This guide will cover what Overhaulics does when launching a new site. If you are launching your own site you are not required to use the same tools, but we recommend considering each step and the value it has.

Updating URLs and preventing downtime:

  1. Login to the WordPress backend using the temp URL provided with your account. Ex: http://45.55.34.161/~account_username/wp-admin
    • Replace account_username with your own assigned username.
  2. Run a backup using Updraft Plus just in case something breaks during the launch process.
  3. Update WordPress, the Theme, and all Plugins if any have new versions available.
  4. In Settings > General, update the site URL form the temp URL to your desired domain (without the s for ssl) Ex: http://mydomain.com or http://www.mydomain.com
    • This would also be a good time to make sure the timezone, date format, and week start are all set correctly.
  5. Update your hosts.txt file (WINDOWS) to point the domain to the server IP address of 45.55.34.161
    • Be sure to flush local DNS.  CMD > inconfig /flushdns
  6. Load the site in a fresh browser (cache and cookies cleared) using the site’s domain. The site should load up as if DNS was pointing to it.
  7. L0gin to your site at http://www.mydomain.com/wp-admin
  8. Run a search-replace on the database using the plugin Better Search Replace.
    • Search for ttp://45.55.34.161/~account_username/ and replace with http://www.mydomain.com/ in all tables.
  9. Check the site to make sure all images and content are loading correctly.
  10. Update your DNS A record to point to the server IP of 45.55.34.161

 

Setting up Security, Email Deliverability, and Backups:

Security:

  1. In cPanel open SSL Status, exclude SSL on any subdomains you do not need to be covered then click “Run AutoSSL
    • Normally you will only need the main domain and www subdomain.
  2. In WordPress instal and activate the SSL using the Really Simple SSL plugin.
  3. Harden the site using the Defender plugin, complete all of the security tweaks it recommends.
    • You do not need the paid version of this tool, the paid portions are handled by services on the server.

Email Deliverability:

It is important to know that Overhaulics BLOCKS all open relay PHP mail delivery. This means you MUST link WordPress into a mailbox using SMTP or link to a 3rd party delivery service such as SendGrid, Mailgun, etc for emails to be sent successfully.

Overhaulics includes access to SendGrid in your hosting plan. Contact our support team to have them set this up for you.

  1. Using the plugin POST SMTP, link via SMTP or API to your mail service of choice.
  2. Make sure all forms “from” email address is set to your SMTP email address or an email on the same domain. Ex: wordpress@mydomain.com
  3. Send a test message using the test email function and make you receive it.

You may also want to link your forms into Google reCAPTCHA to make sure you or your clients are not bombarded with spam messages. Most form tools support this out of the box.

Backups:

Overhaulics will setup a paid version of Updraft Plus on all Managed Hosting accounts.  It’s highly recommended if you use your own backup program that you sync the backup to a 3rd party cloud storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc.

  1. Instal the Updraft Plus plugin

Additional backups of accounts are taken automatically by Overhaulics but aren’t as easy to restore on a moment’s notice. So these should not be your only source of backups.

 

Optimizations:

  1. Delete any plugins and themes you are not actively using.
  2. Activate LiteSpeed cache plugin. Each site will cache differently and some functions may not work without tweaking but in most cases turning on most settings should work without issue.
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