This guide explains how to set up a WordPress plugin that will monitor your site activity and then display it in the Dashboard. With the information that it gathers you’ll always know what’s happening with your site – from things like new posts to failed login attempts and password reset requests.
Let’s jump right in!
- Start out by installing Simple History as you would any other WordPress plugin.
- Once it’s installed, don’t forget to Activate it.
- From the Settings section of your WordPress menu, locate and click Simple History
- Review all of the settings, but make sure that both on the dashboard and as a page under the dashboard menu are selected
- Now that you have the plugin installed, activated and ready to go – visit your WordPress Dashboard. You’ll see a new ‘section’ titled Simple History (probably at the bottom of your Dashboard). As you’ll see, the only ‘events’ displayed so far relate to the Simple History plugin itself. Going forward, all of your WordPress activity will be listed here.
- You can also view a ‘full page’ version of events by locating the actual Dashboard entry in your WordPress menu, and then clicking the Simple History link.
- Now let’s pretend some time has gone by. As you can see in the screenshot below, Simple History has detected all sorts of activity on my site.
- It also groups similar events together. Just click the link…
- … and the menu expands, showing each event.
- The information you gather with Simple History can be used in all kinds of ways. One thing I learned (quickly) is just how often people try to gain access to WordPress itself – hundreds of times per day! I have since lowered the permissions for certain accounts so that even in the worst case, an intruder will still only have very limited access to WordPress.
It can also be very helpful to know the IP address being used to try and gain access – particularly those that try over and over again to get into your site. By editing your .htaccess file you can stop those people from even trying.
If you’re interested in really boosting your WordPress site, be sure to check out our guide on must-have plugins for WordPress.
