What Is Joomla?

Joomla! is a free and open-source CMS that allows users to create, manage, and publish websites and online applications. And yes, there is an exclamation point in the name Joomla! Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, Joomla’s extensive features and customization options make it a compelling choice.

First released in 2005, Joomla is built on a model-view-controller (MVC) framework, which separates the logic, data, and presentation layers, making it a powerful choice for developers and non-developers alike.

It started as an offshoot of Mambo, an open-source CMS (i.e. a platform that enables you to create content and publish it online). The team that would go on to create Joomla! felt that parts of the new structure went against the principles of open-source, so they developed their own CMS.

Joomla is suited to a wide range of industries and website types, including:

• Corporate and Business Websites: Showcase your brand and services with a professional online presence.
• eCommerce Stores: With extensions like VirtueMart, Joomla makes it easy to manage products, orders, and payments.
• Government and Nonprofit Websites: Build secure, multilingual websites to serve diverse audiences.
• Community-Based Platforms: Create forums, membership sites, and other interactive platforms with Joomla extensions.

Its open-source nature means that it’s continually updated and improved by a dedicated community of developers, ensuring that Joomla remains a reliable and feature-rich platform.

Key Features of Joomla

Joomla’s robust feature set is what sets it apart from other CMS platforms. Here are some of its standout features:

• Flexibility and Extensibility: Joomla offers thousands of templates and extensions, enabling users to customize their websites to meet unique requirements.
• User Management: Advanced user management tools allow administrators to set multiple levels of access and permissions.
• Multilingual Support: With native support for over 70 languages, Joomla makes it easy to create multilingual websites without additional plugins.
• SEO Optimization: Built-in tools help optimize your website for search engines, including customizable meta tags, SEF URLs, and more.
• Content Management: Organizing and publishing content is seamless, thanks to features like the article manager and category system.
• Developer-Friendly Features: Joomla supports PHP, SQL, and other programming technologies, making it a favorite for developers who need a customizable platform.

Why Choose Joomla?

Joomla strikes a balance between simplicity and power, making it suitable for both beginners and professionals. It stands out as a versatile and powerful CMS, suitable for a wide range of website needs. Here’s an in-depth look at why Joomla might be the right choice for you:

Versatility

Joomla is a flexible platform that supports many website types, making it a versatile choice for developers and businesses alike. From simple personal blogs and professional business websites to complex eCommerce stores and secure government portals, Joomla can adapt to diverse project requirements. Its modular architecture and extensive library of extensions make it adaptable to various industries, including eCommerce, government, education, and nonprofit sectors. The platform supports a wide array of features, allowing users to build and customize their websites to meet unique requirements.

Customizability

Joomla’s rich library of templates and extensions gives users unparalleled freedom to design and enhance their websites. Whether you need a specific design, additional functionality, or custom integrations, Joomla provides tools that empower both developers and non-developers to bring their vision to life. This makes it suitable for projects of all sizes, from small blogs to large enterprise portals.

Powerful Content Management

Joomla offers robust content management tools that make organizing, editing, and publishing content intuitive. Features like the article manager, category system, and versioning allow users to maintain control over their website’s content with ease.

Built-in Multilingual Support

Joomla natively supports over 70 languages, making it an excellent choice for multilingual websites. Unlike many other CMS platforms, Joomla doesn’t require additional plugins for language support, reducing complexity and enhancing reliability. You can create content in multiple languages without needing additional plugins, which simplifies the process and reduces the risk of compatibility issues.

Advanced User Management

With its granular access control levels, Joomla excels in scenarios where multiple users need varying degrees of access. This makes it ideal for membership sites, community platforms, and corporate websites with complex organizational structures.

Joomla’s user management system offers granular control over user permissions and roles. This is particularly beneficial for websites requiring different levels of access, such as membership or community platforms. Additionally, its content management tools make organizing and publishing content intuitive.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Joomla includes built-in SEO features such as SEF (search engine-friendly) URLs, metadata management, and sitemap generation. These tools help improve your site’s visibility in search engines without requiring additional plugins.

Active Community and Support

Joomla’s community is one of its biggest assets. A large and engaged network of developers and users contributes to its continuous improvement, provides extensive documentation, and offers forums for troubleshooting and learning.

Security

Joomla places a strong emphasis on security, with regular updates and built-in measures to protect your site from vulnerabilities. Additionally, its community frequently provides patches and security resources.

Scalability

As your website grows, Joomla can scale with it. Whether you’re adding more pages, features, or handling increased traffic, Joomla’s robust infrastructure ensures reliable performance.

By offering a balance of simplicity and advanced features, Joomla appeals to both novice users and experienced developers. Its flexibility and rich feature set make it a solid choice for anyone seeking a powerful and customizable CMS platform.

How Much Does Joomla Cost?

Joomla is an open-source CMS, which means the software itself is free to download, use, and modify. There are no licensing fees or subscription costs to use Joomla.

While Joomla is free, there are other potential costs associated with building and maintaining a website using the platform.

• Web Hosting: You need a hosting provider to run your Joomla site. Hosting plans can range from a few dollars per month for shared hosting to higher costs for VPS or dedicated hosting. A Joomla-optimized hosting plan, like those offered by A2 Hosting, ensures better performance and reliability.
• Domain Name: To make your site accessible, you’ll need a domain name, which typically costs around $10–$20 per year.
• Extensions and Templates: While Joomla has a wide range of free extensions and templates, premium options with advanced features or professional designs may cost anywhere from $10 to several hundred dollars.
• Development or Design Services: If you hire a developer or designer to create or customize your Joomla site, costs will depend on their expertise and the complexity of your requirements.
• Maintenance and Upgrades:
  Regular updates are necessary to keep your Joomla site secure and optimized. While you can handle updates yourself for free, hiring professionals to manage this process might involve additional costs.

In summary, while Joomla is free, the total cost of building and maintaining a Joomla site will depend on your hosting, domain name, and any additional premium features or professional services you choose to invest in.

How to Get Started with Joomla! (In 4 Steps)

If you’re interested in trying out Joomla!, the first thing you’ll need to do is set up your website. Let’s walk through how to do that in just four easy steps.

Step 1: Purchase a Hosting Plan and Domain Name

Joomla! provides practically all of the tools you’ll need to build your site, but you’ll still need a place to host it online. If you’re not ready to make that commitment yet, you can try out a free 24-hour Joomla! demo to see for yourself how the software works – and whether you feel comfortable with it.

You’ll also need to purchase a hosting plan for your new site.

As a beginner, it’s best to pick your hosting provider carefully. Installing a CMS manually can be somewhat complicated. You can avoid having to do this by opting for a hosting plan that supports Joomla!, and offers an easy-installation option.

In addition, you’ll also need to secure a domain name. You can purchase a new name, use a free subdomain, or even transfer a domain name you already own.

Once you have your hosting and domain in place, you can get your site up and running. Exactly how you do that will depend on your chosen host. If you opt for an A2 Hosting plan, Joomla! will be pre-installed and configured for optimal speed. That means you can start designing your site immediately!

Step 2: Choose a Template for Your Site

Once you have a home for your site, you can start making changes and adding content. The best way to learn this platform is to plunge right in and start experimenting. You can set up your site using a default template, and update text and images from there to customize it further.

First, log into your site’s admin area. Under Configuration in the left-hand menu, select Templates. On the next page, you’ll see a small selection of default templates.

Simply select the star icon next to a template’s name, in order to make it active on your site. You can always change this selection later, and you can download additional options from the Joomla website and other directories online.

Step 3: Install Extensions to Customize Your Site

Extensions are what really sets Joomla! apart from other CMSs. This platform offers a wide array of these add-ons, which can be installed on your site to provide you with new features and options. Extensions enable you to do practically anything, such as creating a forum or managing user profiles.

You can explore Joomla!’s extension library to see many of the possibilities. To add an extension to your site, go to Extensions > Manage in your dashboard. Click on the Install from Web button. Then you can search for any extension you like, using the search feature or the list of categories.

When you find an extension you want to use, click on it for more information. Then select the green Install button to add it to your site. You’ll be asked to confirm the installation and Joomla! will get it up and running right away.

Step 4: Get in Touch with the Community

As you continue to work on your new Joomla site, you’re likely to have plenty of questions. Fortunately, the Joomla! forum is an excellent resource for basic support.

You can also search Joomla!’s tutorials for answers to specific questions, as well as how-to guides. If you find yourself in over your head at any point, you can also consider hiring a programmer or perhaps taking a class. The more you use Joomla!, the easier it should get. It’s okay to need some help, however, especially in the beginning.

Ready to start your Joomla! journey? Consider A2 Hosting’s optimized Joomla Hosting plans for fast, secure, and reliable performance. Easily add Joomla to any hosting package and start your Joomla website in just minutes. All with the reliability of premium hardware, 99.9% uptime commitment, 24/7/365 in-house support, and no-risk money back guarantee. Compare our hosting plans and choose the right package for your website needs.

The post What Is Joomla? What to Know About This Free and Powerful CMS appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What is Magento?

First, let’s discuss what Magento is and why it may be a helpful platform for you. Magento is one of the top e-commerce platforms today. It is made with open-source software so users are able to control their online store’s look, functionality, and content without compromising the shopping experience. Also, Magento provides its users with a number of useful tools and features including marketing, SEO, and catalog-management tools. With Magento, users have access to a wide variety of plugins and themes to customize whatever they want. Such customizations can also improve customer experience.

In general, the platform is scalable to any store size and will adapt to your business, whether you are catering to a few customers or a million. This means that as your business grows you won’t be forced to change platforms.

What is Managed VPS Hosting?

Managed VPS Hosting is a managed service where you don’t need to worry about managing your server. With Managed VPS Hosting, your hosting provider will take care of server maintenance such as core updates, software installation, backup, security, and more.

Benefits of Magento as an eCommerce Platform

Magento offers numerous advantages to e-commerce businesses. As an e-commerce platform, it provides:

• Increased performance and scalability
• Improved ability to persuade customers
• A powerful platform that can support thousands of products
• A responsive and mobile-friendly experience
• Advanced search engine optimization features
• A helpful community with developer support

Benefits of Managed VPS Hosting with A2 Hosting

• Enjoy Full Root Access: With full root access you can tailor your managed server to meet your specific needs as you’re not sharing it with other entities.
• Cost Savings: With managed virtual hosting, you can eliminate expenses incurred on hiring dedicated staff to take care of the technical administration and management tasks.
• Scalability: Managed VPS Hosting services also take care of scalability, which is an important requirement for growing businesses. With rising traffic, your server resources can be easily ramped up to meet the increasing demands.
• Security: With Managed VPS Hosting, you get an IP address that is unique to your server, which offers increased website security.

Conclusion

At A2 Hosting, our goal is to offer fast, responsive, and reliable hosting solutions to meet your unique needs. This recent integration with Magento is one way for us to show our support to all of our customers.

If you’re a growing enterprise, increasing business demands can place undue strain on your website and online operations if they’re not designed to handle high traffic and other challenges. In addition, the demands of an expanding business can divert attention from more valuable business activities. This is where A2 Hosting can come to your rescue. By opting for our Managed Magento VPS Hosting, you can focus your time and attention on operations such as marketing, promotions, sales, and customer service that directly contribute to the growth of your business.

Leave the hosting challenges to us while you attend to your customers. Benefit from our hassle-free and seamless hosting plans!

Learn more about our Managed VPS Hosting plans. If you have any questions, contact our sales team today!

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What Does WP Mean?

WP stands for WordPress, which is a popular platform used for creating websites and blogs. It’s also one of the easiest ways to create an online presence for businesses, nonprofit organizations, artists, bloggers, and more.

What Is WP?

Have you ever used WP? This is a question that comes up quite frequently when we talk to clients about our website hosting services. WordPress is an open-source content management system that powers millions of websites.

WordPress is an accessible blogging platform used by many people, whether it’s for a finance company or a competitive duck herding hobby. What makes it incredibly popular is it allows users to create blogs and websites easily. That is why more and more individuals are becoming drawn to WP for their website needs.

What Are the Benefits of WP?

WordPress is a popular content management system that is used by all sorts of people and organizations for blogs, e-commerce stores, and even simple websites that just need a little bit of updating. Here are the main benefits of using WP:

• Simple to use
• Highly customizable
• Easily managed
• Search-engine friendly
• Safe and secure

Conclusion

WordPress is a powerful platform that has been around for over a decade, and it continues to be one of the most popular content management systems in the world. If you want to learn more about what makes this platform so useful, or if you’re interested in learning how A2 Hosting’s Managed WordPress plans can help with your website, contact us today for more information.

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Main Features

Here are some of the amazing features included with this plugin:

• It’s compatible with both the Classic Editor and new Gutenberg editor
• There are multiple responsive layouts for your collages
• You can optionally switch to regular images on mobile
• It’s easy to change the size of your layouts
• It has an intuitive drag and drop interface
• You can add multiple collages to any post type

Getting Started

First, log into your WordPress site with the Administrator Account. Go to the sidebar menu, and select: “Plugins -> Add New“.

In the Add New Plugin section, search for the “Easy Image Collage” plugin and click on the “Install Now” button to add the plugin to your site and activate the plugin:

After the installation and activation, click Settings -> Easy Image Collage:

From this section you can modify all the settings of this plugin, such as style, layout, lightbox, captions, social media, and others:

To make this plugin work when creating a post or page, first, add a block and then search for Easy Image Collage:

Then, select the layout you want:

Next, it’s necessary to upload the images of the collage. From here you can adjust the size of your borders, grid, and others areas:

Finally, to finish creating the content of the post or page, click on Publish. Congrats, you have successfully added a collage to your website!

Related Resources:

How to Install and Configure the EWWW Image Optimizer Plugin

How to Fix Broken Image Links in WordPress

How to Add Your Logo to Your WordPress Login Page

How to Enable Automatic Updates for WordPress Plugins

The post How to Create an Image Collage for WordPress appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, by taking some simple precautions, you can make the transition to WordPress “Esperanza” as hassle-free as possible. Once you complete your upgrade, you can explore all the latest features and improvements bundled with WordPress 5.7.

In this article, we’ll examine why this new version is causing issues for some website owners and the steps you can take to upgrade safely. Then we’ll explore the new Block Editor features, performance enhancements, and everything else noteworthy in WordPress 5.7. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to WordPress 5.7 (And Why It’s Causing Problems for Some Websites)

With WordPress 5.6 closing out 2020, WordPress 5.7 Esperanza is the first release of 2021. Named in honor of musical prodigy Esperanza Spalding, this release brings exciting new functionality to the Block Editor, plus a range of performance and usability improvements.

However, WordPress 5.7 also introduces a change that could impact thousands of themes and plugins. Over the years, WordPress has fallen behind on its jQuery updates.

Prior to version 5.5, WordPress bundled version 1.12.4 of this popular JavaScript library. To put this into perspective, jQuery 1.12.4 was released in 2016 and supported Internet Explorer (IE) 6, 7, and 8. In this release, WordPress finally makes the leap from jQuery 1.12.4 to jQuery 3.5.

To give users a chance to prepare, this jQuery migration began back with WordPress 5.5. Since then, the WordPress team has actively engaged with the community, including requesting feedback regarding their approach to updating jQuery. They have also published jQuery upgrade guide resources, and publicized the upcoming change extensively on the Make WordPress Core blog.

However, WordPress estimated that this change could impact around 2,400 WordPress plugins and 250 themes. That’s a huge number! When you also consider that WordPress now powers 40 percent of the web, it’s almost inevitable that some website owners will experience issues while upgrading to version 5.7.

If you update your WordPress installation, there’s a chance that some of your plugins or even your theme might stop working as expected. This may create issues with how your site displays or functions. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect your site against these jQuery conflicts.

Before you take steps to update your site safely, it may help to know what changes to expect. In the next section, we’ll discuss the features introduced with WordPress 5.7.

8 New Features of the WordPress 5.7 Esperanza Update

Upgrading WordPress can be a daunting process, but it’s also your chance to experience the latest functionality offered by the Content Management System (CMS). Below are eight of our favorite WordPress 5.7 features.

1. One-Click Switch From HTTP to HTTPS

HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a protocol that encrypts the data sent between your server and a visitor’s browser. Switching to HTTPS can help keep your users safe, particularly if you collect sensitive information, such as customers’ payment details.

There’s also evidence to suggest that HTTPS may improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). After analyzing one million Google search results, Backlinko concluded that switching to HTTPS positively impacts search engine rankings.

Migrating your site from HTTP to HTTPS hasn’t always been straightforward. In WordPress, you would typically start by navigating to Settings > General, and then updating your WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL):

However, content with embedded HTTP URLs would sometimes remain unchanged in the database, leading to mixed content warnings. Previously, updating these references required you to perform a search and replace using a plugin such as the WP-CLI command line tool or the Better Search Replace plugin.

In WordPress 5.7, you can switch your site from HTTP to HTTPS with a single click. When you make the switch, WordPress will update all of its database URLs automatically. This means you’ll no longer have to manually fix all these hard-coded URLs.

You can determine whether your site is currently using HTTPS using the Site Health Check tool. Introduced in the WordPress 5.1 release, this feature scans for common security and performance issues that may be impacting your site:

To perform a Site Health Check, navigate to Tools > Site Health. Health Check will then automatically run a security and performance analysis and verify whether you need to migrate to HTTPS:

If this is the case, Site Health Check will display a button that enables you to make this change with a single click. Once you click on it, WordPress prompts you to log back into your admin account, and then displays a notification letting you know that the switch is complete. 

2. iFrames Are Lazy-Loaded by Default

Lazy loading is an optimization technique where images and embedded resources aren’t downloaded and rendered until they’re in the visitor’s viewport. This can significantly reduce page load times, particularly if your site features lots of high-resolution media.

Previously, you could lazy load images and iframes by adding the loading="lazy" attribute to the corresponding img and iframe tags. WordPress recently changed this default behavior. In 5.5 and higher, the loading="lazy" tag is automatically added to img tags when the width and height attributes are specified.

Now, WordPress 5.7 is extending automatic lazy loading to iframe tags. By default, WordPress will add an loading="lazy" attribute to the following iframes:

• Those within post content (the_content)
• iFrames within post excerpts (the_excerpt)
• Those within text widgets (widget_text_content)

This means that iframes will receive the same performance benefits that WordPress 5.5 introduced by lazy loading images. To avoid any perceived negative impact on layout shifting, WordPress will only add a loading="lazy" attribute to iframe tags that have both the width and height attributes specified.

It’s also worth noting that many iframes come from WordPress’ oEmbed integration. Here, the integration automatically transforms the resource’s URL into the referenced embedded media when pasted into the editor. The respective web service defines the markup of these iframe tags.

In this scenario, WordPress can only add the loading="lazy" attribute if the web service has followed the best practices of providing a width and height attribute. Therefore, there’s no guarantee that your oEmbed resources will be lazy-loaded by default.

3. Easier Password Reset Links in WordPress 5.7

If a user forgets their WordPress password, they may struggle to perform their work. This can result in missed deadlines and a drop in productivity.

Misplaced login credentials can be particularly disastrous if there’s a significant delay between the user realizing they cannot access their account and you (or your admin) issuing them with a new password. To help streamline this process, admins can now manually send a password reset link to existing users via email. This gives users the freedom to reset their passwords manually, which is also far safer than an admin directly changing their login credentials.

To send a reset email as an admin, you can simply navigate to Users > All Users. Next,  hover over the name of the person who requires a new password and select Send password reset when it appears:

Alternatively, you can open the person’s profile for editing, and then scroll to Account Management and click on Send Reset Link. Sometimes, you may need to issue multiple password reset emails.

For example, you might require all users to reset their passwords once every six months for added security. You can distribute the emails as part of a bulk action:

WordPress 5.7 also makes some changes to the password reset screen. Previously, it only displayed a Reset Password button.

For some users, this was confusing as they assumed the automatically-generated password was their new password and not merely a suggestion. To remove this point of confusion, WordPress changed the screen to feature two separate buttons: Generate Password and Save Password.

4. A Streamlined Color Palette

WordPress 5.7 introduces a new color palette that aims to simplify the colors included in the CMS source code. The new palette collapses the options down to seven core colors, and a range of 56 shades that meet WCAG 2.0 AA’s recommended contrast ratio:

Half of the range has a 4.5 or higher contrast ratio against white, and the other half maintains the same contrast ratio against black. The colors are perceptually uniform from light to dark in each range, meaning that each core color starts at white and gets darker by the same amount with each step.

By standardizing the color palette, WordPress 5.7 hopes to help theme and plugin developers make more coherent design decisions. In particular, this should ensure greater consistency between third-party products and the WordPress User Interface (UI).

5. A New Robots Application Programming Interface (API)

WordPress 5.7 introduces a filter-based Robots Application Programming Interface (API). This API gives you greater control over the robots meta tag, including how individual pages are indexed and served to users in search engine results.

By default, the Robots API includes the max-image-preview: large directive, which enables search engines to display larger image previews. This can positively impact your SEO and boost your traffic by helping your content stand out in search results. In WordPress 5.7, the following robots meta tag is automatically added to wp_head for sites that wish to be indexed by search engines:

<meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:large" />

WordPress 5.7 only omits this directive if you specifically ask for it to discourage search engines from indexing your content. If required, you can make this request by navigating to Settings > Reading:

After you select the Discourage search engines from indexing this site option, remember to click on Save Changes . If you want to explore this API in more detail, the WordPress team published a guide to customizing the robots meta tag using an array of key-value pairs.

6. A New Dynamic Hook

In WordPress, the render_block() function is responsible for rendering each block into an HTML string. Some themes and plugins use filters to modify how this happens. For example, render_block_context filters the default context that’s provided to a rendered block.

These filters give developers control over how their blocks render. However, before they can perform any modifications, the hooked functions need to verify that the block is of a compatible type – for example, whether it’s a button block.

WordPress 5.7 introduces a new dynamic filter: render_block_{$this->name}. Here, “{$this->name}” represents the block’s name or slug as it was registered. This ensures that the function can only hook to blocks of a compatible type.

For example, a paragraph block registered with the name of “example/paragraph” can be filtered using render_block_example/paragraph. This should reduce the amount of code you need to write to target the rendering of specific block types.

7. Updates to the WordPress 5.7 Block Editor

WordPress 5.7 merges many versions of the standalone Gutenberg editor plugin into WordPress core. This includes a wide range of tweaks and fixes that aim to improve the overall Block Editor experience.

First, in WordPress 5.7 reusable blocks save automatically along with the post itself. This means you won’t lose all your hard work because you forgot to save a block separately.

You can also drag blocks and block patterns from the inserter and drop them anywhere on your canvas. However, be aware that this drag-and-drop feature only works if your theme supports block patterns:

You can also access font-size controls inside the List and Code blocks. Simply select the block in question to open the inspector:

Then you can select an option from the Typography: Font Size drop-down menu. If you’re using a code block, this new feature makes it possible to use global style variables in the CSS of your code blocks.

To help you find the perfect block, icons and descriptions display in the inspector. To view this information, you can click to select any block within your page canvas:

You can also change the size of the icons in the Social Icons block. To make this adjustment, click on the Size button and choose from Small, Normal, Large, or Huge:

You might also want to apply a custom color to the social icons, which can help you style icons, such as Facebook and Twitter, to complement your WordPress site better. Alternatively, you could draw attention to these important buttons by choosing a color that stands out from the rest of your website.

8. Improved Support for Block Variations

Introduced in WordPress 5.4, block variations are a way to select different instances of the same block. For example, if you add a Column block to your page, it presents you with several configurations. In this scenario, each column layout is a different block variation.

In WordPress 5.7, you can quickly and easily switch between block variations using a Transform to variation drop-down menu. This menu appears in the inspector whenever you select a block that supports variations:

In addition to this change, the Buttons block now supports vertical alignments and horizontal variations. While we’re taking a look at the Buttons block, it’s also worth noting that you can set the width of the buttons to a preset percentage:

The available percentages are 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent. However, this refers to the percentage of the buttons inside the parent container, and not the entire page width.

How to Safely Upgrade to WordPress 5.7

If you’re concerned about upgrading to WordPress 5.7, we recommend creating a full backup of your website before proceeding. You can then restore this backup if you encounter any issues.

You can back up your website using a range of third-party software. This includes the BackupBuddy solution or the UpdraftPlus plugin:

If you’re an A2 Hosting customer, we provide a choice of built-in backup tools. You can access our dedicated Backup Wizard and Server Rewind solutions by logging into your cPanel account or you can get step by step instructions from our Guru Crew!

To download a copy of your site using the Backup Wizard, simply click on Backup. If you encounter any issues following the upgrade, return to the Backup Wizard and select Restore. You can then choose the backup you created:

Alternatively, you can restore an earlier version of your site using Server Rewind. As the name suggests, this tool rolls back your server to a former state, as specified by you:

To start, select a date from the drop-down menu and click on Restore. You’ll then need to select the Restore Databases tab and repeat this process.

You can also determine whether your site might encounter any issues following the upgrade using the Test jQuery Updates plugin. This tool mimics what will happen when you update from WordPress 5.6 to WordPress 5.7. To protect your live site, we recommend using a staging version of your website for the jQuery test.

If you’re hesitant about upgrading to WordPress 5.7,  it may be worth considering a managed hosting solution. As part of our managed WordPress hosting packages, we’ll perform all essential maintenance tasks for you. This includes ensuring that you’re running the latest and greatest version of WordPress without issues.

Conclusion

Updating WordPress may seem daunting, particularly when Esperanza has the potential to cause issues with so many themes and plugins. However, WordPress 5.7 features some important block editor updates and performance improvements.

Installing the latest update is also important for keeping your site safe, so it’s vital that you upgrade as soon as possible. To ensure a stress-free update, we recommend creating a complete backup before installing WordPress 5.7. You can also test to see how your site will function following the jQuery change using the Test jQuery Updates plugin.

For many website owners, switching to the latest version of WordPress is a source of stress. If you’re in the bad habit of delaying your updates, you may benefit from managed hosting. As part of our managed WordPress hosting, we handle these upgrades for you, so you can be confident that you’re always running the latest software. Check out our plans today to learn more!

Related Resources

• Enabling Automatic Updates for WordPress Plug Ins
• How to Clear the Cache in WordPress
• PHP 8 and WordPress Compatibility: Everything You Need to Know
• How to Use Mailchimp with WordPress

Image credit: Pexels.

The post Everything You Need to Know About the WordPress 5.7 Esperanza Update appeared first on The A2 Posting.

How to Add a Logo to WordPress Login Page

We’ve created a step by step guide teaching you how to add your company logo to this page in order to start your brand recognition early!

There are a number of ways, you can add a logo such as:

• A custom 3rd party theme
• 3rd party plugin
• With the help of simple code snippet

Today, we will focus on the code snippet so you don’t have to install any 3rd party themes or plugins. If you are interested on more in-depth information on how to install a custom logo onto your WordPress site rather than your login page, please click here.

Set Yourself Up for Success:

1. First, connect to your WordPress FTP or login to your cPanel.
2. Locate your theme folder (in this example, we will use “twentysixteen” theme).
3. From here, navigate to wp-content/themes/your-theme-name folder.
4. Create a folder “assets” and upload your logo image file

These first steps make sure your logo image is uploaded into the right place before you try and put it on your login page.

Begin Placing Your Logo:

• To begin, log in to WordPress as the administrator.
• Then go to your dashboard.

• Follow this path: Click on Dashboard ->  Appearance -> Editor

• Once you have reached the editor page, look at the right column where you see the “Theme Files”.
• Under theme files, you will see a list of all the files related to your theme. In this example, we are using “Twenty Sixteen” theme.
• Find the file “functions.php”
• Click on Edit to make changes in the file.
• Add this code snippet at the bottom:

function add_logo_to_login() {
    echo '<style type="text/css">
        h1 a { background-image:url('.get_bloginfo('template_directory').'/assets/images/logo.jpg) !important; width:300px !important;}
    </style>';
}
add_action('login_head', 'add_logo_to_login');

In the above code snippet, “/assets/images/logo.jpg” is the location of the custom logo. This makes sure your logo, as well as the rest of your images, are stored in one folder and easy to access when needed

Now, here is what the login page looks like with our logo as an example:

Remember, it is never too early to make customer aware of your brand by editing and personalizing your WordPress site. If you are interested in further WordPress edits, like changing the language of your site or the date and time, we have step by step instructions on how to do that as well in our Knowledge Base. Click here if you are interested in fast and reliable WordPress hosting to further improve your website!

The post How to Add Your Logo to Your WordPress Login Page appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Domain Redirect is a plugin that loads at Joomla startup and checks if the domain used in the URL matches the one specified in the parameters. If it does not, the plugin gracefully redirects the visitor to the exact same URL, replacing the domain with the preferred one.

The functions offered by this plugin will be useful in maintaining your site, redirecting domains that are no longer in operation or simply redirecting to a specific page within your website.

Configure Domain Redirect Plugin

To install and configure the Domain Redirect Plugin, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Joomla site as the administrator.
2. On the top menu bar, click on Extensions -> Manage -> Install
3. Select the “Install from Web” tab; search and install the “Domain redirect”:
4. After installing, you must activate the plugin. Click Extensions -> Plugins. Search it and edit:  
5. In the settings, you can add the target domain to which it will be redirected, you can also establish the link to a landing page if you want. Change the status to Enabled and click Save:
6. And that ‘s it! An easy to configure plugin that will help you with processes such as maintenance on your website to redirect or in different cases.

More information

For more information about the Domain Redirect Plugin, please visit https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/domain-redirect/

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React is one of the most popular front end frameworks. Unsurprisingly, if you want to use React in your WordPress project, you have lots of options. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by so much choice, it’s understandable – but there’s no need to panic.

In this article, we’ll introduce four React frameworks that you can use in your WordPress projects. We’ll cover the pros and cons of each framework. We’ll also look at some common scenarios where you may want to use one React framework over the other. Let’s get started!

What Is a REST API?

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing web-based applications and tools. You can use APIs to communicate with other websites, applications, and services. This includes requesting data from third parties.

Many companies have released their APIs as products that third parties can use. For example, Google has released a wide range of APIs that provide access to their services, including APIs for YouTube, Street View, and Google Play.

REST (Representational State Transfer) APIs are distinct from other APIs. To be considered RESTful, an API must follow specific guidelines. These guidelines help ensure the resulting API is lightweight, flexible, extensible, and secure. These guidelines include a separation between the client and the server, the use of cacheable data wherever possible, and a uniform User Interface (UI).

WordPress has its own REST API. This API was originally developed as a separate feature plugin. However, elements of the REST API were added into the core platform as early as WordPress 4.4. The API was fully integrated into WordPress 4.7, which means that every version of WordPress since then has its own fully-functional REST API.

WordPress’ REST API provides data in JSON format. By default, every WordPress website has JSON data available. Unless the site owner has restricted access to it, it’s easy to see your website’s JSON output – simply enter its URL in the following format:

http://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts

Your browser should now display a series of JSON data related to your site’s recent posts. This data isn’t particularly human-readable, but it’s compatible with a large number of web technologies. Similarly, you can see the JSON output of all your most recent pages, by replacing the /posts part of the URL with /pages.

What Does the REST API Mean for WordPress?

Traditionally, WordPress generated HTML using a theme based on PHP template files. However, the introduction of the REST API removed this dependency on the PHP rendering engine. This opened up lots of opportunities for WordPress developers.

The REST API makes it easier for WordPress to interact with other websites and web applications. This API lets you perform Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) actions on WordPress content, including posts, pages, and even custom post types. This gives developers an easy way to push and pull data out of WordPress.

WordPress’ REST API can also communicate and exchange data, regardless of the language an external program is using. This has made the WordPress platform far more flexible and powerful, as you’re not confined to any specific technologies or languages.

The REST API makes it easier for developers to display content from an individual website within a multisite setup. It is also possible to display content from separate WordPress websites.

Today, the WordPress REST API is commonly used to separate content from the front end, paving the way for developers to use WordPress as a headless Content Management System (CMS). This is where React comes in.

How React and WordPress Can Help You Create a High-Performing App

The React framework is a JavaScript library. Developers can use this library to build UIs for Single Page Applications (SPAs) within web and mobile environments.

The major aim of developing React was to improve JavaScript’s UI development. Though originally launched for use with Facebook, React is now enjoying a great rate of adoption across several industries. It is also gaining popularity with the WordPress community, particularly with developers who want to set up headless WordPress.

With a headless setup, you can use the WordPress CMS on the back end, then build your front end using practically any development technologies you’d like. React-based frameworks can use the WordPress REST API as an interface to access your website’s data from outside the WordPress framework. This means it’s possible to create an SPA using React, then control the content using the familiar WordPress back end.

React can also make your projects faster by eliminating the need to re-render. Rather than re-loading each page in its entirety, an SPA loads content dynamically. This means the fundamental code of a website is loaded just once. If the state of a component changes, React will re-render the necessary components only.

React has a large and active developer community. Major firms such as Facebook, Airbnb, Dropbox, Netflix, and Reddit use React to build many of their applications. This comes with a lot of perks in terms of development and expert base.

Some of the React frameworks we’ll cover in this article are relatively new. Using cutting-edge technologies may be exciting, but it can also pose problems if you encounter technical issues. You may struggle to find an expert who has the know-how required to help resolve your problem. However, by opting for a React framework, you can request assistance from the large, and growing React community.

What You Should Look for in a React Framework

When using any web technology, it’s important to choose the right framework. Every framework has its own unique set of features, strengths, and weaknesses. Some frameworks are also better suited to particular kinds of projects.

In this article, we’ll share four React frameworks that have plenty to offer WordPress developers. However, the right framework will vary depending on your project. With this mind, here are some things to consider, when deciding whether a particular React framework is right for you:

• The setup process. Some frameworks are easier to setup than others. In particular, you should check whether the framework is pre-configured to work with WordPress. It’s also a good idea to verify whether the framework provides any additional tools needed to build your project.
• The learning curve. Mastering a new technology always requires time and effort, but some frameworks have a steeper learning curve than others. In particular, you should investigate whether there are any additional technologies you’ll need to learn, such as Redux, Webpack, Babel, and GraphQL.
• Compatibility or optimization. All the frameworks in this article are compatible with WordPress. However, some may require additional optimization, in order to deliver the best possible experience. Other frameworks, such as Frontity, are designed with WordPress firmly in mind. Frameworks that are optimized for WordPress shouldn’t require any major additional configuration.
• Flexibility or ease-of-use. Choice is a good thing, but all those extra settings can be confusing. When exploring new technologies, it’s smart to opt for a framework that’s beginner-friendly. However, it’s a good idea to consider how you might use this framework in the future. A framework should offer the advanced features and flexibility you’ll need to support your growing projects.

There’s another major decision to make when choosing your framework. This is the choice between Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Client-Side Rendering (CSR).

Client Side Rendering or Server Side Rendering?

There are two approaches to rendering content: client-side, and server-side. Both have their own unique strengths and weaknesses.

CSR is where content renders in the browser. Instead of receiving all the content from a HTML document, the browser receives a bare-bones HTML document with a JavaScript file. The rest of the content will then render inside the web browser.

With CSR, the initial page load is typically slower, but subsequent page loads will be faster. A CSR framework can update the UI by re-rendering only the affected DOM element. You don’t have to reload the entire UI following every call to the server. This means the CSR is well-suited to websites that provide rich user interactions, or that feature lots of dynamic content.

The opposite of client-side, is server-side. With SSR, the user makes a request and the server prepares an HTML package for that specific user. The server sends this data to the user’s machine, and the browser then constructs the content and displays the webpage.

The process of fetching data, creating the HTML package, and delivering it to the browser happens very quickly. This means the initial page load is faster, which results in a better user experience.

By reducing page load times, SSR may provide a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boost. SSR is also good for SEO, as it doesn’t require search engine bots to render JavaScript.

However, with SSR the page rendering is typically slower. New content will also require full page reloads, which can have a significant impact on your website’s performance. For this reason, SSR is better suited to static websites. It also isn’t ideal for sites that feature lots of complex user interactions, or dynamic content.

4 of the Best React Frameworks for WordPress Development

There are lots of React frameworks to choose from. Every project is different, but we’ve collected four React frameworks that we believe have plenty to offer WordPress developers.

1. Frontity

Frontity is an open source framework for React. Unlike other React frameworks that are compatible with WordPress, Frontity was designed specifically for WordPress.org and WordPress.com. This means that Frontity is pre-configured to provide the best possible experience for WordPress users.

As a server-side framework, Frontity stores all your content in HTML, then responds to requests with a fully populated and well-formed HTML page that’s immediately usable. This minimizes your site’s initial load time. The HTML file is also served to search engine crawlers. This keeps search engines such as Google happy, and helps you avoid SEO penalties.

Even if you’re using WordPress for a headless setup, you may still want to use the meta tags generated by a third-party SEO plugin. To help preserve your SEO, the Frontity team has created a REST API – Head Tags plugin. This plugin adds all the meta tags in your website’s HEAD section, to the REST API’s responses.

In addition, Frontity uses Serverless Pre-Rendering (SPR) to render HTML on the fly. By taking this approach, the Frontity team aims to combine the speed and reliability of static rendering with the versatility of dynamic data rendering. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) saves the HTML and serves it as static content.

Frontity is designed to be easy to use. This framework has its own state manager and uses Emotion for the CSS, so you don’t have to learn the complexities of technologies such as Redux. This makes Frontity a good choice for React newcomers, or anyone who’s looking to launch a project quickly without necessarily having to master additional technologies. In fact, you can build a web application using Frontity and WordPress in five easy steps.

2. Gatsby.js

According to a study by Critical Case, a one second increase in page load time can result in 11 percent less page views. If you’re concerned about your site’s performance, Gatsby is a static site generator that places the focus firmly on speed.

Gatsby builds your project into static HTML files that are optimized for performance, and also loads only the necessary CSS, HTML and JavaScript. After your website is loaded, Gatsby will then call upon any additional resources that it requires. This results in faster page loading speeds.

However, Gatsby is geared towards displaying static content. While it does allow for client side code, it has a steep learning curve compared to some other solutions. If you need to display large amounts of dynamic content, Gatsby may not be the best framework for your project.

For newcomers, the Gatsby team provides a helpful starter default project. This project contains code related to your website’s front end, including a site header and page template. It also automatically installs all the modules of code that your project will depend upon. This can save you a considerable amount of time when getting started. If you choose Gatsby as your framework, we’d recommend using the starter default project wherever possible.

However, if you opt for Gatsby you’ll need to trigger a build whenever you update your content. One solution is to deploy your website using the Netlify platform. You can use Netlify to create webhooks that will rebuild your project automatically whenever a new commit is pushed or merged to your repository’s master branch.

Alternatively, you can trigger a build using a WordPress plugin, such as WP Trigger Netlify Build. However, this rebuild process can add considerable complexity to your WordPress projects.

3. Next.js

Next.js is a minimalistic React framework. This framework renders applications on the client-side, but Next.js also supports SSR. This can help preserve your SEO, while also improving your project’s performance. Next.js can deliver an additional performance boost, thanks to its automatic server rendering and code splitting.

However, Next.js is an opinionated framework. This means the framework is designed to be easy to use – as long as you follow the path laid out for you. Deviate from this path, and an opinionated framework can suddenly become much less user-friendly.

This means Next.js isn’t the most flexible solution. For example, you may struggle to use a different router with your Next.js setup.

Before choosing Next.js as your framework, it’s a smart idea to consider how you might develop your project in the future. You can then read through the Next.js documentation, to decide whether this framework is compatible with your project’s roadmap.

If you do decide to use Next.js, you can install all the necessary software and start the development server from the command line. You’ll find detailed, step-by-step instructions, over at the official Next.js documentation.

4. Create React App (CRA)

The Create React App (CRA) is designed to get your React project up and running as quickly as possible. This tool offers a modern build setup with zero configuration. You just need to run a single command, and CRA will set up all the tools you need to start developing.

When you create a project with Create React App, it installs the latest version of React and React-DOM. It also installs the latest version of react-scripts, which is a development dependency that manages the other dependencies involved in starting, testing, and building your application.

CRA generates only the files needed to build your React project. You won’t have access to configuration files such as Webpack, Babel, and ESLint. This is great for anyone who wants to create a project without having to master additional technologies. Since CRA handles much of the configuration and setup for you, you’re free to concentrate on what really matters – building your project.

However, at some point you may need to perform more complex tasks that require access to these configuration files. Although CRA doesn’t provide these files by default, it does have an eject command. This copies all the configuration files and transitive dependencies into your project. However, this is a one-way operation that adds a significant amount of complexity to your project.

CRA projects are rendered on the client-side only. This means CRA isn’t suitable for developing highly-interactive websites, or projects that feature dynamic content. There’s also no code splitting, which is bad news for performance.

CRA is designed with ease-of-use in mind. If you do choose CRA as your React framework, you can create a new CRA project using only a handful of commands.

How to Host Your Completed React Project

Once you’re happy with your web application, you’ll want to share it with the world. Your options may vary depending on which React framework you chose to use in your project.

To provide users with the widest possible choice, the Frontity team ensures that their server code is small enough to work with serverless technologies. This means you can deploy your Frontity project to any Node.js server or serverless provider, including Vercel and AWS Lambda. Alternatively, since you’re using WordPress as the back end you may want to opt for your favorite WordPress hosting solution.

Conclusion

React is a hugely popular front end framework. However, with popularity comes lots of options – and choosing the best React framework for your project can feel overwhelming.

If you’re not sure where to start looking for a React framework, then check out any of the four choices we recommended earlier:

• Frontity. An open source, server-side framework that’s optimized for WordPress.
• Gatsby. A static site generator that prioritizes performance without sacrificing Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
• Next.js. A performance-focused, opinionated framework that transparently handles SSR.
• Create React App (CRA). A zero-configuration framework for when you need to create a React project, fast.

Technologies such as React can significantly boost your project’s performance, but why stop there? By opting for a hosting provider that prioritizes performance, you can supercharge your React project. If you’re lucky, then your hosting plan may even provide Turbo Servers that are 20X faster than competing WordPress hosting providers.

Image credit: Unsplash.

The post 4 of the Best React Frameworks for WordPress Development appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What’s more, if your content isn’t accessible on any type of device, then you risk losing out on potential visitors. Fortunately, by using a headless Content Management System (CMS), you can create your content once and then publish it across multiple operating systems, including Android and iOS.

In this post, we’ll explore what makes a CMS headless, and the reasons you may want to choose that kind of platform. Let’s get started!

What Is a Headless Content Management System (CMS)?

A Content Management System (CMS) has a front end (the head) and a back end (the body). To convert a traditional CMS into a headless CMS, you separate the two ends. The ‘head’ refers to where the content ends up, and the ‘body’ is where that content is stored and authored.

A headless CMS tends to take the form of a database back end with a web-based User Interface (UI) as the front end. You’ll use the UI to create your content, and the database to store and manage all of the supporting data.

A headless CMS doesn’t care how or where your content is displayed. Instead of coupling your content to a specific output, such as a web page, it provides your content as data using a RESTful Application Programming Interface (API). To access a post, you’ll send the headless CMS a network request to an API endpoint.

You can host a headless CMS on your own server and database. However, this requires you to perform your own scaling and operations. In most cases, it’s simpler (and cheaper) to host your headless CMS using a web hosting provider.

The opposite of a headless CMS is a traditional or ‘monolithic’ CMS. This is software that you either install and manage yourself, or access via a managed environment. While a headless CMS only provides the back end required to store and manage your content, a traditional CMS provides a way to display that content as well.

Of course, some platforms can do double duty. For example, WordPress is typically considered a traditional CMS. However, WordPress has a REST API built in, which makes it a popular choice for converting into a headless CMS.

5 Benefits of Using a Headless CMS

There are many benefits to opting for a headless rather than a monolithic CMS. Let’s look at five of the key advantages.

1. You Can Push Content to Multiple Platforms

Modern web content should be accessible across multiple platforms. A headless CMS removes the presentation layer from your content, which makes it platform-independent.

When you need to deliver the same content across various channels, a headless CMS can save you a significant amount of time. For example, you can make API calls to a headless CMS and push the same content to both iOS and Android. This is often much easier than developing and maintaining two separate sets of content.

2. Choose Your Preferred Technology and Tooling

A headless CMS enables you to take a developer-first approach, rather than focusing on how the back end will feed to the front end. Since headless content is served over APIs, you can build your website using the technology of your choice, including your preferred front-end tooling. You can also define how data is stored and managed in the back end.

Since you don’t have to learn technology that’s specific to your chosen CMS, a headless platform can save you a significant amount of time. As your project evolves, you can interchange parts of your technology stack, or move from one framework to the other without having to start from scratch. This gives you the freedom to continuously revise and improve your approach, based on the changing needs of your project.

3. Greater Freedom to Display Your Content

Since you’re not tightly tied to any particular themes, plugins, or even a specific platform, you have more control over your content’s appearance. Even if you develop custom software such as bespoke themes and plugins, you’re often restricted by your CMS’ front end.

By opting for a headless CMS, you have greater freedom to store, develop, and present your content. This includes showcasing your content in ways that traditional CMSs such as WordPress aren’t designed to support, even with the help of themes and plugins.

4. Protect Your Content Against Attackers

Headless content is separated from the presentation layer, which means that it has a smaller attack surface. In particular, a headless CMS doesn’t have a native content publishing solution, so the chances of a Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack are reduced.

Since your content exists separately from your front-end delivery, it also isn’t as vulnerable to third-party application issues. This includes security vulnerabilities and bugs that are sometimes present in pre-existing technology stacks.

5. Get a Performance Boost

Traditional CMS architectures have to spend resources on content editing and rendering. By contrast, a headless CMS consists of a content database and API calls. This can significantly reduce your overhead costs and cloud storage bills.

When used as a headless CMS, WordPress only requires a simple MySQL and PHP stack, making it a lightweight and high-performing option. In other words, headless architecture is a great way to speed up your websites and applications.

Potential Issues With Headless CMSs

For all the benefits on offer, there are some potential drawbacks. Headless CMSs don’t offer a ‘What You See Is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) editor or a live preview option, which can make it difficult to predict how your content will appear when rendered.

Headless CMSs also typically require more maintenance, particularly in terms of updates and security. They can also require different credentialing, and may benefit from advanced libraries and front-end programming expertise. For these reasons, headless CMSs can be challenging for users who don’t have extensive content management and programming experience.

Using WordPress as a Headless CMS (2 Methods)

If you’ve weighed up the pros and cons and decided to give headless a try, WordPress is a great platform to get started with. Here are two ways to set up WordPress as a headless CMS.

Method 1: Create a Blank Theme

The front end may have little role to play in a headless CMS, but WordPress does still require a theme to run. The easiest option is to create a blank theme, using the following files:

1. index.php. This will redirect users to your website’s static home page. The file will preserve the back end, and remove the front end of your CMS.
2. style.css. This should contain some basic information about your theme, including the theme’s name and the author’s name.

To create your index.php file, you’ll use the following format:

<script type="text/javascript">

window.location = 'http://example.com';

</script>

To create the style.css file, use this format:

/*

Theme Name: blank

Author: name

*/

You can then place these two files in your wp-content/themes/blank directory, and activate the theme in the WordPress admin area.

Method 2: Use a Plugin

Alternatively, you can create a headless WordPress installation using a plugin. While this diminishes your flexibility a bit, it’s also a faster and simpler option.

There are a few tools you can try, but we’d recommend getting started with WP Headless CMS Framework:

This solution provides multiple framework options, and is highly-configurable thanks to a collection of modules that can be activated and deactivated at will. The plugin also comes with its own comprehensive documentation, which should get you up and running quickly.

Conclusion

In today’s multi-device world, it’s often not enough to publish your content to a single place. Creating content for multiple platforms can be a time-consuming process, but a headless CMS enables you to do this far more quickly and effectively.

To set up WordPress as a headless CMS, you can either:

1. Create a blank theme.
2. Use a plugin, such as WP Headless CMS Framework.

Going headless doesn’t eliminate the need for secure, reliable hosting! Regardless of whether you opt for a traditional or a headless CMS, make sure you choose the right hosting provider.

Image credit: Philipp Birmes.

The post What Is a Headless Content Management System (CMS)? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Running a corporate wiki site is a smart way to solve this information storage and organization problem. In general, a wiki is a collaboratively edited website that lets multiple users add to and modify it. Your company can easily use one to store all your content in a central place and consistently update it.

In this article, we’ll go into detail about what a wiki website is, how it works, and how your company can benefit from using one. Let’s get to it!

An Introduction to Wiki Websites

A wiki website is any type of website or software tool that enables collaborative editing by its users. In other words, if you can read it, you can also edit it. The most common example is Wikipedia:

This domain is simply a public encyclopedia that allows site visitors to add all sorts of information covering virtually every sphere of knowledge. Another example you may be familiar with is the infamous WikiLeaks. However, your business wiki will need to be a little different.

You can consider your business wiki website as a private Wikipedia that serves your company and its employees. Typically, it will be targeted at growing a knowledge base in a particular field.

Although wiki websites are open to collaboration, they normally have to be moderated. As a business, you can also choose to regulate which members of your company can contribute. You could make it accessible to all registered users. Or, you could limit it to members of a certain department or with a certain level of clearance.

Diplopedia, for example, is a United States government-run wiki website that allows all its users to add just about any information associated with international relations and diplomacy.

However, it’s run on an intranet open only to authorized government officials. There are lots of other examples to consider in order to understand how wikis work and how you can incorporate one into your business. However, let’s consider practical ways in which having one can benefit your company.

How Your Company Can Benefit from a Wiki Website (5 Key Ways)

The original implementation of a wiki website was done by Ward Cunningham (popularly known as the father of the wiki). Ward described the idea as a “composition system”, “discussion medium”, “repository”, and “tool for collaboration”. Although the form has changed over the years, its function has remained virtually the same. Here are some of the benefits you stand to enjoy using a wiki website for your company.

1. A Wiki Site Helps to Effectively Document and Organize All Your Information

To maximize efficiency, you must organize your information in a manner that makes it easily accessible and editable by your team. A wiki website can help you do that.

The ideal wiki website uses a clear hierarchical structure to make it easy for employees to find and apply useful information when necessary. If your business processes require a more flexible structure, you can customize the wiki website based on your unique needs as well.

For example, Airtable collaborates with Guru to deliver its users an integrated wiki service. This is not only useful for collaboration, but it also gathers information in a highly organized structure:

Furthermore, employees can still use the search feature to find what they’re looking for. This will significantly benefit your business in terms of efficiency as knowledge workers typically spend 19 percent of their time looking for the information they need to do their jobs.

Likewise, a wiki website is an ideal solution for documenting the history of your company. As every successful organization is bound to change all the time, a wiki presents an opportunity for every member to make note of this in a simplified way.

2. You Can Manage Internal Team Collaboration Better

If you’re looking to improve the efficiency of your collaboration, then you may want to consider using a wiki website. When working on projects, your team will find a workplace wiki really handy.

You can also use a wiki website to:

• Organize troubleshooting solutions to common problems.
• Document meeting proceedures or deadlines.
• Enhance new team member onboarding.

Also, most corporate wikis integrate seamlessly with a lot of document and project management tools you may already use. For example, Google Drive is an important platform wikis can integrate.

Other video tools and software development platforms such as Vimeo and GitHub are not left out either. In the end, what you have is a central all-in-one business solution.

3. Using a Wiki Drives Your Team Members to Learn and Produce More Results

A wiki website often provides an opportunity for your employees to take ownership of their learning curves. With the much-simplified system of finding information, your team members will generally feel more motivated not only to embark on their duties but also to seek to expand their expertise. This often arises from a desire to contribute to your company’s knowledge base.

When using a wiki, you can easily delegate research tasks to members of your team. The entire company can then benefit from their input. This inherently pushes your employees to improve their skills and offer more value to the organization.

By simplifying your workflow and making it easy to locate information, a wiki makes it possible for your employees to build on the previous work of other users, too. When they come across outdated information on the wiki, they can easily revise the content of your business website.

In general, wikis help to engage your team members more productively and increase their level of expertise. They can collect more information in a shorter period of time and deliver better results.

4. A Wiki Site Can Be Used for Content Marketing

When it comes to digital marketing, content authority is crucial. A collaborative wiki helps you to regularly put together enough information in one place to build credibility as an authority in your industry.

This will also impact your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) positively. Search rankings rely heavily on internal and external link building. You can use a wiki website to link to highly relevant content on your website. This way, your brand becomes even more visible to customers looking for information about your products or services.

Basecamp’s public handbook, which is hosted on GitHub, is an excellent example:

Slite is another wiki worthy of note:

It consists of three different sections aimed at providing information about the team, marketing strategy, and the product.

5. Running a Wiki Website is Cost-Effective

A study by Glassdoor puts the average US employer’s expenditure on hiring a new worker at $4,000. The entire process lasts approximately 24 days. However, as we’ve noted, a well-developed wiki website can significantly ease up these costs in productivity.

Plus, we also mentioned that a wiki can help employees find required information faster, boosting efficiency further. When you consider all the factors involved, it becomes clear that a wiki website makes perfect sense from a financial standpoint.

By simplifying your organizational processes and improving your staff expertise, a wiki website often has a direct impact on your company’s profitability. Since you’re now able to achieve better productivity within your team and also offer more value to the general public, wikis deliver an excellent Return on Investment (ROI).

Conclusion

A wiki website is all about gathering information, organizing it properly, and making continuous changes. If you want to better your team’s collaborative efforts and deliver more value, then you may want to consider creating one yourself.

For a quick recap, here are some of the practical ways your company can benefit from a wiki site:

1. A wiki site helps to effectively document and organize all your information.
2. You can manage internal team collaboration better.
3. Using a wiki drives your team members to learn and produce more results.
4. A wiki site can be used for content marketing.
5. Running a wiki website is cost-effective.

Are you thinking about launching a wiki website for your business? Check out our services and learn how A2 Hosting can help!

Featured Image Credit: Unsplash.

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