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Manage WordPress with the Toolkit

Once WordPress is installed, the control panel’s Toolkit lets you manage it without signing in to WordPress: updates, plugins, themes, users and more.

Open the Toolkit

Section titled “Open the Toolkit”

Open Websites, select the website, select Apps in its navigation bar and select Toolkit beside the WordPress installation.

The WordPress Toolkit's General section. Marker 1 is beside the section list: General, Plugins, Themes, Users, Single sign on and Debug. Marker 2 is beside the Admin button, marker 3 beside the Site URL edit button, marker 4 beside the WordPress version update setting and marker 5 beside the Maintenance mode switch.

The section list marker 1 jumps to each part of the page. Admin marker 2 opens the WordPress dashboard already signed in.

Keep WordPress updated

Section titled “Keep WordPress updated”

Out-of-date plugins are the most common way WordPress sites get hacked.

  • WordPress itself: under WordPress version, select the edit button marker 4 to choose the update schedule. Update only to minor versions (recommended) installs security and maintenance releases automatically; Always update to the latest available version also installs new major versions. The current version is shown below, with All up to date when nothing is waiting.
  • Plugins and themes: under Plugins and Themes, select Enable auto-updates for each one you want kept up to date automatically.

Plugins, themes and users

Section titled “Plugins, themes and users”
  • Plugins: Activate, Deactivate or Delete each plugin. Install opens a search of the WordPress plugin directory, with Featured and Popular lists and Install from custom URL for a plugin you have a download link for.
  • Themes: Activate a theme or Delete the ones you do not use. Install adds a new one.
  • Users: see the WordPress users and select Add user to create one.

Deleting unused plugins and themes, rather than only deactivating them, means there is less code to keep updated.

Other settings

Section titled “Other settings”
  • Site URL marker 3: changes the address WordPress uses for its links and redirects. Use it after you change the website’s primary domain.
  • Maintenance mode marker 5: shows visitors a maintenance notice while you work on the site. Remember to switch it off.
  • Single sign on: chooses which WordPress user Admin signs you in as.
  • Debug: switches on WordPress’s debug options when a developer asks for them. Switch them off again afterwards, because they can show error details to visitors.

Caching

Section titled “Caching”

Sheernox hosting runs on OpenLiteSpeed with LSCache, and WordPress installed from the control panel comes with the Redis Object Cache plugin, which speeds up database-heavy sites such as shops once Redis is switched on for the website. See Speed up your website for both. If you add another page caching plugin, use only one: two caching layers can cause stale or broken pages.

Test changes on a copy

Section titled “Test changes on a copy”

Before a new theme, a major update or custom code, try it on a copy of the site so visitors are not affected.

  1. Select Add website and choose Clone a website.

  2. Enter a domain for the copy, such as a subdomain like staging.example.com.

  3. Select the website to copy and leave Perform a WordPress search and replace selected, so the copy uses its own address.

  4. Select Add, then make and test your changes on the copy.

Once you are happy, copy the finished site back over the live one. See Test changes on a staging copy for the whole process, including what to leave out so recent orders and comments are kept.