Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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On this page, you can specify particular database tables (besides the defaults) to be backed up,
choose what to do with the completed backup (store in a location on the server, download to
your computer, or email to an address of your choice), and schedule your backups.
•
WordPress Exploit Scanner
—Protect yourself against hacker attacks by running this scanner
periodically. Click the Dashboard widget in the navigation bar, then click Exploit Scanner. Click
the Run the Scan button. The plug-in searches for hidden links, malicious JavaScript and other
possible exploit code, and it provides a fairly detailed report on the same page when the check
is complete. You can adjust the default items to scan, but unless you have reason to believe
something's wrong and know where the problem might lie, we recommend leaving the
defaults alone.
Statistics
Your web hosting company will offer you a detailed statistics package that identifies how many
times your pages are being visited by a browser, and an educated guess about who is visiting.
These statistics packages are designed to report on static web sites. As a blogger interested in
making connections with people, you need a different set of statistics. We've already talked about
the WordPress.com Stats plug-in, but there are some other popular and effective plug-ins to give
you deeper insight into your audience:
•
Google Analytics for WordPress
—Joost de Valk (also known as Yoast) is one of the bright lights
of the WordPress community. This plug-in connects your blog to your Google Analytics account
(after you share your account ID) and tracks downloads, AdSense clicks, image searches, and
quite a few other relevant statistics.
•
Woopra Analytics
—This plug-in provides yet another free set of analysis tools. Sign up for an
account at woopra.com (the plug-in provides a link in the Settings area), and add a bit of
JavaScript code to your theme's footer to allow Woopra to track your traffic. Access the analytic
report through their desktop client, downloaded from their site.
•
Search Meter
—Ever wonder what your visitors search for when they come to your blog? This
plug-in tracks what people type into your search box and what kind of results they get, includ-
ing terms that generated no results. Go to Settings, then
Search Meter to set up your options. Go to Dashboard, then
Search Meter to receive your search report.
•
bSuite
—This plug-in provides another way to find out what
your audience wants. This plug-in aims to “help surface
interesting and relevant posts,” among other things. Go to
Settings, then bSuite to adjust the default settings. Go to
Dashboard, then bStat Reports to view Quick Stats on daily
page loads.
note
If you turned off Related Posts in
the General Settings earlier, be
aware that bSuite turns this feature
back on by default. Uncheck Insert
Related P
osts
Links at Bottom of
Each Post to turn off this feature.