Category: Web Development

Step by Step Guide To Find And Replace URLs In Your WordPress Database
How do you find and replace URL in MySQL?

How do you find and replace text in WordPress database?

Insert Video

I encountered this problem yesterday and it was annoying. I moved to a new web host from a managed WordPress hosting to Cloudways. The problem was all fine until I noticed that half of my site links are broken. Previously, the links were working because I did a redirect but after moving to a new web host, that method doesn’t work anymore.

I scrambled to figure out a way to find and replace URL in MySQL but I have zero idea how to get that work. I came across this article by Interconnect/it about a script that can find and replace text in WordPress database. I’m not sure what I did but it doesn’t work.

Important note: If you are planning to use the script to change the WordPress database, make sure you did a full backup!

I was literally back at square one I want to get the 404 errors fixed as soon as possible to optimize my WordPress site for SEO. Sh*tty stuffs, honestly.

Thankfully, I met up with Muneeb from Cloudways and he recommended me to search for WordPress change URL plugin.

The light bulb moment strike!

The Hunt Begins To Find The Best Plugin To Find And Replace Text In MySQL

There are over a dozen of plugins that offers find and replace texts in WordPress database.

I decided to go with Search & Replace by inpsyde GmbH because it has over 100,000 active installations as a safe bet.

Installing Find And Replace Text Plugin

Here are the steps I took to install the plugin.

Start by searching for the plugin on your WordPress dashboard. You should search for “Search & Replace” for faster and accurate search results. Locate the plugin and click on the “Install Now” button.

Once you have install the plugin, it is time to activate it.

The next step involves searching for the plugin and head over to the settings.

You will see this screen and I highly recommend you to do a full backup by clicking on the “Create SQL File” button as seen below.

Important: Please backup your WordPress site before find and replace URL in MySQL database!

The next two steps are critical. Messing these up will crash your site. Start with filling up the “search for”and “replace with” columns.

The last step involves searching the relevant tables. I suggest you go with “Select All Tables” for the best results. You should select “Save changes to Database” instead of “Export SQL file with changes.”

Selecting the export option will not find and replace text in your WordPress database. Complete the find and replace URL by hitting on the blue button.

The whole process will take around 5 to 30 minutes depending on the size of your WordPress database.

Find And Replace URL In WordPress Database Without Coding

By using a find and replace URL plugin, you don’t have to get your hands dirty by doing the tedious database search and replace script in php.

This plugin allows you to change quite a lot of things in your WordPres database including:
- Find and replace MySQL query WordPress
- phpMyAdmin search
- Update image links in WordPress database
- check-circle-oChange and update WordPress URLs in database when site is moved to new host
With this simple and free plugin, you no longer need to hire web developer to find and replace text in your WordPress database!

Why Should You Find And Replace URLs In Your WordPress Database?
- Broken links are bad for SEO
- You will lose potential traffic
- You will lose potential revenue from affiliate sales
- check-circleWeb visitors will have bad experience with your site
- check-circleHigh bounce rate
When Should You Find And Replace URLs In Your WordPress Database?
- When you change domain URL
- Change and update WordPress URLs in database when site is moved to new host
- Had redirection on (and wanted to fix links)
What do you think?

I hope you find this tutorial useful and you will be able to find and replace URLs on your WordPress database easily. Leave a comment below and tell me what you think!
April 4, 2024
Best Cheap WordPress Hosting: Web Hosting Comparison 2019
What is the best cheap WordPress hosting in 2019?

Whether you are looking for a cheap WordPress hosting for your business or personal use, you are going to find a lot of information here — especially in finding cheap WordPress hosting that offers fast and reliable web hosting services.

Sounds too good to be true? No joke here.

After all, premium WordPress hosting isn’t suitable for everyone.

I know that one of the most common question is always “what is the cheapest way to host WordPress?”

The answer is simple. Find the best and cheap WordPress hosting in the market. Cheap often comes with a price; either performance or security.

BONUS: You will find the best WordPress hosting deals for 2019 within this post. Therefore, make sure you bookmark this article and share with your buddies too!

How To Choose The Best Cheap WordPress Hosting For You?

Do you know that there are only 4 steps you need to consider when choosing a WordPress host? Take a look at this quick explainer video below.

For many bloggers, choosing the right web hosting is always a challenging task.

Lucky for you, I’ll share the top 10 cheapest WordPress hosting you can find today.

What you will get in this article are:
- WordPress hosting that doesn’t suck
- Fast hosting
- Reliable web hosting services
- check-circleZero compromise on performance
- check-circleAbove average (and excellent customer support)
- check-circleMore importantly, cheap WordPress hosting
Best Cheap WordPress Hosting Plans

Before we start getting our hands dirty into the final bits and pieces of each web hosting plans, I want to give you a quick outlook and summary of the web hosting comparisons that you will find in this article.
- tasksHostWithLove: Pricing structure starts from $2.93 per month for two websites, 5GB storage and 50GB bandwidth
- BlueHost: Pricing structure starts from $2.95 per month for a single website, 50GB storage and unlimited bandwidth
- GoDaddy: Pricing structure starts from $2.99 per month for a single website, unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth
- A2 Hosting: Pricing structure starts from $3.92 per month for a single website, unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth
- tasksSiteGround: Pricing structure starts from $3.95 per month for a single website, 10GB storage and unlimited bandwidth
- tasksLinode: Pricing structure starts from $5 per month for a single website, 20GB storage and 1TB bandwidth
- tasksDigital Ocean: Pricing structure starts from $5 per month for a single website, 25GB storage and 1TB bandwidth
- tasksHosting with Reginald: Pricing structure starts from $6.99 per month for a single website, 25GB storage and unlimited bandwidth
- tasksInMotion Hosting: Pricing structure starts from $6.99 per month for two websites, unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth
- tasksCloudWays: Pricing structure starts from $10 per month for unlimited websites, 25GB storage and 1TB bandwidth
Disclaimer: The above are the top 10 best cheap WordPress hosting for 2019. And if you noticed, I only choose hosting services that offer under $10 a month.

How To Choose The Best Budget WordPress Hosting?

I want to take a moment to touch on this sensitive topic.

I totally understand that choosing the cheapest WordPress hosting is important (as it affects the thickness of your wallet) but you have to understand that the monthly fees for the web hosting is not the only thing you should consider.

Important features such as complimentary domain names, free SSL certificates and support will being the costs down in a long run.

You obviously doens’t want to pay a web developer to fix your problem at $100 per hour, right?

How To Get Web Hosting Discounts?

Every web hosting provider provides discount — you just need to find them.

Typically, they offer upfront payment discount (6 months, 12 months or 24 months prepayment) and even introductory discounts for new accounts.

What Does Unlimited Means To You?

Unlimited storage. Unlimted bandwidth. Unlimited domains.

Unlimited means there is no clause that will tie you down to a specific figure.

For example, 25GB of data transfer means that you can only use up to 25GB of data per month. In the case where you exceeds the limit, you would either need to upgrade your existing WordPress hosting package or pay the differences (based on your web host).

Are Additional Features Important For Web Hosting?

Features such as daily backup, automatic updates and complimentary website migration are all good.

The concept is simple. You want to save both time and money. Using a cheap WordPress hosting is already contributing some sort of saving for you.

Having additional features on your web hosting further sweeten the cake.

Important: It is extremely rare to find cheap WordPress hosting provider that provides a lot additional features.

Best Cheap WordPress Hosting Plans

These affordable web hosting plans are listed based on the lowest price to the highest.

I recommend you to read carefully on each part to ensure that you make a run for your money and making the money work harder for you.

You can get more information by clicking on the links or buttons in each web hosting review below.

1. HostWithLove

I came across HostWithLove three years back when I was looking for a local web hosting service provider that works like SiteGround.

The name is fairly unique (seriously) and I thought they were just “okay.” Three days into my hosting with them, I was amazed at their professionalism.

I wanted to know why they do that and I came across their ‘best effort basis’ program. This means that each staff working in HostWithLove is required to provide assistance (no matter how crappy the problem is) if they are able to.

I tried to abuse them to see how far they would go. Man, they really “wow-ed” me, BIG TIME.

10 complimentary website migration in 7 days, one website speed optimization and two websites that I asked them to help me with the CSS file.

The cost? Zero. Nadaa. $0!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not asking you to abuse them by any means, but they are really helpful and offering help based on ‘best effort basis.’ More importantly, they stick to what they had promised.

When it comes to finding the best host for WordPress, my top choice will always be HostWithLove.

Here’s the pricing structure for HostWithLove.

The cheapest web hosting service costs $2.93 per month when you when you prepay biennially.

What are included in the HostWithLove S1 plan?
- Hosting for two websites
- check-circle-oUnlimited parked domains
- check-circle-oUnlimited subdomains
- 5GB space
- 50GB data transfer
- check-circle-oWordPress installation and automatic updates
- check-circle-oUnlimited email accounts
- check-circle-oUnlimited MySQL databases
- check-circle-ocPanel control panel and Softaculous one-click installer
- check-circle-oCloudFlare Railgun
- check-circle-oDeveloper tools
- check-circle-o24/7 email ticket support
- check-circle-o30 days money back guarantee
2. BlueHost

The famous, BlueHost.

BlueHost doesn’t only offer cheap shared web hosting — it offers cheap WordPress hosting and until date, it is one of the best value for money web hosting I’ve come across.

BlueHost offers quite a lot of features, including free domain name, backup services and 1-click WordPress installation.

Important note: BlueHost offers both shared web hosting and WordPress hosting.

How much is the cheapest BlueHost web hosting costs?

What are included in the BlueHost basic plan?
- Hosts 1 website
- 50GB website space
- Unlimited and unmetered bandwidth
- check-circle-o5 parked domains
- check-circle-o25 sub domains
- check-circle-o5 email accounts
- check-circle-o100 MB per email account
As you can see, BlueHost basic plan is an excellent entry level if you are looking for a cheap WordPress hosting option. With the price tag that starts at $3.95 per month, there isn’t any complain here.

Note: I love to consider BlueHost as one of the best WordPress hosters (if there is such word) that is value for money and above average server performance.

How much BlueHost WordPress hosting costs?

What are included in the BlueHost WordPress hosting plan?
- Hosts 1 website
- check-circle-o100 million visits per month
- check-circle-o30GB storage space
- check-circle-o30GB space for backup storage
- check-circle-o2GB RAM
- check-circle-o1 unique IP Address
- check-circle-oEnhanced cPanel
- check-circle-oFree SSL certificate
BlueHost optimized WordPress hosting is much more suited for those who have more traffic and slightly bigger budget. You can also consider this option if you are looking for managed WordPress hosting.

3. GoDaddy

Every blogger in the world heards came across one of GoDaddy products at least once.

GoDaddy is the giant when it comes to cheap web hosting and cheap domain names. More importantly, the cheapest web hosting per year is often found on GoDaddy.

Now, there’s a perception that GoDaddy is only used by several countries in the world such as United States and India. Do you know that GoDaddy offers cheap WordPress hosting in UK and is very famous with its cheap wordpress hosting in Australia?

When it comes to the cheapest hosting for WordPress site, no one beats GoDaddy.

How much does GoDaddy cheap web hosting costs?

The Economy plan on GoDaddy is best for beginners and at the price of $2.99 per month, there is seriously tough for other web hosting competitors to compete with GoDaddy.

How much does GoDaddy cheap WordPress hosting costs?

When it comes to best shared hosting for WordPress, GoDaddy strives in two spots.
- Super low price of $3.99 per month
- Free domain with annual plan
What is included in GoDaddy WordPress hosting plan?
- 1 website included
- 10GB SSD storage (not many web hosting companies offer SSD storage)
- SFTP access
- check-circle-oFree domain with annual plan
- check-circle-oPro Sites multi-site management tool (managing multiple WordPress sites from a single dashboard)
GoDaddy WordPress hosting vs regular hosting

In regular hosting, the serves are not optimized specifically fo WordPress but to a wide range of CMS like Drupal and Magento. GoDaddy WordPress hosting offers customized and optimized servers to ensure that your WordPress site is running on the optimal setting for performance.

If you are still looking for the best web hosting for WordPress, I would consider taking GoDaddy into your consideration.

4. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting for WordPress is often underlook by many people. I personall consider A2 Hosting as one of the top 10 best and cheap WordPress hosting in the world.

And due to that it is only fair for me to place A2 Hosting in this WordPress Hosting comparison.

What comes to your mind when you talk about WordPress hosting?

Performance. Speed. Security. Support.

I’m always searching for the fastest WordPress hosting that money can buy. Make no mistake, A2 Hosting is definitely one of the best hosting company for WordPress speed.

Let’s see what A2 Hosting can offer, shall we?

How much does A2 WordPress hosting costs?

I love A2 Hosting because their pricing strategy is straightforward. For beginners, this is heavenly.

At only $3.92 per month, you get a fully optimized WordPress (shared) server to host your site.

What are included in A2 Hosting plan?
- 1 website
- 5 databases
- Unlimited storage
- check-circle-oUnlimited data transfer
- check-circle-ocPanel control panel
- check-circle-oFree SSL and SSD
- check-circle-oAnytime money back guarantee
Ladies and gentlemen, do you read the ANYTIME money back guarantee that A2 Hosting is offering?

Bold but smart.

5. SiteGround

Looking for the best managed WordPress hosting?

If the answer is yes, I’m happy to introduce SiteGround to you. SiteGround is not like most of the web hosting companies out there. They take WordPress seriously and even do their own patching when a vulnerability is found within WordPress.

This means that your site will always be in safe hands. While most WordPress hosting will costs you over $20 a month, you will be surprised on how much SiteGround managed WordPress hosting costs!

How much does SiteGround managed WordPress hosting costs?

Yes, you are right.

$3.95 is how much you need (in a form of commitment) to host a WordPress website.

In terms of pricing, SiteGround offers the best month to month web hosting cost.

What do you get with SiteGround Startup plan?
- 1 website
- 10GB space
- Unmetered data transfer
- check-circle-oFree drag and drop builder
- check-circle-oFree site transfer (migration)
- check-circle-oFree email accounts
- check-circle-oUnlimited MySQL DB
- check-circle-oUnlimited sub and parked domains
- check-circle-ocPanel & Softaculous
- check-circle-o30-days money back guarantee
- check-circle-oServers on three continent
- check-circle-oSSD storage
- check-circle-oCustomized server setup
- check-circle-oFree CDN with each account
- check-circle-oHTTP/2 enabled servers
- check-circle-oSuperCacher (inbuilt cache plugin by SiteGround)
- check-circle-o24/7 live chat support
If you are looking for the best managed WordPress hosting that doesn’t costs you an arm and leg, SiteGround is your best choice here.

Besides the cheap WordPress hosting plans, SiteGround also offers one click WordPress hosting to ensure it is absolutely hassle free for you!

Important note: SiteGround customer service is best to none. The service level they provide is either on par or way better than most expensive managed WordPress hosting.

6. Linode

Are you looking for cheap cloud WordPress hosting? If yes, Linode is a great choice for you to start with.

Linode offers high performance SSD Linux servers for all of your infrastructure needs — sounds geeky?

Unlike other cheap WordPress hosting plans, Linode doesn’t really comes with cPanel or WordPress inbuilt for you.

You need to have some knowledge in coding (or refer the backend knowledge base) to install WordPress. If you are a web developer, this is probably something you need to consider for cheap WordPress hosting.

How much does Linode hosting costs?

Take a look at the pricing table below. Aren’t they beautiful?

The entry level for a simple server is $5 per month. Jesus!

This is beyond amazing! Good for wallet and having your own cloud server for WordPress hosting is marvelous.

What do you get with Linode WordPress hosting?
- 1GB RAM
- 1 CPU Core
- 20 GB SSD storage
- check-circle-o1 TB transfer
- check-circle-o40 GBps network in
- check-circle-o1,000 MBps network out
7. Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean is the ultimate Linode alternative.

But similar to Linode, Digital Ocean offers cloud hosting facilities at superb prices. And yes, they are best when team up with WordPress hosting.

How much does Digital Ocean costs?

The smallest package that you can host your WordPress hosting on Digital Ocean is with the 1GB memory at $5 per month (or $0.007 per hour).

What do you get with Digital Ocean cloud hosting?
- 1GB memory
- Single core CPU
- 25GB SSD disk space
- check-circle-o1TB data transfer
- check-circle-oUnlimited domain hosting
Digital Ocean is a great choice if you know some coding skills. Setting up a server on cloud isn’t the easiest — but for the value, there is no dispute!

8. Hosting with me (yes, me!)

I’m sorry to include my personal service here — but I’m bold and I know I offers quite a lot more than most of the WordPress hosting in the market.

What you need to understand is that I do not offer managed WordPress hosting but its more towards cheap WordPress hosting for those who are budget concious.

Why should you use this hosting instead of the big boys?

The first reason: I love to go beyond of what most companies offer to their customers. I believe that I stand better in the marketplace by providing exceptional customer service with server performance.

The second reason: I charge $6.99 which includes WordPress migration. This is something that not many people are offering.

The third reason: My web hosting is built ground up for beginners. You can access it easily, or get me and my team to help you get started (for free).

How much does it cost?

You will be billed $6.99 per month for a single website.

What are the features that I’m offering?
- 20GB disk space
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 1 domain
- check-circle-oPersonal cPanel for each client
- check-circle-oAutomatic daily backup (7 days record)
- check-circle-oAll servers are SSL ready
- check-circle-oFree migration (worth $100 per website)
- check-circle-oFree plugin consultation (WordPress only and worth over $100)
- check-circle-oFree professional SEO advice (worth over $500)
9. InMotion Hosting

When it comes to the cheapest hosting for WordPress sites, InMotion Hosting is one of the competitors you got to look out for.

InMotion Hosting offers managed platform for WordPress that is fine tuned to deliver superior performance, security, and provide the best WordPress Hosting.

How much does InMotion WordPress hosting costs?

InMotion WordPress hosting is the second managed WordPress hosting is starts at $6.99 per month (in this managed WordPress hosting comparison).

What does InMotion WordPress hosting includes:
- Free domain
- 1 website
- Up to 20,000 monthly visitors
- check-circle-o40GB SSD storage
- check-circle-oUnlimited bandwidth
- check-circle-oUnlimited email accounts
10. Cloudways

Before we end this WordPress hosting comparison, allow me to introduce Cloudways.

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform for growing businesses and collaborates with big boys such as Digital Ocean, Linode, Amazon Web Services and Google to power your WordPress site.

What makes Cloudways different is that instead of getting your hands messy with codes and security on Digital Ocean and Linode (for example), it gives you a platform for you to build your own cloud server in just a few clicks.

And yes, you can easily build optimized servers for managing WordPress sites in just minutes (not hours or days).

How much does Cloudways costs?

By comparison, hosing your WordPress site on Cloudways is slightly more expensive when you purchase the servers directly off from the supplier such as Digital Ocean and Linode. However, Cloudways offers zero hassle and therefore, you can focus on running your business.

The smallest WordPress hosting plan on Cloudways starts at $10 per month and you can easily scale it based on your needs.

What does Cloudways includes in its WordPress hosting package?
- Managed cloud servers at super affordable prices
- 1GB RAM
- Single core
- check-circle-o25GB storage space
- check-circle-o1TB bandwidth
- check-circle-oUnlimited apps
- check-circle-oFree SSL certificates
- check-circle-o24/7 customer support
- check-circle-oAutomated Cloudways bot alerts
WordPress Hosting Recommendations 2019

The above are the top 10 best cheap WordPress hosting for 2019. I hope you find this WordPress hosting comparison useful and tell me what you think in the comments below.
April 4, 2024
All In One WP Security And Firewall Review 2018: How good is this security plugin?
Today, I’m going to take a look at one of the most popular security plugin which is All In One WP Security and Firewall.

The WordPress CMS is secure but in today’s technological world, we can’t be too relaxed especially with website security.

Most users install WordPress firewall plugin to stay safe from hackers and malicious codes, as well as stay as far as possible from WordPress security vulnerabilities.

There are two things you need to know about this review.
- This is NOT a paid review
- I’m doing this because this is extremely important for you to secure your WordPress site
More importantly, you need to learn how to secure WordPress website from hackers right now!

You can checkout the plugin here on WordPress plugin repository.

Understanding The Importance Of Improving WordPress Security

Everyone should take this topic seriously. But why?

Check this video out. I’ll explain why it is important for you to read through this article.

Oh by the way, do you mind to leave a positive review for this review? I really appreciate it!

I’ve been hacked four years ago and back then, I was having a vacation in Australia. That night, I was checking on my money site and boom! I was greeted with a sinister but very familiar display on my desktop.

I contracted my web host and they sorted it out in 48 hours. Can you imagine the amount of sadness and furious I had then?

I know I didn’t use any nulled WordPress theme or plugins but yet, I was hit badly.

True enough, the web host said that most of my site content were gone and they were able to retrive and repair that much.

Fast forward until today, I have taken serious steps to make my website safe. Sure, I know that there is no bulletproof security but at least, I’m doing whatever it takes to stay safe (and so should you).

By using WordPress firewall plugins such as All In One WP Security and Firewall, it reduces security risk by checking for vulnerabilities, and by implementing and enforcing the latest recommended WordPress security practices and techniques.

All In One WP Security And Firewall Review

Writing this article reminds me of old days where I wrote of the most read blog posts that I have ever published in 2013 — Better WP Security vs Wordfence Security: The Battle For WordPress Best Security Plugin.

Let’s take a look at All In One WP Security And Firewall plugin, shall we?

Not bad, not bad at all I would say!

There are over 600,000 active installation and the last update was around three months ago.

Disclaimer: After using All In One WP Security and Firewall plugin, I personally feel that this plugin is a great WordFence alternative (no offense).

All In One WP Security And Firewall Plugin Features

I love this plugin because the developers understand the basics — not everyone is a WordPress guru when it comes to security. Therefore, they created three different categories in this plugin, namely Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

Take a look at the video below for a quick introduction to the All In One WP Security and Firewall plugin.

What I love about this security plugin is the you can activate security features and firewall rules without much worry that it will break your site.

The Basic Features

The Basic feature is very straightforward and built ground up for beginners. It is literally safe to use and non-invasive. Therefore, this option will NOT break your site no matter what you do (or how unlucky you are for that matter).

These are the features you need to active them immediately after installing this WordPress security plugin to start securing your site.

Note: The Basic setting will not make your website tough as Fort Knox but it will certainly build some level of added security to your site.

The Intermediate and Advanced Features

Some intermediate and advanced security features can break your site (making it unaccessible) especially with conflicting with other themes and plugins.

Plus, you should only turn the settings on if you are well aware of your hosting provider’s server configuration. For this, feel free to reach out to your hosting provider and seek some clarification before taking the plunge!

Simple security points score system

What I love about the All In One WP Security plugin is the security strength meter.

In a glance, I can determine the level of security of my WordPress site and the number of security features I had activated.

Pretty cool, right?

Critical feature status

The dashboard also shares important information of your site and simple security features that can harden your WordPress security to new levels. Or at least, to help you achieve a minimal acceptable level of security.

Here’s how the panel looks like in the backend.

The critical feature status serves as a WordPress security checklist for me. The plugin tells me what I need to know and what I should do in order to have the best WordPress firewall setting and enjoying close to bulletproof security.

Do this before installing All In One WP Security And Firewall plugin
- Make a full website backup before installing the security plugin
- Upon installation, a good strategy is to enabling just the basic security features
- Allow the plugin to operate normally for a few days before considering using the intermediate or advanced features
Help! All In One WP Security And Firewall broke my site!

Hold on there and relax. I’ve got your back on this.

If you are using cPanel, head over to the File Manager and look for the plugins folder. In there, delete or deactivate the plugin and your site will pops back up.

You can also reset your htcaccess file to get your site back to the original state.

And if the above sounds complicated for you, just hit the ‘restore from backup’ option and your website will be back to normal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: I’m locked out from my site after activating the firewall features. How do I fix this?

Answer: Restoring the htaccess file of your WordPress site to remove any firewalls and allow you to start from the beginning.

Question: I’m locked out from my site after enabling the maintenance mode. What should I do now?

Answer: Restore your htaccess file and access your WordPress backend using this link http://your-domain-url.com/wp-login.php

Question: I don’t see some of the menus of this plugin on my sub-sites. I have a WordPress Multi-site (WPMS) install. How do I fix this?

Answer: WordPress multi-site uses one single file system for all your sub-sites. So some of the security features only need to be enabled on your MAIN site. The sub-sites won’t show you the menus for these features. You can configure those settings from the main site of your WPMS install.

Question: Is there any recommended hosting that works well with this plugin?

Answer: Generally, I don’t see any issues between All In One WP Security and Firewall plugin with most shared web hosting. However, just avoid using this on premium WordPress hosting as the plugin will conflicts with the inbuilt security feature.

Is All In One WP Security And Firewall plugin the best WordPress security?

I will leave this to you to debate in the comments below. What do you think?

Feel free to check out All In One WP Security and Firewall using this link.
April 4, 2024
Top 15 Landing Page Design For 2018
Does your landing page design has what it takes to convince your site visitors to take action?

I suggest you to take a look at your Google Analytics now and determine if your landing page designs are doing their job correctly. There are many elements needed to make a great landing page design.

No, good landing page designs don’t make the cut here.

If you are serious in learning more about landing page designs (or finding an important source for your landing pager designer), this article is for you. In this article, you will find not one, not two but top 15 landing page designs for 2018.

Top 15 Landing Page Designs 2018

Important disclaimer: These are my personal favorites and more importantly, these landing pages have the right elements to turn website visitors into paying customers.

1. Wistia

What’s attracts me the most: The background colour which is easy on the eyes and pleasant. Reminds me of making the great first impression.

The first tagline is “Put your business videos to work” and this is very critical especially when you want to be different from YouTube.

Setting up an account is simple — First name, last name, email, password and of course, a little information/survey which is critical for marketing purposes.

What happens if you have doubts?

Scroll down the page and you will discover the well-done FAQ section.

Wistia is definitely one of my top favorite landing page designs for 2018.

2. Unbounce

I cannot imagine Unbounce NOT in this email — yes, it is impossible.

What makes head turns with Unbounce landing page?
- The use of a chat window instead of a classic form (super smart move)
- Super detailed but well packaged information below the ‘form’
Why did Unbounce had a longer-than-usual landing page design? The answer is simple.

More content = Search engines will have more information to crawl and feature on result pages.

Unbounce literally optimize landing pages for SEO and this is something every web designer should take into consideration.

3. Muzzle

When I first came across Muzzle, I was like “hmm” and that went ahead to the “aha” moment.

Visitors on the page are literally greeted with a rapid-fire onslaught of embarassing notification in the upper right of the screen.

Now, this is on purpose!

It attracts me (and probably thousands of website visitors) because this is hilarious and compelling.

4. Bills.com

Welcome to year 2018 where static landing pages are no longer in much demand.

Landing pages don’t need to be boring and that is affecting your conversion rate. Make your landing pages interactive and personalized these pages to resonates with your website visitors.

How? Take a look at this. It all starts with a simple draging option.

Then the second part of the question kicks in which is smart and super interactive.

Once you finished the second question, the last questions magically pops up.

The final (conversion page) landing page design by Bills.com is very basic but it is easily complimented through the first two steps which makes the entire process interactive with its audience.

TAKEAWAY: Landing pages doesn’t need to be static. Intuitive, interactive and fun are critical factors that drive your conversion rates higher than your competitors!

5. Teambit

Teambit landing page focuses on one thing, and one thing only — illustration.

The landing page design consists of a simple, single-field form accompanied with animal characters. Interesting, right?

6. Landbot

Chatbot, chatbot and more chatbots. Oh my.

Unsuspecting website visitors will be greeted by a friendly bot that comes with emojis and GIFs — with the sole intention of getting more information from the website visitors.

Hey, who can resist the fun you can get from chatbots, right?

7. Webprofits

This is pretty much your typical landing page design that you will see in most pages.

Webprofits is smart to make the longest landing page feel short.

The landing page starts with a prominent CTA button to learn more about the product (notice the high contrast colour). By indirectly hiding the form field up front, they help to reduce friction and more importantly, creating the opportunity for the website visitors to learn more about their products.

In between the content, they embedded images to make it more interesting and getting your mind off the ‘long’ landing page concept.

If your landing page designer wants to craft a long landing page, this is definitely one sample to consider!

8. Airbnb

How many times you do you visit Airbnb on desktop? Not many, I supposed.

Airbnb has one of the most promiment landing page designs I have seen, especially in 2018. Clear call-to-action, simple options to customize your search and more importantly, smiling Airbnb hosts make it nearly impossible NOT to reserve a room or place with them.

BONUS: Want to design your own landing page? Try using Thrive Architect today!

9. Conversion Lab

Make no mistake. This website is special. The homepage serves as a landing page for its website visitors.

And believe it or not, this is a very smart move!

Here’s what you’ll see when you first visit the site.

After clicking on the CTA, a new form pops up for the next step.

Why is this a good move?

Two steps landing page design is great because you doesn’t display the form to everyone who reach the page. Instead, the form is only visible for those who take action. In this case, they are more likely to be interested with whatever offer you are offering them.

This is also why promiment WordPress lead generation plugins such as Thrive Leads and OptinMonster has 2-steps landing page designs for you to choose from.

10. Shopify

Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.

The KISS strategy by SHopify is smart, effective and elegant.

The user-oriented headline is just a few words and if you scroll further down, you are greeted with some icons and extra text to make the sense out of them.

All of this makes it easier for you to get the point: Selling online with their tool.

11. Dropbox

I call myself a minimalist and I certainly love landing pages that are not cluttered. They are just messy, don’t you think?

When it comes to simplicity, Dropbox is one of the best in the market. Take a look at Dropbox’s landing page design.

By default, most of us will probably go for the Dropbox Basic due to the cost. So, the solution is simple.

Having a CTA focusing on a higher ticket product and offer free trial!

Now, you tell me — what are the changes that you will ditch a free trial option at no cost to you?

12. Google Drive

Why do you ue Google Drive? File storage, security and collaboration, right?

Now, take a look at their landing page design.

Can you tell me what you notice from the landing page design above?

For me, it is simplicity. Make no mistake, I feel that they can do better with the background image but the tagline has only 7 words.

Seven words, ladies and gentlement.

Right to the point, isn’t it?

The next time your landing page designer is crafting his/her artwork, keep in mind that simplicity matters.

13. Khan Academy

You should have heard about Khan Academy but just like most businesses around the world, it is always challenging when you are trying to cater a wide range of audience.

So, how does Khan Academy does it?

Everything is well placed in this landing page by Khan Academy and more importantly, it help audiences from different backgrounds to convert without hassle!

14. Codeacademy

Are you looking for a landing page design that is simple in both copy and design? If yes, this landing page is definitely going to turn you on!

The form itself is simple and only requires an email address, username, password, and a validation that you’re not a robot to create an account. Or, you can just use your Facebook or Google Plus login, shortening the conversion path even further.

And if you would require additional information, website visitors can scroll down for a video which is embedded below the fold.

15. Lyft

Last but not least, Lyft has one of the best landing page design I have seen in 2018. This page is found when you are trying to be a Lyft driver.

Do you know what makes this landing page so powerful?

Firstly, the tagline automatically resonates to the audience who is considering to become a Lyft driver (and generating passive income).

The Apply Now form is very standard and assuming that you are doubtful of this, you will most probably land in the next column which calculates the estimated earning you can get.

Smart? Yes, go figure and try implement these concepts in your upcoming landing page designs for 2018!

BONUS: Looking for a landing page builder? See Thrive Architect demo right here or read the review!
April 4, 2024
How To Optimize WordPress Site For SEO?
It has been sometime since I’ve talked about SEO for WordPress. But this year, search engine optimization (SEO) will be more than important, that ever. Especially when you want to save up on the marketing budget.

Organic reach or organic SEO will help your website gain more visibility for free. A well-written content can easily drive up thousands of traffic daily instead of spending hundreds of dollars a week just to drive the same amount of traffic in a week!

So, today’s post is all about how do I optimize a WordPress site for SEO? Are you ready to dive in?

How Do I Optimize A WordPress Site For SEO?

According to Brian Dean from Backlinko, there are over two hundred factors that affect the website performance on search engines.

Let’s face this. You are running a WordPress site and probably either a blogger, freelancer or a business owner. Either way, you certainly doesn’t have all the time to run through the 200 factors checklist.

And this leads us to the next part. You want to know exactly what you can do right now to optimize a WordPress site for SEO.

Guess what? That’s what you are going to get. Continue reading below to get started.

Step 1: Choose The Right Keywords For Your Homepage

Do you know that your homepage plays a huge role in SEO? As a matter of fact, any SEO company would tell you that choosing the right keywords is an important SEO strategy.

Your homepage need to be optimize and you can start with the description of your website.

You can find the option to custimize the description of your website on the WordPress setting tab.

Step by step guide: Click on the Settings tab on the left column (on your WordPress dashboard) > General > Find for Tagline

Tips to writing the best website tagline
- Start with your own creative brief
- The English language is your best friend
- Don’t settle for the first great tagline idea you have
- Keep it simple
- Use taglines to connect with your site visitors
- Longer tagline is better (but avoid TOO long)
- Avoid using buzz words
- Some humour are recommended
- Be bold
- Check before using the tagline
- The tagline must represents what you truly believe (and can offer)
Step 2: Choose The Best Keywords For Your Content On The WordPress Site

Wait a minute. Keywords again?

Keywords play an important role in optimizing your WordPress site for SEO. However, how do you do know if the selected keyword is the right one?

I use KWFinder to make the keyword selection easier. Type in the keyword of your choice and hit the search button. For this example, I used “dog training” as a sample.

The level of easiness to rank for a specific keyword is through colour coded; the goal is to find green or yellow keywords. Refer to the image above, easy keywords to rank are “german shepherd training” and “dog school.”

Let’s take a look deeper by clicking on the keyword “german shepherd training.”

This specific keyword has 14,800 searches in a month and on the right, you can see the top search results. The websites ranking on the 3rd, 4th, 8th and 9th are easy to bear because the Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are below 35. YouTube is an authority site but having YouTube showing up in the top 10 search results shows that this keyword has very low competition level.

Ready to optimize your WordPress site for SEO?

The next step is to find the right keywords that resonate with your content and website visitors.

Imagine you run through the exact steps before publishing any content on your WordPress site.

All your articles will rank highly on search engine and without you spending a dime on Internet marketing (such as paid ads).

Step 3: Optimize The Content Een More To Be SEO Friendly

You may have heard about Yoast SEO and All-In-One-SEO Pack. Both of these are SEO plugins that you can install directly to your WordPress site to optimize it further.

By using WordPress SEO plugins such as Yoast, you can optimize the content for it to rank better on search engines. Here’s what I mean.

If you want to optimize a WordPress site for SEO, make sure you solve all the problems, improvements and considerations recommended by SEO plugins. These are best practises to ensure that your content will rank higher and better than most of your competitors.

Bonus: The Most Complete Yoast SEO Setup (Step by Step Guide)

Step 4: Optimizing Images On Your WordPress Site

Want to optimize your WordPress site for SEO? Start optimizing your images now!

There are some very quick fixes when it comes to optimizing your images for SEO. Those includes:
- Use a relevant image that matches your text
- Pick the right file name for your image.
- Make sure image dimension match the image size as displayed
- Reduce file size for faster loading
For me, the most important thing for optimizing images for SEO is the file name. For example, instead of naming a file, “WordPress,” change it to “How_To_Optimize_WordPress_Site_For_SEO” as the file name.

Step 5: Optimize WordPress Site Using SEO Friendly WordPress Themes

Do you know that not every WordPress theme is SEO friendly?

There are WordPress themes that are badly coded and this can lead to many negative impacts on SEO.

Negative SEO can results in:
- Not ranking well on search engine result pages (SERPS)
- Penalization from Google
- Drop in organic traffic
What makes the a WordPress theme SEO friendly?
- Clean codes
- Free from bloatware and malwares
- Fast loading speed
- Bulletproof security features
Most WordPress premium themes are well-coded simply because they are premium and isn’t free to download.

If you can’t decide which WordPress theme to use to optimize your site for SEO, I highly recommend you to take a look at Thrive Themes (read Thrive Themes review here).

With over 10 SEO friendly themes available in Thrive Themes, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be using it to optimize your WordPress site.

BONUS READ: What Are The Best Premium WordPress Themes 2018?

Step 6: Get A Better (WordPress) Hosting Provider

Does your website takes more than 10 seconds to load? If the answer is anywhere near “yes,” this is one of the most important factors for you to start moving to a better web hosting company.

A slow loading website will make not only make you lose your visitors, you will also get penalization by search engines. On average, a WordPress site needs to load anywhere below 1.5 seconds to ensure that you are having the best SEO advantages.

Here are two tools you can use to test your website speed.
Help! My website takes more than 2 seconds to load!

Don’t panic. You can easily move your WordPress site to a better host in just a few clicks. Yes, there is no crazy and messy migration you need to be worried about.

Here are three web hosting services that I highly recommend based on your needs:
- WordPress Hosting by BlueHost (for small WordPress sites)
- Cloudways (for affordability and small to medium sized WordPress sites)
- WPEngine (for businesses running on WordPress and looking for the best performance)
You can request for free migration (yes, you don’t need to pay a dime for it) when you use any of the WordPress hosting companies above … thus, saving you time and money!

Are You Ready To Optimize WordPress Site For SEO?

The process of optimizing WordPress site for SEO should be an ongoing task, regardless if you are running a business or a personal blog.

I hope you find the 6 steps above easy and effective in helping you to optimize WordPress site for SEO. Leave a comment below if you have any questions!

Happy to answer them 🙂
April 4, 2024
Want To Start A Home Based Web Design Business: Read This Post!
Are you looking to build a secondary income stream through web designing business?

With today’s economy getting tough and harder, having secondary income stream is the best way to stay afload and put food on the table.

Today’s post is all about how to start a home based web design business (yes, in the comfort of your own home) and without actually ditching your day job.

The Skills Needed To Start A Home Based Web Design Business

Having the passion is one thing — having the right skills to get the job done is another.

Want to start a home based web design business as a side hustle? Here are some skills you need to be really good at it (and make money from it):
- Some coding skills
- check-circleGood with numbers (money, baby!)
- Bold and dare to show off
- Marketing mindset
- check-circleSales mindset
I know some of you might be turned off when reading this but hear me out. You don’t entirely need coding skills to become a web designer.

Yes, you can become a web designer without coding skills!

And there are specific steps you need to take to beat your competitors. Read this post if you are dead serious in becoming a web designer without coding skills.

Knowing Your Numbers

Profitability.

Credit.

Debit.

Fixed cost.

Clean profit.

Gross profit.

Most web designers I know hate numbers and so do I. However, knowing your numbers is going to help you more than you can imagine.

As a matter of fact, you need to know your commitment monthly to stay afload. And by knowing your numbers, you know exactly how much you can/should/must charge your client.

Dare To Be Bold

If you are new in web designing, you will probably be worried about your design and I get it.

However, if you are bold to speak up and show to the world, you will tend to get more constructive feedbacks. Feedbacks will help you grow further and it goes a long way when it comes to maintaining a home based web design business.

By now, you should understand that web designing services can be a very competitive business. You are not only a graphic artist, but a graphic designer. An artist has no boundaries, but a designer must abide by technological standards like user interface, color theory, typography, grids and layouts. Finding a balance between the two will prove you to be successful.

Marketing Mindset

Here’s a problem with home based business — you are the only employee in the company!

If you want to start a home based web design, you need to have the marketing mindset because your business counts on it.

How should you market your home based web design business?

Facebook marketing for sure and here are some reason why:
- Highly affordable
- Able to reach a wide range of audience
- Easy to setup
- check-circleEveryone uses Facebook (at least once a day)
Sales Mindset

Last but not least, having the right sales mindset is important if you want success in starting a home based web design business.

Remember that you are the only one in the company?

You need to sharpen the sales pitch and close as many clients as possible. You need to be confident and excitedly (etically) brags about every aspect of your work.

Of course, being humble is still an important factor in any business.

I totally understand if sales is not your cup of tea, but if you want to be successful, having the right strategy is critical for your business.

Ready to start a home based web design business?

Start now! It is never too late … even when you do not have coding skills.

MUST READ: How To Earn Money From Web Design As Beginner?
April 4, 2024