Find Out If You Use WordPress.Com or WordPress.Org

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The most common question that many WordPress users struggle with is how to tell if their website is on either WordPress.com or WordPress.org. On this blog post, we share the most basic ways of telling the two apart.

The key difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is hosting.

Let us begin by defining web hosting. It is the process of space allocation on a web server for a website to store its files. These files that comprise a website (HTML, CSS, files and images) are made available for viewing online.

WordPress.org often referred to as self-hosted WordPress, is usually set up with your own hosting provider, e.g. GoDaddy, Bluehost, 123 Reg, or a company like WP Support Specialists.

You can customize your website design as needed, and you are also able to run custom analytics and tracking for your website.

On the other hand, you pay WordPress.com to host your website domain for you. This kind of website is easy to use and does not require installation. However, your website will not be completely under your control and the design and themes are limited.

With all said you are still probably wondering whether there is another way you can tell if your website is on wordpress.com or self-hosted? Yes there is J

 A more practical way of checking the difference is by using your browser and following these simple steps:

  1. Go to your browser; type your website’s domain followed by /wp-login.php. This takes you to your WordPress login dashboard.
  2. Your WordPress login dashboard will appear, login to your website’s backend with your username and password.
  3. Once you are at the backend, hover your mouse over the WordPress logo at the top left corner of the page.
  4. On the dropdown list, you will see either WordPress.org or WordPress.com

Wordpress.org screenshot

We hope this blog clearly illustrates how you can tell which WordPress hosting platform you are on.

If you have any further questions about how do i tell if my website is on WordPress.com or WordPress.org, feel free to contact us here with your query.

Managed WordPress Hosting And Support

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Managed WordPress hosting and support in a single, affordable package is hard to come by.  There are many companies offering fully managed WordPress hosting, and many others offering WordPress technical support – but few combine the two.

Really this makes no sense: websites need hosting and websites need maintenance – it’s just a fact of the digital world.  But WordPress website owners have to shop around to find the best managed WP hosting company for their needs.  Then most owners simply try to manage the regular maintenance themselves, without having any training or expertise in WordPress management.

And there are several disadvantages to these approaches:

1.Not All Website Hosting Is Created Equal

WEBSPACE

The size of a website dictates the amount of webspace it requires.  Around 1Gb is fine for small sites with modest website traffic, but the bigger the site, the more webspace it requires – those huge, complicated sites with 1000s of visitors plus per day, are going to need to have hosting with unlimited webspace.

It’s not easy to predict the amount of webspace you will need for your site and consequently makes it hard to find the right hosting package for you.

SERVER

Hosting can be shared or on a private server – again the best choice depends on the anticipated website traffic.  General shared hosting, as offered by companies such as GoDaddy, Bluehost and 123 Reg, means your site will share the server with other company websites. Consequently this type of hosting can be adequate for small sites where uptime and site speed are not critical, but far from ideal for sites with large volumes of traffic. In the latter case, website speed may be slow and if you have too much traffic, the site is likely to crash

Private server hosting means you have resources that are not shared by others. This provides more power and flexibility than being on a shared account, but costs more.

For a WordPress website, it makes sense to choose WordPress specific hosting. It may be slightly more expensive than general hosting but is optimised for WP and ensures the website runs faster and can be more easily maintained.  But many of the “big names” in website hosting don’t offer this option.

In short finding the right hosting package for your WordPress website can be tricky if you don’t  know the right questions to ask.

2. WordPress Maintenance Isn’t All Plain Sailing

In theory, WordPress is a free platform available for all to use. The reality is that it is hard to maintain a WP site securely if you’ve taught yourself everything you know about the platform.

Many business owners don’t even appreciate the need to regularly maintain their website: it needs to be backed up regularly, to be monitored for malware, and plugin and core updates need to be done in a timely manner.

Even those who do realise regular maintenance is essential, don’t have all the skills they need to carry it out effectively. Or alternatively they get so caught up in the demands of their business, that the website maintenance gets overlooked all together.

The result? At some point or other the website is going to have problems. And at that point, WordPress support is needed – again another hassle for the business owner who has to try to find a company to help them as soon as possible.

 

For all of these reasons, we have created a Managed WordPress Hosting and Support package which offers reliable, WP specific hosting and expert support delivered by trained WP specialists.  We work with a modest number of clients, enabling us to provide a truly personal service for each one (quite different to the likes of Godaddy and Bluehost who manage hundreds of thousands of customers).

If you’re fed up with your unhelpful WP hosting company, who tend to blame the WordPress platform itself for any problems you report, and you want quality support from friendly, WP experts then consider our managed WordPress hosting and support package.

 

 

Premium WordPress Hosting And Support

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Premium WordPress hosting and support is ideal for companies with WordPress websites who want to leave the management of the site to experts so they can focus on their business.  As the name suggests, premium WordPress hosting and support comprises a top-notch service which includes:

  • WordPress specific hosting, specifically designed to deal with the “application nuances” of this CMS and ensures optimal caching and security for WP sites
  • A fast loading website which is essential for your website to please Google (and so show high in search results) and also to please your website visitors
  • The ability to quickly fix any security issues identified by WordPress
  • Regular maintenance of the website including daily back-ups, malware protection plus core and plugin updates
  • 24/7 WordPress support if things go wrong
  • WordPress support services delivered by experts who work solely with the WordPress platform and know everything there is to know

Whilst business owners realise they need to host their website via a third party hosting party, many mistakenly believe that they can support their site without external assistance; but unless they are an expert in all things WordPress, things have a tendency to go horribly wrong.

For example, WordPress plugins and core updates need to be made frequently, but if the whole website isn’t backed up properly first and something goes wrong, a lot of data is going to be lost.

Similarly if the site isn’t fully protected against hackers and malware, and actively checked for malicious behaviour on the site, it can become compromised.

At this point, business owners realise their error – they will have search for WP experts who offer emergency support, and then pay out hundreds or thousands of pounds for the experts to investigate the problems to put everything right.  And during this process of course, the website isn’t working and the business is losing potential customers and sales.

How much more sensible it would have been to follow the “prevention is better than cure” philosophy.

For all of these reasons, we have created a WordPress premium plan which offers both fast, reliable hosting and superb support delivered by specific WP experts.  We support small businesses on a regular basis and pride ourselves on developing a personal relationship with them – not for us the impersonal approach of the “big” hosting companies such as Godaddy and Bluehost where you are just one customer amongst hundreds of thousands.

Are you fed up trying to deal with your hosting company, who are slow to respond and then simply blame the WordPress platform itself for any below par performance? Do you need regular support from friendly, experienced WP experts to keep your website ticking over reliably? If yes, then consider our premium WordPress hosting and support package.

Difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org

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Difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org – WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

We receive many requests for support from people who are hosting their website on WordPress.com. We take the time to explain the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org

Unfortunately, we can’t help people who have their site on WordPress.com as they effectively host your site and it’s a fairly closed system.

So, we wrote this blog to provide a little detail and to compare WordPress.com and the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) which hopefully provides you with some quick and simple insight into the differences.

Difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

The initial difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is who’s hosting your website.

With a self-hosted WordPress.org setup, You host your own blog or website. WordPress.org is where you’ll find the free WordPress software that you can download and install on your own website hosting account.

For example, people who host their own WordPress website may use providers like WP Support Specialists, GoDaddy, Bluehost, Heart Internet, 123 Reg and so on.

Conversely, WordPress.com takes care of all of the hosting for you. You don’t download software, pay for hosting, or manage a web server (unless you select one of their paid packages).

Depending on your needs, WordPress.com offer a variety of packages from free to £x’s per month.

Pros and Cons of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

Both WordPress.org and WordPress.com have pros and cons, we cover a few of those below.

If your requirements are fairly simple, and you’re not interested in managing your own web server, you may prefer WordPress.com. It’s free and easy to set up, and you have various options for customising your website.

Some downsides of using WordPress.com include your domain will, by default, include “WordPress.com.” You can’t upload any custom themes, plugins or modify the code within your site. Therefore, if you wish to incorporate a landing page system, bespoke eCommerce, live-chat, and so on, you won’t be able to do that.

WordPress.com is free to set up in its most basic version, however, they do offer various upgrades, including domain name registration (if you don’t want WordPress.com in your domain name), the ability to upload videos, and use of their premium themes.

Using a self-hosted version of WordPress means you can use your own domain name, upload and install themes and plugins, edit the code behind your site, utilise a far greater number of themes, design a bespoke theme, use live chat, landing page systems, SEO plugins….. you get the idea I’m sure! 🙂

Most of the WordPress demonstration sites you see are built on the self-hosted verison.

If you have any further questions about a self-hosted WordPress site vs a WordPress.com site, feel free to contact us here with your query.

Planned WordPress Maintenance – Is It Really Necessary?

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You may have heard mention of planned WordPress maintenance, but even if you have a WordPress website, you may think it’s not strictly necessary.  And if that’s your view, then you’ll be one of thousands of WordPress managers who all feel the same way!

Shocking Statistics

The results of a 2015 WordPress survey conducted by CodeGuard frankly didn’t surprise us.  It seems a large majority of WordPress website owners aren’t too concerned about planned WordPress maintenance.

We weren’t shocked to hear that:

  • 21% of WordPress users back up their site ‘occasionally’
  • 26% of WordPress website managers have ‘some’ training
  • 22% of WordPress users think backups are unimportant

We have seen the fallout first hand from companies who fail to take precautions to ensure their WordPress website is not vulnerable to malicious hackers or malware.  We’ve held the hands of many a website owner that didn’t have WordPress maintenance in place and who ‘forgot’ to back up essential files – but then deleted them in the all too common curse of human error.  And we’ve had to sort out plenty of messes when WordPress plugin updates have gone bad.

Common WordPress Mistakes

WordPress is such a popular CMS, used by well over 20% of global websites, for the very reason that it is so easy to use.  But many users fall into a false sense of security – just because it’s easy to use they seem to completely overlook the fact that their WordPress website has the potential to go wrong!  Common mistakes made include:

  • No Backups – Hands up if you back up your website regularly.  Well done you – but hands down if you think that means once every 6 months.  Not carrying out regular backups (at least monthly) means your data is vulnerable to loss
  • Installing Unnecessary Plugins – we all love a nifty plugin but have you installed dozens of plugins which you aren’t actually using?  By not deactivating unnecessary plugins your website could be running slower than it needs to
  • Not checking the verity of free themes and plugins – you see a great free theme and go right ahead and install it, not checking to see if it is from a trustworthy source.  A high number of WordPress websites get infected by malware this way.
  • Human error – we are all prone to it but inexperienced WordPress users may make a big mistake just because of their lack of training in the software.

The Benefits of Planned WordPress Maintenance

When clients come to us with a WordPress emergency, we get their website back up and running as fast as possible.  And from that point on, our clients are sold on the idea of having regular WordPress maintenance carried out by WordPress experts.  They fully appreciate the ‘prevention is better than cure’ scenario.

A good website is fundamental to all businesses – and if it goes down, not only do you have to pay to get it up and running again, but business is being lost and reputation is being damaged every single minute it’s offline:

  • clients can’t contact you
  • clients can’t place their order
  • potential clients can’t find your website (and be sure that they won’t bother looking for you again as they’ll have found one of your competitors to match their needs)

Many companies can’t afford to have their own in-house IT support, so rather than cross your fingers and pray to Lady Luck, WP Support Specialists recommends a regular WordPress maintenance package that will give you peace of mind.  This will save you ££££ in the long run – consider it as an insurance policy for your online business presence so you can rest easy knowing your WordPress website is in the hands of experts.

Typical planned WordPress maintenance packages cover the following:

  • Secure backups
  • Backup restoration if required
  • Malware monitoring and removal
  • WordPress Plugin updates
  • WordPress core system updates
  • WordPress Theme updates

Just imagine being able to focus on your business knowing your website is in capable hands.  Think about being able to go away on that important business trip or a week away with the family without worrying that your website might go down.  We recommend regular WordPress maintenance for all WordPress websites!

Read more about the WordPress maintenance packages on offer from WP Support Specialists here.