Advanced Tips & Tricks
How to Back Up Your WordPress Site with UpdraftPlus (Free Version)
Last Updated: September 22, 2025Why backup? Keeping your WordPress site backed up is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your work. Whether it’s a plugin update gone wrong, accidental content deletion, or something more serious, having a backup gives you peace of mind knowing you can restore your site quickly. UpdraftPlus is one of the most popular and beginner-friendly backup plugins for WordPress. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to create backups on demand and how to set up scheduled backups using the free version of UpdraftPlus. Step 1: Install and Activate UpdraftPlus Log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Plugins → Add New. Search for UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin. Click Install Now, then Activate. Step 2: Access the UpdraftPlus Settings In the WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups. This is your main control panel for backups and restores. Step 3: Run a Manual Backup (On-Demand) From the UpdraftPlus dashboard, click the Backup Now button. In the popup, choose: Database (recommended frequently) Files (themes, plugins, uploads — use sparingly to save space) Click Backup Now to start. Wait until the backup completes. You’ll see it listed under Existing Backups. Step 4: Set Up a Backup...
How to Redirect a Page or Website Using htaccess
Last Updated: October 28, 2024If a page on your website no longer exists and you want to redirect it to a new page or website, you can use the dot htaccess file to redirect visitors. Redirect from a page/directory to another domain or the main domain: Redirect from a specific page to a domain:RewriteEngine onRedirect 301 /mypage.html http://example.com Redirect from one page to another page:#Redirect from a page/directory to another pageRedirect 301 /oldpage.html /newpage.html Whenever you open a URL such as example.com/oldpage.html, it will redirect you to example.com/newpage.html.
How to Create a User-friendly URL Using htaccess
Last Updated: October 28, 2024If your website is using a long URL such as example.com/files/folder/sitemap.html, you can change it to “example.com/sitemap” using htaccess. Modify this line according to your needs, and then add this code to your htaccess file. RewriteEngine onRewriteRule ^sitemap/$ /files/folder/sitemap.html [L]
How to Restrict Access to Directories by IP Address
Last Updated: October 28, 2024To secure your admin area from hackers, you should only allow access to your admin directory from selected IP addresses. You can create a dot htaccess file in the directory where you want to restrict access to specific IP addresses. For example, if you have a WordPress blog installed on your main directory and you log in via example.com/wp-admin, you should create an htaccess file in /wp-admin/.htaccess and put the following code into it. Please, don’t forget to replace the allowed IP address with your IP address. order deny, allow deny from all allow from YOUR-IP-ADDRESS-HERE Replace the Your-IP-Address-Here text with your IP address. You can test this by accessing the wp-admin directory from another IP address, not mentioned in your htaccess file.
How to Ban Any IP Address via htaccess
Last Updated: October 28, 2024If you want to block an IP Address, you can add the below lines to your htaccess file. order allow, deny deny from IP-ADDRESS allow from all Replace IP-ADDRESS with the IP you want to block.
How to Redirect a Page to Another Page or Website Using htaccess
Last Updated: October 28, 2024If a page on your website no longer exists and you want to redirect it to a new page or website, you can use the dot htaccess file to redirect visitors. Redirect from a page/directory to another domain or the main domain: Redirect from a specific page to a domain:RewriteEngine onRedirect 301 /mypage.html http://example.com Redirect from one page to another page:#Redirect from a page/directory to another pageRedirect 301 /oldpage.html /newpage.html Whenever you open a URL such as example.com/oldpage.html, it will redirect you to example.com/newpage.html.
How to Disable Directory Browsing Using the htaccess Rule
Last Updated: October 28, 2024For security purposes, you should disable directory browsing on your website so no one can see the files/directories of your website. You can disable Directory Browsing by adding the below line to your dot htaccess file. Options -Indexes
How to Protect the htaccess File
Last Updated: October 28, 2024You can prevent unauthorized access to your htaccess file by adding this rule to the file: # .htaccess protection order allow, deny deny from all satisfy all
How to Create a User-friendly URL Using htaccess
Last Updated: October 28, 2024If your website is using a long URL such as example.com/files/folder/sitemap.html, you can change it to “example.com/sitemap” using htaccess. Modify this line according to your needs, and then add this code to your htaccess file. RewriteEngine onRewriteRule ^sitemap/$ /files/folder/sitemap.html [L]
How to Disable Directory Browsing Using the htaccess Rule
Last Updated: October 28, 2024For security purposes, you should disable directory browsing on your website so no one can see the files/directories of your website. You can disable Directory Browsing by adding the below line to your dot htaccess file. Options -Indexes
How to Block Any IP Address via an htaccess Rule
Last Updated: October 28, 2024If you want to block an IP Address, you can add the below lines to your htaccess file. order allow, deny deny from IP-ADDRESS allow from all Replace IP-ADDRESS with the IP you want to block.
How to Protect Your htaccess File
Last Updated: October 28, 2024You can prevent unauthorized access to your htaccess file by adding this rule to the file: # .htaccess protection order allow, deny deny from all satisfy all