Why Are You Seeing v=XXXX String in Your WordPress URLs?

This string appears on websites running an online store using WooCommerce. It is not a bug or an error, but an actual feature of the plugin.

The purpose of this string is to help WooCommerce calculate tax and shipping based on a user’s geographic location. The string helps make the feature compatible with WordPress caching plugins like WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache.

However, if you don’t need to calculate shipping and taxes based on different locations, then you probably accidentally enabled this feature.

Let’s take a look at how to easily disable it and remove the random v=xxxxxx strings from your WordPress URLs.

Removing v=xxxx String from WordPress URLs

First you need to login to your WordPress admin area and head over to the WooCommerce » Settings page.

Under the General tab, you need to scroll down to ‘Default customer location’ option.

It would be set to ‘Geolocate (with page caching support)’. You need to change it to either ‘No location by default’ or ‘Shop base address’.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

If you are using a caching plugin, then you will need to clear your WordPress cache. After that you can visit your website, and the geolocation string will disappear from your WordPress URLs.

ِ

How to GeoLocate Default Location Without the URL String?

You can do that by selecting the ‘Geolocate’ option in the ‘Default customer location’ setting.

However, this option is not compatible with static caching plugins, and it will show incorrect shipping and tax information to users due to previously cached page.

Running WooCommerce without caching is not recommended because it will slow down your site’s speed and performance.

If you must use Geolocate to calculate shipping and taxes on the fly, then for the time being you will have to tolerate the ugly v=xxxx string in your WordPress URLs.

We hope this article helped you learn how to remove v=xxxx string from your WordPress URLs. You may also want to see our ultimate list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

What Causes Unable to Establish Secure Connection Error in WordPress?

WordPress comes with a built-in system to manage updates. This system regularly checks for updates and show notifications for you to install plugin / theme updates.

However, it needs to connect to the WordPress.org website in order to check for updates or install them. Due to some misconfiguration on your WordPress hosting server, your website may fail to connect with WordPress.org website.

This will result in a secure connection error, and you will see an error message like this:

An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server’s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the support forums. (WordPress could not establish a secure connection to WordPress.org. Please contact your server administrator.) in /home/username/public_html/wp-admin/includes/update.php on line 122

That being said, let’s see how to easily fix secure connection error in WordPress.

Fixing Secure Connection Error in WordPress

There are multiple ways to fix the unexpected secure connection error in WordPress. You can try one of the following solutions based on your situation.

Hosting and Server Related Issues

If your shared hosting server is under DDoS attack, then it is likely that the connection to WordPress.org will timeout causing the secure connection error.

In that case, you can wait for a few minutes and try again. If the error persists, then you need to reach out to your web hosting company’s support team.

Cloud or VPS Server Connectivity Issue

If you are on a cloud or VPS hosting, then it is possible that your server is unable to connect to WordPress.org due to some DNS issues.

In that case, you can point your server directly to WordPress.org servers. You will need to connect to your server using SSH.

SSH is short for secure shell which is an encrypted protocol that allows you to connect to your server using command line tools.

Windows users can use a tool called PuTTy whereas Mac / Linux users can use the terminal app.

You will need login credentials for the account with shell access to your hosting account. You can get this information from your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard or ask your web hosting server provider.

In the terminal, you can connect to your server like this:

۱

ssh username@example.com

Don’t forget to replace username with your own username and example.com with your own domain name.

Once connected, you need to run the following command:

۱

sudo nano /etc/hosts

This will open a file, and you will need to add the following code at the bottom of the file:

۱

۶۶٫۱۵۵٫۴۰٫۲۰۲ api.wordpress.org

You can now save your changes and exit the the editor. Visit your website to see if this resolved the error.

Fixing WordPress Secure Connection Error on Localhost

If you are running WordPress on your own computer (localhost), then you may not have cURL extension enabled for PHP. This extension is required to access WordPress.org for updates.

You will need to edit the php.ini file on your computer. This file is usually located in the PHP folder of your Mamp, Xampp, or WAMP folder.

If you are on a Windows computer, then look for the following line:

;extension=php_curl.dll

Mac and Linux users would have to look for this line:

;extension=curl.so

Now you need to remove the semicolon before the text to enable the extension. Don’t forget to save your php.ini file.

Lastly, don’t forget to restart the Apache server for changes to take affect.

Check Open Ports in Firewall

If cURL extension is properly installed on your local server, then the next step is to check your internet connection firewall.

Your computer’s firewall may be blocking outgoing connections from local server to WordPress.org. If you are on Windows, then press the start button and search for Windows Firewall. Mac users can find firewall settings in System Preferences » Security & Privacy

You need to add Apache to your firewall’s allowed programs and allow both incoming and outgoing connections.

You will need to restart Apache for changes to take effect.

We hope this article helped you solve the WordPress secure connection error. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress security guide for beginners.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Why and When You Should Turn Off PHP Errors in WordPress?

PHP errors that you can see on your WordPress site are usually warnings and notices. These are not like internal server error, syntax errors, or fatal errors, which stop your website from loading.

Notices and warnings are the kind of errors that do not stop WordPress from loading your website. See how WordPress actually works behind the scenes for more details.

The purpose of these errors are to help developers debug issues with their code. Plugin and theme developers need this information to check for compatibility and best practices.

However, if you are not developing a theme, plugin, or a custom website, then these errors should be hidden. Because if they appear on the front-end of your website to all your visitors, it looks extremely unprofessional.

If you see an error like above on on your site, then you may want to inform the respective theme or plugin developer. They may release a fix that would make the error go away. Meanwhile, you can also turn these errors off.

Let’s take a look at how to easily turn off PHP errors, notices, and warnings in WordPress.

Turning off PHP Errors in WordPress

For this part, you will need to edit the wp-config.php file.

Inside your wp-config.php file, look for the following line:

۱

define( WP_DEBUG , true);

It is also possible, that this line is already set to false. In that case, you’ll see the following code:

۱

define( WP_DEBUG , false);

In either case, you need to replace this line with the following code:

۱

۲

۳

۴

ini_set( display_errors , Off );

ini_set( error_reporting , E_ALL );

define( WP_DEBUG , false);

define( WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY , false);

Don’t forget to save your changes and upload your wp-config.php file back to the server.

You can now visit your website to confirm that the PHP errors, notices, and warnings have disappeared from your website.

Turning on PHP Errors in WordPress

If you are working on a website on local server or staging area, then you may want to turn on error reporting. In that case you need to edit your wp-config.php file and replace the code you added earlier with the following code:

۱

۲

define( WP_DEBUG , true);

define( WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY , true);

This code will allow WordPress to start displaying PHP errors, warnings, and notices again.

We hope this article helped you learn how to turn off php errors in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

What does this Plugin do?

It adds a live retweet button which utilizes the Twitter @anywhere live tweet box API and light box effect.

Easy to follow Admin panel

To download this plugin simply visit the official Plugin Page:

Download Retweet Anywhere

By the end of this article, you will have answers to all your questions about building an email list.

What is an Email List and Why is it so Important?

An email list is a list of names and email addresses of people who gave you permission to send them updates and promotions from your business via email.

Why is this so important?

Because these subscribers joined your email list from your website and verified their identity by clicking on a link (double-optin). They are extremely interested in what you have to offer.

According to Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in USA.

In our business, email lists get 10 times higher conversions than social media campaigns. This makes sense if you think about these five advantages of email as a communication channel:

Email is Personal – Email allows you to land into a user’s inbox. There is no ranking system limiting your reach. It is very direct, personal, and casual.

Email is Purposeful – To get your email a user needs to signup for your email list and confirm their email address. Someone doing this much work is obviously interested in hearing from you, and they are much more receptive to your message.

Email is Targeted – As we mentioned earlier the user has already shown interest in your products / content. Since you already know what they like, you can deliver them highly relevant content and offers to get better results. This is called segmentation, and we will cover that later in the article.

You Own Your Email List – You do not own Facebook, Twitter, or Google. Your social media campaigns and SEO efforts can go to waste when these platform change their policies. On the other hand, you own your email list, and it is not influenced by decisions of other businesses.

Email is One-on-One – People read email in the privacy of their inbox. The message is not on a public timeline or newsfeed. They can ask you questions directly in private with confidence. This helps build trust and connection.

This is precisely why every smart business in the world has an email list.

Big name brands learned this lesson a long time ago, and that’s why they spend thousands of dollars on social media campaigns to get people to sign up for their email lists.

They understand that email marketing is the best long term investment with a much higher return. Because people will continue to get their message at a very low cost for a longer period of time.

Social Media vs Email Marketing

Now you’re probably thinking, wait a minute. What about social media?

A lot of social media experts and consultants, in an attempt to sell their services, downplay the importance of an email list.

In fact, we have even been asked isn’t email marketing kind of dead with social media taking over everything?

The best way to answer this question is to look at the information Twitter and Facebook ask you before you create an account:

Yup, it’s an email address. Because these companies know that emails are the most direct and reliable way of getting in touch.

All social media platforms are building an email list because they are smart business owners. This helps their valuation when selling their business.

While social media is a great way to reach your audience, it’s important to keep in perspective the timely nature of social media platforms.

They come and go.

Not too long ago we had MySpace, FriendFeed, Google Buzz, Plurk and countless others. Most of them are either dead now or irrelevant.

Today we have Facebook and Twitter, but not everyone is as hooked up on these sites. Some prefer other places like Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Snapchat, etc.

But studies show that at least 91% of consumers check their email on a daily basis.

We are not saying that social media is not important. It is, and you should explore every opportunity to reach out to your audiences.

However you should spend more time and effort into something that guarantees much higher results.

What You Need to Start Building an Email List?

Hopefully by now, you should know why building an email list is so important, and why ignoring it would be a HUGE mistake.

So let’s take a look at what you need to start building your email list.

۳ Things You Need to Build an Email List:

A website or blog.

An email marketing service.

High-converting opt-in forms

All three of these are fairly easy to setup, and none of them require you to know how to code.

For the sake of this article, we will only be focusing on the last two items in the list. If you don’t have a website or blog yet, then see our step by step guide on how to start a blog.

Choosing the Best Email Marketing Service

There are tons of email marketing services online. Often beginners use the free options to save cost, which is understandable. However, some of those free platforms are not the best option. Why?

Services like FeedBurner or Jetpack Subscriptions offer blog subscription via email. This allows your users to receive an email update every time you publish a new blog post.

The downside to a blog notification service like this are:

You will have to create a blog post to send an email. This means that information you want to share will have to be publicly available first. You can’t send out private email newsletters.

You can’t personalize the email message. It will be delivered in the same format often with no branding or personalization.

You can’t categorize subscribers by interests, demographics, or content type.

There is no reporting. You don’t know how many people got email, what percentage of users opened it, and how many of them clicked on links.

If you later tried to move to a paid service, your users will have to re-confirm their subscription. Many of them will not do it, and you will end up losing subscribers.

This is why we ALWAYS recommend using a professional email marketing service. Yes, they cost a little bit of money, but they are an investment in your business which pays huge returns.

The benefit of professional email marketing services are:

You can send private mass emails to your subscribers.

You can see subscriber activity and group your subscribers based on actions they take.

You can run A/B split tests to see which email subject line, content, and offers work best with your subscribers.

With reporting tools, you can see which country you have the most subscribers from. You can adjust your timezone preferences, and send emails at the right time.

Last, but definitely the most important, you can see the email addresses of all your subscribers.

There are hundreds of professional email marketing services available, but we have compiled a list of the best email marketing services.

For small businesses, we recommend using Constant Contact because they are one of the largest and fastest growing email marketing services in the world.

They offer a 60 day free trial. This gives you plenty of time to setup and start seeing the results. At the end of 60 days, your email list would likely be paying for itself (cost $20 / month). Start your free trial.

Because we know people often like to see options before they make a decision, we also recommend AWeber. They are another popular email marketing service provider, and they offer our users a 30-day free trial.

Once you have signed up with an email marketing service, the next step is to add opt-in forms to your website to allow your users to subscribe.

Growing Your Email List and Getting More Subscribers

While choosing the right email marketing service is important, getting more subscribers is even more important because this is how you make money.

The biggest mistake beginners make is not strategically placing high-converting opt-in forms.

While some WordPress themes come with built-in sidebar widgets, they don’t convert as well. Your email marketing service may also provide you with codes to embed in your theme, but that requires you to know how to code.

This is why we recommend our users to use OptinMonster. It is the most powerful conversion optimization software that helps you convert abandoning website visitors into subscribers and customers.

You can easily create high-converting optin forms such as lightbox popups, floating header and footer bars, slide-in scroll boxes, fullscreen welcome mat, after post and inline forms, and more.

But what makes OptinMonster really powerful is the behavior automation and personalization features. OptinMonster allows you to automatically show different opt-in forms based on where the user is coming from, which page they are visiting, and what they are doing on your website.

For example, the Exit-Intent® feature track your users mouse behavior and show them a targeted opt-in form at the precise moment they are about to leave. This helps you convert abandoning visitors into subscribers.

This is important because over 70% of people leaving your website will never return.

That’s why influencers like Michael Hyatt, Neil Patel, and Social Media Examiner use exit-intent on their websites. It helped Social Media Examiner add over 95,000 new subscribers in 7 months.

But for smaller businesses, this is even more crucial. Nicolas Gagne, a small business owner, combined Constant Contact with a single exit-intent optin to grow his email list by 500%. This helped him triple his revenue from his online store (see the full case study).

There are tons more case studies and OptinMonster reviews that you can read as well.

Get started with OptinMonster today — Use the coupon WPB10 to get 10% off.

Note: OptinMonster was started by WPBeginner’s founder, Syed Balkhi, because he wanted to get more email subscribers, faster. It helped us increase our email signups by 600%. Due to popular request, we released this tool for public, and now it’s the most recommended lead generation software in the market.

List Building Strategies and Resources

Having the right tools is crucial, but knowing how to use them properly is what makes the most difference.

In your email marketing strategy, the most important thing you should plan out is segmentation. This is the process of grouping your subscribers, so you can better personalize your emails based on interest. It helps you get higher open rates and click-through rates. This definitive guide to email marketing has all the information you need to segment your email list like a pro.

Content Upgrades are the highest converting opt-in forms. It’s a technique where you give your users bonus content at the end of your popular blog posts. These usually convert 5 times higher than a regular opt-in. Here are some content upgrade ideas that you should check out. We have written a guide on how to add content upgrades in WordPress.

If you’re not sure how to create an opt-in form, then use this 63-point checklist for creating a high-converting optin form.

You may want to check out Kevin Duncan’s article on 16 ridiculously simple ways to get more email subscribers in less than 5 minutes.

In case you want more ideas, Mary Fernandez also shared 73 proven and simple ways to grow your email list that should get you going.

Conclusion

It does not matter what kind of business you run, what kind of website you have, or what industry you are in.

If you have a website, and you want to turn your visitors into returning customers, then you need to get them in your email list.

We hope this article helped you understand why building an email list is important and helped you get started on the right foot.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Why Create a Membership Site?

Membership sites allow you to increase your blogging revenue, but more importantly it allows you to build another community of exclusive users on top of your main blogging community. In membership sites, you will have more interaction with your audience because it is a selective group of users. You can provide them instant support, reply to each comments, and much more.

People often wonder what is the point of a membership site. Well, when you are creating quality content, then you deserve to be compensated. Membership sites are a win-win for bloggers and users because it guarantees quality content to users, and bloggers are guaranteed a regular income which encourages them to keep blogging. There will always be users who are strictly against this idea of premium content, but when use in moderation, membership sites can be a very profitable venue. ESPN still provides quality content, but their insider articles are even better. If you are a design blog, you can provide a tutorial for free, and give source file downloads to premium members ONLY. This way you are still providing quality content and earning a steady income.

For example, if you charge $10 / month for a membership fee and have 200 members, you will be making a steady $2000 / month.

How to Create a Membership Site using WordPress

WordPress is a very powerful platform. When you combine it with Magic Members, it becomes a very versatile membership site platform as well.

Now most of you are probably wondering what is Magic Members?

Magic Members is a WordPress plugin that lets you create Membership sites. Just like almost all WordPress plugins, it is very easy to install. All you have to do is simply upload the files via FTP and activate the plugin (Step by Step Guide to Install a WordPress plugin). Unlike other WordPress plugins (which are mostly free), Magic Members cost $97 for a Single Site License and $297 for unlimited sites license. This might seem like a pretty expensive plugin, but if you hire a developer to create something at a similar level, you will end up paying thousands of dollars.

Overview of Magic Members

Once you activate the plugin, you will see a new menu option added to your wp-admin panel called Magic Members. Once you click on that button, you will see that Magic Members has it’s own version of configuration panel.

You can see that there are bunch of features starting from adding member types, to controlling your content, payment options and more. So many features can be very confusing for beginner level users, which is why there is a support video attached to each section. These videos are step by step tutorials on how to configure that specific section. If you are still having problems with something, then there is FREE unlimited support. You can see how the videos are attached in the screenshot below:

Features

Multiple Membership Levels

You can offer different membership access to different areas (such as downloads, tutorials etc). You can charge separate for each area and increase your revenue stream.

Easy to integrate with Existing or New WordPress Blogs

It is a WordPress plugin that is compatible with all themes. All you have to do is follow few easy steps and let it work it’s magic.

Flexible Membership Options

Aside from multiple levels, you can set different membership billing options (weekly, yearly, trimester etc).

Payment Integration Modules

You can allow your members to pay with Paypal, Authorize.net, ClickBank, and WorldPay. You can pick one of them, or you can pick all of them, it is entirely up to you.

Control Subscription Length

You can control how long memberships are valid with membership expiration. Set different expiration for different user type. This feature works great for trial memberships.

Unlimited Coupon Creation

You can create a coupon to offer a fixed price or a percentage discount on current or new subscription payments.

Login Redirection

If you have multiple membership levels, you might want to redirect them to different landing pages. This features comes in handy when you are trying to send different member updates, news, and/or welcome messages.

Sequential Course Delivery System

If you are a building a course system with your membership site, then this feature is extremely useful. You can control when the content becomes available for users to see. For example, you can have a new lesson / day for 30 days.

Controlled Content Access

You can control which content is visible to each membership level. For example, standard members can only see the basic tutorials whereas Gold members can download source files.

Partial Content Display

You can use the shortcode [ private ] [ /private ] to hide exclusive content within the post. For example a download link to the PSD source file or something else. This feature is particularly useful in providing “teaser” articles that give just enough information that will make non-members want to become members.

Pay Per Post Access

There are times when users don’t want to pay a monthly fee when they only want to see a few articles. This option allows you to charge per post access. User will pay for the access of a specific post.

Entire Blog Protection

You can completely prevent non-members from accessing any information. Anytime a user tries to access a page, they will be redirected to the login page.

Custom Error Pages

Maintain a consistent look and feel across your entire membership site by easily creating custom error pages.

Secure RSS Tokens

This feature allows you to send content via RSS feeds without worrying about non-members accessing it.

Download Manager

This feature allows you to protect downloads from being accessed by unauthorized members and guests. Only users with a specific permission level can access the file.

Simple Member Management

Magic Members allows you to see all of your members, their status, level and other information in one easy to read location. You can easily upgrade, pause, deactivate or delete a member with a single click.

AutoResponder Integrations

Magic Members has seamless integration with Aweber, GetResponse and MailChimp.

Simple:Press Forum Integration

This allows you to turn your regular Simple:Press forum into a paid subscription forum.

Editorial Review

After playing around with the backend of Magic Members, we found it to be feature rich and extremely easy to use. It is worth every single penny it costs. We do not have any plans to make Premium Content on WPBeginner at this time, but it is something that we will consider in the future. If you want to increase the revenue from your blog, then Magic Members is the plugin you need.

Buy Magic Members Now

What is a WordPress XML Sitemap?

Sitemap is a list of pages on a website that is accessible to all users. An XML sitemap is a way for website owners to tell search engines about all the pages that exist on their website. WordPress XML sitemap also tells search engines which links on your website are more important than others and how frequently you update your website. While sitemaps do not boost your search rankings, it allows search engines to better crawl your website.

Why You Need an XML Sitemap

From a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) point of view sitemaps are extremely important. First we would like to clearly state that adding a sitemap does not affect search rankings. However, if there is some page on your site that is not indexed, then sitemap provide you a way to let search engines know about that page, so it can be indexed properly.

Sitemaps are very useful for new websites and blogs. As most new blogs usually don’t get many backlinks to their individual posts, it becomes harder for search engines to discover all of their posts and pages. Sitemaps allow those websites to help search engines crawl their sites more efficiently.

For popular websites, sitemaps allow your website to interact with search engines more effectively. Search engines can guess how often your site is updated, which parts of your website are more frequently updated than others, set crawl rate for your site, etc. This improves the overall visibility of your site to search engines.

Video Tutorial

Subscribe to WPBeginner

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

How to create a Sitemap in WordPress?

There are several ways to create an XML sitemap in WordPress. At WPBeginner, we use Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin to generate our sitemaps. We use this plugin because it allows us to optimize our blog posts along with offering other features such as sitemaps, social integration, and more. We have also noticed that it works more efficnelty than other standalone sitemap generators for WordPress. Lastly, it also offers custom sitemaps like the Video Sitemap.

To add a sitemap to your WordPress site, first thing you need to do is install and activate WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin. By default, WordPress SEO does not enable XML sitemap functionality, so you will have to turn it on. To do that go to SEO » XML Sitemaps and check the box to enable XML sitemap functionality.

When you check the box to enable XML sitemap functionality, WordPress SEO will show you a number of options that you can configure for your Sitemaps. If you are unsure about what to do with them, then ignore them and click on Save settings.

Now your sitemaps are generated and publicly accessible. WordPress SEO will show a XML Sitemap button which you can click to view your sitemap_index.xml sitemap.

How to Tell Search Engines About Sitemaps?

Search engines are quite smart in finding a sitemap. Whenever you publish new content a ping is sent to Google and Bing to inform them about changes in your sitemap. However, we recommend that you submit your sitemap to Google by using Google Webmaster tools. The benefit of this is that Google will now show you any errors, pages indexed, and other relevant stats that will be helpful to you as a webmaster.

Go to Google Webmaster Tools. If you are not already signed in to your Google account, then you will be asked to sign in. After signing in you will reach webmaster tools. There you will see “Add a site” button, click it and then add the URL of your website.

On the next screen you will be asked to verify the ownership of the website you are trying to add. There are several methods to do that. But since you are already using WordPress SEO plugin, then the easiest method for you is to copy the HTML Meta tag value and paste it in WordPress SEO plugin. To do that click on Alternate methods and then on HTML Tag. You will then see a line of HTML Meta tag code.

Copy and paste this line in a text editor like notepad. Now copy the value inside the content=””. Leave the webmaster tools site verification page open because we will come back to the page after adding the meta tag to verify the ownership of the website. Go to your WordPress admin area and then click on SEO tab. This will take you to WordPress SEO plugin’s dashboard. Scroll down, and you will see Webmaster Tools heading. Paste the meta tag value you copied next to Google Webmaster tools and Save Settings.

Go back to Google webmaster tools, site verification screen and press the verify button. You will see a notice like “Congratulations you have successfully verified your ownership of www.yoursite.com”. Click continue to see webmaster tools dashboard for your site.

On the next screen you will see Sitemaps column with no sitemaps in it. Clicking on it will take you to a Sitemaps page where you can add your sitemaps. Click on the red button labeled “Add/Test Sitemap” and provide the URL of your sitemap.

Yoasts WordPress SEO plugin publishes multiple sitemaps for your WordPress site. The main sitemap is sitemap_index.xml which contains link to your other sitemaps. You can either submit sitemap_index.xml alone or submit all other sitemaps one by one. We recommend submitting sitemap_index.xml alone, Google will then automatically discover other sitemaps and crawl them.

Once you have successfully added your sitemap, it will appear as pending. It will take Google sometime to crawl your website. After a while you would be able to see some stats about your sitemap. It will show you the number of links it found in your sitemap, how many of them got indexed, a ratio of images and web pages, etc.

Visit Google Webmaster tools often, at least once a month. As your site gets older you will start seeing more and more useful data about your website and how it is seen by the search engine. This information can help you learn how well your site is doing and what other things you can do to improve its performance in search engines.

We hope that it answered all the related questions like what is an XML sitemap, what are the benefits of a sitemap, how to create a sitemap in WordPress, and more. If you have any questions, or noticed that we missed something, then please leave a comment below.

Features

Monitors file system for added/deleted/changed files

Sends email when a change is detected

Multiple email formats for alerts

Administration area alert to notify you of changes in case email is not received

Ability to monitor files for changes based on file hash or timestamp

Ability to exclude directories from scan (for instance if you use a cacheing system that stores its files within the monitored zone)

Site URL included in notification email in case plugin is in use on multiple site

Download WordPress File Monitor

What does this plugin do?

Loads user’s avatar by matching the email address to the user’s Twitter email address.

If user doesn’t have a Twitter account, it first tries to load user’s gravatar. If user doesn’t have a gravatar, it loads a default image. This is an optional setting.

You can set a 2-pixel border to the images (you choose the color).

You can choose the sizes: Preferred ones are 24, 48 or 72 pixels.

You can set an image other than the default one to load if a user doesn’t have a Twitter account or a gravatar.

It builds a valid image for you (with alt and title attributes, etc.) based on user details.

Allows you to add a class to the image, so you can style it later.

Installation Guide

First download and activate the plugin. Then you would need to place this code in your comment(s).php where you want to display the avatar.

<?php twittar(size, placeholderimg, border, class, usegravatar, rating); ?>

Now you would need to change the parameter in the code using the guide below:

size

The size of the avatar (in pixels). Just insert the number (e.g. 45), without “px.” It is the size for both width and height.

placeholderimg

The URL for the image you want to use when the user has neither a Twitter account nor a gravatar. Must be inside quotes (””). Optional.

border

The color for the 2px border. Insert the hexadecimal code of the color (e.g. “#FFFFFF” with the “” marks) but only if you want to use one.

class

A CSS class that you want to use to style the avatar. For example: “myimg.” In the CSS, you would include .myimg { }. Put inside “”.

usegravatar

Just insert 1 if you want to use gravatars, and 0 if you don’t. If you choose to use gravatars, it will try to load a gravatar image if a Twitter account and picture is not found, otherwise it will load the placeholderimg (default) image directly.

rating

Parameter for gravatars only. Read more at www.gravatar.com.

Note: if you want to skip a parameter and add another in front of it, just replace it with “”.

For Example:

<?php twittar( 45 ,   ,   ,  myimg , 1,  R ); ?>

License: The plug-in is released under the GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. You may modify the plug-in as you wish.

Download the Plugin

Source: Smashing Magazine

Simply open a new php file and paste the following codes:

<?php

/*

Plugin Name: Block Bad Queries

Plugin URI: http://perishablepress.com/press/2009/12/22/protect-wordpress-against-malicious-url-requests/

Description: Protect WordPress Against Malicious URL Requests

Author URI: http://perishablepress.com/

Author: Perishable Press

Version: 1.0

*/

global $user_ID; if($user_ID) {

if(!current_user_can( level_10 )) {

if (strlen($_SERVER[ REQUEST_URI ]) > 255 ||

strpos($_SERVER[ REQUEST_URI ],  eval( ) ||

strpos($_SERVER[ REQUEST_URI ],  CONCAT ) ||

strpos($_SERVER[ REQUEST_URI ],  UNION SELECT ) ||

strpos($_SERVER[ REQUEST_URI ],  base64 )) {

@header( HTTP/1.1 414 Request-URI Too Long );

@header( Status: 414 Request-URI Too Long );

@header( Connection: Close );

@exit;

}

}

} ?>

Codes updated on Jan. 10, 2010.

Save this file and upload it in your plugin directory /wp-content/plugins/ and your work is done. This script will check for long strings as well as base64 code which was in the last attack and the eval( code which could be a threat in the future.

Once active, this plugin will silently and effectively close any connections for these sorts of injection-type attacks.

Source: Perishable Press