Kirstan Norman – The Blog Pros

January 18, 2021

Test Your WordPress Site Security – 6 Free WordPress Security Scanners

We think our security plugin, Defender, is pretty darn good, but we’d never tell you to put all your eggs in one basket. Even with a super-reliable and robust security plugin, you should still carry out extra checks on your site’s security…

Gone are the days where the only way to infiltrate someone’s computer or accounts was to send them a virus disguised as a pdf or manually guess their passwords.

Nowadays, hacking is easy. It’s automated.

Bots can brute-force their way into a site, create fake administrator accounts, and scan the network for vulnerabilities and valuable files in a matter of seconds.

This means that you no longer need a determined enemy in order to be the victim of an attack.

And since attacks are always on the rise, it makes sense to take whatever precautions are available in order to protect your site and ultimately, your visitors.

One of these precautions is simply taking the time to check your site from a few different sources.

Read on as we take a look at some of the best free tools out there.

1. Defender
2. WordPress Tools
3. wpRecon
4. VirusTotal
5. Mozilla Observatory
6. Google Transparency Report

1. Defender

Hopefully, you’re already using Defender to protect your site against malicious attacks, however, did you know it has an awesome scan feature, as well as a comprehensive rundown of things you can do to improve your site security?

Let’s start with the scan.

To begin a scan, click on Defender’s Malware Scanning option in the WordPress sidebar.

Screenshot of Defender about to start a scan — Click Run Scan.

Defender will then highlight any files that it thinks are suspicious, such as core files which have been edited or don’t come as standard.

Screenshot of Defender's scan results showing two potentially malicious files. — Defender will check your core files against the originals in the WordPress repository.

You’ll need to check through the files to decide whether they pose a risk, or whether they are changes you’ve made yourself.

You then have three options:

If you don’t think a certain file should exist at all, you can delete it.
If you believe a core file has been tampered with, you can restore it to the original – Defender will replace it with a fresh copy.
If you trust these files, you can ask Defender to ignore them in future scans.

Screenshot of a suspicious file in Defender showing the snipper of code. — Defender will even show you the code in question.

Ensuring that no code has been tampered with is a great way to keep on top of your site security.

Defender goes one step further. It can carry out an overall check on your site security to give you recommendations if there are vulnerabilities on your site that could easily be fixed.

Simply head to the Recommendations section to find out if Defender has picked up any vulnerabilities.

Screenshot of the security recommendations with Defender. — It will give you a list of all the current recommended steps.

You can click on each item individually to see more information. Defender can even provide you with instructions to fix it!

The code needed to fix the issue. — The instructions and code are provided.

Defender will also let you know what you’re doing right, by listing all the precautions you have already taken.

Simply navigate to the Actioned tab on the left of Defender’s screen.

Screenshot of all the actioned vulnerabilities. — Aim to get all recommendations into the Actioned column for the best chance of securing your site.

Like what you see?

Check out our full guide on how to get the most out of Defender, and if you host with us, take a look at how it integrates perfectly with The Hub.

2. WordPress Tools

The WordPress Tools section might not be somewhere you check into often, however, the Site Health menu can be pretty valuable, and is worth the odd visit.

This tool also offers more than just security recommendations and will provide more information than any of the external tools as it is linked directly with your site.

Screenshot of the WordPress tools recommendations. — Even the Performance suggestions can help with security – better update the PHP version!

If you click on each recommendation, you will get some pretty useful further details.

Screenshot of the list of inactive themes. — This information can make keeping on top of inactive themes and plugins so much easier!

You can also check out the list of passed tests so that you know what you’re doing right.

Screenshot of the 18 rectified issues. — It’s always reassuring to know when things are taken care of.

It’s built right into your WordPress installation so it should only take a minute or two to carry out a quick check every once in a while.

3. wpRecon

It’s good to get an idea of any information about your site which is publicly accessible, as this can be used by hackers to find ways to compromise your security.

One of the best ways to find out what information is readily available is by using a third-party tool that isn’t linked to your site.

wpRecon is one of these tools.

Simply input the URL of the site you want to test.

Screenshot of the box from which you can run your scan. — You can test any site you wish.

The test will give you a variety of results, with the first set being in relation to your server type, IP address, and a check of the version of WordPress you’re running.

Screenshot of information obtained from the WPrecon scan. — This is all information that can be obtained with just your URL!

It will also inform you of any plugins that are reading the HTML source of the website’s front page, check for information it can find about the theme, and try to list the contents of uploads and plugins folders.

Screenshot of the results of the test which tries to access your folders. — It is good to be aware if Directory Indexing is enabled on your site.

A routine check using a tool such as wpRecon will help you identify if there are any big holes, ready for hackers to walk through.

4. VirusTotal

VirusTotal is another free online tool for scanning sites, documents, and IP addresses. It has a database of over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blacklisting services.

Screenshot of some of the partners that VirusTotal uses. — These are just a few of the databases that VirusTotal checks.

If your site is clean, you should be good to go, however, if any of the databases pick up something malicious, it could be that you have malware.

If this is the case, it could be worth running a full malware scan.

You can also check some further details regarding your site.

Screenshot of the result of the outgoing links check. — It’s good to check whether any external links have been added to your site without your knowledge.

VirusTotal shares the result of the scan with the examining partners that it uses. This grows their virus and knowledge databases, helping to fight the fight against malware and hackers.

5. Mozilla Observatory

Mozilla Observatory is slightly different from the tools we’ve looked at above, as it offers a few separate types of tests.

When you first run the scan, it will test vulnerabilities in relation to HTTP. It will then give your site a score in the form of a letter.

Screenshot of the result of the test. — Yeah, not the best score – but this is why checks like this are useful!

Scroll down to see which of the tests you failed (if any).

Screenshot of the test scores. — You will be able to see how you scored on all of the 11 tests.

Click on the name of each test to be taken to a page created by Mozilla which fully explains what it means.

After the first scan, you can also initiate further ones to check if access to your site can be gained through SSH (it would be very concerning if this was the case!) and extra tests with third-party companies ImmuniWeb, securityheaders.com, and hstspreload.org.

6. Google Transparency Report

Google’s Transparency Report isn’t really the answer for checking for vulnerabilities on your own site, however, there’s a reason it made it to this list.

The reason it won’t be much help when it comes to your own site is that it only tells you whether or not it finds anything unsafe, it doesn’t tell you what the unsafe content is.

This makes it pretty redundant when checking on your own site but can come in useful when checking a site you want to visit.

If you’re nervous about visiting a URL for the first time, you can simply input it into Google Transparency Report’s search bar, and let it check it out for you.

Google transparency search results. — It provides a basic yes or no answer as to whether the site is safe to visit.

So yes, whilst it may not be the answer to checking for holes in your site security, it’s a pretty good tool to have in your bag!

Stay One Step Ahead

Carry out regular checks on your site using a variety of tools to make sure you identify any vulnerabilities before hackers or bots sniff them out.

Many of the issues picked up by these tools are quick and easy fixes, so schedule in regular checks as part of your site security process.

If you want to know how to make sure you haven’t missed anything when it comes to setting up the protection for your WordPress site, be sure to check out our 16-step checklist to total site lockdown.

And with this being #SecurityMonth you can currently get 35% off your first year of our Security & Backups Pack featuring Defender Pro, Snapshot Pro, Shipper Pro, and Automate. Click on the coupon below to unlock the exclusive deal.

35% Off Security & Backups Pack

October 18, 2020August 31, 2024

Celebrating 1000 Editions Of The WhiP! + Special Giveaway

With its hand-picked selection of WordPress news and epic puns, The WhiP has been a welcome arrival in thousands of inboxes for over 6 years. And to celebrate our fav newsletter reaching the big 1K we’re doing an extra-special giveaway.

May 14th, 2014.

Just your typical Wednesday.

All of Me by John Legend was the US number one, and we’d finally finished eating all of our Easter eggs.

At 8am, 70 people across the world received an email. An email that would be the start of something amazing…

…it was the first ever WhiP.

A look at the first edition of The Whip — A lot has changed since the first WhiP newsletter graced our inboxes.

Good, Clean[ish] Puns

Since that first edition, we’ve seen 1,000 editions, a truckload of legendary puns, and the audience currently sits at over 200K subscribers.

Each and every week, we’ve brought you a roundup of important and interesting news from across the WordPress biz – and we don’t plan on stopping any time soon.

We also can’t celebrate 1,000 editions without paying homage to our past WhiP contributors. Especially Joshua Dailey and Raelene Morey – the first ever WhiP Team.

They did an awesome job at bringing this idea to life and that it’s still going more than six years later is a testament to all their hard work.

Some kind comments from WhiP readers — The WhiP’s punny take on WP news continues to entertain thousands.

GIF it Away, GIF it Away Now

Alright now that we’ve recapped The WhiP’s journey and how awesome it is (subscribe here if you haven’t yet silly), onto the special giveaway!

The WhiP is of course famous for its use of puns to bring even the most boring WP news to life. And we’ve had tons of feedback over the years letting us know that you love our puns.

So much so, current WhiP-master, Rick, used the “Do you know who I am?!” line in Starbucks last week when they only gave him one shot of caramel in his latte.

So in the spirit of The WhiP’s punny nature, we’re giving you the chance to…

WIN one of 10 custom-made “punny” WhiP t-shirts + a year’s worth of hosting.

That’s right, we decided to honor some of the best puns by turning them into awesome, punny t-shirts and putting them up for grabs in a sweet little giveaway!

Winners will be able to choose from six puntastic WhiP shirts we designed especially for this promotion. You’ll also be able to choose your preferred design, size, color, etc.

But wait, there’s more…

Along with the shirts, we’re throwing in ONE YEAR’S worth of bronze hosting credit ($120) for our 10 winners!

*If you don’t host with us and aren’t planning on switching any time soon, you can spend your credits on anything else from our range. This includes any of our membership plans and subscriptions or add-ons for your favorite WPMU DEV plugins.

Choosing the top puns to print on the t-shirts was a difficult task. But after trawling through hundreds of previous WhiPs and then a team vote to narrow it down even further, we present to you our six favorites.

Winners can choose from one of these 6 puntastic t-shirt designs:

All hand-picked from previous WhiP editions and designed by us especially for this giveaway!

1.You Had Me at “Hello World”

One of the shirt designs winners can get their hands on

2.Never Gonna Give You App

3.Cache Me If You Can

4.You Have The Right To Domain Silent

5.Don’t Worry, Be HaPHP

6.Go Hard Or Go Chrome

Which punny shirt is your fav? Let us know below.

How do I get my hands on one of these WhiP t-shirts and the free hosting??

To win one of these awesome t-shirts (and the free hosting cred), head to one of our social media accounts and simply retweet, share, or comment on any social post with the hashtag “#WhiP1000.”

That’s it! We’ll draw 10 winners using a random number generator, and the more times you retweet, share, or comment on a WhiP post, the more entries you’ll have in the pool.

One more condition… You’ll need to be subscribed to the WhiP to be in the running – this is all in honor of the 1000th edition after all!

If you aren’t yet subscribed (what rock have you been living under?!) you can do so here.

Finally, you have until Friday to enter and we’ll be contacting the lucky WhiP winners next week!

Here are our social media accounts for reference:

Pun and Dusted

Get sharing and commenting on social, and may the odds be in your favor!

To all our loyal WhiP subscribers, especially those who’ve been rocking with us since day one, we thank you.

We know it’s cliché, but reaching 1000 editions simply would not have been possible without you.

And to any new or recent subscribers, welcome to the WhiP family, and we hope you’ll stick around and laugh with us throughout the next 1000 editions!

Here are those ways to win one more time in case it didn’t sink in above:

On Twitter… retweet any WPMU DEV post with the hashtag #WhiP1000.
On Facebook… share or comment on any WPMU DEV post with the hashtag #WhiP1000.
On Instagram… comment on any WPMU DEV post with the hashtag #WhiP1000.
You must be subscribed to The WhiP to be eligible.
Contest ends this Friday the 23rd of October.
The 10 lucky winners will be contacted next week.

See you on the next WhiPPing punny newsletter.

August 23, 2020August 31, 2024

Spice Up Your Sites: Customize Your WordPress Multisite Admin Areas With Branda

Branda is your ultimate tool for customizing your multisite network. Inject a slice of personality into each of your sites’ admin areas and decide whether this power sits with just the Network Admin, or with individual site admins.

In this article, we’re showing you how to manage user access to Branda on your multisite network, and then diving into the features best-suited to customizing your multisite admin.

More specifically, we’ll be covering how to:

1. Control Who Can Access Branda
2. Change Your Module Permissions
3. Personalize Your Sites
4. Choose a Custom Color Scheme
5. Add Notes to Your Admin Footer
6. Customize Your Admin Menu
7. Reorganize Your Admin Bar
8. Add Extra Customization With CSS
9. Customize Your Cookie Notices
10. Create Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode Pages
11. Create Unique Login Screens
12. Customize Your Favicons

1. Control Who Can Access Branda

As a Network Administrator, you can control who has access to Branda.

If you want to be the only one in charge of Branda’s features, you don’t need to do anything, as Branda is hidden from all other users straight out of the box.

If you want to grant your site admins access to Branda, you can do so by heading to Settings > Permissions and checking the box.

Screenshot of user permissions showing only admin ticked — You can give access to any user role from this menu.

If you would rather handpick which users get access to Branda, you can do this by scrolling down and selecting ‘Custom Users’.

You can grant your site admins (plus any other user roles) access to Branda from this menu.

2. Change Your Module Permissions

Branda’s customization options are split up into modules. If you make changes to a module in the Network Admin plugin settings, it will take effect across all of your networked sites.

If you want to give your site admins the ability to override the network customizations, you can do so within the settings menu.

Screenshot of the subsite permissions showing none ticked — Choose individual modules or simply select ‘All’ to give full control.

3. Personalize Your Sites

Whilst the sites of your multisite network may be related and all fall under the same brand, personalizing your admin areas using Branda is an easy way to give them a little bit of personality, rather than feeling like they’re all merging into one.

Simple changes you can make include the color scheme, admin footers, and personalizing the admin menu.

Below is a quick overview of how to do all of these and more.

4. Choose a Custom Color Scheme

You can easily select one of the default color schemes if your only aim is to easily distinguish your admin areas from one another. However, the real magic of Branda lies in the ability to create your own custom color scheme.

You can customize the color of each Aspect of your admin area, right down to the links and hover colors.

If you make these changes as the Network Admin, the color scheme will just change within the Network Admin area.

If you want to apply the same color scheme to all of your sites, you can select ‘Force color scheme’.

Screenshot of the force colour scheme option — You can also set a default color scheme for new users.

If you want your admins to be able to set their own color schemes for their sites/profiles, simply give them access in Settings > Permissions and select the Color Schemes module.

You can add a personalized note in your admin footer using Branda, even on a multisite network.

This can be done either across the network, or per site.

All you need to do is activate the Admin Footer module, then add your message.

Screenshot of the admin footer text option with the message Kirstan's Multisite Network entered — You add your note in the same way whether you do it on one site or across the network.

Your message will then display at the bottom of every page within the admin area.

Screenshot showing a custom footer note of Kirstan';s multisite network. — You can even add images as well as text!

Your admins can choose to change the footer for each individual site – it’s just another way that Branda can help you to differentiate between the sites on your network.

When you’re running a multisite network, you may have differences between your sites which means that the same admin setup across all of them just isn’t practical.

With Branda, you can easily remove, add, and edit the items in your admin menu.

You can easily tidy up the admin menu of each of your sites.

To do this, simply head to the Admin Menu module and select Customize.

There are extensive customization options for each admin item.

You can also add your own custom menu items to ensure that your sites are full of links and shortcuts to make your admin duties run as efficiently as possible.

Branda also offers the power to remove the dashboard link from user profiles which aren’t connected to one of the sites in your network.

Screenshot of the dashboard link checkbox. — This can be done through the Admin Menu module within the Network Admin area.

This means that if someone’s profile isn’t linked to a site, all they will be able to access is their profile screen.

7. Reorganize Your Admin Bar

Just like the admin menu, you admin bar is a valuable tool when it comes to navigating the back-end of your site, helping you to work smoothly and efficiently.

If there are links on it that you only want to make available to certain user roles, you can restrict access within the admin bar module.

Screenshot of the admin bar permission checkboxes. — Uncheck the boxes of the user roles that you don’t want to see the admin bar.

You are then free to customize it in the same way as you did your admin menu, either through the network admin settings or per site.

You can hide specific items, add custom ones, and reorder the whole menu.

Line your links up exactly as you want them.

8. Add Extra Customization with CSS

Whilst Branda is packed full of features to help you tailor your admin area to your needs, there are times where you might need to tweak an extra thing or two.

Adding extra CSS to a site can cause issues if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, so understandably, this feature is disabled by default for everyone but the Network Admins.

If you want to delegate this power to your site admins, you can do this from the Permissions section of the Settings menu.

If you want to reserve the Custom CSS field for the Network Admins, it can come in handy if you want more control over your site permissions.

For example, you can use it to hide the activate or deactivate buttons of your plugins.

Just remember to remove CSS permissions for other users so that no one can undo your changes!

Adding your own cookie notice is very simple with Branda. You can easily add the same notice to all sites, or if your sites require different wording, you can add them individually.

You can choose your own text, add images, link to your privacy policy, and make changes to the color and design.

This is an example of a simple cookie notice created using Branda.

There is also the option to update the version number of the cookie notice, which will force all users to view the notice again, and you have the ability to choose how long cookies are stored for.

If you want your site admins to be able to override the network cookie notice with their own personalized ones for each site, you need to ensure you give them permission by heading to Settings > Permissions.

10. Using Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode

When you’re running a multisite, adding a new site may be a common occurrence.

This means that you might need to enable coming soon mode to ensure that your potential customers know what’s going on, and also to give your SEO a head start by letting Google know you’re on your way.

Branda allows you to design your own unique pages to keep your visitors in the loop.

If you want to do this as the network admin, you can use a standard coming soon page which you could apply across all new sites.

Screenshot of a custom coming soon page using an image of laptops and paperwork planning on a desk — A general image and message can be used across all your sites, but you can still be the one to create it!

Or if you wanted to delegate this power to your site admins, you can have a more personalized page for each site.

Screenshot of a custom login screen for J Smith photography — You can add your own personalized touch to each of your sites to tease your visitors.

The same counts for maintenance mode – you can use the same methods to create front-facing pages which will let your visitors know what’s going on.

All you need to do is head into Branda’s Website Mode, which will allow you to turn each of these modes on and off, as well as customize their designs.

An easy way to distinguish the sites in your network from each other is through personalized login screens.

Never try to log into the wrong site again!

You can add your own background images, logos, and change the text labels and links.

To create a login screen, head to the Customize Login Screen module and then check out this guide which shows you exactly how to craft the perfect login page.

12. Customizing Your Favicons

Favicons are the little images that display in your site’s browser tab.

They usually consist of simple icons or logos.

When running a multisite, Branda gives you the option to have the same icons across all of your sites, or add different ones.

As Network Admin, all you need to do is head to Branda’s Utility section and choose the Images module.

From there, you can upload your own favicon and then choose whether or not your subsites will inherit it.

Select Custom to choose sites and then upload individual favicons for them.

Multisite Customization Made Easy

Branda is fully compatible with your multisite network, meaning that anything you can do on an individual WordPress installation, you can do on your multisite.

In fact, customizing many areas of multisite admin works the same way as customizing a regular WordPress site admin. We’ve covered these extensively in this post.

Once you have the hang of distributing the permissions between your other users, the possibilities are endless. Check out the full documentation to see the full extent of Branda’s powers, and keep an eye on the roadmap to see what new features are on the horizon.

August 6, 2020August 31, 2024

How To Completely Customize The WordPress Admin Area With Branda

Branda gives you the power to white label WordPress, letting your brand flow from the front to the back-end of your site. In this guide, we’ll show you how to renovate your admin area with some of Branda’s most impressive features.

White labeling your WordPress site has never been easier. Branda splits every one of her features into easy to digest modules which can be activated and removed as necessary.

Branda lets you white label every Aspect of WordPress

No job is too big or small – you can customize anything from your color scheme and dashboard widgets, right down to the text labels on your login page, and the icons in your admin toolbar.

In this guide, we’ll show you not only how to completely white label the back-end of your WordPress installation using Branda, but also how to personalize and reorganize your tools and menus to ensure peak efficiency when working within your admin area.

We’ll be covering how to:

Customize Your Login Screen
Change the WordPress Logo
Rework the Admin Bar
Personalize Your Widgets
Organize Your Admin Menu
Add Text to Your Footer
Text Replacement
Change the Color Scheme

Read on to find out how Branda can help you put your own stamp on your WordPress admin.

When customizing your WordPress admin, it makes sense to start at the first page you’ll always see – the login screen.

Branda can help you create a completely new login screen that will impress your clients and inject some personality into your WordPress back-end.

There are seven preset templates you can select, or you can create your own from scratch.

Screenshot of Branda's login screen templates. — Click ‘Start from scratch’ to create your own template.

If you start from scratch, the main changes will come in the form of your background and logo.

First up is the logo – you can either upload your own image, or import one from a URL.

You can also choose to completely hide the logo.

Once you’ve added your logo, you can choose a new background to complement it.

Screenshot of a custom login screen made using Branda and an image of some notepads. — Just make sure your background image is a minimum of 1024px wide.

You’re free to take it even further and edit or hide the labels, display a message, or add custom error messages.

Add custom messages for users when they log in.

A few tweaks and you can completely revamp your login section.

2. Change the WordPress Logo

If you’re a developer working on a lot of sites, or if you’re trying to create a personalized experience for a new client, the ability to switch out the WordPress logo in the admin bar can make a lot of difference.

It can let you know at a quick glance which site you’re currently logged into and it can be the icing on a cake for a client that you’re trying to impress.

With Branda, it takes seconds to change the logo to something more personal.

This setting is found within Admin Area > Admin Bar.

As you can see below, it’s such a simple change but it takes white labeling WordPress to the next level.

It’s your site, so it makes sense to replace the WordPress logo with your own.

3. Rework the Admin Bar

If you find the admin bar more unsightly than useful, there are a couple of ways Branda can help you manage this.

You can remove the admin bar from your front-end if you want to quickly view your site without it getting in the way by heading to Admin Area > Admin Bar.

Screenshot of the options to set the toolbar visibility by user account. — Untick the boxes of the user roles you wish to hide the toolbar from on the front-end.

If you don’t want to hide the toolbar completely, you can customize the items it shows.

Start by choosing the items you wish to hide:

Screenshot of the various options you can hide from the toolbar. — Better still, you can apply these settings to specific user roles.

If you really dislike the toolbar, you can even go as far as removing all its links in the back-end:

Screenshot of a toolbar with all the items removed. — Branda can help your admin area go from ‘messy’ to ‘minimalist’ in just a few clicks.

If you’d prefer an admin bar that is practical and personalized to fit your needs, you can create this by adding custom items to it.

Screenshot of the option to add a custom admin bar item. — Just below the option to hide your items, you’ll find the option to add custom ones.

Once you click to add a custom item, you will need to select a title, icon and a link destination.

Screenshot of the the option to select a title and icon for a custom admin menu item. — There are tons of icons to choose from – you’ll be spoilt for choice.

Add a submenu if required, and set the visibility of your new menu item per user role.

Screenshot of a custom admin bar menu item with a submenu. — You can use these settings to easily navigate to your most important pages, as well as a host of other ideas.

4. Personalize Your Widgets

With all the standard widgets active, your dashboard can begin to look a bit cluttered.

If you head into Branda and to Widgets > Dashboard Widgets, you can hide any that you don’t use.

Screenshot of the widgets you can hide. — With all these options ticked, your dashboard will be completely free of widgets.

You can then begin to repopulate your dashboard with widgets that are more useful to you, as Branda has the option to create your own custom widgets.

Screenshot of the option to add a new text widget. — You can create your own unique widget and then choose which user roles will see it.

Widgets can contain notes, company updates, stock reminders – you have total freedom.

Screenshot of a custom widget showing some upcoming appointments. — They’re so quick and easy to update.

Your admin menu is the heart and soul of your WordPress admin area. If you want to customize the back-end of your site, it makes sense to tailor the admin menu to your needs.

Head to Admin Area > Admin Menu > Customize Admin Menu and you will be presented with a ton of options to help you get the most out of your admin menu.

First up, you can customize each item in your admin bar per user role and can opt to hide each item.

Screenshot of the option to edit your dashboard menu item. — You can also duplicate items from this menu.

When you click to edit one of the items, you are first offered the chance to rename it as well as change the CSS ID and class.

Screenshot of the option to change the ID and class of the menu item. — Click ‘submenu’ to change the name and IDs/classes of the submenu items.

If you scroll down a little further, you can choose a new icon from tons of presets.

Screenshot showing some of the icons Branda comes preloaded with,. — You can even upload your own icons.

Once you are satisfied with how your menu item looks, it’s time to decide what happens when you click on it.

Underneath the icons, you will find the option to change the link, as well choose whether or not it opens in a new tab.

Screenshot of the option to add a link to the custom menu item. — While you may not need to change the link on existing menu items, it’s handy if you create new ones.

Once you have amended your existing menu items to your taste, you can scroll to the bottom of the list to add your own custom items.

This is useful if you want shortcuts to external websites or areas of your site that take a while to navigate to.

You can add text or even media to the bottom right of your admin area.

This could be anything from an important message or update, to your company motto, or even just your site name.

Screenshot of custom admin footer text which says Kirstan's Blog, 2020. — You can also make the text a link.

It’s just another quick way to break out of WordPress’ usual template and add a bit of brand/personality to your admin area.

7. Text Replacement

A handy feature found within the utilities section of Branda allows you to replace words and phrases throughout your site.

This can be especially beneficial when it comes to white labeling your admin area.

You can control whether the rules are case sensitive, and whether they apply everywhere or just on your front or back-end.

Screenshot of the option to add a text replacement rule showing Howdy replaced with Welcome Back — Even apply it to specific themes or plugins using the text domain option.

Using this feature, you can easily change the ‘Howdy’ message on the right-hand side of your admin bar, to something more to your taste.

Screenshot of the admin bar showing a custom Howdy message which say Welcome Back. — You can add as many separate rules as you like.

8. Change Your Color Scheme

If you’re dedicated to truly whitelabeling and personalizing your site, then changing the color scheme should definitely be on your to-do list.

Branda comes loaded with 8 color schemes for you to choose from.

Screenshot of the preset color schemes which come with Branda. — You can set the theme for each user individually or apply to all.

If your plan is to match your admin area to your brand, you can extensively edit the color schemes to your exact requirements.

Below is just a taste of how many options you have to create your own scheme.

You can color each element of your admin area separately, and tweak things such as hover and focus color.

Screenshot of the admin area using the theme Ocean. — This is ‘Ocean’, one of Branda’s preset color schemes.

WordPress Who?

Branda has so many options for customization and white labeling that you can put the same love and care into the back-end of your site as you do the front. No longer will you have to gaze upon the WordPress logo or endure every site you work on looking exactly the same from the back-end. With Branda, you can truly make each site your own.

If you’re eager to find out what else Branda can do, check out the documentation for a complete run down and visit our roadmap to see what else she’s got in store. Better yet, get Branda installed and experience the power of personalizing WordPress with Branda for yourself.

August 2, 2020August 31, 2024

Remove or Improve – Is It Time to Get Rid of Your WordPress Admin Bar?

Fed up with your WordPress admin bar getting in your way when viewing your site? Need a simple plugin to help you tweak it a little, or if your mind’s set on it, remove it completely? Read on for a roundup of the best.

Your admin bar may be full of useful options, but it can easily get to a point where it’s more of a nuisance than a help. When you’ve made changes to your site, you might want to go straight to the frontend and admire your new masterpiece without the top 32px being taken up by your admin bar.

While plugins are the answers to most WordPress questions, you can check out this tutorial if you’d rather go down the code route to remove or customize your admin bar.

You can also remove your admin bar within the WordPress settings by going to Users > Toolbar.

Screenshot from wordpress of the remove toolbar button. — Untick the box to remove the toolbar from your frontend.

Just bear in mind that this will only remove the bar from your own account. If you want to have control over the access for all user accounts, you’re better off sticking with a plugin.

In this article, I’ll show you a bunch of great plugins that will let you reposition your admin bar, change the links, take away some of its opacity, or if you’ll never make friends, remove it completely.

Option 1 – Personalize Your Admin Bar

Branda
We can’t talk about anything to do with WordPress admin and not include our very own Branda. When it comes to the admin toolbar, she certainly has a few tricks up her sleeve.

You can hide the admin bar from different user roles, and even choose to display certain elements of it to guests. You also have the option to hide specific elements from the admin bar, as well as add new ones.

Branda always has to take it one step further…

There are tons of icons for you to choose from, and you can even enter custom URLs. This means that you can pack your admin bar full of useful links to streamline and speed up your admin duties.

Using Branda, you can also change your admin bar logo as well as add your own custom CSS to tailor it exactly to your needs.

Interested in Branda?
Download
AG Custom Admin
Now this little plugin is pretty powerful – there isn’t much it can’t do to your WordPress admin.

In regards to your admin bar, you can remove elements such as the logo (which you can change if you’d prefer), the pending updates notification, your site name and the +New block. You can really make your admin bar as minimalist as you’d like, and even go as far as hiding it completely. The ‘howdy’ text as well as the logo link can also be changed.

Whilst most of the customization options are purely practical, you can also change the colors across your entire admin dashboard and bar, as well as add custom CSS and JS if you fancy a few extra tweaks.

Interested in AG Custom Admin?
Download
Toolbar Extras
Toolbar Extras is packed full of, ahem, extras, to help your WordPress admin bar make your life easier. If you’re one of the 5 million + people who still rely on Elementor to build beautiful websites, then this little plugin will give you super-quick access to a bunch of useful tools, right from your admin bar.

There are extra options for customization such as the ability to customize the labels and icons, as well as change the welcome message in the top-right corner.

You can personalize the message to include the user’s name or display name.

If you’re not an Elementor user, you can link this plugin with the default block editor, although you’ll be presented with fewer options.

Interested in Toolbar Extras?
Download
Admin Page Spider
It isn’t often that you stumble across a plugin that feels so normal and that you can’t believe it’s not actually part of WordPress itself.

Admin Page Spider falls into this category. Such a simple change to the admin bar allows you to quickly access posts and pages to edit with just one click.

You can select it to display either pages, posts, or both.

This is all you can really do with the free version (you can upgrade to Pro for a ton more features) but it adds such a good boost of practicality to your admin bar, that you’ll never look back.

Interested in Admin Page Spider?
Download
Admin Bar Position
Ever thought that your frontend would look so much better with the admin bar at the bottom?

Make your dreams a reality with this tidy little plugin. All you have to do is install and activate and your admin bar will move straight to its new home at the bottom of your screen – it’s that simple!

Interested in Admin Bar Position?
Download

Option 2 – Hide Your Admin Bar

Auto Hide Admin Bar
Often the simple plugins are the best – the ones where you can just install, activate, and voila…extra WP functionality!

Auto Hide Admin Bar is one of these plugins – all you have to do is activate it and your admin bar will be neatly tucked away when viewing the frontend of your website. Just hover at the top of your page and it will reappear like magic.

Interested in Auto Hide Admin Bar?
Download
Remove Admin Bar
Sometimes, a simple tweak is all you need. This plugin does literally what it says on the tin; once you activate it, your admin toolbar will no longer ruin the masterpiece of your site when visiting as a logged-in user.

There are a fair few plugins in the WP repo which do the same thing, so feel free to take your pick. I’m including Remove Admin Bar in this list because I’ve tested it myself and can confirm it works like a charm!

Interested in Remove Admin Bar?
Download
Admin Bar & Dashboard Access Control
If you don’t want to completely scrap the admin toolbar from the frontend view, you can display it based on the user’s role.

Whilst this is actually super simple to do with a couple of lines of code, we understand that some users choose not to make edits to code which is completely fine (and why plugins exist!).

Install this plugin if you want to have more control over who sees the admin bar.

Interested in Admin Bar & Dashboard Access Control?
Download
Admin Bar Disabler
If you’re set on hiding your admin bar but need a plugin for this which is compatible with multisite, look no further than Admin Bar Disabler.

It offers per-site and per-network options, as well as allowing you to set permissions based on user roles.

Interested in Admin Bar Disabler?
Download
Better Admin Bar
Better Admin Bar is a very practical plugin that helps you have control over exactly how much your admin bar interferes with the rest of your screen.

If you want to remove the bar completely, you can do just that. If you’d prefer to lower the opacity of the bar, only show it to admins, or only show it on hover, just take your pick.

Interested in Better Admin Bar?
Download

Remove or Improve?

So you’ve seen both options: customize your admin bar and turn it into something useful and practical, or wave goodbye to it – now the choice is yours.

If reading this has inspired you to go in for a complete WordPress admin overhaul, you should probably check out Branda’s other features. She’s the original whitelabeling goddess and will help you completely transform your admin area.

June 23, 2020

How To Ace Google’s Image Page Speed Recommendations With Smush

Smush has everything you need to optimize your images, as well as a handy repertoire of tools ready to help you smash PageSpeed Insights image-related recommendations.

It’s a simple way to speed up your site, without sacrificing your image quality.

With Smush you can:

Compress images in bulk and with one click
Automatically resize and rescale your images
Enable lazy loading so your server can concentrate on displaying content above the fold
Convert your image files to formats that are drastically smaller and much quicker to display.

Over a million installs and more than 50 billion images smushed.

There are four main recommendations when it comes to images, and Smush can answer all of them.

Defer offscreen images
Efficiently encode images
Serve images in next-gen formats
Properly size images

“I had no idea that my page load time was being dragged down by the images. The plugin nearly halved the time it took.” – karlcw

This guide will show you how Smush can help you get your PageSpeed Insights score into the green.

Defer Offscreen Images

You don‘t want to be wasting server resources and sacrificing page speed to load images that are halfway down your page, so deferring offscreen images makes sense for many sites.

When you install Smush, Lazy Load is one of the first features you should check out. Simply enabling it can fix the ‘defer offscreen images’ PageSpeed recommendation.

Smush’s Lazy Load feature comes with more than just an on and off button.

You can choose which image formats you want to include.

Screenshot of the media types, whocing jpeg, png, gif, svg and iframe which can all be excluded. — Maybe you want your JPEGs to Lazy Load, but not your PNGs?

As well as any post types you want to exclude.

Screenshot of the different pages you can exclude from lazy load including the front page, blog and posts. — There’s also the option to add the URL of any specific pages.

Lazy Loading is something that can easily be undone so turn it on, check your new PageSpeed Insights score, and most importantly, check the impact it has on your site.

Efficiently Encode Images

If you want a full and comprehensive guide to optimizing your images, I would recommend checking out this blog, as here, we’re purely focusing on how Smush can help you meet PageSpeed Insights audit requirements. In this section, specifically the ‘efficiently encode images’ recommendation.

Smushing your images prevents your server being clogged up with extra MBs that don’t need to be there.

You can Smush in a variety of ways, with virtually no difference in quality.

Smush on Upload

Automatic compression is on by default and is used to efficiently encode images. It’s a high impact, low-risk feature, which should be used on most sites.

Screenshot of automatic compression showing it enabled and ready to automatically compress images on upload. — You can select whether you want it to apply to all images, or exclude certain sizes.

If you don’t want Smush to automatically compress your photos, there are a few other ways you can manage this:

Bulk Smush

You can use the Bulk Smush feature to scan your site for photos which are in need of attention and smush them all at once.

Smush Through the Media Library

You can also head to the media library to check whether you have images available for smushing.

Screenshot of an image of a moon in the media library ready to be smushed. — You can smush individually through the media library or select images to be ignored from autosmush.

Smush Other Directories

You’re not confined to just your media uploads – you can also smush non-WordPress images outside of your uploads directory.

Screenshot of the directory smush option showing the navigati9on to the wp-content folder to search for more images. — You can easily navigate through your folders to find the images you want to Smush.

Super Smush

Super Smush is your next port of call if you want to bring your file sizes down even further.

It offers 2X the smushing power compared to the standard method, so it’s handy if you have a lot of images that are soaking up valuable resources.

Even if ensuring your images were properly encoded wasn’t one of PageSpeed Insights audit opportunities, it still makes sense to get rid of any excess bloating, as long as there is no noticeable difference to your images.

Utilize the CDN

Smush also offers a blazing-fast 45 point CDN (Pro version only) which allows you to serve your images in next-gen formats as well as ensuring they’re delivered to your browser at breakneck speed.

Make your Images Next Gen

Next-gen image formats such as WebP and JPEG 2000/XR can bring your file size down drastically.

Serving your images in one of these formats will save you server resources, as well as meet one of PageSpeed Insights requirements.

With Smush’s CDN enabled, you can serve your images in the next-gen WebP format.

As not all browsers support WebP images, Smush does a super-quick check of the browser, and if WebP images are supported, then great – that’s what’s served to your visitor. If not, Smush can simply serve up a PNG or JPEG to make sure that no one misses out.

Properly-sized Images

Forcing the browser to resize an image before it can be displayed to the user slows down your site and lowers your PageSpeed Insight score. Part of the recommendation is to refrain from serving images that are larger than the version that will be displayed on the visitor’s screen.

Screenshot of the automatic resizing feature showing it currently turned on. — With Smush’s CDN, this is one of the easiest PageSpeed Insight recommendations to solve.

If you want to ensure you’re being completely thorough in the correct sizing of your images, read this blog to find out a few alternative tricks.

Smash PageSpeed Insights with Smush

While many users struggle to improve their web site optimization, Smush lets you boost your page loading speeds by making images easier and faster to load…and it does this all in just a few clicks!

Follow the above recommendations and put Smush to work for your site today. Also, keep an eye on our roadmap for all the exciting new features coming soon to Smush.