Charlie’s Recommended Tools

Overview of Online Tools for Website Design and Management

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, powering over a third of the web. Building websites with WordPress necessitates a mix of tools for design, functionality enhancement, optimization, and security. Here’s a detailed, WordPress-centric toolkit.

1. Theme Development & Design:

• Elementor (http://www.elementor.com)
  • Key Features: Drag-and-drop page builder, pre-designed templates, and widgets.
  • Benefits: Intuitive design capabilities without needing to code.
  • Practical Applications: Designing custom pages and creating responsive layouts.
• Astra (http://www.wpastra.com)
  • Key Features: Lightweight theme, customizable, and pre-built website templates.
  • Benefits: Speedy performance and compatibility with page builders like Elementor.
  • Practical Applications: Building a foundation for custom website designs.

2. Functionality Enhancement (Plugins):

• WooCommerce (http://www.woocommerce.com)
  • Key Features: E-commerce capabilities, product listing, and online payments.
  • Benefits: Convert a WordPress site into a full-fledged online store.
  • Practical Applications: Selling products or services online.
• Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) (http://www.advancedcustomfields.com)
  • Key Features: Custom field creation, intuitive UI, and integration with post types.
  • Benefits: Enhance the data customization capabilities of WordPress.
  • Practical Applications: Tailoring content presentation based on custom fields.

3. SEO & Analytics:

• Yoast SEO (http://www.yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/)
  • Key Features: Metadata customization, readability analysis, and breadcrumbs.
  • Benefits: Guided SEO optimization for each page or post.
  • Practical Applications: Boosting on-page SEO for better search engine rankings.
• MonsterInsights (http://www.monsterinsights.com)
  • Key Features: Google Analytics integration, real-time stats, and e-commerce tracking.
  • Benefits: Understand site visitors without leaving the WordPress dashboard.
  • Practical Applications: Tracking user behavior and website performance.

4. Security & Backup:

• UpdraftPlus (http://www.updraftplus.com)
  • Key Features: Scheduled backups, cloud storage integration, and site duplicator.
  • Benefits: Safeguarding against data loss and easy site migration.
  • Practical Applications: Regularly backing up website data.
• iThemes Security (http://www.ithemes.com/security/)
  • Key Features: Brute force protection, 404 detections, and file change alerts.
  • Benefits: Comprehensive security measures in a single plugin.
  • Practical Applications: Protecting WordPress sites from common vulnerabilities.

5. Performance Optimization:

• WP Rocket (http://www.wp-rocket.me)
  • Key Features: Cache preloading, browser caching, and GZIP compression.
  • Benefits: Speeds up loading times for enhanced user experience.
  • Practical Applications: Improving site speed and performance.
• Smush (http://www.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-smushit/)
  • Key Features: Image compression, lazy loading, and bulk smushing.
  • Benefits: Optimizes images for web without compromising quality.
  • Practical Applications: Reducing page load times by compressing images.

Building websites with WordPress becomes significantly more straightforward and efficient when leveraging these tools. They help in enhancing design, functionality, security, and performance, ultimately leading to a more polished and user-friendly website.

List Of Hosting Supplier

1. IONOS by 1&1
   • Description: Known for offering a variety of hosting solutions with scalable resources and excellent customer support. It’s a versatile option suitable for various hosting needs.
2. Bluehost
   • Description: Offers a range of hosting plans, known for excellent customer service and great uptime. It’s often recommended for WordPress hosting.
3. SiteGround
   • Description: Renowned for its superb customer service and strong uptime. Provides fast and reliable hosting with a focus on security.
4. HostGator
   • Description: Provides diverse, affordable hosting services with user-friendly interfaces and robust features.
5. InMotion Hosting
   • Description: Offers a broad spectrum of hosting services with excellent uptime, customer service, and robust features.
6. A2 Hosting
   • Description: Recognized for high-performance and optimized WordPress hosting services.
7. DreamHost
   • Description: Provides various hosting plans, including managed WordPress hosting, focusing on privacy and security.
8. GreenGeeks
   • Description: An eco-friendly hosting provider delivering strong performance and scalable hosting services.
9. WP Engine
   • Description: A leading managed WordPress hosting provider emphasizing performance and innovation.
10. Kinsta
    • Description: Offers premium managed WordPress hosting known for state-of-the-art security and speed.
11. Flywheel
    • Description: Provides managed WordPress hosting with an emphasis on design and creativity.

List Of Web Page & HTML Editors

1. Sublime Text
   • Description: A versatile and fast text editor, and while it may seem bare bones, it has a lot of features and capabilities.
2. Visual Studio Code
   • Description: A free source-code editor developed by Microsoft, it’s lightweight and powerful, supports numerous programming languages, and is highly extensible.
3. Adobe Dreamweaver
   • Description: A proprietary web development tool from Adobe Inc. It combines a visual design surface and a code editor.
4. CKEditor
   • Description: A WYSIWYG-rich text editor which enables writing content directly inside of web pages or online applications.
5. TinyMCE
   • Description: A platform-independent web-based JavaScript/HTML WYSIWYG editor control.
6. Froont
   • Description: A web-based design tool that runs in the browser and makes responsive web design accessible to all kinds of visual designers, even those without any HTML/CSS skills.
7. Atom
   • Description: A free and open-source text and source code editor for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js, and embedded Git Control.
8. BlueGriffon
   • Description: An open source, WYSIWYG, and cross-platform web editor that anyone can use to design web pages.

List Of Free Graphics Sources

Video Guides To Key Tools for Website Creation & Design

Installing WordPress using CPanel.

ONE CLICK WordPress Setup in PLESK.

How to install WordPress in 3 SIMPLE STEPS (Manual Installation).