it looking how I wanted but things were wigged out! Ended up putting another Home Page I designed a couple of weeks ago up and taking goofed up one (showing all of ME for possibly first time) down…and I had to create and change out the course catalog page as well because the spacing got all goofed up. And…Andy…these were built with my newest love affair, Beaver Builder Page Builder (I have ultimate Add-ons and powerpack too.) but I couldn’t even delete a thing, like rows or modules from the page…a real messed up mess, I tell ya…
BUT, now I’m happy because I do have a for now Home Page and I do have a Course Catalog (created new page altogether for that last night) so I can build again from there. However, I’m still looking into the last couple things …like www and S and all that and I’m also still a bit in the foggy muck of URL and 301 HEll. So, need to get that straight still. Ok and I’ve never worked in the .htaccess world before but feel it coming…
THank you, kindly, for the help and I’ll keep plugging along…I may have to hit the tech camp up again!! I want to at least have a decent (at least skeleton) site launched ASAP!
I’m just updating this tech thread to say I’m pulling my hair out!
May resort to help because I really want to have my site set up properly. This, of course, goes against my desire to DIY as I have been doing for 3 years now! Here’s the thing. I want the framework set to work and properly (my new WP site with LifterLMS) but, I want to spend my time creating now, more than anything and as a priority. Still, I wish I understood more of the tech and was better at it.
p.s. This site stuff has mucked up today being the first day to work on my Screw It Challenge and I’m a little frazzled, too.
Oh well. I’ll keep plugging cause that’s how I am…LOL:)
I use CometCache free version. Solid caching plugin.
Ask your hosting company if it does a site level 301 redirect from http: to https: That will take care of the need for the redirect plugin.
Be sure to do a 301 redirect to something on your redirect pages if you think they got indexed.
Don’t forget to change http: to https: in search console
Resubmit your xml sitemap with the https: version. Some people recommend keeping the http: sitemap version for a month or so. If you have the sitewide redirect then you don’t have to keep both.
While you’re fiddling with getting https: in place and working as you want it, you can keep the http: site name in your WP settings. That can be the last thing you do.
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