Advanced WordPress Management

This unit focuses on administering, securing, optimizing, extending, and migrating WordPress sites using plugins, themes, caching, and multimedia features. Students build on foundational site-building skills to prepare production-ready sites and make informed decisions about open-source vs commercial components.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze plugin and theme options (including free, commercial, and open-source) by assessing compatibility, licensing, support, and performance impact, and justify selection decisions for a given site scenario
• Apply performance and SEO optimizations—such as configuring caching (WP Super Cache), generating XML sitemaps, enabling post thumbnails, and tuning plugin settings—and measure site improvements using standard metrics
• Demonstrate secure administration and maintenance procedures by configuring security tools (e.g., Sucuri), preventing spam and splogs, safely uninstalling plugins, and migrating a WordPress site to a different host with DNS and database updates
• Implement multimedia and feature integrations—including embedding audio and podcast content, configuring WooCommerce/Storefront support, managing multisite/network settings, and validating user-facing functionality—on a working WordPress site