If you’ve caught the travel bug and are itching to share your adventures with others, starting a travel blog can be a great way to connect with fellow travelers and build an international community. 

Whether you’re looking to start a budding travel brand or create a self-owned place on the web to direct your existing followers, we’re here to help you get started. So fasten your seatbelts low and tight across your hips, stow your personal items, and close your tray tables: it’s time for your next big (blogging) adventure.

First stop: understanding travel blogs

A travel blog is a vast category of websites dedicated to sharing content related to travel, including destination-specific reviews, travel tips and tricks, local recommendations, travel photos and vlogs, and more. Wherever your interests lie within this space, it’s important to approach your new blog with a clear vision and plan for success.

Your pre-flight checklist: pre-launch planning

Before you dive into writing posts or picking a design, it’s important to lay the groundwork. A little planning now will set you up for a smoother launch and a blog built to last.

Define your blog’s focus

Because the universe of travel is so vast, it’s important to find a specific and targeted niche to attract and retain a dedicated audience with similar interests. Whatever you choose, it should be something you’re passionate enough about to write and post about consistently. 

Below are a few ideas to help you establish your niche. Consider combining several niches for a hyper-focused brand that represents your unique travel interests and experiences:

• Group type: Do you usually travel solo, with a group of friends, or with a large family? Each of these travel groups has distinct travel needs that dictate what kinds of accommodations, activities, and locales are ideal.
• Budget: Shoestring backpackers and luxury jet-setters will be seeking out different kinds of recommendations and tips. Be clear about how much you’re spending when you travel to help potential visitors determine if your recommendations are relevant for their wallets. 
• Activity level: Some people travel for action-packed adventures, while others prefer to lounge on the beach. Fitness level and physical ability can greatly impact whether a recommended activity will be a favorite memory or a disastrous travel story.
• Expertise: Are you a wine connoisseur or history buff? If so, you might be uniquely positioned to become a go-to resource for tour, restaurant, or destination advice around these themes. 
• Cultural identity: Unfortunately, not all locales are equally safe or welcoming for every person, but many travel resources don’t account for these realities. Whether you are a woman, LGBTQ+, disabled, or a person of color, your frank travel experiences and trusted recommendations can be invaluable resources for other travelers.

Choose a name

Once you’ve defined your blog’s focus, it’s time to choose a name! Keep it short, memorable, and travel-related. Blog names should be easy to spell and pronounce, so you should avoid unexpected or alternate spellings if possible.

Since all websites need a unique address, you’ll also want to check if your blog name has a corresponding domain name, or address on the web (like mygreatnewblog.com). You can use our domain suggestion tool to check your desired domain’s availability and price. 

Tip: If you register for an annual WordPress.com hosting plan, your domain name is free for the first year.

Set clear goals

Once you’ve settled on your blog’s focus, start thinking about what you hope to achieve with your blog. Try creating measurable, time-based goals for the first few months and then continuing to set new milestones from there. Creating small, achievable milestones will help you stay focused, motivated, and on track. 

You can set goals around content creation, growth, and/or engagement. Below are some examples of goals in each category: 

• Posts: If you’re just starting to create content, consider committing to a daily or weekly cadence for adding content to your blog. Creating content regularly will help you establish your expertise and nail down your voice and tone. 
• Traffic: Increasing the number of visitors to your website is another way to track growth and success. There are many strategies for increasing your site’s traffic, like search engine optimization to increase your ranking on Google, cross-posting content on other platforms, and paid advertising.
• Engagement: Beyond the sheer number of visitors coming to your site, it’s important to track whether visitors continue to engage with your content over time. Repeat visitors and subscribers will be the heart of your blog and community. Track the number of newsletter subscribers you have, how many followers you have on social media, or how many comments you get on your posts.

Consider monetization strategies 

Even if you are starting small, knowing how you may want to monetize your blog in the future can help you decide what infrastructure and tools you’ll need to support your long-term growth.

We’ve ranked monetization strategies below, from the least to most technically intensive.

• Brand partnerships and sponsored posts: These posts require more offline work to find and establish relevant brand partners, but they oftentimes don’t require any technical knowledge beyond a typical blog post. 
• Affiliate links: Affiliate links, like the ones you can generate through the Amazon Associates Program, are an easy way to earn a small commission on items you recommend through your blog. They don’t require any additional site infrastructure. Simply insert your unique affiliate URL in your post to ensure you get credit from your affiliate partner. Be sure to disclose when using an affiliate link as well.
• Display ads: If you have a lot of blog traffic but aren’t interested in courting brand partners, you may want to display ads on your website. The process for enabling advertising may vary depending on your website type and host.
• Tips or donations: To accept tips or donations directly on your site, you need a digital payments service like Stripe or PayPal, or a tool that integrates with them. Regardless of how you enable tip or donation functionality on your site, some technical know-how will be required.
• Subscription content and paid newsletters: Offering subscriber-only content or a paid newsletter requires a site with paywall functionality and the ability to connect to a digital payment processor. 

• Ecommerce store: If you dream of one day offering readers products or services through a virtual shop, you will need the ability to add store functionality to your site. One of the most popular ecommerce tools is WooCommerce.

You can explore more ways to monetize your WordPress site in this detailed guide.

Choose your blogging software and host

There are two more critical pieces you’ll need to launch your blog: 

1. A content management system (CMS): To get your content to your followers, you need a way to organize and display your content online. A CMS is a type of software that provides the infrastructure and tools to design and customize your site without needing to code a website from scratch.
2. A website host: Hosts are services that store all the files, media, and databases your website needs and keep it accessible on the internet. There are a few different hosting types, but for many website owners, managed hosting is a great way to offload maintenance and server setup to a qualified provider. Some web hosts (like WordPress.com) offer domain registration alongside the purchase of a hosting plan, so you can keep everything all in one place.

Your travel companion: WordPress

WordPress is the most popular CMS on the web thanks to its incredible flexibility, customization, and long-term growth potential: unlike other proprietary CMS options like Wix or Squarespace, WordPress is a community-run open-source software with a thriving ecosystem of compatible tools and services, including free and paid themes and plugins created specifically for travel bloggers. With WordPress, you don’t pay for your CMS; you just pay for your hosting and domain.

Another benefit of WordPress is that your site code and content belong to you, not to a company. There are no algorithms, terms of service shenanigans, or government shutdowns that will get between you and your followers. You can easily download and move your content at any time.

Your home away from home: web hosting with WordPress.com 

At WordPress.com, we offer fully managed WordPress hosting designed for bloggers and business owners. You get the same powerful WordPress software that powers over 40% of the web, but we take care of the hosting, security, performance, and updates for you.

Every site includes fast load times, strong security, easy setup, and zero backend maintenance.

Plus, you’ll join a great community of fellow bloggers and website owners. You can find help and advice through our forums, blog, support guides, and friendly support team. No matter where you are on your travel blogging journey, we’re here to act as your local guide. 

Travel essentials: building your WordPress blog

Now that your blog is planned and your platform is in place, it’s time to bring your site to life. From design to functionality, these essentials will help you create a blog that’s both beautiful and easy to use.

1. Select a WordPress theme

WordPress offers a library of free and paid themes—design packages that include layouts, colors, fonts, and styling—to help anyone create a visually attractive and user-friendly website. 

Choose a theme that is responsive, which means it will resize for smaller screens for easy viewing on the go. You can test this out by opening the theme’s sample site on your phone. Through the WordPress.com theme repository, you can also view a mobile and tablet version of any theme using the drop-down menu in the preview window.

WordPress.com offers many great blog themes, including themes specifically created for travel bloggers. Many WordPress.com themes are free for those on a paid hosting plan, and we release new themes every month. 

2. Install essential WordPress plugins

While the core WordPress software offers a clean interface for blogging, many WordPress users rely on plugins to help them extend beyond WordPress’ basic functionality. There are many free and paid WordPress plugins to help you get the most out of your blog, and many independent vendors make and sell WordPress plugins too.

When choosing plugins, always look at the plugin’s reviews and the number of active installations. You should also check the plugin’s last update date to ensure it’s being actively maintained and is compatible with the latest versions of WordPress.

If you have a site on WordPress.com, you can install plugins on our Business plan and above.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO tools help search engines like Google understand your blog’s content, which can help your content appear higher in search results.

Popular SEO plugins include Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, and Rank Math. These plugins provide step-by-step guidance and can help you implement SEO best practices on your site.

WordPress.com offers built-in SEO tools on the Business plan and above, and you can learn more about WordPress SEO best practices in this guide.

Image compression

High-resolution travel photos can slow down your site, leading users to abandon it before it loads. Image compression plugins like ShortPixel or Smush Image Optimization automatically optimize your photos for faster loading times without sacrificing quality. You can also manually optimize images using WordPress.com’s image optimization guide.

Social sharing 

Travel content thrives on visual platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest. Social sharing plugins like AddToAny and Blog2Social make it easy to distribute your content across your social networks and encourage readers to follow you on multiple platforms.

WordPress.com includes built-in social features that allow you to automatically share your blog posts to your social channels and enable your readers to share your content with one click. 

Using tags on your posts will also enable them to appear in the WordPress.com Reader for additional visibility.

Security 

Security plugins help protect your website from hackers, malware, and other threats that could compromise your content or readers’ information. Many also provide two-factor authentication, which is particularly valuable if you update your site abroad or use public Wi-Fi networks.

If you host your blog on WordPress.com, your hosting costs include features like brute force protection, spam and malware protection, and firewalls, so you don’t need to install any third-party plugins to secure your site. 

If you host your WordPress site elsewhere, popular security plugins include WordFence, All in One Security, and Jetpack Security. 

Capture your wanderlust: create engaging content

Once you’ve chosen your platform, design, and plugins, it’s time to get to the heart of your blog: content creation. Modern blogs support all kinds of content, from classic blog posts to photography galleries, podcasts, and vlogs.

1. Plan your first blog posts

You should start by creating a few cornerstone articles that showcase your blog’s focus and unique writing style. Beyond recommendations, travel blog visitors are looking for a window into a new locale: blending your personal travel stories and photography with recommendations and advice will help you distinguish your blog from generic travel sites.

Blog posts around 1,500-2,000 words perform best in Google search rankings. But remember, it’s about the journey, not the destination. 

As you write, consider foundational elements of successful blogs: E-E-A-T, or experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. For travel content, this means showing your authentic knowledge of your destinations, providing accurate information about activities, restaurants, and accommodations, and taking readers off the beaten path.

From your first post, establish a clear content structure using categories (like cities, travel tips, and accommodations) to help readers navigate your growing content library.

2. Add visuals and photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when describing new cities, cultures, and cuisines. Great visuals and photographs help bring travel content to life and are a key feature of successful travel blogs. 

Consider investing in a good camera, like a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or high-end smartphone, to capture amazing, high-quality photos on your trip. Keep compositions clean and purposeful, with a mix of sweeping landscapes and small details that tell the story of a place.

The “golden hours” (early morning and late afternoon) provide the most flattering light for landscape photography. For indoor shots like hotels or restaurants, try to maximize natural light.

You should always check your images on-site to ensure you’ve captured the perfect shot, but for an extra touch of professionalism, you can use editing software like Adobe Lightroom.

Bon voyage: start your blogging journey

Now that you’ve got your blogging itinerary, it’s time to start your adventure. Here at WordPress.com, we help creators like you build and launch websites every day. 

We offer travel creators everything they need to get moving, including free newsletter features, monetization tools, built-in SEO and optimization, and easy social sharing features. Plus, you can download the Jetpack mobile app, connect to your WordPress site, and blog from anywhere, anytime.

If you’re ready for your next great adventure, you can start exploring with WordPress.com.

 [#item_full_content]

​The weird, wonderful world of MagSafe accessories can make your smartphone feel modular. These are our favorites. 

​Read More

 Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Accessories, Gear / Products / Phones, Magneato Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Accessories, Gear / Products / Phones, Magneato

Studio by WordPress.com is a free local development tool designed to help developers build plugins, themes, and full WordPress sites. The recent 1.5.1 release introduces more flexible environment customization, including support for setting your preferred code editor and terminal application directly in Studio.

This has been one of our most requested features, especially with tools like Cursor becoming more popular. The new Preferences interface lays the groundwork for supporting even more tools over time.

How to configure your preferences

To set your preferred code editor and terminal, open the Settings modal. Click “Howdy, [your name]” or “WordPress.com login” if you’re not signed in.

Select the Preferences tab in the modal window. From there, you can choose your preferred code editor and terminal application.

The following options are currently supported:

Code editors:

• Visual Studio Code
• Cursor
• Windsurf
• PHPStorm
• WebStorm

Terminal applications:

• Terminal (Mac)
• Command Prompt (Windows)
• Warp
• Ghostty (Mac)
• iTerm2 (Mac)

Note: To appear as selectable options in your Studio Preferences, the applications must be installed on your computer. On macOS, they need to be in /Applications or /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Applications.

Once you have made your selections, click Save. You can change your preferences at any time. 

Once saved, the buttons on each site’s Overview tab will update to match your chosen tools. Here, you can see the user has configured the Terminal app on Mac and Cursor.

What’s next for Studio?

We’re actively improving Studio to make it the best local WordPress development tool. Here are a few updates coming in the future:

• Integration with Pressable: Sync and deploy full sites to Pressable-hosted websites.
• An enhanced command-line interface (CLI): Studio will better support streamlined development workflows.

You can track progress, preview upcoming features, and make your own requests in the Studio GitHub repository.

Studio is just over a year old, and 2025 will be an important year for the open source project. If you haven’t recently used Studio, now is a great time to download the latest version for free and explore new features like Studio Assistant and Studio Sync.

If you’re interested in contributing to Studio, perhaps by adding support for additional code editors or terminal applications, we would love to see your contributions in the GitHub repository.

 [#item_full_content]

​Don’t suffer the buffer. These WIRED-tested systems will deliver reliable internet across your home, whatever your needs or budget. 

​Read More

 Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Computers, Gear / Products / Smart Home, Buying Guide Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Computers, Gear / Products / Smart Home, Buying Guide

WordPress Campus Connect, initially launched in October 2024 as a pilot program, has now been formally established as an official event series due to its resounding success. The inaugural program, spearheaded by myself, Anand Upadhyay, garnered immense enthusiasm from 400 Indian students who were eager to engage in hands-on WordPress training.

WordPress Campus Connect transcends the conventional workshop model by fostering a holistic learning community. It couples on-campus event learning with a diverse range of post-event activities, including meetups, website challenges, scholarships, and volunteering opportunities, all geared towards nurturing student development. The program’s efficacy has prompted other organizations in India to express interest in replicating its structure.

Looking ahead, multiple local WordPress communities in India aim to reach more students in India through WordPress Campus Connect events. The curriculum will include beginner content, delve into more advanced WordPress concepts, and feature specialized sessions tailored for students with prior WordPress experience. 

The official recognition of WordPress Campus Connect as an event series paves the way for further expansion, giving the series similar support and standing as WordCamps but with a student education-first goal and focus. Future plans include organizing large-scale student events, establishing WordPress clubs on college campuses, and facilitating mentorship connections for students.

To support these ambitious goals, volunteers identified several key next steps:

• Volunteer Handbook Development: Creating a comprehensive guidebook to equip volunteers with the necessary resources and information.
• GatherPress Integration: Exploring the feasibility of integrating GatherPress as a tool for student groups.
• Volunteer Recruitment: Actively seeking and onboarding volunteers to support WordPress Campus Connect initiatives through activities such as:
  1. Creating a workflow and guidelines for processing Student Club applications
  2. On-site facilitation or assistance for WordPress Campus Connect events
• Landing Page Creation: Creating a landing page describing what WordPress Campus Connect is all about
• Student Groups: Drafting a framework for students to create their own groups for hosting WordPress events and activities. 

The overwhelming success of WordPress Campus Connect and the enthusiasm it has generated serve as a testament to the transformative power of passion and dedication. As WordPress Campus Connect continues to evolve and expand, it holds the promise of shaping the future of WordPress education and community engagement.

If you’re interested in helping shape the future of education with WordPress, join us in the #campusconnect Make Slack channel today!

 [#item_full_content]

Whether you’re mapping out your next business idea or designing a brand-new website, it’s a good idea to buy your preferred domain and “park” it until you’re ready to go live.

A parked domain locks down your chosen name and protects it from competing players. Instead of waiting to build a full-fledged website, you can park a domain with a standalone page that previews what’s coming.

So, how does domain parking work exactly? And when is it a smart move? 

We’ll explain parked domains, why you might need one, and provide a step-by-step guide for setting one up.

What is a parked domain?

A parked domain is a registered domain name that isn’t being used to host an active website. Instead, it usually shows a placeholder or landing page to signal that the domain is taken.

Think of domain parking as saving your seat in a crowded library. 

You drape your coat over a chair, step away to find the books you need, and come back to your saved seat. The seat remains “taken” even though you’re not sitting there yet. 

In the same way, parking a domain lets you claim a web address of your choice. You can hold this address and keep competitors away until your business website is ready for launch.

Add-on domain vs. parked domain

On some hosting platforms, an “add-on domain” refers to running multiple websites from the same hosting account. Each domain points to its own unique site, managed under a single dashboard. While WordPress.com doesn’t use the term “add-on domain,” you can still manage multiple websites under the same WordPress.com account—each with its own domain, content, and design. You can also manage all of your domains from our Hosting Dashboard.

By contrast, a parked domain is a domain you’ve purchased but haven’t built a full site for yet. You can:

• Hold it as a placeholder to reserve the name.
• Set it to display a “Coming Soon” page.
• Redirect it to one of your active WordPress.com sites.

Let’s say you run a developer-themed coffee blog called java-script-coffee-sip.com. To protect your brand (and catch creative spinoffs), you also register ssh-pls.com and upload-down-code.com. You park those domains and redirect them to your main blog—if someone types them in or clicks a link, they’ll still land on your primary site.

This way, you lock down those clever domains now and decide how to use them later, whether that means launching spin-off sites, redirecting traffic, or keeping them from falling into someone else’s hands.

Telltale signs of a parked domain

Looking at a website and wondering if it’s actually parked? Here’s what to look for:

• A generic, templatized landing page: Parked domains display a cookie-cutter design without much customization. They also typically have placeholder content. 
• Lack of navigation: These sites don’t have menus or sitemaps to show that they’re functional. You’ll find a single landing page with nowhere else to go.
• Broker or registrar branding: You’ll see logos or footer text from domain registrars. You may also see display banners like “This domain is for sale” and a domain broker’s contact information in case you’re interested in purchasing it. Here’s an example:

• Page filled with ads and links: You might see an ad-heavy page showing links related to the domain’s keywords. This is a tactic for generating passive income through unused, parked domains.
• Low or no website traffic: In the end, if you’re still unsure whether a domain is parked, try looking it up with a domain monitoring or SEO tool to check for traffic or activity. If it has minimal visitor activity, it may be parked.

Now that you know how to spot them, you may be wondering why someone would leave a domain sitting idle in the first place. 

Let’s look at five common use cases for parked domains.

Five ways you can use parked domains to your advantage

Parked domains aren’t dead weight. Here’s how you can plan ahead and park a domain for future use.

Secure domains for business ideas

The biggest benefit of parking a domain is to secure a relevant web address when you’re just starting a business.

Let’s say your business idea is still a work-in-progress and you don’t have everything in place just yet—but you do have the perfect name for it. You may want to buy the domain name and park it until you iron out all the finer details.

This approach prevents your competitors (current or future) from claiming a web address you need.

Add domain privacy to your plan to safeguard your domain against spammers, identity theft, and other threats. All domains purchased from WordPress.com come with free domain privacy.

Create a coming-soon landing page

A parked domain is a great way to create a “coming soon” landing page and generate buzz before a launch. This will give visitors a glimpse of your brand and build some anticipation. 

It can also be an effective way to collect emails from potential customers interested in your brand so you can notify them when you launch.

For example, some domains display a minimal page with a launch message, while others include a logo and preview content.

Redirect from secondary to primary domains

Parked domains can also protect your brand. 

What if your main site is example.com, but somebody else (potentially a competitor) picks up the domain example.net? This can create brand confusion and likely dilute your authority in the long run. 

Because of this, you can buy and park a few variations of your domains, then set up redirects to funnel all traffic from these sites to your main website. The cost of parking and redirecting multiple domains is relatively low compared to the protection they offer.

Protect high-value domain names

Some domains are valuable simply because they’re short, memorable, and easy to type. Even if you don’t have immediate plans for them, parking these domains lets you reserve naming assets that could support future projects or brand extensions.

You might eventually use a high-value domain to launch a new business, spin off a campaign site, or build an affiliate project. And if your needs change, you’ll have the flexibility to explore other options, like transferring it to a partner or selling it to someone who can put it to good use.

Monetize through domain parking ads

If you’re not ready to launch a full site yet, you can use your parked domain to display a basic landing page with relevant, unobtrusive ads. This can help you recoup some of the registration costs while your plans are still in motion.

It’s not a high-earning tactic, but it can be a lightweight way to make practical use of a domain that would otherwise sit idle.

How to purchase and park a domain on WordPress.com

It’s easy to purchase and park domains with WordPress.com. Follow these steps to get started:

1. Purchase your domain

If you don’t already own a domain, purchase one through WordPress.com directly. 

Find your preferred domain name and associated costs here. If the original name isn’t available, WordPress.com will also provide you with a few variants. 

2. Connect your domain to your website

During checkout, decide whether to attach your domain to a new or existing site. You can choose either option to set up your landing page for parking this domain, or just buy a domain now and set up the site later.

Once you complete the checkout process, you’ll get the domain name free for the first year if you purchase an annual WordPress.com hosting plan.

3. Create a parking landing page

When you’ve ticked off all the above steps, create a basic placeholder page based on your domain’s purpose. 

If you’re parking this domain for an upcoming business, create a “coming soon” page or an email waitlist. If you want to sell the domain, add your contact details for interested buyers to reach you.

Alternatives to explore for a parked domain you want 

Let’s consider another scenario: What if the domain you want is already parked? 

It happens all the time—but it’s not the end of the road.

Here are a few alternatives you can try:

Contact the owner with an inquiry 

The first order of business when you want to buy a parked domain is to contact the owner.

Most parked domains include the owner’s contact information if they’re willing to sell. 

Send a transparent, professional inquiry showing interest in purchasing the domain. Avoid mentioning how much you can pay to keep some space for negotiations. 

Make sure you explain how you plan to use the domain. Some owners care more about the future of their domains beyond just the sale price.

Make an offer through a broker 

If direct contact with the owner fails, reach out to a domain broker to negotiate a deal on your behalf. 

By working with a broker, an intermediary can use their hands-on experience to help negotiate a favorable deal. While brokers charge a percentage of the final sale price or a flat fee, their negotiation tactics might give you a significantly lower acquisition cost.

Look for variations of the domain

If all efforts fail and your first-choice domain is out of reach, you can consider some of these variations:

• Extensions: Explore different extensions instead of the one you originally wanted—we have domains ending in everything from .com and .net to .dog and .christmas (yes, really). 
• Prefixes/suffixes: Add a relevant word before or after your core term to create a new variation.
• Hyphens: Add hyphens between words to create a new domain. However, avoid adding too many hyphens, as they can be confusing for users to type and difficult to memorize.

Wait for the domain registration to expire

If you buy a domain, you have to renew the registration periodically. In case the current owner fails to renew, the domain becomes available for registration again—this is one way to acquire a parked domain. 

Use a domain monitoring service to track your desired domain and get notified if it expires or becomes available for purchase, but remember that this approach requires patience and comes with no guarantees.

Turn idle domains into opportunities 

The internet moves fast, so it’s worth securing your ideal domain now—even if your full vision is still in progress. 

Ready to purchase a domain? Check out WordPress.com’s domain registry to find whether your preferred domain is available. If it is, you can buy it in just a few clicks.

And when you’re ready to launch, WordPress.com makes it easy to turn your parked domain into a fast, secure, and fully customizable website.

Parked domains FAQs

Wondering how it all works in practice? Let’s clear up a few common questions.

Is parking a domain worth it?

Parking a domain may be worth it to protect your brand identity and secure a specific domain for future projects. It’s an inexpensive way to maintain your digital presence while keeping competitors at bay.

How long can I park a domain?

You can park a domain for as long as you want by renewing your registration. Most registrars require an annual renewal, but you might also find multi-year options for longer-term parking. 

For example, WordPress.com has different payment options for domains. Plus, your domain name is free for the first year when you subscribe to an annual WordPress.com hosting plan.

Is it safe to use parked domains?

Yes, it’s perfectly safe to use parked domains as long as you maintain control and use a trusted parking or registrar service. 

As a safety practice, use your registrar’s dashboard to lock the domain, preventing the threat of unwanted transfers.

What is the difference between a redirect and a parked domain?

A redirected domain automatically forwards visitors to another URL, usually your primary website. A parked domain, on the other hand, is a domain that doesn’t host a full website. It might display a placeholder page, a “coming soon” message, ads, or simply remain inactive.

Some parked domains can be set up to redirect, but not all redirects involve parked domains. You can think of domain parking as holding a domain for future use, whether or not you choose to forward it elsewhere.

 [#item_full_content]

Starting a website is a lot like starting a new relationship. At first, it’s all passion and excitement—you spend hours perfecting the design, writing content, and obsessing over every tiny detail. You’ve never been more excited. You’re convinced this is The One. 

But then…reality sets in. Suddenly, you are doing all the work. You’re managing updates, handling backups, fixing glitches, and wondering why you never seem to have time for anything else. 

Like any good relationship, it’s best when both sides contribute. That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. It steps up and says, “I got this.” It handles the technical chores, like updates, security, and backups, so you don’t have to. Finally, a little give-and-take!

Is managed hosting right for you? Is this the commitment you need? Keep reading to find out.

1. What is managed WordPress hosting?
2. Managed WordPress hosting benefits
3. Are there any drawbacks?
4. Is managed WordPress hosting right for you?
5. How to compare managed WordPress hosting providers
6. Choose a hosting partner you can count on

What is managed WordPress hosting?

A “managed” host refers to your hosting provider playing an active role in operating your site by handling technical tasks such as server optimization, security, performance, and maintenance.

Unlike other forms of hosting where you simply rent space and handle everything yourself, managed hosting handles these critical tasks for you so you can focus on growing your site.

What do managed hosting plans include?

With managed WordPress hosting, you typically get:

• Optimized server environments.
• Automatic software updates.
• Managed security, like automated backups and malware scanning.
• WordPress-specific speed optimization and other performance features.
• Integrated tools for WordPress developers.
• Knowledgeable support.

Providers also frequently offer additional features like staging sites and free migrations.

Managed WordPress hosting benefits

There are many upsides to managed hosting, and here are some of the most impactful benefits for site owners:

1. Performance and optimization

It starts with the environment where your website lives. 

With traditional hosting, everyone gets the same generic setup. Managed WordPress hosting provides an environment (hardware and server technology like PHP) specifically optimized for running WordPress.

This tailored setup means your server is configured to run WordPress as smoothly and efficiently as possible, resulting in faster loading times, better SEO, and a better experience for your visitors.

In addition to optimized infrastructure, managed hosting includes built-in performance features like caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), image optimization, and resource scaling designed to keep your site fast and stable, even as traffic grows.

2. Enhanced security

Security is a major concern for any website owner. A hacked or offline site can quickly turn into a major headache and a disruption you don’t want to deal with.

With traditional hosting, you’re responsible for securing your site yourself. In contrast, managed hosting providers take an active role in protecting your site through multiple layers of defense, including:

• Malware protection: Managed hosts scan your site for malicious software, viruses, and other threats that could harm your visitors or damage your site. Many also include brute force login protection to block hackers from guessing their way into your admin dashboard.
• Data protection: Encryption and data security are critical. Managed hosts typically provide SSL certificates by default to safeguard sensitive information like passwords and payment details. Many also include secure spam filtering to protect comment sections from unwanted content.
• Threat prevention: Features like web application firewalls (WAFs) and DDoS protection help block malicious traffic before it even reaches your site. Firewalls screen for dangerous activity, while DDoS mitigation ensures your site stays online even during traffic attacks.
• Backups and recovery: If something goes wrong, automatic daily backups allow you to quickly restore your site to a working version, minimizing downtime and loss of data.

Security is made up of many layers of protection, and it’s important to be aware that there’s only so much even a managed hosting provider can do to keep your WordPress site safe. 

In fact, a lot of website security is user-dependent. Things like selecting a strong password and limiting access to necessary persons only go a long way in keeping your site safe.

3. Expert support

One of the main benefits of choosing a hosting provider specialized in WordPress is support.

Since traditional providers mainly rent out web space that you can use to run any content management system or web application, their support staff need extensive knowledge but may lack application-specific depth because they serve many customers with very different needs.

Managed WordPress hosting providers focus only on working with one system—WordPress. 

4. Scalability

As your site grows, you may need a bigger hosting plan or migrate to a new server.

Managed hosting often automatically scales to handle sudden traffic spikes and long-term growth. Features like redundancy, CDNs, and firewalls keep your site fast and online.

Instead of managing the bare minimum to keep your site running, managed hosting gives you an environment built to help your website grow and succeed.

Are there any drawbacks?

Of course, managed WordPress hosting comes with downsides.

1. Cost

Managed hosting tends to be pricier than other types of hosting, especially shared hosting. That’s no surprise considering the extra features and service it offers. 

That said, it’s often absolutely worth the additional cost because you’re exchanging money for something more valuable: your time.

With managed hosting, you spend less time on routine tasks so you can spend more on those things that move the needle in the success of your website. 

Wouldn’t you rather focus on growing your site and connecting with your audience, instead of handling routine maintenance?

lus, managed hosting helps you avoid a lot of time-consuming problems. With security and backups in place, you’re less likely to run into an emergency, and even if you have an issue, you have knowledgeable support to turn to.

With all that time saved, managed hosting is actually often more cost-effective, especially for high-traffic blogs or ecommerce websites.

2. Restrictions and less control

Since a managed hosting provider handles much of your site’s infrastructure, you have less freedom to customize certain parts.

Managed WordPress hosts may restrict themes or plugins that duplicate built-in features to prevent conflicts and maintain performance.

While these restrictions might frustrate advanced users or developers who want more direct server control, they’re a major advantage for less technical users. You don’t have to worry about configuring complex optimizations yourself, as your hosting provider takes care of it for you.

Is managed WordPress hosting right for you?

Choosing the right hosting comes down to your website’s needs and your preferences.

Ask yourself:

• How much traffic does my site get today? 
• Am I expecting my site to grow in the future?
• How comfortable am I managing technical tasks like updates, backups, and security?
• Do I want to spend time on server management or focus on creating content, growing traffic, and building my audience?
• How important is guaranteed uptime, fast support, and strong security for my site?
• What’s my budget, and am I ready to invest in hosting that saves me time and risk?

If you’re running a high-traffic blog, an ecommerce store, or client sites, or if your website handles sensitive data, managed hosting is likely a smart investment. It’s also a great fit if you simply prefer to focus on your content or business rather than worrying about technical maintenance.

In short: If your website is mission-critical, growing fast, or your time is better spent elsewhere, managed WordPress hosting can give you the performance, protection, and peace of mind you need.

How to compare managed WordPress hosting providers

Finally, if you’ve decided on managed hosting, how do you choose a provider?

Key features to look out for

The features managed hosting providers typically offer are often similar, at least on the surface. But it’s worth taking a closer look, especially at the details of standard features and additional services included in hosting plans.

Here’s a short checklist to use when evaluating different hosting providers:

• Security features: What’s included with your hosting cost? What’s considered an “add-on?”
• Performance improvements: Optimized hardware and software are a given, but what about a CDN and other optimizations?
• Redundancy: Are there additional data centers in case one fails to guarantee the uptime of your website?
• Support quality: A good way to judge support quality is to run a test. Contact support with a question and see how well they can help you. Look at their other support resources too.
• Metered/unmetered traffic: Many managed hosting providers have bandwidth or traffic restrictions; ensure you understand these limits so you don’t end up paying more than expected.
• Developer features: Check for access to plugins, themes, staging sites, the ability to use custom code, SSH, and WP-CLI if you need them.
• Pricing: Are there extra costs or hidden fees? Check renewal rates, plan upgrades, and money-back guarantees.

Our recommendation for a managed WordPress host

There are many managed hosting providers out there, but we think WordPress.com is your best choice for a few reasons: 

WordPress.com is a purely managed WordPress hosting provider. Every plan comes with automatic software and PHP updates, 99.999% uptime, and unmetered bandwidth and traffic. These features keep your site running smoothly, regardless of how many people visit your site.

Security is a top priority to us, and our approach goes beyond automated scans. 

Jetpack Scan, our security tool enabled on all WordPress.com sites, checks your plugins, themes, uploads, and content automatically each day. If a risk is detected, our security team manually reviews the alert to determine its severity, ensuring false positives don’t disrupt your site while real threats are swiftly addressed.

Our automated monitoring and expert manual reviews keep your site secure with proactive, hands-on protection. Additionally, all paid plans come with a free domain for the first year (with free domain privacy) and 24/7 expert support. On plugin-enabled plans, you also get benefits like real-time backups and one-click restore, a web application firewall, and developer features.

Choose a hosting partner you can count on

Every great relationship is built on trust and balance, and your hosting should be no different. If you prefer full control, managed WordPress hosting might not be your perfect match.

But if you want reliability, security, and real support, managed hosting is worth the commitment. Because in the end, a good hosting partner—like a good relationship—should make your life easier, not harder.

Ready to make your hosting life easier? 

 [#item_full_content]

Every website needs web hosting. As you take the first steps to build your site, you’ll see plenty of hosting providers (like WordPress.com) ready to help you get online.

But what exactly is web hosting, and how do you choose the right provider for your needs? In this post, we’ll break down what web hosting is, what web hosting services do, and the infrastructure that keeps your site up and available.

How web hosting works

If you’ve ever encountered data storage issues on your phone or computer, you’re probably aware that digital storage requires physical storage space. Data can be stored directly on your device or an external hard drive, and if you use cloud-based data storage, your data is still stored in the real world in a server center owned by your provider.

To make your website accessible to visitors, your site’s data, including text, photos, and styling, must be stored on a server—a computer built to store, manage, and share data across the internet.

When someone types in your domain, their browser contacts your server, which responds by sending back the files needed to display your website.

Is a domain name the same as web hosting?

Many people don’t understand the difference between domains and web hosting, likely because both domains and web hosting are often referred to as a website’s “home” on the web. However, these are two completely separate (and necessary!) components required to get a website online. 

Your unique domain name (like yourgroovydomain.com) is what someone needs to type into their browser to get to your website. But without web hosting, your domain name wouldn’t have any website content to display. Think of your domain as the address and your hosting as the house where everything lives.

WordPress.com is a one-stop shop for web hosting and domain names, so you can get both when you sign up with us. You can browse available domain names here.

We dive deeper into the difference between domains and hosting in this guide.

The elements of a web host

Several components interact to deliver your website to users’ computers, including hardware, software, and defined infrastructure. We’ll briefly cover each of these components below. 

Creating web hosting infrastructure

Before anyone can visit your website, your website’s content and design need to be stored on a server. 

There are different ways to set up servers for different types of websites (which we’ll address in more detail below). Servers can be configured to host multiple websites on a single machine, support a large site with specific security needs, or run several virtual servers at once. How your infrastructure is set up can have a big impact on your site’s speed and reliability.

Translating domains through Domain Name Servers (DNS)

When someone types your domain name into their browser, their computer uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to look up the IP address associated with that domain. DNS acts like a translator, converting your human-readable web address into the computer-readable IP address (like 192.0.2.1) needed to find and load your website.

The computer then uses this IP address to determine which server to contact to retrieve your website’s data.

Connecting to servers

Servers must remain online and ready at all times to receive website requests. Once your server receives a secure request for your website, the server processes it and finds the information it needs to send back to the browser.

Authenticating the request

Authentication and authorization systems on your server verify that incoming requests are legitimate and ensure that sensitive data, like your users’ personal information, remains protected.

Using SSL/TLS encryption, your server delivers the site to your visitor’s computer, ensuring that bad actors can’t intercept or replace your site when data is passed between devices. WordPress.com includes a free SSL certificate with every site, helping you protect your visitors’ connections from day one.

Website delivery

If everything is configured properly, your server will quickly deliver your website to your visitors’ screens.

Why you should use a web hosting service

While individuals can buy and manage their own servers for their websites, it requires a lot of technical know-how. 

Before using your server, it must be properly configured for web hosting and secured against threats. Hosting also requires ongoing server maintenance, like installing security patches and software updates and maintaining the physical server and server space.

Even if you have the technical expertise to configure a server, most people mainly outsource (or rent) physical server space from a web hosting company to avoid “downtime,” or time your site is offline. 

If your server goes down—for example, during a power outage or if your server experiences a software error—your website can’t be delivered to visitors. If you’ve ever seen a 404 error when accessing a website, the server may be offline. 

Unlike individually owned servers, hosting providers offer around-the-clock resources for managing and maintaining physical servers, ensuring someone is always available to respond to server issues. Additionally, most server centers have backup safety features, like secondary power supplies and redundancies that help keep your site online. 

When looking for a web hosting provider, you should expect a provider to offer at least 99% uptime to ensure your site is always accessible to visitors. 

Types of web hosting

Not all web hosting providers or server setups are created equal. Below, we’ll briefly explain different web hosting setups and when you might want to use them. 

Want to dig deeper into the different types of web hosting? We cover them in more detail in this guide. 

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is when multiple websites share a single server and resources. Shared hosting is generally a good fit for smaller websites with less traffic, as it is less expensive than a dedicated server. However, if a website on your server experiences a sudden spike in traffic, it could affect your website’s speed. 

Shared hosting providers manage the setup and security features for the whole server, so it’s important to ensure you choose a provider with excellent uptime and security. 

VPS hosting

Virtual private servers (VPS) are the middle ground between shared and dedicated hosting options, both in terms of price and resources. With a VPS, you have a private virtual server environment within a shared server, so you have more control over your setup and don’t risk other sites dipping into your resources. 

VPS hosting requires more technical expertise to set up, as a developer needs to configure the virtual server. 

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting is when you have a whole server’s resources for your website. This is a good option for large enterprise businesses with a lot of traffic or companies with advanced safety needs, like healthcare companies or financial institutions. 

Your server can be configured however you choose for your business, and you will need ongoing support to maintain and update your server. 

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is a server setup that stores your website on a distributed network of servers across the globe. While your website is still on shared servers, there is redundancy in case one server experiences downtime or heavy traffic, ensuring your site stays online.

Cloud hosting costs are often lower than dedicated hosting but vary based on your site’s traffic and provider. Many providers charge more as the number of visitors increases.

Read more about the cloud data centers that power our Business and Commerce plans here.

Managed vs unmanaged hosting 

Unmanaged hosting may be cheaper up-front, but requires development and ongoing support for updates and patches. It is generally only recommended for businesses with in-house technical resources who want a more customized server setup.

For most folks looking to get online but not spend all of their time managing their websites, managed web hosting providers like WordPress.com are a great option. 

For example, when you host your site with WordPress.com, your site stays fast, secure, and online. We manage infrastructure, updates, backups, and security so you can focus on your content or growing your business, not upkeep.

Choosing your hosting type

For most websites just getting online, shared hosting is a good option, as it’s a super affordable way to get started. As your site content, traffic, and budgets grow, you can scale your server resources, moving to a faster and more secure setup like VPS, cloud hosting, or a dedicated server. 

One exception is sites with specialized security needs, like websites that collect sensitive user data for healthcare, finance, banking, and ecommerce sites. For added security, a dedicated server may be necessary, even if you don’t have a lot of traffic. 

If you choose to build your site with WordPress, the internet’s most popular CMS software, we recommend looking for managed WordPress hosting. These providers are specifically optimized to support and grow WordPress-powered sites.

Evaluating managed hosting options

Managed hosting means you don’t need deep technical knowledge to get online; however, it’s still important to understand what kind of servers your provider uses, as these factors can affect speed, reliability, and security.

For example, WordPress.com offers shared hosting on lower plans while our Business plan and above are powered by WP Cloud, Automattic’s high-performance cloud infrastructure built specifically for WordPress.

Since your provider will configure your server and features, not all web hosting companies are created equally. When evaluating providers, review their uptime, security features, and speed. 

WordPress.com is a managed WordPress hosting provider offering comprehensive, reliable hosting for everyone on all plans. With WordPress.com, you get high-quality web hosting at an affordable price that’s:

• Reliable: Because WordPress.com hosts websites on thousands of servers across the globe, our uptime is 99.999%. 
• Secure: WordPress.com users also get many built-in security features like SSL certificates, brute-force protection, spam protection, DDoS protection and mitigation, malware detection and removal, and a web application firewall (WAF). Plus, domains registered at WordPress.com come with free domain privacy.
• Fast: Our servers are optimized to host and deliver WordPress websites, and we use a variety of performance-boosting tools, including a content delivery network (CDN) that uses servers closer to your visitors for even faster load times. In third-party speed benchmark tests, we consistently get top scores.
• Unlimited bandwidth and traffic: Many providers will charge additional fees or slow down your site if you suddenly experience a spike in visitors. With WordPress.com, you always pay one price for unmetered bandwidth and traffic, ensuring your site remains fast when you need it most.

Your website deserves a great home

You now know what it takes to get your website online—and why great hosting makes all the difference.

Get fast, secure, and reliable managed hosting with WordPress.com, and launch your site with confidence.

 [#item_full_content]

​Forget about patchy internet connections and dead spots in the house. These WIRED-tested multiroom mesh systems will get you online in no time. 

​Read More

 Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Computers, Gear / Products / Smart Home, Buying Guide Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Computers, Gear / Products / Smart Home, Buying Guide

Managing multiple WordPress sites can quickly turn into a juggling act. From software updates to plugin maintenance and daily tasks, keeping everything running smoothly takes time, unless you have the right tools.

In this guide, we’ll show you better ways to manage all your sites from one place, whether you’re running your own portfolio or looking after client projects.

Who needs to manage multiple WordPress sites?

It’s often professional web developers and agencies who manage multiple sites; however, it’s not uncommon for individual site owners to have more than one website. 

For example, you might have a professional site (such as a freelance portfolio), a blog about a hobby (like food, travel, or fitness), and a site for sharing photos and keeping your friends and family updated on your travels.

Once your friends and family discover you’re good at creating sites, you might even be asked to make a few more for them. 

While launching a new site can be relatively quick and painless, keeping them all running smoothly can be time-consuming: logins for the different accounts need to be remembered, domains will renew at different times, downtime needs monitoring, and plugins require updating.

And if the sites are hosted by different companies, managing multiple accounts, accessing various dashboards, keeping track of billing cycles, and adjusting to different levels of support and customer experience will be necessary. 

All of the above can quickly lead to overwhelm…but there’s a better way.

If you’ve found yourself responsible for more than one website (professional sites or sites you’ve built for fun), this guide will show you how to manage multiple WordPress sites like a pro. 

Benefits of using a tool or service to manage multiple WordPress sites

No matter where your WordPress sites are hosted, you don’t have to juggle them all manually.

There are several benefits to using an effective tool or service for managing multiple sites in one place. You can:

• Access all of the sites you’re managing from one place.
• Manage plugins in bulk without having to log into each site individually.
• Create additional new sites from a central location. 
• Manage other features and functionalities such as backups, user access, security, email accounts, and domain registration centrally.
• Have one point of support for things like billing and licenses.
• Use client-focused features for multi-site management, including discounted pricing, referral commissions, and site migrations. 

As you’ll see, not all options for managing multiple WordPress sites include the above benefits, but some provide more than others. 

How to manage multiple WordPress sites

When it comes to managing multiple WordPress sites, there are a few different options to consider, including:

• WordPress plugins and tools
• WordPress Multisite
• Hosting dashboards and tools
• Automattic for Agencies

WordPress plugins and tools

If you want to centralize your site management without changing hosts, plugins, and third-party tools are an option. Several plugins and tools aim to help you handle your sites more efficiently, including Jetpack Manage, ManageWP, and InfiniteWP.

They’re available at a range of price points, and once set up, they give you the ability to add multiple sites to a centralized management dashboard. 

From there, you can access your sites’ dashboards, update plugins, and manage backups. Some solutions have other helpful features like scanning for malware, monitoring uptime, and generating reports. 

While these solutions can be rich in features, the setup process can be time-consuming and complicated for those new to managing multiple WordPress sites. They can also be relatively expensive if you want access to the most advanced or useful features.

Another drawback of these plugins and tools is that they don’t include hosting for your WordPress site—instead, they’re solutions used alongside your hosting package and domain registration provider. 

So while these solutions can make it easier to manage your sites, you’re adding another service or product to your workflow.

WordPress Multisite

You can also use the native WordPress Multisite feature to manage multiple WordPress sites. 

WordPress Multisite allows you to create a network of WordPress sites, all from a single installation of WordPress. The sites are created and managed from the same WordPress dashboard and share the same file system, database, and server resources.

One benefit of this shared approach is that updates to the WordPress software, themes, and plugins can be carried out once through a single dashboard, rather than on a site-by-site basis. 

However, as all of the sites in the network use the same database, keeping them completely separate is challenging. 

For example, removing a site from the network, such as transferring it to a client or different owner, wouldn’t be straightforward, as its content is stored in the central database. Keeping site database backups separate wouldn’t be possible either. If the database is damaged, all sites in the network could potentially go offline.

Because all sites in a Multisite network share the same server resources, a traffic spike on one site could slow down the others. Not only that, some WordPress plugins aren’t compatible with Multisite, limiting your options for adding new features to your site.

Multisite isn’t available on WordPress.com, and other hosting providers also have restrictions on its use. If you do want to use Multisite to manage your sites, check whether your hosting provider supports it.

Hosting dashboards and tools

It’s worth checking which site management features your web host provides out of the box or as an add-on. 

Sometimes they’ll have a user-friendly dashboard that simplifies managing multiple WordPress sites, plus other tools like bulk plugin management and domain registration.

To take advantage of hosting dashboards and tools, you’ll need to ensure that all your sites are hosted by the same company, usually under the same account. Otherwise, you’ll still be juggling multiple accounts, each with its own ways of doing things. 

Furthermore, if you’re purchasing premium plugins, email, or domain registrations for your WordPress sites, you may need to manage those purchases separately. These “extras” can all add up, increasing the number of providers you have to work with when managing your sites. 

If that seems overwhelming, you’re in luck because WordPress.com provides a feature-rich and easy-to-use solution.

You can quickly start multiple WordPress sites under one WordPress.com account, and you can manage those sites through the WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard—get there by clicking the blue WordPress.com logo in the top-left corner once you log into your WordPress.com account.

As WordPress.com is a managed host, we handle many of the tasks associated with managing a WordPress website for you, such as WordPress software updates, plugin updates, and security. 

You’ll also get a performance-focused hosting environment for each of your sites that uses high-frequency CPUs, global edge caching, a CDN with over 28 international locations, and automatic datacenter failover to keep your site online and accessible. In short, we make sure that your sites are fast, reliable, and secure. 

You also get access to premium WordPress themes at no extra cost, priority 24/7 support from experts, and the ability to install plugins and themes on plugin-enabled WordPress.com plans. 

If you’re not hosted on WordPress.com, you can easily migrate your sites to take advantage of managing your plugin updates, domains, and emails all from this singular, intuitive dashboard. Otherwise, sites hosted at any host can be managed from the dashboard by connecting them using the Jetpack plugin. 

Managing plugin updates with WordPress.com 

The Hosting Dashboard also lets you schedule plugin updates (for sites hosted on our Business plan or above).

The system will check for plugin updates at your chosen time and day of the week. It will then start the installation if any updates are found. You can create multiple schedules and choose which sites and plugins they apply to. 

We always run a health check prior to making any updates, which assesses your site’s stability. As each plugin is updated individually, a health check is performed after each update to see if everything is functioning as expected.

If a health check fails, the system automatically rolls back the update, preventing downtime from breaking changes, and restores the previous version of the plugin. Should that also fail, the WordPress.com support staff will be notified to investigate the issue. 

You can also enable email alerts that notify you after a plugin update.

If you’re managing sites that must be online at specific times, such as during business hours, being able to schedule automatic plugin updates outside of these times is very useful. The fact that updates are automatically rolled back if something goes wrong makes this feature even more valuable. 

Bulk plugin updates

In addition to enabling scheduled plugin updates, you can update plugins across all of your sites through your WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard. 

This feature lets you update, activate, and deactivate the plugins on all of your sites from one central location. 

Domain management

Managing all the domains you’ve registered through WordPress.com in one place is another benefit of using the WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard. 

WordPress.com is a domain registrar, and thanks to this, we have an intuitive domains area within the Hosting Dashboard where you can purchase, manage, and migrate all of your domains in the same place where you’re managing your sites.

Thanks to this, you have one less service to work with for managing the essential components of your website. 

Email accounts

WordPress.com also offers an email service that you can manage independently for each of your sites through the Hosting Dashboard. 

In addition to managing the email service through the same account, you can also add a custom, branded email address to your domain.

Automattic for Agencies 

While the WordPress.com Hosting Dashboard is great for managing multiple sites,  Automattic for Agencies is an option for agencies that offers even more tools and features. 

Signing up for the free program gives you access to various benefits to help you and your team manage your agency’s sites more efficiently. 

Whether WordPress.com hosts those sites or not, you can manage them through the Automattic for Agencies dashboard. 

You can view key information directly from the dashboard, including WordPress and PHP versions and statuses for each of your sites. 

You can also check the Jetpack VaultPress Backup and Scan statuses for your sites and access those tools directly from the dashboard. Activity logs for each site and detailed stats and uptime information can be found here, too. 

If you want to move client sites to the platform, Automattic for Agencies provides free migrations. You can also earn money when migrating sites from specific hosts, with outstanding hosting fees covered until the contract with that host expires. 

Another benefit is the ability to generate income by referring Automattic products and services (like WordPress.com hosting) to their clients. Buying products in bulk from the Marketplace and reselling them to clients is another way to earn money through the program. 

For example, when recommending WordPress.com hosting to your clients, you can receive a 20% revenue share on the sale of hosting subscriptions for new sites (and renewals of those subscriptions). There are similar opportunities for recommending Jetpack products and WooCommerce-owned extensions. 

Another notable feature is the ability to build a cart of products to recommend to a client. The cart could include a hosting plan, premium plugins, and other Automattic products tailored to the client’s project. The cart of items would be packaged into a single, comprehensive invoice for the client, streamlining the payment experience. 

Eligible agencies can also join the partner directory referral program that’s used across all Automattic brands, helping them to land more clients.

Automattic for Agencies is worth considering if you want to reduce the admin involved in managing multiple client sites while getting access to many agency-focused features to make your life easier.

Ready to manage your sites more efficiently?

Managing multiple WordPress sites doesn’t have to mean juggling countless logins, services, and plugins.

Whether you need an all-in-one solution like WordPress.com’s Hosting Dashboard or more advanced tools and revenue opportunities through Automattic for Agencies, you’ve got powerful options.

The right setup lets you spend less time on maintenance and more time building, growing, and launching new sites.

 [#item_full_content]

​These convenient and slim magnetic wallets stick to the back of your smartphone. 

​Read More

 Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Accessories, Gear / Phones, Buying Guide Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Accessories, Gear / Phones, Buying Guide

Imagine going to a party and waiting 10 minutes for the host to answer the door. It’s frustrating, annoying, and awkward. You keep wondering if you should just leave.

A slow website is no different. If your site is dragging its feet, not only does it dampen the user experience, but it can also hurt your search rankings. Google loves fast-loading websites, just like all of us.

There’s no denying it: A fast website speed isn’t just “nice to have;” it’s make-or-break. In this article, I’ll share how you can measure and improve the speed of your WordPress site.

How do you measure the speed of your WordPress website?

The good news is that a dedicated Core Performance team supports the WordPress software and improves your website performance with every update.

That said, there’s always room to make your website even faster. Just because your website loads quickly on your device doesn’t mean it’s optimized for blazing fast speed, especially as you add more content and plugins to your site.

This is why you should test your website’s speed using a free tool like WordPress Page Speed Test. Simply enter your page or post URL to check how fast that page loads on mobile and desktop.

You’ll get a detailed breakdown of your site’s speed with a rating out of 100. You’ll also see a breakdown of the Core Web Vitals that impact your score:

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): FCP measures how long it takes the first elements (text or images) to appear on screen. Aim for an FCP score below 1.8 seconds.
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP is the time it takes for the largest piece of content (like images or a header) to appear on the screen. Aim for an LCP score below 2.5 seconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS tracks how things (like buttons or text) move on the screen while the page loads. Aim for a CLS score below 0.1.
• Time to First Byte (TTFB): TTFB is how fast your website starts to load when someone clicks on it. Aim for a TTFB score of below 800 milliseconds.
• Total Blocking Time (TBT): TBT measures how long it takes for your website to become responsive when it starts to load. Aim for a TBT score below 200 milliseconds.

The WordPress Speed Test doesn’t just give you a performance score—it also suggests ways you can improve each score. You can see personalized recommendations for optimizing your website speed for mobile and desktop devices.

The best part? The tool highlights the recommendations that will impact your site’s speed the most. When you click on each recommendation, you’ll see specific information about:

• The reasons behind the recommendations
• Various options to implement the recommendations
• Potential speed savings you can expect if you implement the recommendations

The best way to optimize your WordPress website is to work on these recommendations. After all, they are specifically tailored to your website. That said, you can also execute various best practices to ensure your website doesn’t snooze on the job. 

Nine ways to improve the speed of your WordPress website

Because WordPress is open source, it gives you a flexible foundation upon which you can build a website. But like any website platform, performance depends on how your site is set up and managed. 

Here are nine best practices to help you fine-tune your site for optimal speed:

1. Choose a fast hosting service

Your web hosting sets the foundation for your website’s performance. You can have the fanciest theme, lightweight plugins, and all the proper optimizations, but your website will be slow if your hosting is slow.

A good hosting provider takes extra measures to ensure top-notch website performance and offers excellent support. If you are on a shared hosting plan, you share the server resources with various customers. If their website gets a lot of traffic or uses up too much bandwidth, it might slow down your website.

This is why it’s best to pick a WordPress hosting provider like WordPress.com. Sites hosted on WordPress.com are fast, and they come with these speed-boosting features:

• High-frequency CPUs: These processors handle tasks more quickly, which can reduce the time it takes for your site to process requests and deliver content. 
• High-burst capacity: WordPress.com can handle sudden or seasonal spikes in traffic with no sweat. You never have to worry about your website suddenly getting too many visitors and being unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Plus, we don’t charge extra for bandwidth or traffic.
• Global edge caching and a CDN with 28+ locations: WordPress.com’s global edge cache and CDN ensure visitors get fast loading times, regardless of location. Edge caching stores static versions of your site at data centers close to your users (instead of sending every visitor’s request to the origin server).
• WP Cloud architecture (which powers our Business and Commerce plans): WP Cloud is a purpose-built infrastructure for WordPress, designed to deliver top-tier speed, uptime, and performance, without requiring any manual setup.

When you combine the above capabilities with Jetpack, which is included with all WordPress.com sites, your site is automatically optimized for speed and performance, no extra work required.

2. Use a high-quality, lightweight theme

While themes customize the appearance and functionality of your website, they also impact your website’s performance. A bloated theme with large graphics and excessive animations will slow down your website.

View the theme of your choice on desktop and mobile (or use our Speed Test) to check how fast the page elements load. If there’s a lot of lag, consider switching to another theme.

If you use themes in the WordPress.com repository, you don’t need to worry about choosing a speedy theme. All of the themes in the repository are optimized for speed (and there are tens of thousands to choose from!).

If you’re using a theme from a third-party provider, read reviews to ensure you choose one optimized for site speed and one with excellent support.

3. Compress your images

Large image files can negatively impact the speed of your website because they take longer to load. Compressing your pictures reduces their size without hurting the quality of the visual elements.

You can compress images before uploading them to your site using online compression tools like TinyPNG, and you can install plugins like Smush to optimize your already-uploaded images directly from your WordPress dashboard.

You can also install the Jetpack Boost plugin and enable the Site Accelerator to optimize your images automatically.

1. Click on Jetpack in the left-hand menu.
2. Go to the Performance tab.
3. Enable the Site Accelerator under “Performance & speed.”

If you have a WordPress.com site on a Business or Commerce plan, the Site Accelerator is automatically enabled.

4. Choose your plugins wisely

Each plugin adds a bit of weight to your site’s load time. Use only what you need and deactivate the rest.

It’s worthwhile to periodically review the plugins activated on your site and deactivate and delete the ones you no longer use. It’s also a best practice to ensure the plugins you choose are actively maintained and have excellent support.

This is also where using a good hosting provider can come in handy. On WordPress.com, for instance, you don’t have to install separate plugins for security, spam protection, caching, and backups because these functionalities are already taken care of for all sites without needing external plugins

5. Clean your database and media library regularly

If you’ve been running your WordPress site for a while, chances are you’ve accumulated content and files you no longer need, like old drafts, trashed posts, or spam comments.

Reducing this clutter from your database can improve your website speed. Plugins such as WP Sweep and WP-Optimize can quicken this process. They will comb through your database to find files and content you can delete.

You may also have unused images in your media library, and deleting them can help reduce clutter and improve performance. In that case, something like the Media Cleaner plugin can come in handy.

6. Use a content delivery network (CDN) for faster global loading

A content delivery network (CDN) helps your website load faster by distributing copies of your site’s static content (like images, scripts, and stylesheets) to servers worldwide. When someone visits your site, that content is served from the location closest to them, which significantly reduces load times.

If you’re hosting with WordPress.com, good news: a global CDN with 28+ edge locations is already built in. That means faster performance for your visitors, no matter where they are in the world—no extra setup or plugins required.

If you’re not on WordPress.com, you can use a third-party CDN provider like Cloudflare to get similar benefits.

7. Add caching

When a new visitor enters your site, each image, element, and piece of text needs to load. Caching saves a version of your site, which reduces load times and speeds up repeat visits. The next time the same visitor views your site, the load time will be much faster because your website pages aren’t rebuilding from scratch.

WordPress.com’s global edge cache makes your site load faster for visitors worldwide by taking advantage of our global network of data centers. Our caching system stores and delivers content from servers closer to your visitors, improving page load speed.

Many hosts charge extra for this kind of edge caching or require integration with a third-party provider. On WordPress.com, global edge caching is included on every plan without any bandwidth restrictions.

W3 Total Cache is a popular caching plugin for WordPress sites if you’re hosted on a non-WordPress.com plan.

8. Limit third-party scripts

External scripts include everything that loads on your website from third-party sites or services, like Google Analytics, YouTube videos, ads, and social media feeds.

If you’re using too many of these scripts, it’ll compromise your site’s performance. Whenever your site needs to load an external script, it must reach out to a third-party server, wait for it to respond, download the file, and then render your page.

A plugin like Autoptimize can help you identify and limit these external scripts wherever possible.

9. Use lazy loading for faster performance on long pages

Lazy loading helps your site load faster by only loading images, videos, and other elements when a user scrolls down to see them, rather than all at once when the page first loads. This reduces initial load time and improves performance, especially on pages with lots of media.

Lazy loading is already built into WordPress and supported by most modern browsers. In many cases, it’s enabled by default—no plugin required. WordPress.com goes even further by lazy loading images with Jetpack, helping ensure smooth, fast performance for your visitors. 

If you’re managing your own WordPress site and want more control or advanced options (like lazy loading background images or iframes), you can use a plugin like Lazy Load to fine-tune how it works on your site.

Each second counts

Depending on hosting and site setup, WordPress sites are reliable, fast, and secure, but executing the best practices above will ensure you improve your site’s user experience.

Optimizing your WordPress site for better performance is a constant maintenance task, but as your website grows, you want to spend less time doing (and worrying about) the admin work and more time creating.

WordPress.com combines what you need—hosting, domains, ecommerce, performance, and support—into one seamless platform that grows with you.

 [#item_full_content]