My question is on behalf of a friend who wants to move her website from another platform (a custom-made one that her designer did) to WordPress. Is it complicated? And is it worth DIYing it or getting a professional on board?
Thanks for your question! The answer all depends on how complicated the existing website is, and how close your friend would like the new one to look, design-wise. If it’s a small site and not too much work to copy and paste over content, then I would say the best avenue is to install WordPress and a premium theme (find one that has a similar layout to the current site) into a separate directory on the existing domain. Then, customise it as much as possible to look like the current site. Set up pages, posts, and copy the content over. At that point, if there are still changes to be made, your friend could bring in a developer to put the “icing on the cake.” Once it’s ready to go, a developer or a knowledgable techie can “point” the domain at the new site in the subdirectory.
However, if it’s a larger site, it might be worth consulting with a developer from the get-go.
Feel free to post the current site URL here so I can take a closer look. Or send it via email to tessa@wpsupergeek.com.
Having said all of that, I find that a lot of clients who migrate sites over to WordPress like to use it as an excuse for a fresh design as well!
Actually, I believe that it is possible to get great SEO results with WordPress. You are correct about using the Yoast plugin, and using webmaster tools. What I would suggest for you is to consult with an SEO expert to get some keyword research done. You need to make sure that you are optimising the keywords and the copy on your site for search. For instance, you need to make sure that your meta description is readable by actual humans, as this will show up with your Google results.
When I google “ttslice,” the results I get from your site aren’t very readable, so this is something you can work on. Compare that to when you google “WP SuperGeek” and you will see what I mean.
It takes time to get good results in Google! There are other things you can do, like getting backlinks.
I’m not sure what the other bugs are that you are referring to, but I have tried using Joomla, and I found it far less user-friendly than WordPress.
In line three I changed true to false. i wanted to delete the default “Home” tab. And now I am getting the following error message when trying to access the website:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘;’ in /home4/chayaz/public_html/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/functions.php on line 194
Any thoughts on how I can access my website again.
If you change code like this in your site and then can’t access the admin area, you’ll need to access your website via FTP. Have you done this before?
If not, you’ll need an FTP program. My favourite is CyberDuck. Then, use the FTP information sent to your by your web hosting when you first signed up. Open the connection to your website, and find the theme folder for Twenty Twelve (inside wp_content). You can change the functions file there.
That should fix things for now. In the future, I would advise to always make code changes via FTP. Then you can easily change things back, if something breaks.
A better way to remove the “Home” item from the menu bar in Twenty Twelve is to use custom menus (Appearance>Menus) to create the menu you want.
So cool to see you are a woman superherogeekster!
Thanks for replying to my post on Berkeley Parents Network about starting a WordPress site. The plot thickens… I already have a wordpress site running on my website which someone kindly set up for me. I manage it and upload new stuff etc but have NO idea how she did it!
Next is: I want to start a new blog, a separate one. I’ve already bought the domain name through Dreamhost (they host my other domain name, which is a .me) and I have no idea how to begin blogging or where. I imagine I need to first set up a WordPress site…. I think you said in your post something about wordpress.org being linked to a domain name…..
My question is: What do I need to set up so that I can use my new .me domain name… ? Thanks so much! Shani
If Dreamhost already host your domain name, you can choose to host your website with them as well, or you can host it elsewhere. If you host it elsewhere, you’ll need to point your domain name to the other hosting. This is called “name servers.” The hosting service will tell you the name servers to use, and you’ll need to log into your account at Dreamhost and update them there.
If you use Dreamhost to host your website, you should just be able to add it to your current plan. Is your existing WordPress site on your Dreamhost account? If so, then the easiest thing to do would be to set up a new website on the same account. Then you won’t have extra charges.
Once you’ve decided where to host the site, you can install WordPress there and get going.
If you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of this page, you will be sent a free copy of my Using WordPress guide – this should be enough to get you started.
If you want more one-on-one help, feel free to contact me on the “Services” page here.
Hi
suddenly my site gone off i couldnot see it online i can access in wordpress dashboard but its off when i write the URL it gives me
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘<' in /home3/amira/public_html/wp-content/themes/covertstorebuilder/header.php on line 155
how can i solve it
thanks
It looks like you have an error in the code of your theme. Can you access Appearance>Themes in the Dashboard? If so, you can activate a different theme and see if the site now works.
If you can’t access the site’s Dashboard, you will need to fix the issue through FTP.
If you want to use that theme again, you’ll need to correct the code error in the header.php file.
Hey, I need to figure out how to center my logo on wordpress. Ive searched for hours and can’t seem to find out how to center my logo image on my website
Thanks for writing in! This is something that depends on the theme you’re using. What theme is it, and what’s your website URL? I can have a look and see if I can help you out.
I have a question about my website’s file size. I found out today it’s 20GB, and I’m having trouble downloading backups because it keeps timing out.
Apart from deleting old images that are taking up too much space (I should’ve listened to you in the early days and not uploaded big files, only to edit them within WP later), is there anything else you’d suggest to reduce my file size?
As for downloading backups … I’ve heard I can FTP it. Does that sound wise?
Are you talking about the website files specifically, or the database backup?
That’s huge for a database backup, so I hope that’s not it! But if it’s the files, you’re right, images could be a fair chunk of that. But potentially there are other things chewing up space, like automatic backup files, cache files, etc. You should be able to see these things if you open the zipped backup file.
For downloading backups, some backup plugin will deposit a folder in your FTP that you can download. But you can also generate backups from your cPanel which then download directly as a zip file. This might help with a large-sized file as well.
For the past few days, i’m unable to access my blog or any other blog. I simply get the message ‘ webpage not available’. Only ‘Blogs I follow’,’my sites’ and ‘stats’ are working fine. I can’t even access my dashboard or the forum. I have a only one plug-in for ‘ to the top’ arrow in the blog .
I’ve changed my password, run securi scan.
Can you suggest what is wrong with my blog and how I can solve it.
It looks like you’re using WordPress.com. Have you tried contacting their support: http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/? I can view your website just fine, so it’s hard to tell what the problem is.
HI Tessa,
I hope you are able to give me some quick advice on this issue with infinite scroll I posted on wordpress.org’s forums http://bit.ly/1xCp15k. I have not had any replies yet on it. I have tried so many things and I think it might be something to do with being a child theme.
Thanks for your question! I don’t have any personal experience with the infinite scroll function of Jetpack, but I can certainly do some investigation and try to help you out. What’s the name of your child theme? Or have you created it yourself?
I received an email from my webhost, saying they’ll delete my back up files (that my assistant created for me). What do you recommend I do?
***
Email from webhost here:
“The account XXXXXX on gator4007 contains a large amount of data and after an initial review, the content does not appear to be a part of your website. The account is being used for general file storage, which is not permitted by our terms of service. Shared hosting space may only be used for active email, website files and content. For reference, this is outlined in the acceptable use policies for Using a shared account as a backup/storage device.
56G /home3/XXXXXXXX/public_html/wp-content/backupwordpress-186f2cab87-backups
76G /home3/XXXXXXXX/public_html/wp-content/uploads/backupbuddy_backups
131G total
We have not removed any files at this time, but this data must be removed within 7 days of this notice.
If you require assistance in transferring the content off-server or deleting large files and directories, let us know and we can discuss your options and help you choose the best solution. Please note that if we are asked to remove content, the change is permanent, and no data recovery options are available.
Please respond to this email as soon as possible and let us know how you intend to address this issue. If no reply is received we will remove these files to improve disk performance and reliability for all users on the server. If you need additional time, simply let us know, and we will make all reasonable accommodations.”
Thanks for getting in touch! It must be worrying to think of your backup files getting deleted.
However, it’s not really best practice to store your backup files on your server itself. If you think about it, the reason you are creating backup files is so that you can restore them if the server goes down. If there’s a problem with the server, then your backup files themselves are likely to be affected, too!
The best thing to do is to have your backup files saved to a third-party location in the cloud – Backup Buddy’s Stash storage is ideal for this purpose. You can configure the Backup Buddy settings to send directly there. You can also download backups to your computer.
Hi WP Supergeek Tess,
My question is on behalf of a friend who wants to move her website from another platform (a custom-made one that her designer did) to WordPress. Is it complicated? And is it worth DIYing it or getting a professional on board?
Hi Erin,
Thanks for your question! The answer all depends on how complicated the existing website is, and how close your friend would like the new one to look, design-wise. If it’s a small site and not too much work to copy and paste over content, then I would say the best avenue is to install WordPress and a premium theme (find one that has a similar layout to the current site) into a separate directory on the existing domain. Then, customise it as much as possible to look like the current site. Set up pages, posts, and copy the content over. At that point, if there are still changes to be made, your friend could bring in a developer to put the “icing on the cake.” Once it’s ready to go, a developer or a knowledgable techie can “point” the domain at the new site in the subdirectory.
However, if it’s a larger site, it might be worth consulting with a developer from the get-go.
Feel free to post the current site URL here so I can take a closer look. Or send it via email to tessa@wpsupergeek.com.
Having said all of that, I find that a lot of clients who migrate sites over to WordPress like to use it as an excuse for a fresh design as well!
Hope that saved the day…
WP SuperGeek Tessa
Thanks Tessa! I will pass this info onto my friend 🙂
Hi Zaakir,
Thanks for your comment!
Actually, I believe that it is possible to get great SEO results with WordPress. You are correct about using the Yoast plugin, and using webmaster tools. What I would suggest for you is to consult with an SEO expert to get some keyword research done. You need to make sure that you are optimising the keywords and the copy on your site for search. For instance, you need to make sure that your meta description is readable by actual humans, as this will show up with your Google results.
When I google “ttslice,” the results I get from your site aren’t very readable, so this is something you can work on. Compare that to when you google “WP SuperGeek” and you will see what I mean.
It takes time to get good results in Google! There are other things you can do, like getting backlinks.
I’m not sure what the other bugs are that you are referring to, but I have tried using Joomla, and I found it far less user-friendly than WordPress.
I hope that saved the day!
WP SuperGeek Tessa
Hi, i messed up my wordpress twenty twelve Theme functions. I only changed the following code:
function twentytwelve_page_menu_args( $args ) {
if ( ! isset( $args[‘show_home’] ) )
$args[‘show_home’] = true;
return $args;
}
add_filter( ‘wp_page_menu_args’, ‘twentytwelve_page_menu_args’ );
In line three I changed true to false. i wanted to delete the default “Home” tab. And now I am getting the following error message when trying to access the website:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘;’ in /home4/chayaz/public_html/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/functions.php on line 194
Any thoughts on how I can access my website again.
Hi simbarashe,
Sounds like you’re in a pickle!
If you change code like this in your site and then can’t access the admin area, you’ll need to access your website via FTP. Have you done this before?
If not, you’ll need an FTP program. My favourite is CyberDuck. Then, use the FTP information sent to your by your web hosting when you first signed up. Open the connection to your website, and find the theme folder for Twenty Twelve (inside wp_content). You can change the functions file there.
That should fix things for now. In the future, I would advise to always make code changes via FTP. Then you can easily change things back, if something breaks.
A better way to remove the “Home” item from the menu bar in Twenty Twelve is to use custom menus (Appearance>Menus) to create the menu you want.
Hope that saved the day…
WP SuperGeek Tessa
Hi Tessa /Supergeek!
So cool to see you are a woman superherogeekster!
Thanks for replying to my post on Berkeley Parents Network about starting a WordPress site. The plot thickens… I already have a wordpress site running on my website which someone kindly set up for me. I manage it and upload new stuff etc but have NO idea how she did it!
Next is: I want to start a new blog, a separate one. I’ve already bought the domain name through Dreamhost (they host my other domain name, which is a .me) and I have no idea how to begin blogging or where. I imagine I need to first set up a WordPress site…. I think you said in your post something about wordpress.org being linked to a domain name…..
My question is: What do I need to set up so that I can use my new .me domain name… ? Thanks so much! Shani
Hi Shani!
Thanks for the comment. 🙂
If Dreamhost already host your domain name, you can choose to host your website with them as well, or you can host it elsewhere. If you host it elsewhere, you’ll need to point your domain name to the other hosting. This is called “name servers.” The hosting service will tell you the name servers to use, and you’ll need to log into your account at Dreamhost and update them there.
If you use Dreamhost to host your website, you should just be able to add it to your current plan. Is your existing WordPress site on your Dreamhost account? If so, then the easiest thing to do would be to set up a new website on the same account. Then you won’t have extra charges.
Once you’ve decided where to host the site, you can install WordPress there and get going.
If you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of this page, you will be sent a free copy of my Using WordPress guide – this should be enough to get you started.
If you want more one-on-one help, feel free to contact me on the “Services” page here.
Good luck!
WP SuperGeek Tessa
Hi
suddenly my site gone off i couldnot see it online i can access in wordpress dashboard but its off when i write the URL it gives me
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘<' in /home3/amira/public_html/wp-content/themes/covertstorebuilder/header.php on line 155
how can i solve it
thanks
Hi,
It looks like you have an error in the code of your theme. Can you access Appearance>Themes in the Dashboard? If so, you can activate a different theme and see if the site now works.
If you can’t access the site’s Dashboard, you will need to fix the issue through FTP.
If you want to use that theme again, you’ll need to correct the code error in the header.php file.
I hope that helped save the day!
Tessa
Hey, I need to figure out how to center my logo on wordpress. Ive searched for hours and can’t seem to find out how to center my logo image on my website
Hi Chris,
Thanks for writing in! This is something that depends on the theme you’re using. What theme is it, and what’s your website URL? I can have a look and see if I can help you out.
WP SuperGeek Tessa
Hi Super Tess!
I have a question about my website’s file size. I found out today it’s 20GB, and I’m having trouble downloading backups because it keeps timing out.
Apart from deleting old images that are taking up too much space (I should’ve listened to you in the early days and not uploaded big files, only to edit them within WP later), is there anything else you’d suggest to reduce my file size?
As for downloading backups … I’ve heard I can FTP it. Does that sound wise?
Thanks, SuperGeek!
Erin
Hi Erin!
Thanks again for your question.
Are you talking about the website files specifically, or the database backup?
That’s huge for a database backup, so I hope that’s not it! But if it’s the files, you’re right, images could be a fair chunk of that. But potentially there are other things chewing up space, like automatic backup files, cache files, etc. You should be able to see these things if you open the zipped backup file.
For downloading backups, some backup plugin will deposit a folder in your FTP that you can download. But you can also generate backups from your cPanel which then download directly as a zip file. This might help with a large-sized file as well.
I hope that helps!
WP SuperGeek Tessa
Hi Tessa,
For the past few days, i’m unable to access my blog or any other blog. I simply get the message ‘ webpage not available’. Only ‘Blogs I follow’,’my sites’ and ‘stats’ are working fine. I can’t even access my dashboard or the forum. I have a only one plug-in for ‘ to the top’ arrow in the blog .
I’ve changed my password, run securi scan.
Can you suggest what is wrong with my blog and how I can solve it.
Hoping for the best,
Mamta
Hi Mamta,
It looks like you’re using WordPress.com. Have you tried contacting their support: http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/? I can view your website just fine, so it’s hard to tell what the problem is.
Good luck!
Tessa
HI Tessa,
I hope you are able to give me some quick advice on this issue with infinite scroll I posted on wordpress.org’s forums http://bit.ly/1xCp15k. I have not had any replies yet on it. I have tried so many things and I think it might be something to do with being a child theme.
Any help would be appreciated.
Take care,
Sherrie
Hi Sherrie,
Thanks for your question! I don’t have any personal experience with the infinite scroll function of Jetpack, but I can certainly do some investigation and try to help you out. What’s the name of your child theme? Or have you created it yourself?
Tessa
Hi Tessa,
I received an email from my webhost, saying they’ll delete my back up files (that my assistant created for me). What do you recommend I do?
***
Email from webhost here:
“The account XXXXXX on gator4007 contains a large amount of data and after an initial review, the content does not appear to be a part of your website. The account is being used for general file storage, which is not permitted by our terms of service. Shared hosting space may only be used for active email, website files and content. For reference, this is outlined in the acceptable use policies for Using a shared account as a backup/storage device.
56G /home3/XXXXXXXX/public_html/wp-content/backupwordpress-186f2cab87-backups
76G /home3/XXXXXXXX/public_html/wp-content/uploads/backupbuddy_backups
131G total
We have not removed any files at this time, but this data must be removed within 7 days of this notice.
If you require assistance in transferring the content off-server or deleting large files and directories, let us know and we can discuss your options and help you choose the best solution. Please note that if we are asked to remove content, the change is permanent, and no data recovery options are available.
Please respond to this email as soon as possible and let us know how you intend to address this issue. If no reply is received we will remove these files to improve disk performance and reliability for all users on the server. If you need additional time, simply let us know, and we will make all reasonable accommodations.”
Hi Erin,
Thanks for getting in touch! It must be worrying to think of your backup files getting deleted.
However, it’s not really best practice to store your backup files on your server itself. If you think about it, the reason you are creating backup files is so that you can restore them if the server goes down. If there’s a problem with the server, then your backup files themselves are likely to be affected, too!
The best thing to do is to have your backup files saved to a third-party location in the cloud – Backup Buddy’s Stash storage is ideal for this purpose. You can configure the Backup Buddy settings to send directly there. You can also download backups to your computer.
I hope this saved the day!
Tessa