Our Commitment to WordPress: We’re All In

“We grew up with WordPress,” said Bryan Muthig, CEO/Founder of A2 Hosting. “Everything we’re doing as a company is focused on WordPress, leveraging our 21 years of experience and expertise. From product development and support to hiring, training, and marketing, every aspect of our business is designed to enhance the WordPress experience.”

Those efforts are focused on our key customers, or customer partners: WordPress agencies and web professionals who build, launch, and maintain WordPress projects for their clients.

Introducing Our New Community Growth Team

We’re excited to announce the formation of our new Community Growth Team, a testament to our commitment to supporting our key customer partners. This team is led by veteran WordPress community leaders Cory Miller, as Chief Evangelist, and Katie Richards, as our Community Growth Project Manager.

“The closer we stay to our customers, the better it’s going to be for everyone. If our customers win, we win. It always starts with our customers — it always has and it always will,” said Bryan Muthig. “This team led by exceptional WordPress veterans, Cory and Katie, is another step in showing our deep commitment to WordPress and our customers.” 

Cory Miller

Cory brings a wealth of experience and a passion for WordPress and WP businesses, since 2006. As a veteran entrepreneur, his leadership, vision, and values will drive our efforts to connect with and support our customer partners as well as tell their stories and ours. 

“I’ve known Cory for a long time and seen what he’s accomplished in WordPress, first building some of the first commercial products for WordPress at iThemes, then growing community at Post Status, it’s always his passion for people, especially entrepreneurs and business owners, that resonates most with me,” said A2’s COO Paul Carter. “And as we were looking to expand our commitment in the WordPress community and specifically to WordPress agencies and web professionals, there was no one better to lead our efforts.”

Katie Richards

Katie Richards, our Community Growth Project Manager, has successfully overseen WordPress community initiatives and shown strong project management abilities across numerous projects and companies in the WordPress space. Her expertise in community engagement, organization, and leadership will be crucial in building strong, lasting relationships with our agency partners and web professionals.

“From her work at Post Status to her community efforts helping organize WordCamp Grand Rapids to WordPress US, I’ve seen Katie be an absolute force in the WordPress community. And I’m ecstatic to have her join us here at A2,” said Aaron Campbell, A2’s Director of Product and veteran WordPress contributor. “What resonates most to me is how she does her work. It’s human-focused and thus purposeful and impactful.”

The Work of Our A2 Community Growth Team: It’s About Our Agency Partners

Our Community Growth Team’s mission is simple yet impactful: Show up as your agency’s essential partner in your business and work. 

Your success is our success. 

This team will do that by focusing on three key areas:

• Connection — As your partner, champion and advocate, we will be building deeper, more supportive relationships with WordPress agencies and web professionals.
• Community — Building mutually beneficial experiences for our customer-partners, both online and in-person, through WordCamps and our own events.
• Content — Creating impactful WordPress agency content and resources to support our partners in their work as well as sharing our news and initiatives for them.

Moving Forward Together

Our new Community Growth Team is a significant step forward in our commitment to WordPress and our customer partners. We believe that by fostering connection, community, and content, we can create a supportive ecosystem that benefits everyone involved.

Thank you for being a part of the A2 Hosting family. Together, we can build a brighter future for WordPress and achieve great things.

Stay tuned for more updates and initiatives from our new A2 Community Growth Team. We look forward to working closely with you and supporting your success every step of the way.

The post Announcing A2 Hosting’s New Community Growth Team: Another Step Forward in Our WordPress Commitment appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Our Legacy of Speed and Performance

At A2 Hosting, we have built a strong reputation in the web hosting industry as leaders in speed and performance. Our commitment to providing the fastest, most reliable hosting solutions has always been our top priority. And that is why we developed TurboHub. It not only helps speed up site performance, but it also streamlines managing your WordPress sites.

What is TurboHub?

TurboHub is our state-of-the-art WordPress control panel that makes WordPress sites faster than ever! It’s an essential tool that allows individual site owners to improve performance, site health, and security. And the multi-site dashboard simplifies the workflow for agencies and developers. From a single control panel, you can monitor and maintain all of your sites, creating a seamless and more efficient WordPress experience.

Features of TurboHub

Site Performance Optimizations

TurboHub’s comprehensive metrics help you gain in-depth insights into your site’s performance. It highlights top recommendations and allows for one-click changes to boost performance.

Single-Click Multi-Site Management

Managing multiple WordPress sites has never been easier. With TurboHub, you can see all your sites from a single location, making updates and performance checks a breeze. This is particularly valuable for agencies and developers handling numerous client sites.

Site Health Monitoring

Keep your websites in peak condition with our site health monitoring tool! This is perfect for agencies and site owners with multiple websites and gives you an at-a-glance view of a site’s status to help you maintain smooth and secure operations effortlessly. Monitoring and maintaining multiple sites has never been easier!

Security Vulnerability

Through our partnership with Patchstack, we also alert you to high-priority plugin vulnerabilities so your site is never at risk. With the ability to see site risk at a glance, it helps you keep everything running smoothly and securely.

Other features to enhance your WordPress experience:

• Quick access to all of your WordPress sites.
• Grant access to users managing your account or request access to sites you manage for others.
• Automate plugin updates for each site.
• Site notes to enable easy communication between team members or companies.
• Quick access to databases, files, and email.
• Status information that lets you know your sites are online and running, including SSL, domain, and nameserver status.
• Ability to hide sites from search engines while under construction.
• Ability to place sites in maintenance mode during edits.

How Do I Get TurboHub?

TurboHub is now available free for all WordPress sites on our Managed WordPress, Managed VPS, and Shared plans. By choosing one of our plans, you instantly gain access to TurboHub and can start experiencing the benefits of a faster, more efficient WordPress site. TurboHub can be conveniently accessed through your MyA2 panel.

Don’t have an A2 plan, take advantage of our low prices and get started with TurboHub today!

Stay Tuned for More

TurboHub is constantly growing and evolving. We have an exciting roadmap ahead of us with many new features and improvements planned! At A2 we are dedicated to providing our users with the best tools available, and we encourage you to stay tuned for future updates on how TurboHub can help speed up and secure your website.

What’s Next for TurboHub?

A few items on our TurboHub roadmap that will help us achieve our goal of providing WordPress professionals with fast setup, fast websites, and fast support:

• A2 Intelligent Performance – Leverages advanced AI technology to automatically optimize your site’s performance. Easily monitor load times, uptime, and other critical performance indicators to ensure your site is always performing at its best. This will help you make informed decisions to continuously improve your site’s speed and reliability.
• A2 AI assistant inside WordPress – Helps you write content, generate images, and answer common WordPress questions.
• Enhanced Staging – Records changes to staging or live sites and lets them be pushed live or pulled back to staging.

Get started with an A2 Hosting plan today and get access to this new amazing tool and enhance your WordPress experience!

The post Introducing TurboHub – Transform Your WordPress Experience appeared first on The A2 Posting.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building a WordPress site in three easy steps, so you can share your ideas with the world.

Step 1: Choose a Hosting Plan and Domain Name

The foundation of any successful website is a reliable hosting plan and a memorable domain name. Here’s how to get started:

Selecting a Hosting Plan:

Research Hosting Providers: There are numerous hosting providers available, each offering different plans with various features. All hosting providers are not the same so make sure to do your research to find the best fit for you. Hosting companies should be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Speed and performance
• Ability and track record to keep your site secure.
• Scalability to grow with you as needed
• Cost effective

WordPress is the most extensible and widely used platform on the web, so it’s important to choose a hosting partner for your WordPress site that knows what they’re doing. Both A2 Hosting and WordPress were established 20 years ago and from our inception, our focus has remained the same: providing our customers with the ultimate hosting experience. Renowned for our speed and reliability, we offer plans to fit various budgets and the flexibility to scale as your website grows. By choosing A2 Hosting, you ensure you have reliable and fast hosting to set your website up for success. Don’t just take our word for it– check out what other customers have said on TrustPilot and see why our customers choose us!

Choose a Plan: Hosting plans typically come in different tiers, catering to various levels of website traffic and requirements. If you’re just starting, a shared hosting plan is usually sufficient. As your website grows, you can upgrade to more robust options.

At A2 Hosting, we have plans for all different levels and budgets: from shared, to VPS, to Dedicated Servers. For super easy setup, choose Managed WordPress hosting. These plans are geared towards WordPress users and offer fast and easy setup for WordPress sites.

Register a Domain Name:

• Brainstorm Domain Names: Your domain name is your online identity – make sure to choose one that reflects your website. The best domain names are memorable and would be relevant to your website content.
• Check Domain Availability: Use a domain search tool to ensure that your desired domain name is available. If your first choice is taken, get creative with variations or consider using different domain extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.).
• Complete the Registration: Once you’ve found an available domain name, complete the registration process.

By the end of this step, you’ll have secured a hosting plan and a unique domain name which will lay the groundwork for building your WordPress site.

Step 2: Building Your WordPress Website

Install WordPress and Create Site:

Before you start building your site you will first need to install WordPress. If you have selected a plan like our Managed WordPress hosting plan, the installation is done for you. Otherwise follow the instructions here to get started.

In addition to installing WordPress, If you want to take the hassle out of setting up a new site, all our managed plans come with a quick site launcher preinstalled. It will guide you through building and launching your site and allow you to get started in minutes! Choose the type of site you want to build, its goals, your design preferences and the pages you want to build. You can even choose from thousands of responsive WordPress templates right in the launcher.

Choosing a Theme: 

Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to the ‘Appearance’ tab and select ‘Themes’ Here, you can browse through a variety of free and premium themes. Make sure to choose a theme that aligns with the purpose, style, and functionality of your website. Once you’ve found the perfect theme, click the “Install” button, followed by the “Activate” button. Your website will now have a new look based on the selected theme.

Select and Install WordPress Plugins:

WordPress plugins are like apps for your website and can add extra features and functionality to your site. To explore the plugin library, navigate to “Plugins” in the dashboard and click “Add New”.  You can also use the search bar to find specific plugins you want to install and activate.

Whether you want to enhance SEO, add a contact form, or integrate social media, there’s likely a plugin for it. Here are some of our favorites:

• Forms – Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms
• SEO – RankMath, All in One
• Page Builder – BeaverBuilder, Guten, Elementor

Once you find the plugins you want to use, you will want to make sure you look over the customization settings as most plugins come with options that allow you to tailor your site and optimize performance.

Step 3: Set Your Website Up for Success!

Elevate your WordPress site with these proactive measures for a seamlessly optimized and secure website. Here are some things to look at and adjust to ensure your WordPress site is operating at its best:

• Performance: Make sure to utilize things like page caching and image optimization, as well as Minify CSS,HTML & Javascript. Optimizing your site is important and will greatly improve your site performance, create the best user experience, and will help improve your search engine rankings.
• Regular Updates: It is important to keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date. This helps secure your website if you have the latest security patches. This also ensures that you have all new features available.
• Regular Backups: Set up automatic backups of your site for peace of mind.
• Utilize TurboHub: We have created a WordPress Dashboard for our WordPress users. This makes it easier for people to make many of the optimizations above as easy as a click! It’s now offered on all shared and managed WordPress plans.

Congratulations! You now have a WordPress site!

In conclusion, opting for our managed WordPress hosting provides a seamless and efficient solution for website owners. By auto-installing WordPress, the initial setup becomes a breeze and by utilizing TurboHub, it simplifies the process of implementing crucial optimizations for your WordPress site.

Get started today with managed WordPress hosting!

By following these easy steps, you’ve successfully built a WordPress site from the ground up! As you navigate your WordPress site, experiment with different themes, plugins, and customization options to make your site truly unique. Happy WordPressing! 

The post Build a WordPress Site in 3 Easy Steps appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Themes provide the look-and-feel of the cPanel interface. The latest cPanel theme release is named Jupiter, and it replaces the Paper Lantern theme (which in turn replaced the x3 theme before it). If you have been using Paper Lantern for awhile, you may be considering a switch to Jupiter. Here’s what you need to know about cPanel’s latest theme.

Differences between cPanel Paper Lantern and Jupiter themes

Jupiter provides a completely new look-and-feel to the cPanel interface. But it also offers two new pages: Tools and Solutions.

If you have used cPanel before, the Tools page will be largely familiar to you. It is the default page, and groups features into familiar categories, such as Email, Domains, and Databases.  You’ll also see relevant information about your account at a glance in the right sidebar, including:

• General information: Here you’ll find information such as your account’s IP address, home directory, username, and more.
• Server information: Here you’ll find information specific to the server, such as software version numbers and path information.
• Statistics: Here you’ll find various statistics relating to your account’s resource usage, such as disk, database, and domain usage.

The Solutions page, on the other hand, is totally new. It is intended for novice users of cPanel. It features tutorials on common tasks, such as how to set up an email account and build a website. There are also FAQs and links to documentation resources to help you easily find answers to your questions.

Switching from Paper Lantern to Jupiter theme in cPanel

You don’t have to wait to see what the new Jupiter theme looks like. You can easily switch your account to the Jupiter theme now to get a feel for the new interface. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your cPanel account.
2. In the right sidebar, under GENERAL INFORMATION, locate the Theme list box.
3. Select Jupiter. cPanel switches to the Jupiter theme automatically.
4. If you want to switch back to the Paper Lantern theme, just select paper_lantern in the Theme list box.

Conclusion

cPanel has made it easy to switch to the Jupiter theme. With dedicated development and the promise of more features, the benefits of making the switch to Jupiter outweigh the costs of staying with the older Paper Lantern theme.

At A2 Hosting, we strive to provide our customers with the latest industry standards and updates. Our hosting accounts include the new Jupiter theme so you can enjoy the best that cPanel has to offer. Our dedicated Support team is standing by 24/7/365 to answer any questions you may have.

The post Switching to cPanel’s Jupiter Theme appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Common WordPress Security Attacks

Security Attack #1: Brute-force

Brute-force: In this attack, bad actors attempt to guess login information by using automated password generators.

Basic defense: Use strong passwords. For recommendations about how to generate strong passwords, see our Knowledge Base article.

Security Attack #2: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

This is a hacking technique where malicious code from user input is injected into web pages and then viewed by site visitors. XSS attacks can potentially extract sensitive information, affect website functionality, and more.

Basic defense: Wherever a web site receives user input, the input should be filtered as strictly as possible based on the expected or valid input.

Security Attack #3: SQL injection

In this type of attack, malicious SQL statements are injected via unsanitized user input. SQL injection attacks can be used to tamper with data, extract sensitive information, and more.

Basic defense: Scan your site for SQL injection vulnerabilities using online website scanning tools like Sucuri SiteCheck.

Security Attack #4: Backdoor

A backdoor is malicious code that contains a hidden way to bypass the login or authentication process of a website.

Basic defense: Make sure your server has antivirus and firewall protection and is kept up to date. Also make sure you keep WordPress itself and any associated plugins updated with the latest security patches.

Security Attack #5: Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks

This type of attack renders a website inaccessible or unavailable to its users. For example, a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack sends traffic from multiple sources to a website, overwhelming its network connection.

Basic defense: Using a well-established Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as Cloudflare can help mitigate or even prevent these types of attacks.

Security Attack #6: Phishing 

Attackers use the phishing technique to impersonate a legitimate company, typically via email, in order to obtain personal information directly from the target. The attacker then uses the information to hack the site or commit fraud.

Basic defense: Spam filters can detect and prevent most malicious emails from reaching users’ inboxes.

Security Attack #7: Hotlinking

This is a technique where a website links directly to the targeted website’s assets, such as video or image files, in order to increase SEO ranking or to feature media without using their own server resources or bandwidth. For example, if website B hotlinks to website A’s featured image, and website B receives a lot of traffic on the page with the image, website A’s server resources are depleted, potentially affecting website A’s performance.

Basic defense: Use a plugin or Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as Cloudflare to help protect your media files.Conclusion

Conclusion

Now that you understand the various types of security threats to be aware of, consider the following root causes of why your WordPress site may be vulnerable to security breaches:

• Your WordPress site is out of date and requires an update to the most recent version.
• You have unused or outdated themes or plugins installed on your site, which cause compatibility issues and open up security holes.
• Your WordPress site admin login page is still set to the default /wp-admin, making it vulnerable to brute-force attacks.

Give your site a thorough security audit, or contact the A2Hosting Guru Crew if you want to improve the security of your WordPress sites.

The post 7 WordPress Security Attacks You Must Know appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Brute Force is a website attack that uses either humans or systems to target protected information, with the main goal of obtaining login information. This blog discusses some well-known methods for preventing Brute Force attacks.

1. Hide the WordPress Admin Login Page

WordPress by default has the login page as either one of the following:

•  /wp-login.php
• /login
• /wp-admin
• /admin

Gaining access to login pages, particularly the admin login, provides hackers with unrestricted access to the entire site.

There are several ways to hide the login area, including using a plugin like WPS Hide Login, which allows you to change the admin login to another URL of your choosing. When someone tries to access wp-admin/wp-login.php/login/admin, they will get a 404 error.

2. WordPress Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) 

A two-factor authentication gives you an extra layer of security by requesting additional identification factors like the following: 

• A unique password (OTP) sent by SMS/e-mail
• A phone call
• A QR code
• A push notification

WordPress supports two-factor authentication via plugins like the Two-Factor plugin or time-based authentication via Google Authenticator. The Google Authenticator plugin enables per-user two-factor authentication. You could enable it for your administrator account while using less privileged accounts as usual.

3. Cloud-Based Security Plugins

While traffic is beneficial to any website, excessive bad traffic depletes your server’s resources. Similarly, limiting the number of users who can enter your site at the same time protects you from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Popular cloud security plugins such as Sucuri or CloudFlare not only protect against brute force login attacks, but also other security threats such as DDoS, spam, and bots. They provide complete protection for your WordPress site. Examine the security measures provided by your hosting provider for your website.

Conclusion

As previously stated, a brute force attack is one of the most traditional attacks, but it remains the most common type of WordPress security attack. While plugins and other security tools are available to help mitigate security threats, it is always important to keep your WordPress up to date. This includes updating any plugins and themes, as outdated plugins or themes provide a good backdoor for hackers to attempt a security attack. If you have any questions or need any help protecting your site contact our support team today!

The post How to Protect Your WordPress Against Brute Force Attack appeared first on The A2 Posting.

When you have an eCommerce site, ensuring a smooth payment process is critical to gaining conversions from leads that visit your site. WooCommerce allows you to configure various payment methods such as direct bank transfer, checks, cash on delivery, and Paypal to provide your customers with additional options for completing order transactions.

The WooCommerce PayPal Checkout extension allows your WordPress store to accept PayPal payments and makes use of customizable Smart Payment ButtonsTM. Customers who use PayPal Checkout can pay with PayPal or any major credit or debit card without ever leaving your website. Using this extension visitors can buy directly from your product pages and pay in 26 different currencies. This blog will walk you through the process of configuring and adding the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout for WordPress sites.

Installing the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout Plugin in WordPress

Note: Paypal Checkout Plugin is no longer available in the WooCommerce marketplace. You may use PayPal payments as it’s the upgraded option to this extension.

Follow these steps to install the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout in WordPress:

1. Log in to WordPress as an administrator.

2. In the search plugins, type “WordPress PayPal Checkout.” Install and activate the plugin pictured below:

3. After you’ve successfully installed the plugin, you’ll need to configure the PayPal checkout in WooCommerce.

Configuring the PayPal Checkout Process in WooCommerce

Follow these steps to set up the PayPal checkout process in WooCommerce.

On the WordPress Dashboard, in the left sidebar, click WooCommerce, and then click Settings. This will take you to the WooCommerce settings page, which has multiple tabs for various settings. To enable the payment method, navigate to the Payments tab.

Enable the toggle button next to the PayPal checkout option on the Payment Methods page. To configure the PayPal Checkout settings, click Set up or Manage.

.

You will then be directed to the PayPal Checkout page, where you can begin configuring various checkout settings. The process will begin with basic store information, then help you link your PayPal account, and finally assist you in configuring the checkout page’s look and feel, including payment and billing details.  

To begin configuring the PayPal checkout process, fill in the basic information about your store before moving on to linking the store to a PayPal account.

• Title – Choose the title shown to customers during checkout
• Description – Add a description shown to customers if they use PayPal Checkout
• Account Settings – Environment  – Select Live to accept payments and Sandbox to test payments.

Linking Paypal Account in WooCommerce

In WooCommerce, you can use the API settings to create or link an existing PayPal Account. To link it to your PayPal account, use the API credentials sections on the PayPal Checkout setup page, under the payment tape.

When you click the Setup or link an existing PayPal account button, you will be taken to the PayPal account login page.

Log in to your PayPal account, then click Activity on the top menu bar and select API Access.

Next, scroll to NVP/SOAP API Integration (Classic) and click Manage API Credentials. Ensure Request an API Signature is checked and click Agree and Submit.

 Click Show to reveal API Username, password, and signature.

Copy the API Username, Password, and Signature into your WooCommerce PayPal Checkout settings.

In the PayPal-hosted Checkout Settings section, enter details such as your Brand Name,  your site or product name, images for logo and header, and so on to ensure the PayPal checkout page has the same look and feel as your website. The landing page is the URL that all customers see when they check out.

Additional payment confirmation details can be set in the Advanced Settings for further advanced settings of the checkout pages, such as shipping details.

Once you’ve finished filling out all of the settings, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to finish the PayPal Checkout configuration in WooCommerce.

Smart Payment Buttons™ PayPal Checkout Advanced Options

Smart Payment Buttons™ is an added benefit for US customers, as the feature provides relevant payment options such as PayPal and both Pay in 4 and PayPal Credit*, allowing your customers to buy now and pay later while you get paid upfront. Fill out the sections after the advance settings if you want to further customize the look and feel of the buttons or configure PayPal checkout pages. Please see the PayPal Checkout page for more information.

Have any questions or concerns? Contact our sales team today! Looking for a new Managed WordPress Hosting plan? We have you covered with our new Managed WordPress plans that simplify speed, security, and stability.

The post How to Add Paypal to Your WordPress Website Using WooCommerce appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Although this may seem overwhelming at first, there’s a WordPress plugin that provides you with all of these aspects under one roof. With the Jetpack WordPress plugin, you don’t need to install several plugins to get the features you want, since it offers nearly everything you need for your starter website.

What are the key features of Jetpack that make it unique?

Key Features of Jetpack

One of the best things about using Jetpack is that you can seamlessly integrate Jetpack to meet your needs. These are the main features of the Jetpack plugin:

• Content Delivery Network (CDN): A slow site could be cause for search engines to penalize your rankings. With a CDN, you can help your website load faster while saving on your server’s resources. The great thing about this Jetpack feature is that it’s free and provides users with unlimited CDN bandwidth.
• Social media sharing: Using Jetpack for WordPress can provide you with social media features such as share buttons that let your visitors share your content in just a few clicks.
• Lazy loading images: Jetpack has a lazy loading image feature that displays photos while a person scrolls rather than presenting them with a blank div. The feature is beneficial for websites that use a lot of images but don’t want to compress them, which can lower photo quality. This can solve many image loading problems.
• Shortcode embeds: The Jetpack shortcode lets you embed content from your social media straight to your website. With this feature, you can embed these components by copying and pasting URLs within the visual editor.
• Automated spam blocking: With the Jetpack WordPress plugin, you can save time by automatically setting it to block and remove spam. This feature allows your site visitors to browse without being distracted.

How Can Jetpack Benefit WordPress Users?

Are you still asking the question, “Do I need Jetpack for my WordPress site?” If so, then let us share with you a few benefits that the plugin has to offer for WordPress users.

It Enhances Website Functionality

One of the best things about the Jetpack WordPress plugin is that it offers many features in one place. This means that you don’t have to install a new plugin every time you want to add functionality to your website.

It Increases Website Traffic

A website that doesn’t drive traffic is useless with today’s standards. Using Jetpack for WordPress is great because it helps improve traffic to your site once it recognizes that it’s lacking in that department.

Through its Publicize feature, you can automatically have it push out new blogs that you publish to your social media pages such as on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. This will help drive traffic from your social channels to your website.

It Provides Excellent Security

Nothing is more important for users than the security a website offers and this is exactly what the Jetpack plugin provides.

Its Protect feature offers fortified security by identifying and blocking any suspicious IP addresses from potentially harming a website. It also stops repeated login attempts that have failed to stave off cyberattacks.

It Offers Centralized Site Management

Running and managing several WordPress websites can be extremely time-consuming. Fortunately, the Jetpack WordPress plugin lets you streamline the site management process through a feature that lets administrators manage several sites from one interface.

Specifically, users can update all of the themes and plugins they have in each WordPress website simultaneously with just a click of a button.

Conclusion

The WordPress plugin known as Jetpack is one of the top add-ons users can get if they want to make managing their WordPress websites easier. Not only does the plugin offer better site functionality, centralized management, and improved security, but it also helps drive much-needed traffic.

At A2 Hosting, we offer the services of our experts to handle the administration aspect of your WordPress website. Getting a Managed WordPress account from us means that you can leverage numerous features, one of which is having a free Jetpack profile.

Talk to our sales team today if you would like to learn more.

The post The Key Benefits of Using Jetpack for Your WordPress appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What if we told you that WooCommerce can do all that for you? With the free and open-source plugin, maintaining your website instantly becomes so much easier.

Keep reading to find out exactly what WooCommerce is and how it can help your WordPress website.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an e-Commerce plugin used by over 3 million online stores. It was developed to be used as an extension to WordPress, which is why it integrates perfectly into any WordPress site. A simple but powerful platform chock full of features, it is a fantastic solution for anyone looking to sell their products online.

We highly recommend that you use WooCommerce as an extension for your shop, as it contains everything that you need for your business to run smoothly.

What Are the Benefits of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce exists to make managing your online shop simpler. It is incredibly user-friendly and offers dozens of helpful features right at your fingertips. If you’re about to open your own online shop or just want to upgrade an existing site, we’re certain that you’ll find all of the features of WooCommerce to be extremely helpful.

Customization Options

You can make changes to your store page any time you like with no additional costs, thanks to WooCommerce. You can either customize everything yourself or choose from a wide array of stylish, functional themes.

Built-In Analytics

Even if you have no experience in tracking implementation, WooCommerce comes with a built-in data analysis tool that will give you more insight into your growing business.

Integrated Payment Gateways

An efficient payment process is essential for any store. With WooCommerce, you can give your customers the option to choose from several platforms, such as Stripe, PayPal, debit or credit cards, bank transfer, or even cash on delivery.

Various Shipping Options

WooCommerce allows you to provide any variety of shipping options for your customers’ orders, like a pickup from nearby stores, local delivery, or international shipping. You can even restrict shipping options as you see fit.

Automatic Tax Calculation

WooCommerce makes it easy for anyone to calculate taxes for their online shops. All you need to do is configure the settings to automatically compute taxes on every order.

Order and Inventory Management

The built-in inventory management system of WooCommerce allows shop owners to handle and track everything in their supply. Plus, you can oversee the entire order process, from tracking orders to shipping them out.

All these amazing WooCommerce advantages will pair perfectly when used with a Managed WordPress platform, which is another worthwhile investment for any WordPress user.

What Is Managed WordPress?

Managed WordPress is a hosting platform that is fully streamlined and optimized for easy creation and management of your website. As its name implies, the web host manages your WordPress for you, taking over all the server responsibilities.

Our platform, A2 Hosting, revolves around making your site run as fast and secure as possible. We will handle all the administrative tasks, from installing WordPress, to security checks and updates, and even caching your web page. If you have any questions you can speak with our sales team for more information on our new and improved Managed WordPress plans!

WooCommerce is an incredibly powerful tool for WordPress users. When paired with our efficient Managed WordPress platform, managing your online shop will be fast and hassle-free. For an optimized eCommerce shop, get started on managed WordPress today with A2 Hosting!

The post What Is WooCommerce? Explaining the Features and Benefits appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Looking to learn more in-depth about the security included with all these plans? Below is an explanation of the different security tools and features included and how this can help you make sure your website is safe and secure.

The Importance of Security on Websites Using WordPress

When there’s a huge demand for a script or CMS, there’s a good chance that hackers and attackers will be keeping an eye on websites using it. At any one time, there could be hundreds or thousands of attacks happening on the internet. This makes WordPress websites a target.

As such, hackers will always be scanning WordPress websites for vulnerable areas. This means website owners who don’t properly prepare and secure their WordPress sites may be at risk. This is why you need to keep the security on your website in tip-top shape! Below are the features we offer at A2 Hosting on our Managed WordPress plans to help ensure your security success.

Managed WordPress Security Features

A2 Hosting’s new Managed WordPress plans now come with a selection of enhanced security features that have been designed to support our users such as HackScan Protection, Reinforced DDoS Protection, and KernelCare. We’re including a complete breakdown below of three of the main tools we will be including in the plans and the different security features they provide our users:

WordPress Toolkit

We include different levels of cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit on all of our WordPress plans. Below are some of the main security perks:

• 1-Click Hardening: Used to scan existing and new sites for settings that may be potentially vulnerable.
• Automatic Hardening: This can keep your site safe through the auto-application of the industry’s best practices in security.
• Mass Hardening: Scans all your sites for vulnerable settings while securing every site with just a click.
• Security Rollback: In rare cases, security updates may create compatibility issues on your website. This feature will allow you to quickly revert the changes made.
• Mass Updates: This allows you to execute updates for all of your website’s WordPress themes, core, and plugins.

Jetpack Security

We will also be including the popular Jetpack Plugin. This plugin comes with a multitude of security features including:

• Automated Spam Filtering: Protects your site by keeping spam content away.
• Brute Force Attack Protection: Works to keep your website safe by blocking unsafe login attempts from distributed attacks and malicious botnets.
• Free Daily Malware Scans (Included with our Fly & Sell Plans): This feature automatically checks your site for vulnerabilities such as malware. You’ll also receive immediate alerts if Jetpack finds problems to be addressed quickly.

A2 Optimized

All of our plans also come with our plugin, A2 Optimized. We’ve focused on various security measures with A2 Optimized, which include the following:

• Deny Direct Access to Configuration Files and Comment Form: This allows you to protect your configuration files by creating a Forbidden error to bots and web users who try to access WP configuration files.
• Lock Editing of Plugins and Themes from the WP Admin: This prevents exploits to use the built-in editing capabilities of the WP Admin.
• Login URL Change: With this, you can hide your wp-login and wp-admin pages, blocking off hackers from entry through brute force attacks.
• Regenerate wp-config salts: WP salts and security keys help to secure the site’s login process along with the cookies that WordPress implements to authenticate users.
• ReCAPTCHA on Comments and Login: Used to increase site security while decreasing spam by adding a CAPTCHA to the login screen and comment forms.
• Unused Themes & Inactive Plugin Notifications: Themes and plugins with security flaws can still have an impact on the site. Having these notifications can help you better manage other features on your site for improved security.

cPanel Security Features

There is also a wide range of improvements to cPanel’s Security. This includes:

• Directory Privacy: Blocks users who want to open a folder that you’ve designated for protection. They will first need to enter a username and password for access.
• Free SSL Certificate (Free RapidSSL On Sell plans): This allows you to secure pages on your website so that details such as credit card numbers, logins, and more are sent encrypted instead of plain text.
• Hotlink Protection: Stops your images from being used on other sites.
• Imunify360: A comprehensive security suite for real-time and proactive website protection. It provides an all-in-one security solution that features a Web Application Firewall, an Intrusion Prevention and Detection system, a Network Firewall, Patch Management, and Real-time Antivirus protection.
• IP Blocker: Blocks a range of IP addresses to stop hackers from getting access to your site.
• Leech Protection: Stops users from publicly posting or sharing passwords to restricted areas of your site.
• ModSecurity: Provides real-time monitoring for incoming threats and blocks malicious connections before reaching your WordPress website and applications.
• Patchman: This scans your account for any outdated WP malware scripts, vulnerabilities, and applications. It will then fix any vulnerabilities without doing damage to the site.
• SSH: Provides more secure file transfers.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): If turned on, it will require the app on your smartphone to provide a unique security code that you must input apart from your password when trying to log into your account.
• Virus Scanner: Configurable scan of your account to identify any security threats.

Need Help? Ask Our Guru Crew

If you need support or just have a few WordPress Hosting questions, you can count on our expert Sales team! Working 24/7/365, our friendly and knowledgeable staff are more than happy to address any concerns or issues. You may also reach them via email, phone, or live chat, so you can get the answers you need when you need them.

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