Archive

How to Install and Configure Yoast SEO

In this tutorial we will show you how to add the YoastSEO plugin to your WordPress website. This plugin will assist you in understanding the main SEO rules and requirements for you website, and it will help you improve your overall Search Engine Rank. This plugin is written from the ground up by Joost de Valk and his team at Yoast to improve your site’s SEO in all aspects. The WordPress Yoast SEO plugin even goes the extra mileby taking care of all the technical optimizations needed for your website to rank higher.

To be able to use Yoast SEO for your WordPress website, you need to:

step

Install and Activate Yoast

First we will begin with the installation of the plugin. The process can be easily managed via your WordPress admin area by navigating to Plugins → Add new.

Type Yoast SEO in the plug-in search bar and click the Install Now button.

After the installation process has been completed, select the Activate Plugin option located below the installation log.

You will be prompted with a “Congratulations!” message. To get a quick introduction of the plugin features click the Start Tour button.

If you have missed the message you can always get a Tour by navigating to SEO→General.

What actually this plugin does once you activate it, is that it first and foremost helps you write better content. Yoast SEO forces you to choose a focus keyword when you’re writing your articles and then makes sure you use that focus keyword everywhere to increase their effectiveness.

step

Configure Titles and Metas Settings

In this and next few steps, we will explain the most important features of Yoast SEO and how to configure their settings once you have installed the plugin. Yoast SEO will have some of them pre-defined but depending on your website’s content, you might be able to tweak them even more.

After you have filled your details in the General section, access the Titles and Metas section.

In the General tab, focus your attention on the Force Rewrite option. Usually you won’t need to check mark this box as the plugin uses the wp_title tag when displaying SEO titles for posts and pages. However, some themes use a different code to display these elements and in those situations you will need to enable the Force Rewrite.

The Title Separator setting is totally depending on your taste as it does not affect the search results, but using dashes seems to be one of the cleanest options out of the bunch.

Next on the list is the Homepage tab. The most optimized structure for a Title Template is:

%%sitename%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitedesc%%

These variables will be replaced by the specific values from the page when the page is displayed.

Meta Description Template – This is the text that will appear under the site link in the search result. If you have the same content structure for every post you can use this template. If not, you will need to configure each post’s Meta Description when publishing it.

Post Types:

  • noindex, follow – By enabling this option, you are specifically notifying search engines to only follow the links but not add them to the search results. You can use this to avoid showing duplicate content by keeping the content out of the search engine result page (SERP).

Archives:

  • Author Archive – If you are the only content publisher in your blog, you will have to set this to noindex to prevent duplicate content.
  • Date Archive – This option does not provide important information to the search engines so leaving it as noindex is fine.
step

Configure Social Settings

As social media is being more integrated into our daily lives than ever, adding your social media accounts here is a good idea. This will connect them to your website and they might show up on the side of the SERP when someone is searching for your content.

  • Facebook – Check Add Open Graph meta data as this will allow you to define your own title, meta description and image for Facebook in the WordPress editor. You can also upload an image that will be used in the cases when your post does not contain one. If you have a Facebook page you can also add your admin here. This will provide you with information regarding the traffic of your Facebook Page is generating towards your website. Don’t forget to hit the Save Changes button when you are done.

  • Twitter – In this section, you will be able to enable a Twitter card and choose between Summary  and Summary with large image. The second choice seems to work better as it is more visible.
step

Configure XML Sitemap and Advanced Settings

Sitemaps are essential for WordPress SEO. They provide a roadmap for search engines to crawl your site and are the easiest way to notify them about changes to your content. However, having more than one plugin creating sitemaps will hurt your SEO as the search engines will try to crawl both of the sitemaps at the same time and will most likely miss part of the content while crawling.

  • Post Types – This option will allow you to exclude post types that you don’t want in your sitemaps. Usually media pages will not contribute to the SEO so they can be excluded. It is also a good practice to create custom exclusions for any post which you have set to noindex previously. This can be done via the Exclude Posts tab by entering the ID of the post.

Enabling Breadcrumbs will display the path the user has taken to get to the page they are currently viewing. This is very user friendly and also helps the search engines in orienting in the structure of your website. Yoast’s team recommends, that you enable this feature and you can implement it  by adding this code snippet into your theme’s header.php or above the page title in the:

page.php

<?php if ( function_exists('yoast_breadcrumb') )
{yoast_breadcrumb('<p id="breadcrumbs">','</p>');} ?>

Permalinks:

  • Redirect Attachments – This is especially good when your website features a lot of images. If enabled this will redirect users who find the image via Google to the post on your website instead of the attachment page of the image.
  • Remove Stop Words from Slugs – This option is very important as enabling it will remove all of the words which are ignored by search engines such as (and, at, to, it etc) from the URL of your posts. This may make some post URLs harder to read but will generally improve the SEO.
  • Replytocom Variable – Checking this will increase the crawl efficiency if your website has  a lot of comments as it removes the ?replytocom variable from comment reply links.
  • Clean up <head> – You can check all of the boxes here except the RSS links if your website uses RSS

RSS:
This feature is used to automatically add links back to your blog and your blog posts in the RSS, helping search engines identify you as the original source of the content. The pre-configured settings are well thought out and you might not change them.
Page Analysis:
Now let us move from the admin dashboard to the front-end of your website. Yoast SEO has added a few important features which you can use to analyze the page you are currently on. You can check your page for all of the important SEO markers by hovering over SEO in the admin bar and then clicking on the Analyze this page option.

Now you will be able to check:

  • Keyword density
  • Google Cache
  • Headers
  • Rich Snippets
  • Facebook Debugger
  • Pinterest Validator
  • HTML Validator
  • CSS Validator
  • Google Page Speed
  • Modern IE Site Scan (for Internet Explorer)

Note that the plugin won’t test your page but instead direct you to different tools available online that will do that for you. With this, we will conclude our tutorial on Yoast SEO. We hope that you will use what you have learned from it and unlock the full potential of your website by optimizing the search results for it.

How to Manually Install OpenCart

If your hosting provider does not have any OpenCart auto installers such as Softaculous or Fantastico you will need to manually install OpenCart on your hosting account.

To manually Install OpenCart, please follow these steps:

step

Download and extract the Installation Archive

To manually install OpenCart under your hosting account you will need to download it first from the official OpenCart website. You can use this direct link to the OpenCart download page.

Unless you need a specific OpenCart version we highly recommend to download the latest stable version for optimal performance and security. To download the OpenCart installation archive, please click on the download available on the OpenCart Download page.

After you have downloaded the installation archive, please unzip it on your local computer and navigate to the ‘Upload’ directory. You need to rename 2 files in order to successfully complete the installation process. The first is located under the Upload directory and it is called ‘config-dist.php‘. You should rename this file to ‘config.php‘. The second file is located under the ‘upload/admin‘ directory and it is also called ‘config-dist.php‘. Please rename this file to ‘config.php‘ as well.

step

Upload the files to your hosting account

When you are done, please start your favorite FTP program in order to upload the OpenCart installation files. If you are not sure how to use a FTP program you can check our FTP tutorial or upload and unzip the OpenCart installation archive via your cPanel → FileManager following our cPanel tutorial. The files that should be uploaded on your hosting account are located in the ‘upload’ folder included in the OpenCart installation archive.

If you would like to have your store accessible directly via your domain name (ex: http://example.com) then you should upload the OpenCart files under the public_html directory. In case you would like to have your OpenCart store accessible via any subdirectory (ex: http://example.com/store/), please create the desired directory under your public_html and upload the OpenCart files in it.

When you have your OpenCart installation files placed in your desired account folder, please create a database via your web hosting account control panel. You can perform this by following our tutorial on How to create MySQL database via cPanel.

step

Access the Installation Wizard

Next, you should access the address of your store via your browser (ex: http://example.com/store). This will load the first page of the installation process to accept the OpenCart license. Click on the Continue button to proceed with the next step of the installation.

On the next step you should include several important configuration settings in order to proceed with the installation further. First, please enter your Host, Database Username, Password and database name. These settings should be provided to you during the database creation process or by your hosting provider.

Next, you need to input the desired username and password, as well as the administrative email address for your main OpenCart admin user.

When you are done, please click on the Continue button. This will direct you to the last page of the installation process.

Congratulations, you have successfully completed your OpenCart installation process and you can access your store frontend or the OpenCart admin panel via the links provided on the final page of the installation process.

Remove Installation Directory

Please remember to remove the Install directory from the OpenCart folder under your account for security reasons. You can perform this via your FTP or use your cPanel>File Manager.

How to Manually Install OpenCart

If your hosting provider does not have any OpenCart auto installers such as Softaculous or Fantastico you will need to manually install OpenCart on your hosting account.

To manually Install OpenCart, please follow these steps:

step

Download and extract the Installation Archive

To manually install OpenCart under your hosting account you will need to download it first from the official OpenCart website. You can use this direct link to the OpenCart download page.

Unless you need a specific OpenCart version we highly recommend to download the latest stable version for optimal performance and security. To download the OpenCart installation archive, please click on the download available on the OpenCart Download page.

After you have downloaded the installation archive, please unzip it on your local computer and navigate to the ‘Upload’ directory. You need to rename 2 files in order to successfully complete the installation process. The first is located under the Upload directory and it is called ‘config-dist.php‘. You should rename this file to ‘config.php‘. The second file is located under the ‘upload/admin‘ directory and it is also called ‘config-dist.php‘. Please rename this file to ‘config.php‘ as well.

step

Upload the files to your hosting account

When you are done, please start your favorite FTP program in order to upload the OpenCart installation files. If you are not sure how to use a FTP program you can check our FTP tutorial or upload and unzip the OpenCart installation archive via your cPanel → FileManager following our cPanel tutorial. The files that should be uploaded on your hosting account are located in the ‘upload’ folder included in the OpenCart installation archive.

If you would like to have your store accessible directly via your domain name (ex: http://example.com) then you should upload the OpenCart files under the public_html directory. In case you would like to have your OpenCart store accessible via any subdirectory (ex: http://example.com/store/), please create the desired directory under your public_html and upload the OpenCart files in it.

When you have your OpenCart installation files placed in your desired account folder, please create a database via your web hosting account control panel. You can perform this by following our tutorial on How to create MySQL database via cPanel.

step

Access the Installation Wizard

Next, you should access the address of your store via your browser (ex: http://example.com/store). This will load the first page of the installation process to accept the OpenCart license. Click on the Continue button to proceed with the next step of the installation.

On the next step you should include several important configuration settings in order to proceed with the installation further. First, please enter your Host, Database Username, Password and database name. These settings should be provided to you during the database creation process or by your hosting provider.

Next, you need to input the desired username and password, as well as the administrative email address for your main OpenCart admin user.

When you are done, please click on the Continue button. This will direct you to the last page of the installation process.

Congratulations, you have successfully completed your OpenCart installation process and you can access your store frontend or the OpenCart admin panel via the links provided on the final page of the installation process.

Remove Installation Directory

Please remember to remove the Install directory from the OpenCart folder under your account for security reasons. You can perform this via your FTP or use your cPanel>File Manager.

How to configure staging in WordPress

Warning

Due to the SitePush plugin not being updated in the last 5 years, we strongly advice you to use VersionPress for your WordPress staging. You can find our tutorials on VersionPress here.

We will review the setup of SitePush for the purpose of pushing content/code changes from one WordPress website to another. This is usually used as staging, as it will allow you to have a live and development WordPress copies and push changes that you make on one of the websites to the other.

In this tutorial, we assume that you have one WordPress installation, which is your main production website. We will install a second WordPress instance, configure SitePush on both websites and then push all of the content and code from your live website to the second copy.

The SitePush Staging configuration in WordPress includes:

step

Install Second WordPress Instance and add SitePush

The first thing to do would be to install a second WordPress instance. This can be achieved two ways, using the Softaculous auto-installer, or a manual WordPress installation.

Next, download the official SitePush plugin on your local computer. Once that’s finished that, do the following for both of your WordPress installations – the live version and the new instance you have installed in the previous step.

Log into the administrative area of your website. Click on the Plugins tab from the left-side menu and then Add New.

Click on the Upload Plugin button at the top of the page.

Select the plugin archive from your local computer and then click on Install Now button.

The system will install the module for you and then update you with a successful message, if everything went through without any issues. Click on the Activate Plugin button to finalize the process.

Configure SitePush Staging

The next step is the configuration of SitePush and the definitions for each of your websites that you wish to push changes to. This is the tricky part, but we will review the entire process so you can get a better understanding of how it works.

As you will be using different URLs for your WordPress installations, it is important to define the WordPress address and the Blog address. You can read more on that in the official WordPress Codex.

This step important so any changes that you push from one website to another are converted properly with the new URL. The definition is easily set within the wp-config.php file and you will have to perform this step for each WordPress instance you are setting up with the SitePush staging plugin.

You will have to add the following two lines of code:

define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://example.com/wordpress' );
define( 'WP_HOME', 'http://example.com/wordpress' );

Make sure that you change example.com/wordpress with the actual domain name set on your website. When you are ready, save the file to complete the changes.

Edit Files

There are two ways of editing files on the server – using an FTP client, following our FTP tutorial, or editing directly through your cPanel account > File Manager, following our >title= »cPanel Tutorial » rel= »noopener »>cPanel tutorial.

The next step is the most important one. You will have to create two files that will keep the data for each WordPress installation that you configure with the SitePush staging. Let us review both files for better understanding of it’s options.

Staging Configuration File

The configuration file holds important information about each of the WordPress installations that you set up with the SitePush staging. The file includes the domain of each website, the path for it on the server and other information, which is important for the normal operation of the plugin. Let us review a sample staging configuration file for better understanding:

; <?php die('Forbidden'); ?> -*- conf -*-

[live]
label = Live Website
domain = example.com
web_path = /home/user/live-website
db = live
live = yes

[dev]
label = Development Website
domain = staging.example.com
web_path = /home/user/staging-website
db = dev
live = no

You need to edit each of the available options in order to reflect your requirements:

  • [sitename]: Enter a unique name for your websites. In our example, we are using [live] and [dev] for our main and development websites. This is used internaly only and if no label option is set.
  • label: This field is optional, but it is recommended. Setting a unique label for each of your websites will make it easier for management.
  • domain: Enter the domain name set on your website.
  • web_path: Enter the server-side path to your website.
  • db: The SitePush label for the database your website is using. This option must be the same as the db option in your staging database file below.
  • live: Set this option to yes or no for each WordPress instance you configure. Yes means that this is your main website and No means that this is a staging copy.

Once you configure your Staging Configuration file, you can choose a name of your choice for it. The important thing here is to make sure that it ends with the « .php » extension and it is uploaded outside of the public_html/ directory of your account. In this case, the path to the file would be:

/home/cPanelUsername/my-conf-file.php

Staging Database File

The second file that you need to create is the Staging Database file. It holds the data for the databases set on each of the WordPress websites that you configure with SitePush staging. Let us review a sample of such a file:

; <?php die('Forbidden'); ?> -*- conf -*-
; Do not remove the above line, it is all that prevents this file from being downloaded.

[all]
prefix = wp_
host = localhost

[live]
name = user_live
user = user_admin
pw = "mydbpassword"

[dev]
name = user_dev
user = user_admin
pw = "mydbpassword"

The options that you have for editing are:

  • [dblabel]: Enter a unique label for this database. The label should be the same value, as the one for the db variable in the Staging Configuration file. The [all] value applies for all websites.
  • prefix: Enter the prefix for all databases using SitePush. NOTE: All databases must use the same prefix.
  • host: Enter « localhost » without the quotes if all WordPress instances are hosted on the same server.
  • name: Enter the name of your database. This is the DB_NAME value in the wp-config.php file of your website.
  • user: Enter the name of your database user. This is the DB_USER value in the wp-config.php file of your website.
  • pw: Enter the database password. This is the DB_PASSWORD value in the wp-confir.php file of your website.

Once you configure your database file, you can save it with a name of your choice. Make sure that it ends with the « .php » extension and the file is placed outside of the public_html/ directory of your account. In this case, the path to it would be:

/home/cPanelUsername/my-db-file.php

step

Enable SitePush

This is the last step of the process and you simply need to configure the SitePush. The following steps should be completed for each website that you configure with the SitePush staging.

WordPress Backup

It is important to generate a full WordPress backup for your main website, before making any changes on it. After that, log into the administrative dashboard of your website again. Click on the SitePush option from the left-side menu.

Enable the following two options:

  • I have read the instructions, backed up my site and accept the risks.
  • Conver the URLs to link to current site.

Also, you will have to enter the path to the Staging Configuration and Database files. For more details on how to locate that information, please review the previous two sections.

Once you complete that, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save Changes. The system will configure your SitePush staging and display a successful message. This indicates that there are no issues with the use of the plugin on your websites. Still, if you notice any error messages, we offer full and free integration of SitePush with each of our WordPress Hosting plans. You can always count on us for your project!

How to Install WordPress via Softaculous

WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS) that is available to install via the cPanel Softaculous Apps Installer for free. In this tutorial, for beginners and advanced users alike, our goal is to show you how, with a few clicks, you can have a clean and secured WordPress installation ready for publishing content.

However, before proceeding with the installation of WordPress, you will need a domain name and a reliable web hosting company that knows WordPress. From the quality of service, growth, and engineering, to sheer speed, security, and site performance, hosting platform takes away the complexities of setting up your website and allows you to go live in minutes.

To auto-install WordPress in your hosting account, you need to learn:

step

Access the Installation page in Softaculous

Before performing the actual installation you will need of course to access the Softaculous auto installer which for your convenience is available under your cPanel → Softaculous.

Once you access this feature you will need to either search for the WordPress platform via the Search box at the top right side of the page or locate it in the Blogs category located in the left categories view.

Note that you can also find WordPress in the popular applications slider in the main Softaculous page. No matter which way you prefer in the end, you will always land on the installation tab of the application.

Click the Install Now button to initiate the Install.

step

Configure the Installation

Once you have accessed the setup interface, you will need to configure the pre-installation options. They are conveniently separated in a few sections we will review in the next lines of this tutorial.

  • Choose Protocol – You should choose via which of the provided protocols your WordPress website will be available. If your site has SSL and HTTPS, then you can select https:// or https://www. as protocol.
  • Choose Domain – The actual domain or subdomain via which your WordPress website will be available. The majority of users want to install WordPress in their domain’s root directory, like domain.com. In that case, you need to make sure that you leave the « In Directory » field blank.
  • In Directory – The name of the subdirectory your WordPress website should be located. Note that by default is set to « wp » and if you would like WordPress installed directly on your domain or subdomain you will need to leave this field blank

WordPress site settings in Softaculous

  • Site Name – The actual name of your WordPress website. Not to worry, you can easily change it from your WordPress admin area after installation.
  • Site Description – The content description for your website.
  • Enable Multisite (WPMU) – By ticking this checkbox, you will make Softaculous deploy your WordPress platform with enabled WPMU (Multiuser) option.

WordPress admin account configuration in Softaculous

  • Admin Username – The actual username you would like your admin user to have.
  • Admin Password – The password for the admin user. Please make sure that the password you are entering in this field will be at least Strong type.
  • Admin Email – The actual email on which you will receive notifications regarding your website

  • Select Language – This entire section contains a single field related to the language which you would like your WordPress to use. The list of supported languages is quite big, and most probably you will find your native language there.
  • Limit Login Attempts – increases the security on your WordPress website.
  • Classic Editor – for users wanting the pre-Gutenberg editing options available in versions after 5.x.
  • wpCentral – Manage Multiple WordPress – used for managing multiple WordPress blogs from the same dashboard.

WordPress advanced options in Softaculous

  • Database Name – The value of this option will be automatically assigned by Softaculous, and you should change it only if you have prepared, for example, a new database. If you are not quite sure how to add a database and user to it via your cPanel, you can check our cPanel database related tutorials.
  • Table Prefix – If you have multiple WordPress installations in your hosting account, their databases will need different prefixes to stay separate from each other.
  • Disable Update Notification Emails – This will disable the notifications Softaculous sends to you when an update for your website is available.
  • Auto Upgrade – Enables the Softaculous auto installer to apply updates whenever such are available automatically if the checkbox is ticked.

  • Auto Upgrade WordPress Plugins – Checking this option will allow automated plugins upgrade upon a platform version update.
  • Auto Upgrade WordPress Themes – Ticking this checkbox will enable automatic themes upgrade when the installation script is updated.
  • Automated Backups – This option is for configuring automatic backup service for your WordPress based website. The available backup options are related to the frequency they should be performed.
  • Backup Rotation – The number of backups the automatic backup service should keep for your website.

Additionally, you can now select themes directly in Softaculous when Installing WordPress, or skip this option and get the default Theme on your website.

step

Complete the Process

Once you finished configuring all these options, it is time for the installation to process. To do that, click on the Install button located at the bottom of the page.

After a brief waiting time, you will receive all of the required information needed to access your newly activated WordPress instance. Make sure you do not close the window during this process, until the progress bar reaches 100% otherwise, this may affect your WordPress installation.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed the WordPress application via Softaculous!

Need additional help? We’re here for you. FastComet offers free professional WordPress installation on all hosting plans.

How to Install Magento 1.x via Softaculous

The easiest way to install Magento is via the Softaculous auto-installer. Softaculous is an application installer available in the cPanel control panel on all Magento Hosting plans, which allows you to browser, review and install more than 150 open-source applications in just a few clicks. This is a great tool which not only provides an easy-to-use user interface but also can save you a lot of time by automating most of the steps required for a successful Magento installation.

To complete the Magento Installation, please follow these steps:

step

Locate the Softaculous Auto-Installer in cPanel

To access your Softaculous auto-installer simply login in your cPanel navigate to the Software/Services section and click on the Softaculous icon.

On the next page you will be referred to the Softaculous OpenSource catalog. From there you should navigate to the E-Commerce section from the menu on the left and click on Magento.

From the Magento page you can Install, review the Magento features, read reviews and ratings or check the demo. In this tutorial we will proceed with the installation process by clicking on the Install button.

Configure Magento Installation Settings

First, you can choose the desired Magento version, we recommend to install the latest version available but if you have a template or module that requires a previous Magento version you can always select the previous release via the drop down menu.

Secondly, you need to specify the protocol. In case you do not have a SSL certificate purchased and installed yet, you should leave this option to http://.

HTTP vs HTTPS

Installing your Magento application for the https:// protocol, without having a valid SSL certificate, might affect your website accessibility or result in security warnings. If you need a hosting solution with SSL certificate to secure your store, you may review our Magento Hosting plans.

The next option allows you to choose the domain name for which your Magento will be installed. In case you have any addon domain or a subdomain on which you would like to have your store configured, please select it via the drop down menu.

The last option you need to configure here is the name of the directory under which you would like to have Magento installed. If you would like to have your store accessible directly via your domain name (ex: http://example.com) then you should leave this box empty. In case you would like to have your Magento store accessible via any subdirectory (ex: http://example.com/store/), please fill in your directory name.

Complete Magento Installation Process

At the bottom of the page you need to configure your Magento Administrative username and password. This will be the account name and password required to login the Magento Admin Dashboard panel via which you can configure your store later. Please fill in your preferences and click the Install button.

After clicking Install, a progress bar which appear to help you track the installation process. In a few seconds your Magento store installation should be completed and you will be provided with links to both your Magento Store and Magento admin dashboard.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed Magento on your hosting account.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Install WooCommerce via the WordPress Plugin Installer

As mentioned in the introduction WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin created and developed by WooThemes. The process of its installation is the same as for every other WordPress plugin and in the next few lines of this tutorial we will fully cover it. First and foremost you will need to have a fully functional WordPress installation and of course access to its admin area.

As soon as you login you should be able to notice the left vertical admin menu where you will need to access Plugins → Add new.

Thee you will need to type in the search box WooCommerce so you can be able to find the Module in the list on modules supplied on that page.

The 1st result will be the plugin you are looking for and the only thing remaining to do here is to click on the Install button so the plugin can be properly installed. In few seconds you will receive a brief report on the installation and at the end you will find the Activate Plugin link which you should click on if you would like to have the plugin activated right after this installation process.

Now that you have installed and activated the plugin there are few more things you need to do in order to get it fully functional.

First and foremost you should click on the Install WooCommerce Pages button which will install the default pages used by this module.

Right after the pages are installed you will be redirected to the administration page of the plugin where you will find all the settings related to the same.

The second this is that you should allow WooCommerce to collect « non-sensitive diagnostic data » by clicking on the Allow button from the top notification area of WordPress. This is not a mandatory but hey, you can get a nice discount on any future themes purchase from their Store.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed WooCommerce on your WordPress based website!