Blogging Tips Archives - Page 19 of 36

How to automatically add the same text before or after every post in WordPress

Posted on November 14, 2020

Have you ever visited a blog and noticed that every post has the same block of text before and/or after the post content?

For example, some bloggers include a message asking the reader to subscribe to an email newsletter or share the post they are reading on social media sites.

If you have a block of text that you’d like to display before and/or after the content of each blog post, all you have to do is edit your WordPress theme’s functions.php file and add one or both of the following code snippets at the bottom. This post will tell you how to do that. [Read more…]

How to protect your WordPress blog from hackers with Two-Factor Authentication

Posted on November 5, 2020

With hackers and scammers attacking WordPress blogs right and left these days, it’s more important than ever to lock your blog down and make it as secure as possible.

There are several things you can do to harden the security of your blog, but one of the most effective methods of thwarting hackers is enabling Two-Factor Authentication on it.

I’ve used several different plugins for enabling two factor authentication on my own WordPress blogs, but I now use and recommend the awesome Google Authenticator plugin.

Google Authenticator is extremely easy to install and set up, and it’s even easier to use. Just follow the steps below. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I get the photos on my blog to show up in Google image searches?

Posted on October 27, 2020

Question from Ellen: I enjoy taking pictures and sharing them on Instagram and Facebook, and I’ve been doing that as a hobby for several years now.

Ten months ago I started a photo blog using WordPress to try to make some money from all the photos I’ve taken over the years.

The problem is I’m not getting much traffic from Google at all to my photos.

Is there something I can do to get the photos on my blog to show up in relevant Google image searches?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Tips for choosing a great domain name for your blog

Posted on October 19, 2020

Are planning to create your own self-hosted blog?

If so, one of your most critical tasks will be choosing a great domain name that matches your blog’s niche, keywords and title.

Your blog’s URL needs to be short enough for readers to remember, yet long enough to provide at least a hint at what your blog’s posts will be about.

Back when I was in the planning stage of creating this blog, I wanted a domain that included three things: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is Google saying my blog might be hacked?

Posted on October 5, 2020

Question from Brianna L.: I need your help, Rick. And I need it quick.

I woke up this morning to find several messages in my inbox telling me Google is reporting that my blog has been hacked.

I searched Google for my blog’s name and sure enough they’re showing this message with my site’s URLs in the search results:

“This site may be hacked.”

Then I checked my blog stats and found that the page views had dropped to almost nothing, literally overnight. They are usually in the thousands.

I carefully examined every page on my blog but I couldn’t find anything that resembles a hacked page.

After that I did a Google search and saw where someone was recommending a check for strange plugins that could be causing the problem. He said to look for plugins that I didn’t remember installing.

I checked the list of installed plugins but the only ones I found were the ones that I actually installed myself.

I have three questions for you: [Read more…]