WP All Export – Export WordPress data to XML/CSV

Hello friends,

Today I am going to present one plugin that may come in very handy. It is called WP All Export.

What does WP All Export do?

The name says it all – this plugin will allow you to export your WordPress data. This can be done into XML or CSV format so that you can use it later when needed. WP All Export can be considered as both backup and migration tool. The exports can be later imported using another plugin from the same developer called WP All Import (expect a review on it soon).

How to use WP All Export?

Begin by following the usual steps – download, install, activate. Once you are done with this you should  get a new menu item in your WordPress admin panel which is called All Export.

Under it you have several sub-menus:

In this post I will be covering the New Export sub-menu. By default the plugin should not need any specific settings but in case you want you can check them out before you start exporting.

When you click on the New Export sub-menu you will see a user-friendly screen that has 2 options:

The latter will create a pre-defined wp query and will allow you to export it. The first option provides you the option to choose specific data that you want exported.

Click on the first button and you can choose what to export. For example you may choose Posts. You will immediately see filtering options on the same screen. From there you can define which posts should be exported. For example you may limit them to a specific date or author or something else that you need.

Once you choose your filtering options (you can leave them by default as well) you need to click on the button called “Continue to Step 2”.

Here you can choose the export type – CSV or XML. For the CSV export you can also choose the delimiter. You will get default fields based on your filter. You can rename them or add new ones by ether using drag&drop from the menu in the right, or by clicking on the “Add Field To Export” button.

WP All Export is so powerful that you can even create your own SQL query and execute it so that you get exported data based on its results. Of course this is recommended for advanced users who have at least basic knowledge of SQL queries.

When done you can export the file and in case you have chosen to use CSV you can modify it in your favorite spreadsheet tool. Save it and this file is ready to be imported using WP All Import. But we will get back on this plugin in another post.

As for WP All Export – the free version is very handy and powerful, but if you want to unleash the true power of the plugin you should consider purchasing the pro version which will allow you to:

Read more about the professional version on the plugin page in WordPress.org or on the official website.

More information on the plugin usage can be seen in this video:

So what do you think, friends? Will you give WP All Export a try? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends.

What should you use for your local WordPress tests and development? XAMPP or Virtualbox? Find out now from this post:

Hello friends,

In this post I will present to you two of the most popular solutions for local WordPress tests and development. They are suitable for beginners and medium-skilled users.

The solutions that I am about to review in details are called XAMPP and Virtualbox.

But first things first! Why would you even consider using a solution for your local WordPress tests and development?

Because this may save you valuable time and effort as well as it may prevent some potential problems when creating a WordPress website directly on the production server with the real domain name.

Let’s imagine that you can build a simple WordPress website for a couple of days or a week at most. If you begin this process directly on your production server this means that you will have to purchase it in advance. This is also related to the purchase of a new domain name if you do not have an older one for test purposes that you can use to the production server.  So in most situations you will have to spend money and then start building your website from scratch.

If you are a complete beginner you may allow search engines to index your website when it is under development. In some cases this might cause potential problems with re-indexation later on. And if you are preventing the bots from indexing your project then you are wasting a week with a paid domain and hosting without getting any initial SEO results. And if something goes wrong you will have to start from scratch once again (in case you do not have backups) or start from a backup. But this will slow things even more.

Now imagine if you need to build an advanced website using WordPress. You can guess that you will need more time and the risks of breaking something are increased as well.

While the time and effort might still be the same when developing locally, you are saving time, effort and money for yourselves or for your clients for the SEO and digital marketing for the website. Why? Because it is better to upload and set up a complete WordPress installation that may launch immediately and start getting visits.

All of the above reasons were related to the creation of new websites. But what about your existing one when you need to try a new plugin? Doing this directly on the production server comes with a risk of breaking the theme or the functionality of the website due to incompatibilities. The latter might be PHP related, plugin related, theme related and etc.

Once again it is better to do tests locally and when the results are as expected to apply the changes on the production server.

OK, I am convinced! What is the difference between XAMPP and Virtualbox and what do I need to start developing or testing WordPress locally with them?

XAMPP for local WordPress tests and development

XAMPP is a project that provides you with a local server powerful enough to launch your WordPress website and easy enough to be the most suitable solution for beginners. All you need to do is download it from apachefriends.com and install it. You will find builds for Windows, Linux and OS X. After you are done installing you need to create a new directory under htdocs. In this directory place your WordPress installation. Lets assume that you call it localwp.

Start the XAMPP control panel and launch PHP and MySQL.

Then create a database using the built-in PHPMyadmin and edit wp-config.php with the needed information. After this you can access your local website in your browser by typing localhost/localwp (the name of the directory that you created).

Now you may begin developing a new website or testing your current one by transferring a backup copy to the local website.

In some situations you will need to adjust some settings but there are lots of tutorials online on how to achieve this. Also XAMPP makes it super easy to do this.

For more information, please view the following video:

Virtualbox can be used for Ubuntu server installation in order to develop and test WordPress locally

Virtualbox is an open source solution that will allow you to run virtual machines on your computer. Download it from here: www.virtualbox.org

In our case you might want to install Ubuntu server (or similar) and configure it locally. In this virtual server you can begin developing or testing your WordPress website.

Virtualbox can be useful for your local WordPress website creation and testing.

VirtualBox 5.0 for Windows. Within VirtualBox Ubuntu 14.04 is running. The image is embedded from the official Virtualbox’s website.

There are many guides on how to achieve this and it is not that hard. However I’d recommend this for medium and advanced users as beginners might face some problems and difficulties.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these solutions?

I will make the comparison based on the following criteria:

  1. Speed and resource usage – in my opinion a virtual machine using Virtualbox and Ubuntu server is running faster and is saving more resources than XAMPP. However this might be different for you as it depends on your hardware configuration.
  2. Ease of usage – XAMPP is easier for beginners.
  3. Flexibility – XAMPP is limited to the PHP and MySQL versions that come with the current build. On the other hand the virtual server under Virtualbox will provide you with enough flexibility to choose exactly the tools that you need for your website.
  4. Possibility to add control panels – this is not a problem for the virtual server running under Virtualbox. A control panel provides more options and makes you feel like you are working on the real production server.
  5. Access from clients and other users – both solutions can do this. For XAMPP you will need to add your IP address as WordPress address in the admin panel of your website and save the permalink structure. Then instead of using localhost you can use your IP address and thus the local site can be accessed.
    Virtualbox however makes this easier and the website can be accessed by IP by default. You do not need to make changes to your WordPress admin panel. But what is more important is that Virtualbox and Ubuntu server can allow you to create multiple virtual hosts. For each of them you can have a stand-alone website that can be access by your clients and other users. All you need to do is to set the local domain names under your hosts file and by pointing your IP to each of them. Then you need to instruct your clients and users to do the same and the local websites can be accessed. For these cases I like to use .loc domain names. They are not real but for the purpose of local tests they are great. You can use whatever domain names you want. For example – .dev, .test and so on. When the website is completed and transferred to the production server the only change in the database for the domain name will be the end part. For example from .loc to .com.

So these are my criteria for comparing the two solutions. What do you think friends? Which one is the most suitable for you?

Before I end this post, I’d like to share some useful links with you:

See you soon, friends!

Final migration touches for the WordPress database with Search & Replace. Find out how to place things in order:

Hello friends,

In a previous post I have described the possible ways of migrating WordPress. For the manual ways of moving your website to another hosting and domain there might be some potential problems with the database entries. In other words – something might go wrong due to the fact that the URL structure and domain information that is stored in the database will be different than the actual situation.

In this post I will show you how to place things in order in case of such problem. You will learn how to achieve the final migration touches for the WordPress database with the plugin Search&Replace.

What does Search & Replace do?

The name gives a tremendous hint – you can search your database tables for the old domain name and replace it correctly with the new one.

But that is just one of the things that Search&Replace can provide for you.  When you download, install and activate it you can go to Tools -> Search&Replace and then you will see 5 tabs. Let’s review all of them individually:

The first tab is called Backup Database.

Create a manual backup of your WordPress database by using the plugin Search&Replace

There is a single button called “Create SQL File”. Click on it and you will get a SQL export of your WordPress database which you can keep for backup purposes. This file will be available for download via a newly created button with text “Download SQL File” which will be under a message that informs you of the successful export of the database.

The second tab is called Search & Replace.

Replace the domain name in all database tables by using the WordPress plugin Search&Replace

Here is the actual reason why you’d want to have this plugin installed and activated in the first place. In order to make the magic happen you have to enter the old domain name exactly as it was with http:// in front and www if you have used it. Below this field you have to enter the new domain in the same matter.

Then you need to select the database tables that you want to be searched and replaced with the new domain name. You may choose some of them but for migration purposes you need to use all of them. So instead of selecting them one by one you can simply click on the checkbox “Select all tables”.

Next you can make a Dry Run and this option is enabled by default. This is to ensure that the plugin works. For actual Search and Replace of the domain name you need to disable this. By doing so two radio buttons will become active. One of them allows you to make the changes and then export a SQL file. The other option is to make direct changes to the database. In case you choose the first option you will need to re-import this file in the database for your WordPress website in order to make the needed changes.

You can also use GZ compression for the database if needed.

When you make up your mind you need to click on the button “Do Search & Replace”. You will be presented with the results of the operation and in most cases it should be successful. At least I did not have any problems for now when using this method.

The next tab of the plugin is called Replace Domain URL.

Here you can replace the domain name in general and you can also change the database prefix if needed. For our purposes you might not need to use this tab at all.

The next one is called SQL Import.

In it you can import a SQL File and thus apply changes to the database. In our current situation I’d advise you to use PHPMyAdmin or other tool just to be on the safe side.

The last tab is called Credits.

Here you will be able to see information about the plugin.

How to achieve the final migration touches for the WordPress database?

First make sure that your website is accessible after the migration. You will need access to the WordPress admin panel. If this is not possible you will need to open PHPMyAdmin  or other tool that is provided by your hosting provider and make some changes in the wp_options table. Change the domain name for siteurl and home.

Then edit your wp-config.php and add the following two lines at its end:

define(‘WP_HOME’, ‘http://new domain name’);
define(‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘http://new domain name’);

Make sure that you add your new domain name in by replacing http://new domain name. Save the file and then try to access the login page of your WordPress website. You should be successful. If not – check the PHP version of the new hosting and change it to a version that you know is supported by your website.

Now you should be able to access the admin panel. Install and activate the Search&Replace plugin and then make the needed changes by using the Search & Replace tab. You are done and in most of the cases you will be successful!

Another way is to have the plugin installed and activated on the old hosting and domain name so that it will be instantly available for the new ones. You can also download the plugin ZIP file manually and extract it to wp-contents/plugins. By doing this you will be able to instantly activate it when you get access to the admin panel after the migration.

What else should you do in order to prevent potential problems?

First of all make sure that you have a backup of your database before using Search&Replace. This is extremely important! You may not encounter any problems but a backup needs to be present in case you are not so lucky. So to be on the safe side – make sure you have one!

What if Search&Replace does not replace everything 100% correctly?

Contact the plugin developers and ask for support.

That’s all folks! What do you think of this plugin? Share any thoughts and questions in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends!

How to move your WordPress website

Hello friends,

In this post I will show you several ways of moving your WordPress website to another hosting and/or domain.

Let’s begin with the manual way of doing this.

For this to happen you will need the following set of tools:

OK – now let’s view the three possible options:

Option 1 – Your domain name, URL’s and database user will be the same. Only the hosting will be different.

In this case you need to open phpMyAdmin and export your database file. The procedure is extremely simple and can be done even by beginners. Here is a tutorial on this on the official WordPress codex website. On this link you will find out how to export your database if you are using another tool as well.

Then you need to download your website’s WordPress files and folders using the FTP software of your choice. Once you are done you can upload them on the root folder of the new hosting. Then using phpMyAdmin or a similar tool that you have to upload your database and you are done.

Option 2  – The domain name and the URL’s will be the same. The hosting and the database user will be different.

In this case you have to edit the downloaded wp-config file using the desired text editor. Change the username of the database user according to the settings of the new hosting. Then upload the database and WordPress files and folders.

Option 3 – The domain name, URL’s and the hosting will be different. The database user will remain the same.

In this case you have to make a complete backup of the database and the website’s files and folders. Keep them somewhere safe in case things go wrong. You can also compress the files and folders using the tar.gz compression. Then on the old hosting (and/or domain) you have to log in and change the website URL’s from Settings – General. When you save these changes you should expect a 404 error page. Then make a new export of the database, download all files and folders once again and this time upload all of them to the new hosting. Enter the new domain name and everything should be correct. At least you should have access to the admin panel. If some of the URL’s are not working correctly you need to further change and replace the domain name by using the methods provided here.

Option 4 – The domain name, URL’s, hosting and database user will be different.

Follow the instructions in Step 3. Change the database user as described in Step 2. You are done.

This is the proper way of moving WordPress manually. Now let’s see the possible plugins that can make things easier for your:

This concludes the topic on how to move your WordPress website. We are open for any feedback – questions, opinions, suggestions, etc. You are welcome to use the comment section for this purpose. If you want to help others find out how to move their WordPress websites, you can share this post on social media as well.

Than you and see you soon, friends!

URL redirection solutions for WordPress

Hello friends,

This post is SEO-orientated. In it I will discuss some of the popular solutions for URL redirection in WordPress. The main focus will be on the 301 redirect which is extremely important in terms of SEO.

What is URL redirection?

According to Wikipedia, this is also known as URL forwarding. It is a way to transfer a user and/or search bot from one URL to another. This means that if one web page was originally created under one URL it should be possible to move it to another by using the various redirection methods.

What options do I have in order to perform a URL redirection?

The usual way is to ask the user to follow the new link and to explain to them that the URL address was changed due to a specific reason and that the resource that they are trying to reach is moved to a new location. This is something that I’d not advice you to do because it is not professional (at least in my opinion) and also it is not good for your SEO strategy.

So you have to choose the automatic redirection options. 301 is by far the best and most recommended and I will review it in details in a moment. First I’d like to mention the other methods:

Then you can choose from the javascript redirects and frame redirects as well as some other methods. They are explained in details on the Wikipedia page that I have shared with you above in this post. You can also read more about them and the 3xx redirect types there.

What is 301 redirect?

This is the HTTP Status Code that is used for a permanent transfer from one URL to another. It is very important in terms of SEO, because it allows not only the users to be automatically redirected to the new location of a specific web page, but also the search engine bots. The latter means that the ratings of the older web page can be more or less preserved and transferred to the new one when the bots crawl your website. The SEO way of describing this is called “link juice transfer”.

That is why the importance of the 301 redirect is very big. You can basically keep all of the gained link juice for the old URL and use it for the new one.

Also the 301 redirects allow the search engines to remember the new location of the web page and after a while the index is updated and you can benefit from getting search results in the keywords of the new URL just like you did with the old one.

When should I use 301 redirect?

Every time when you have to change something in the URL address and every time you move the entire website to a new domain or a specific page to a new URL address on your current domain.

Let’s explain this with the following example:

You have enabled the SEO-friendly URL structure in your WordPress website. You are editing a post or a page and you notice that something in the keywords of the slug (the URL address) is wrong. Let’s assume that you can use a stronger keyword or you have made a typing error. So you decide to change this specific word and then update the URL and the post/page.

Most likely every link to this page on WordPress should be updated automatically. But if you have made manual internal and external links (the ones from other websites) and if the page is already indexed in the search engines then the users will get to the 404 page. This is not something that you desire since the user will most likely abandon your website forever (in case of a new visit and a poor 404 landing page) and you will get errors in the webmaster tools section for the different search engines. You will also gain bigger exit and bounce rate which is also bad for SEO and if the search bots cannot find the page it will be removed from the index in time and your overall SEO ratings will suffer.

So the practical way is to make a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one and all of these things may not harm your website at all. At least the users will get exactly where they intended to without any problems.

The same applies when you move your entire domain to a new one and so on.

How can I make 301 redirects in WordPress?

The professional way is to add some code to your .htaccess file.

It should already contain some code in it so you should keep it and add the following line at the end of this file:

Redirect 301 /old-url-of-the-page/ http://www.yourdomain.com/new-url-of-the-page/

For moving an entire domain using 301 redirect you should put the following code in the .htaccess file of the old domain:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) 
http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

And that’s it! Bear in mind that this may look simple but sometimes it may fail to work if something is wrong with the .htaccess file. That is why this method should be used only by advanced users.

For the beginners I’d recommend the easiest way which will most likely work even when it comes to moving URL’s from one domain to another.

I cannot say that it will work for the whole domain – most probably not. This means that the .htaccess method is needed for a domain redirect.

But for any other 301 redirects you have to install and activate the Redirection plugin.

Redirection - WordPress Plugin for making 301 Redirects

Once you are done with this you have to go to your WordPress dashboard and click on Tools -> Redirection and then head to “Add new redirection”. Enter the source URL (the old URL) and the target URL (the new one). Click on the blue “Add Redirection” button and you are 100% done!

The page will reload and you will be presented with the created redirect in a table view. You can see its type (301) and the old URL as well as statistics on the hits (a.k.a. the times this redirect was used by either a visitor or a search bot to get to the new URL). You can also see the date of the last access for this redirection.

Simple as that!

What do you think friends? Share your opinions in the comment section below and don’t forget to spread the word about this post on social media.

See you soon!

Migrate, backup or clone WordPress with Duplicator

Hello friends,

Sooner or later we might have to consider moving our website to a new location. There are various reasons for this decision but the most important one is that we are somehow not happy with our current hosting provider and we have found a more suitable one.

When this happens we have to make a complete clone of our WordPress website. This applies for both directories, files and database(s). This new clone has to be placed on the new host and then additional settings have to be made in order to use the domain on the new location (DNS settings, forwarding, etc). The latter are not WordPress related so let’s assume that you have already discussed these with the new hosting provider and you have applied them according to the instructions that you have received from them.

So the main question remains – how to clone WordPress in order to transfer it to the new hosting location?

In this post I will present to you one of the suitable solutions for this purpose. This is the plugin “Duplicator”.

Duplicator - WordPress Plugin for backup, cloning and website migration

What does Duplicator do?

Its main functionality is related to everything described above – cloning a WordPress website so that it may be transferred to a new hosting or even a new domain. However this plugin is much more powerful than this. It may be used as an excellent backup tool and thus you can be sure that your data is always protected in case of a website failure or some other problem (for example hacking).

How to work with Duplicator?

Before we begin with these instructions, I need to inform you that this plugin comes in two versions. One is 100% free and you can download it right now from WordPress.org. You can also install it directly on your WordPress website by using the plugin installer to search for Duplicator. Then you have to activate it and start using it. The review will cover the free version. However there is a PRO version of Duplicator which provides you with much more options and features. You can find information about it later on in this article.

So, now that you know how to get Duplicator working on your website, let’s see how to use it.

First of all you need to head to your WordPress dashboard and click on the Duplicator menu. From there you can see two tabs. One is called “Packages” and it lists all of the cloned copies that the plugin has created.

Duplicator Package Management

You will be able to manage these packages similar to the way you manage your WordPress posts and pages. Here you can see details about each clone copy, its creation date, file size and name.

The options are:

The first option allows you to download an installer file in PHP format that you need to upload to your new location. The second contains the actual data (database and files) of your current website. You need to upload this file once again on the new location.

There are bulk options here available as well. The details view for each package provides you with the possibility to view the version number, the user that has created it, the Hash number of the package and some notes (if any are available). You can also get links for the package, its SQL file and view the log.

The second tab (Create New) allows you to create a package. This process passes through 3 steps: Setup, Scan and Build.

Duplicator - Package creation

In the first step the creation wizard will ask you to provide a name for the package and some notes (if you want). Then you can choose the file format for the Archive and apply some filters for the files. You can adjust some options regarding to the Database as well.

Then you can adjust some options about the Installer file as well and when you are done you can proceed with Step 2. Bear in mind that you may actually leave the default options (for both Archive and Installer) if you don’t want to apply any settings.

When done you need to click on the “Next” button in order to start Step 2 – Scan. You are also able to skip this step if you want. You may also reset any settings that you have made on Step 1.

Clicking on the “Next” button will initiate the scan procedure. You will be able to monitor its progress and when it’s done you will be presented with a full overview of the package. This consists of information related to the server status, archive file, database file. For the server settings you may apply diagnostics in case some problems are shown in the overview. You are also able to rescan your website or even go back to Step 1.

In case you are happy with what you see on the overview you need to click on the “Build” button. This will start Step 3 and will actually build the package and the installer file. Once again you can monitor the progress and when Duplicator is done you will see that the process is completed as well as the name of the package and the time it took to build it.

You can also download the installer  and the archive files directly from this screen.

In order to move your website to a new location, you have to upload both files and then access the installer.php file from the URL. For example let’s assume that your new domain is newdomain.com. The URL for the installer file should be:

newdomain.com/installer.php

Then you have to follow the instructions. Again you will pass through 3 steps – Deploy, Update and Test. When done your website will be transferred successfully on the new domain and/or hosting.

Duplicator - Installer for migrating the clone package to a new location

Duplicator also has some settings that you might want to check out.

For detailed explanation of how Duplicator works you may watch this video:

What is the difference between the free and PRO version of Duplicator?

Huge! The free version is quite limited to smaller file sizes and basic cloning operations. The PRO version provides you with much more power. These differences are described in details here: Versions comparison page.

So what do you think of this plugin, friends? Would you use it? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and spread the word about this post in social media as well.

See you soon!

*The images are embedded from the WordPress.org page of the plugin

How to duplicate posts and pages on WordPress?

Hello friends,

In this post I will show you how to duplicate any post or page on your WordPress website with just a single click.

First of all I’d like to begin by explaining the dangers of having duplicate content.

I am an SEO specialist, so it would be a sin not to warn you that duplicate content is not something that Google or other search engines like. It doesn’t matter if it is placed on two or more websites or on a single one – it is a problem. You may get penalized if you leave a copy of a post or a page 1:1 with its original version.

But does this mean that content duplication is always a mistake? Of course not!

It may only be a problem if you intend to make a 1:1 copies and leave them unchanged and then publish them. But in any other case content duplication could not only be harmless but also extremely useful.

For example let’s say that you want to add a new element to one of your pages and you want to test how it will behave directly on the production server. You might like to make a duplicate version that will not be indexable but will serve for the testing purposes without breaking the original page.

Another reason why you’d love to duplicate content on WordPress is when you want to make several posts/pages that should have similar structures but with differences in their content. Then the only thing needed is to edit each copy and make it unique and this will save you time and energy from creating everything from scratch.

Another example for content duplication is when it comes to creating similar content from more than one author on your WordPress website. By default each author can edit only their posts. But let’s assume that two authors are writing on similar subjects and may need either similar post structure or something else from one of the posts. Then the most suitable solution is the admin to duplicate one of the posts and assign the new draft to the respective author so that they can edit it.

So as you see content duplication can be extremely useful in specific cases.

So how to duplicate posts and pages on WordPress?

First of all you need to install the plugin Duplicate Post. Do this from the WordPress plugin installer and search for it or download it from the official WordPress.org website and upload it manually for installation.

After you activate Duplicate Post you can go to its Options in the WordPress dashboard and adjust the behaviour of the plugin.

Duplicate Posts Options

You can allow it to copy many elements from the original post/page such as:

Duplicate Post can be set to omit the duplication of specific fields and WordPress taxonomies. You can also set the title prefix ans suffix. Let’s not forget the roles that can copy posts/pages – you can delegate the rights to all of them or limit it to only specific ones. You can also decide whether or not to show links for the duplication procedure in the post list, edit screen or the admin bar of each WordPress version above 3.1.

After you decide on these settings you should go to the “All Posts” or “All Pages” menus. On each post/page there should be an option (on mouse over) to clone it or make a new draft.

Duplicate Posts for extremely easy post/page cloning or saving as a new draft

In the edit screen of each post/page there should also be a link that will allow you to copy it to a new draft as well.

Duplicate Posts can also be used directly from the edit screen for each post/page

The developers of Duplicate Post have also included the option to add a template tag that allows you to clone your content directly from the frontend.

This is how Duplicate Post works.

You should be able to save vast amount of time and energy when creating new posts/pages with similar structures by using this plugin. A word of advise – some of the Page builders like Site Origin’s one also have the option to clone posts/pages. My personal opinion is to use the functionality of the page builder when duplicating content created with it instead of using Duplicate Post. Just in case, of course. But if you find it more suitable to use only one solution, then do try.

Don’t forget to share your results, opinions and any other thoughts on the content duplication process for WordPress. If you have enjoyed this article and find it useful, please share it to social media as well.

See you soon, friends!

*The images are embedded from the WordPress.org page of the plugin

UpdraftPlus – The supreme solution for WordPress backup

Hello friends,

We are back on the topic related to backup! As you know this is a very important thing related to each website or web project. And when it comes to a CMS system like WordPress where you are presented with regular updates then you should really take into consideration the best practices for creating and restoring backups.

In this post I will present another solution that can be easily marked as a supreme solution. This WordPress plugin is called UpdraftPlus.

What this plugin does?

UpdraftPlus is a solution for backup and restoration. Simple as that but in the mean time it offers a vast majority of important options that will ease your backups and increase your overall data protection in case of a failure related to your database or files.

So to summarize the main functions of UpdraftPlus – it is a supreme solution that will take care for the backups of your WordPress files and database and it will also aid you in their restoration in case of website failure and data loss.

Why I should choose UpdraftPlus instead of the many other plugins for WordPress?

This post is not a comparison between the different plugins. So in most cases you might be safe if you use any of the high-rated backup solutions that are available on WordPress.org.

However you will find that UpdraftPlus will be working extremely fast and well with your WordPress website. It is also extremely easy to use solution that will be suitable even for beginners which is another plus.

So let’s point out all of the features that you will get when you download, install and activate UpdraftPlus:

This plugin is suitable for all current PHP versions. UpdraftPlus also offers a premium version that extends the backup and restoration power by adding more backup destinations and features. UpdraftPlus can also serve as a duplicating solution for whole websites. This means that if you intend to move your WordPress from one host and/or domain to another then you can rely on this plugin to aid you in this task.

The premium version of UpdraftPlus also offers great support and you can also contract professional support for any enterprise projects that are utilizing the power of WordPress. And if you are using another backup solution then you will be glad to find out that UpdraftPlus can aid you in restoration from a backup made by it. This is very useful if you want to restore your website to an earlier version before the first backup created using UpdraftPlus. Currently you can benefit from this feature if you are a premium user and if your old backups are created from BackWPUp, BackupWordPress, Simple Backup, WordPress Backup To Dropbox.

The premium version of UpdraftPlus also provides options for encryption of the database backups in order to improve their security.

This plugin is with the highest ranking on WordPress.org. So it is safe to say that your website should be in secure hands if you are using UpdraftPlus. We are speaking for more than 700,000 active installations. I am also using this solution for several websites and I am very satisfied with its performance.

UpdraftPlus will help you ensure your investment in your website by providing you with high-quality backups that you can instantly restore in case of a problem.

More on the UpdraftPlus usage can be seen on this video:

What do you think friends? Will you give UpdraftPlus a try? Or maybe you have questions? Feel free to write them in the comment section below. Don’t forget to share this post on social media.

See you soon friends!

Transfer WordPress with All-in-Оne-WP Migration

Sooner or later you may need to change the location of your WordPress installation. This might be caused by the need of a new domain name, new hosting or even transfer to a localhost server so that you may test the future changes on your website.

So no matter what is the reason you need to make sure that your database and files are transferred correctly. There are several ways to achieve this however most of them are not suitable for beginners.

The great news is that there is an extremely user friendly solution that will allow you to move your WordPress to the new location with just a couple of clicks. This plugin will also be useful for backup purposes which is also very important. So without further ado I am pleased to present to you All-in-Оne-WP Migration.

All-in-One WP Migration the user-friendly solution for WordPress transfers and backups.

Like always you need to install and activate the plugin. Then a new section will appear in your WordPress dashboard. It is called All-in-One WP Migration. You need to click on it.

The settings subsection for All-in-One WP Migration in the WordPress Dashboard

Once you do this you will be automatically redirected to the “Export” subsection. Please do note that there are two more subsections available: “Import” and “Backups”.

The Export subsection for All-in-One WP Migration. Here you generate the backup file that may be used to restore your installation or to transfer it to another server.

On the “Export” subsection you can choose what text to find and replace in the database and you can add multiple strings using the Add button. You can also set advanced options for the export.

You can choose between:

After this is the “Export to” button. Again you need to choose between:

In most cases “File” will be more than sufficient so let’s click on this option. A new window appears and All-in-One WP Migration is doing its work. After this is completed you can download your file and use it to do the migration on the new server.

How to do this?

First of all you need to download the file that All-in-One WP Migration has generated. It contains a backup of your files and your database. Then create a new WordPress installation on the new server. Do not worry about the details – just go with simple admin user details and default WordPress settings. Complete the installation and then install and activate All-in-One WP Migration on it. Then head to the “Import” subsection and either drag&drop the generated file or click on the “Import from” button and select “File”.

The Import subsection of All-in-One WP Migration will allow you to easily make the transfer of your installation or to restore it.

As you can see you can also choose from:

Then All-in-One WP Migration will begin the transfer of the files and the database and after the plugin has completed its work your old website will be transferred on 100% to the new server. Everything will be replaced correctly without any difficulties. Just sit back, relax and let All-in-One WP Migration do its job.

Now let’s check what is in the “Backups” subsection.

The Backups subsection of All-in-One WP Migration will allow you to manage the generated backup/transfer files.

In it you will see the generated files that are ready to be downloaded. You are also presented with information about the remaining disk space on your server. For each backup you can choose whether to download the file, restore it or simply free more space by deleting it.

Additional information:

As you can see the usage of  All-in-One WP Migration is extremely easy and user friendly. But there are some things that you need to be aware of.

First of all this awesome plugin is free but you are limited to only 512 mb for a transfer. This means that if your WordPress installation is bigger than the default size you need to purchase the premium version of the plugin or you need to make the transfer using other methods. For most of the websites the 512 mb limit is not a problem and you should be just fine with the free version.

The second thing to be aware of is the encoding of the file names in your WP gallery. If they contain any non-latin characters the plugin may not be able to back them up correctly and this will cause problems later on.

If you intend to rely on All-in-One WP Migration for backup purposes I would recommend to have another backup option available just in case. You can use BackWPup for this purpose.

Another important moment is related to the caching plugin that you are using. If possible stop the caching process and clear the cache before making an export file with All-in-One WP Migration.

So this is it friends! Happy transfers and don’t forget to share your thoughts on the plugin in the comments below.

See you soon.