We’re in the business of helping businesses grow

You could say domains are kind of our thing here, but we don’t get offended by the fact that many people buy domain names for the sole purpose of building a website. We’re in the business of helping businesses grow.

There are many other use cases for domain names such as for marketing, brand protection, and global expansion, but the common end goal is a website. Determining the purpose of your website before you begin your project will help you avoid the common mistake of choosing the wrong hosting platform for your needs. WordPress is the most popular hosting application for creating websites for many reasons including the WordPress toolkit. If you need one-on-one coaching when setting up your site, we recommend looking at Codementor’s WordPress Mentors. You can view our previous experience with Codementor here.

Free & Open Resource

WordPress has remained on top for over a decade. One reason for this is that it’s a free and open source. Starting a business can be expensive. The cost of a website is one of the first expenses a business owner needs to factor into the planning and budgeting stage. WordPress is free to download and use so you’re saving money from the beginning. It’s also an open source which means it is constantly updated.

Easy to Use Interface

The WordPress toolkit offers an easy to use platform to control all aspects of your website: development, automation and management. WordPress requires little to no HTML experience which makes it perfect for beginners, professionals and everyone in between. Whether you have some technical knowledge or will be working with a team of web developers, the WordPress toolkit is an all-in-one solution to help you build a website and secure it.

Unlimited Plugins

There’s a plugin for everything. A WordPress plugin is an open source solution and additional elements to improve the efficiency and experience of your website. Everything from spam filters, SEO tools, popups, chatbots, and interactive images. The only problem with plugins is knowing when you have too many.

Getting started with the WordPress toolkit in your 101domain account

Updating WordPress and plugins

Keeping your WordPress website and plugins up to date are critical to site security. Don’t treat it like that Mac update you’ve been hitting “remind me tomorrow” on for the past 7 months. Neglecting to update your applications can expose and compromise your site.

To update WordPress, launch your hosting panel and then click on the WordPress tab on the left. All of your WordPress installations will be listed here. You will be automatically notified if there are any updates available to WordPress or any of your installed plugins. You can update everything at once by clicking the “Install All Now” link or you can update WordPress plugins individually under the Plugins tab.

Disabling WordPress plugins

Changing and updating themes in the WordPress toolkit

The WordPress toolkit allows you to manage multiple plugins and themes at once. A WordPress theme determines the overall layout of your website including design elements like colors and fonts. You can switch between themes to change the look of your website without altering the content. You have the option to install and upload themes. Once you decide on a theme you can activate and change it at any time.

Launch your hosting panel and then click on the WordPress tab on the left. Go to the Themes tab. To activate a theme for a particular instance, select the instance card and switch on a theme to activate.

If you want to activate a theme for all instances hosted on the server just click activate next to the theme you want to activate. Changing to a new theme will activate it. The theme that was previously active will be automatically deactivated.

If a theme needs to be updated, you will see an Updates message next to the theme in the Themes tab. Before updating the theme, WordPress toolkit will prompt you to back up your subscription. We suggest creating a backup in case the update breaks your website.

Resetting your WordPress toolkit password

It’s good practice to reset your password periodically and use long and complicated passwords when you do. Changing your WordPress password is easy. Launch into your hosting panel and then click on the WordPress tab on the left. You’ll see a box to the right for “Password protection”. Click “Setup” to reset your password.

Securing your WordPress website

The security audit is a cool new feature included in the WordPress toolkit. It recommends ways in which you can strengthen the security of your WordPress website and reduce the odds of having your site compromised. Being that it’s a free and open source, WordPress websites are highly targeted. You can start applying the recommended security changes in the WordPress toolkit.

Launch your hosting panel and then click on the WordPress tab on the left. Click on the name of your WordPress under the Name column, click Installations. An overview of your WordPress installation will display. Under the Security column, click “Change”. Check all of the boxes that are available and click “Secure”. Wait for the changes to complete and then click “Close”.

Once these basic security improvements are made, you can further secure your WordPress installation using plugins. Security plugins are very effective at securing your WordPress website. Two security plugins we would highly recommend are WordFence and All In One WP Security & Firewall.

Love the sound of the WordPress toolkit? There’s a reason WordPress remains the number one application for building websites. We’re here to help you run and grow your business online, without all of the complexity associated with hosting and DNS. Get started building your website today!

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