We have installed a set of WordPress Plugins to provide basic security and functionality for your Blog. We have also installed, but not Activated some additional Plugins you might wish to consider. There are numerous other Plugins available from WordPress you are free to use to expand your site, provided you remain within Guild guidelines.
There follows a description of the installed Plugins, along with any options selected, and any outstanding actions required. The Plugins are:
Security and Performance Plugins
Akismet: The purpose of Akismet is to protect your site from SPAM, particularly in the Comments that can be made on your Posts and Pages. Comments from new addresses will be held for moderation by you, but once you have Approved one Comment from an address, further Comments will be automatically Approved (note: these settings are customisable). Akismet will save you a lot of effort.
However you will need to activate Akismet and set up your own, free Personal non-Commercial Akismet account, and obtain your unique API key. The process is as follows:
- In the Dashboard Plugins – Installed Plugins. Select Akismet from the list and click on activate. You will see the Activate settings page with the old API key. Select the option Disconnect Account.
- You are now invited to Set uo your Akismet Account. This takes you to an Akismet Account setup screen in a separate tab.
- Select Personal Account.
- Although a personal account is free but you will be asked for a voluntary payment of £27/year. There is a slider to adjust the amount. Move it all the way to the left so it says £0/year and the payment details fields disappear.
- Fill out the email, first and last name, and URL fields, and check the three boxes to confirm your site has no ads, doesn’t sell products, and doesn’t promote businesses. Then press Continue with Personal Subscription.
- A verification code will be sent to the email address you entered above. Copy and paste this into the box provided.
- A sign up complete screen is presented with further instructions. A further email will be sent with your API key.
- Return to the tab with your Akismet settings screen and select ‘manually enter API key’.
- Copy and paste the key into the settings screen.
- Make any other desired settings changes. You might want the check the box to show the number of approved Comments from each Comment author.
- Save the changes. Your Akismet is activated.
Should a SPAM comment get past Akismet you should mark it as SPAM so Akismet can learn. Also you should regularly (weekly) check you SPAM folder for any genuine comments and mark them as ‘not SPAM’. This will make Akismet more accurate.
Limit login attempts reloaded: This limits the number of login attempts from an IP address allowed. The default settings are 4 attempts allowed before a lockout of 20 minutes. Four lockouts results in a 24 hour lockout. These can be altered but the defaults work OK. The only relevant logins are yours, and any associate administrators/publishers’, to the WordPress Administrator’s Dashboard. Registration and passwords for users are not implemented in the Template.
LiteSpeed Cache: This improves page caching performance. No action is required.
Wordfence Security: This provides a Firewall, and anti-virus, and anti malware scanning. A summary of threats it has encountered in the previous week is presented on the Dashboard. It also has its own Dashboard giving access to greater detail.
The only action necessary is to change the email address for Wordfence notifications to your own. This is found in Dashboard Wordfence – All Options.
reCapture: This puts a reCapture object on any form, including Comments, that users may use to communicate with you. It is in the form of a “I am not a Robot checkbox”. It is installed but not Activated. You may wish to consider this if you add a Contact Form to your site (see WP Forms Lite in the Functional Plugins section.
Functional Plugins
Subscribe2: Subscribe2 allows you to maintain a list of Subscribers to your Blog. It is described in detail on the Managing Subscribers Page.
WP Forms Lite: This allows you to design forms to allow users to contact you, login to your site etc. It is installed but not activated. You can activate it if and when you wish.
Sassy Social Share : This Plugin provides sharing icons to provide links to social media. There is a large number of icons to chose. The initial set of links chosen is:
- Facebook Like
- Tweet
There are options for a static and a floating set of icons. In the initial configuration the static icons are placed at the bottom of Pages and Posts, and the floating icons are disabled. Share counts are enabled. This can be reconfigured as you wish.
Activity Plugins
Page Views Count: This allows you to a place a visitor count on each Post and Page, and and a count of site visits in the Sidebar. It is set to show on Posts and Pages. This can be changed for Posts or Pages, and overridden for individual Posts or Pages.