Did PHP 8 break your website?

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PHP 8 broke my site

Xneelo Best Hosting

and is current with software upgrades

What to do before the upgrade

Our approach at The First Step when dealing with a PHP update on your server, is to put your site into maintenance mode. Head over to your Xneelo Konsoleh control panel and login to your account. Take a moment with the following steps to see if PHP version 8 breaks your site…read on…

Do it yourself for free
Pay us to get it done 🙂

Do it yourself for free, here’s how

A few easy steps

 

Want to troubleshoot this yourself? For Free? Here’s how….

Ready? You can do it!

Login to Konsoleh here > Manage Services > PHP Config and review your php settings.

On a shared hosting server max out your settings

Upgrade to PHP 8.0

Set ‘Display Errors’ to on

Dispay PHP errors

Save your settings. Visit your website. What do you see?

Your website is broken

All you see is lines of code at the top of your screen.

Don’t panic! Read between the lines. You will see pointers to plugins or theme that will give you an idea of what is causing the conflict with the new php update.

I'm Outa! here, I'll pay someone to do this

OR

There is an error message and you are locked out of your site!

Don’t panic! You got this. Here is what you do. You log onto your ftp server. This article does not cover ftp servers, but we will explain how to find your ftp server settings in your Xneelo Konsoleh dashboard:

To find your ftp server settings Login to Konsoleh here > Manage Services > FTP Users. You will see your FTP username but no visible password.

Resetting ftp password xneelo

Simply click ‘Reset Password’, copy the autogenerated password, and save

options. You will then open your ftp client and connect to your website using your domain name, ftp user and ftp password. Nothing will break if you reset the password. If you are using your ftp password to log into Konsoleh then you will need to use the newly generate one for the next login.

Whew! that was a lot of info… What now? I’m on my FTP server.

 

On your FTP server, navigate to public_html > wp-content > plugins. Rename the plugins folder to plugins1.

Clear your browser cache , visit your site, reload the page, and voila! 9 times out of 10 your site will be back online. Now you know for sure it is a plugin conflict. But which plugin. Well…you can use the same method for the plugins folder on the individual plugins. Rename the plugins1 folder to plugins again. Then one by one rename each plugin, check if the site goes back online. If not, revert to the plugin name, try the next plugin, adding a 1 at the end of the plugin folder name. This is an arduos method but if you have not managed to figure out the errors or you are completely locked out of the site, this should regain you access.

 

I'm Outa! here, I'll pay someone to do this

I can do this I’ll carry on reading…

Inbetween the lines of code that the errors display you will see file directories. You are looking at plugins, themes or WordPress errors.

Step 1. Ensure all your plugins, themes and WordPress versions are up to date.

Step 2. Disable the offending plugin / Switch to a default WordPress theme  and reload your website page. If the error goes away you know that the culprit is either the plugin or the theme. If it is a plugin you rely heavily on for your site, you will need to start searching for a new one that has kept up to date with the PHP updates and set this up to replace the offending plugin.

If your theme has broken your site, you will need to contact the theme developers and take things from there.

If you are not using the plugin that broke your site, delete it and have a nice day!

This is way too complicated

My site is fixed

I did it all by myself

Remember, once you have resolved the issues you need to return to the xneelo dashboard and switch off ‘Display Errors’ under your php settings and save.

Set PHP display errors to off

Well done you did it…

All by yourself!

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Full Terms and Conditions of the Offer

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The First Step is excited to offer a free one page scrolling WordPress Website. If you are just beginning on your journey or you already have a website, this is a fantastic and affordable offer to get you started.

What is included in the Free Offer

Our free offer is simple. The First Step will build you a FREE! fully functional high-end one page scrolling WordPress website. This means a fully feature-rich website with Full WordPress Security, ingration with Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. Your site will be linked to all your social media platforms. Choose your own unique free layout from our top selection of Divi layouts.  Our free offer includes customizing your layout with your business logo, images and content. We will customize the layout with your colors and choose from a selection of Google fonts. Please note that a layout is NOT a template. The layouts are Divi layouts and you will be required to purchase the Divi Template. Please see below for all other costs involved.

What other costs are involved?

1. Sign up for a year of hosting with The First Step @ R120 per month. We use Hetzner as our preferred hosting company.

2. Purchase the worlds leading WordPress template through our Divi affiliate link. (The First Step receives an affiliate commission for every Divi Template purchased through our affiliate links on this page or elsewhere on our website. We are proud of our affilliation with Elegant Themes. If you wish to know more about this please feel free to read our article on our affiliation with Elegant Themes 🙂

What is not included in the offer

Additional Website features or functionality
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Email setup and trouble shooting
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Anything not outlined in the offer
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This offer is valid for orders during July 2019! You will be able to choose from a large variety of layouts to find the perfect look for your business. The first step will customize your layout for you with your logo, images and content. You will have the very best of WordPress security plugins and integration with Google analytics. This offer does not apply to e-commerce websites. Terms and Conditions Apply.

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Faster Faster Fastest WordPress Websites

Services, WordPress How To's

About how to make your WordPress Website faster

This article is not presuming to shed any new light on content that is already widely written about and hopefully is common knowledge to most online businesses. However it is always good for one’s own SEO to keep topical, so in this light and to share with The First Step clients I would like to point you all in the direction of testing your website so that you you are informed about whether or not you need to take action.

This being said, you may not know what to do once you have tested the speed of your website but at least you will be armed with the knowledge that you need a faster website, MUCH faster.

There are a few free and excellent tools for testing your website speed.

Listed below a few popular resources.

Google's Mobile Speedtest Page
Pingdom's Pagespeed Test
Google's Page Speed Test
Dareboost
GMetrix
Web Page Test .org

Run your Website through a speed test tool

Just to see how fast or in most cases how slow it is…

Copy your domain’s url from the address bar of your browser and paste it into the field of the tool of your choice. It is wise to test your site on at least 3 different tools as they all offer different insights and test for different metrix.

To the complete layperson this may seem like another technical advancement that you just can’t deal with but the reality is that you must! Treat your online business like it were a shop and make it expedient for customers to visit, get the information they need, and bring you business.

Having a slow website is like having your shop assistant on a lunch break when your sale starts, leaving the ‘Closed for Lunch, back in 1 Hour’ sign up on the door.

This is equally as counter-productive as having a slow website. Your customers can’t open the pages they want to view in the short window of time they have made available in their busy lives, to get the information or purchase the item they have gone online to source.

If you have found your website to be underper-forming, whether or not you understand the metrix it will be enough for you to glean that there is a problem when you see red warnings and optimization tips and low page scores for you to get the help you need.

Google will rank your site higher for it’s speed than an equally SEO optimized site that is slow to load. So no-longer can you just focus on your content optimization. Now it’s vital to have a fast website.

For services in website speed optimization feel free to inquire at The First Step.

 

GDPR Compliance Services – everyone’s writing about it

Services

GDPR Compliance after it has been unpacked

I have sourced a lot of information out there and have put together my own version of all of it, and will expand on this as I learn more, but in the mean time I have also referenced some very useful articles that clearly explained the compliance to me.

You may be wondering how on earth you can become GDPR compliant or does it really even matter. The more you research the more you will find it is in your own interests to get onboard this ship.

New European Laws that Affect your Website coming into effect 25th May 2018 – a very important read

These new European laws come into effect on 25th of May. The new GDPR compliance laws (General Data Protection Regulation) relate to your privacy policy and affect any website that stores data and information of any European citizen whether or not you reside outside the EU. This is a complicated new law which affects most businesses online. I have sourced many articles but here are some of the clearest and simplest to understand.

GDPR Explainer
General Data Protection Regulation
How to Manage Optin Emails and Signups

GDPR Compliance South Africa

The Good News (No more spam! No more Fake Marketing! Social Media Platforms can nolonger store your data without explicit consent!)

It is unclear how these new laws will be policed but one sure thing is that the aim is to protect people from corporations stealing your information and using it to spam you. But down to the lowest level everyone must comply. You no-longer have permission to market to your clients without their consent or collect their data, even through Google Analytics, without informing them.

The First Steps to Compliance

1. Create/Update your privacy Policy
Update or create a privacy policy on your website which clearly communicates what information you store about your clients. Most sites quietly collect anonymous data through google analytics. If you have an email optin you are collecting data and storing it. Most importantly if you have an e-commerce store you are collecting data but using a 3rd party payment gateway to collect and store credit card details. Any user that signs up to your website is giving you their data. (The third party payment gateways will have their own privacy policy and compliance in place).

2. Terms of Service
There are many useful sites that assist with creating a terms of service in compliance with DGPR. Create a custom link on the home page of your site and clearly state your terms.

3. Re-Permissioning your subscribers
If you are sending out a news letter be sure that every subscriber has granted permission and subscribed through a proper 3rd part service. If you are mailing subscribers who have opted out you are in breach. You need to get your subscriber permission AGAIN for storing their data, sending them information, marketing to them and so much more!

4. Convert your site to SSL
This is a key factor in compliance ESPECIALLY if you have an online shop. All clients of The First Step have access to an SSL certificate through Hetzner but the WordPress platform will require some additional plugins and tweaks to configure this as will as updates of your sitemaps and urls with Google analytics and Google Search Console. This means your website address will have a GREEN PADLOCK next to the address bar and your protocol will be https not http. This secures the pages served on your website and stops 3rd part information from being stolen which in turn further protects the privacy of your clients and users.

The First Step is offering several services to assist you with this transition. This in no way covers every aspect and I am still working to understand all the steps required to be fully compliant.

In most cases the law advises on assigning a compliance officer, however I would imagine that is costly and not necessary for a small business.

Please note that the basics of compliance are covered in this information. If you feel your site is served to European citizens (even those living in your country. Any EU citizens) then please take this seriously and do further home work on the subject of GDPR compliance. (In most cases European citizens are everywhere and google is collecting your website traffic data which in turn means you need to comply.)

The First Step will assist in several steps the most important of which are outlined below.

How do I make my website GDPR Compliant?

The First Step offers a number of key services to facilitate this transition.

Please fill out this GDPR Request Services form and request which services you require:

WordPress training for Corporates

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WordPress training for Corporates in Cape Town, South Africa, Worldwide

WordPress training for large or small business can be very useful in empowering you or your staff to better manage your website. The more you understand about writing new content on your site and updating existing content the easier it will be for you to steer your business to online success and to start ranking for the search terms of your related industry.

The First Step can provide you with one-on-one training at your business premise and we offer training in and around Cape Town. If you are based further afield in South Africa Skype training is an excellent way to provide training. Skype has the option of sharing screens which will fast-track the learning process.

The training can be for either beginner or advanced users of WordPress, whether you need assistance in updating products in your online shop or the basics of writing a weekly article or blog post.

Some of the most sophisticated sites are built in WordPress and although WordPress started out as a publishing platform for bloggers and news sites its uses extend to all areas of online websites and their is no area that has not been covered by the WordPress community in providing free plugins and extensions that will turn your WordPress site in any online business you can image.

It has been well noted that Google loves the WordPress platform which conforms to many web standards that assist in Google’s easy indexing of website content.

If you don’t already have a WordPress site and are trying to decide which route to take, if only for the Google Friendly merits of WordPress, this should be your first port of call.

Ideally, if you are an individual, a small business or an online enterprise, WordPress has the flexibility to grow with you and your business which is the cherry on the top. You will never be limited to what you start with. If you started a personal travel blog, you could easily extend into an online shop that sells travel paraphernalia, or a magazine that sells advertising for the travel industry…

With WordPress the sky is the limit, but managing your site is key in harnessing the best of the online optimization and good rankings in Google.

The First Step offers a wealth of training, short courses and website services. You can also book our online course by filling out the https://thefirststep.co.za/wordpress-training-course-enquiry-form/ . We will contact you with proposals for the level of training and time you would need to become proficient in the area of WordPress training you require.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for pricing and information!