Blogging Tips Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: How do I change the ‘author’ of a blog post in WordPress?

Posted on August 12, 2020

Question from Carla G.: I have a WordPress blog and a while back I read your post explaining why we should write our blog posts using an “Editor” account instead of the “Administrator” account.

I set up a new account with the Editor role as you suggested and I’ve been logging into that account to do my writing ever since.

Yesterday I happened to notice that my old posts still have the Author name that corresponds to the Administrator account that I no longer use when writing my posts.

I tried to change the Author of one of those old posts to my other name and I can’t find a way to do it anywhere on the “Edit Post” screen. I know there has to be a way to do it though.

Can you tell me what I need to do to change the Author name on my old posts?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to quickly check your blog for viruses and other types of malicious code

Posted on August 2, 2020

If you run a blog, chances are you’re concerned about it getting hacked and infected with malware. And in this day and age, that is a very valid concern.

Hackers and scammers are constantly probing blogs for security holes weaknesses they can exploit.

If they happen to find one they can quickly gain access to your blog’s server and install malware that will turn your blog into a vehicle for distributing all kinds of nefarious code to the devices your blog visitors use to access it. [Read more…]

How to convert all your WordPress blog’s URLS from ‘http’ to ‘https’ after enabling SSL encryption

Posted on July 31, 2020

If you’re a blogger you probably know that securing your blog with SSL encryption is now a must if you want your blog to succeed, for these reasons:

1 – Google has now started giving preference to SSL secure https pages in their search results.

That means all other things being equal, pages that have URLs that begin with https will rank higher than pages that begin with http.

Google has also begun displaying the URL’s of encrypted pages in their search results. That means it won’t be long before many searchers will simply skip over non-secure pages and visit the next available secure page instead. [Read more…]

How to use basic Technical SEO techniques to improve the Google Rank of your WordPress site

Posted on July 23, 2020

If you have a blog or website you’re surely aware of the importance of “white-hat” Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO).

After all, Google is a primary source of targeted traffic, which is the life-blood of any successful website.

Technical optimization (technical SEO) of a WordPress site is a term that perhaps isn’t used very often, but it’s very important. And if done properly, it can bring you very good results.

This term essentially represents various techniques that aim to increase the speed, stability, and responsiveness of the website, which ultimately leads to better Google rank, more traffic and better satisfied visitors.

[Read more…]

How to quickly change a block of text (or code) that appears on every post (and page) of your WordPress blog

Posted on July 22, 2020

If you have a blog there will likely come a time when you need to change some block of text or PHP code that’s contained on every post and page.

A while back I enabled TLS encryption on this very blog, and one very important step in that process was changing all the URL references in the database from http:// to https:// to force WordPress to display the secure version of each post/page.

I could have made those changes manually but it would have been a long, drawn-out process and chances are I would have made a serious mistake along the way.

And as you probably know, ANY mistake can be serious when you’re dealing with your WordPress database.

Luckily, I found an easy way to quickly make that critical global change (plus a couple of other minor changes) on over 5,000 posts/pages in one fell swoop! [Read more…]