Hi John.
I use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin for my sitemaps. It's very simple, very effective, and it automatically updates your sitemap every time you post new content.

-Tim

Hey,

Sometimes yes; sometimes no. It depends on if that theme was coded with any Wordpress PHP functions / tags or dependencies which have since been retired/removed in more recent versions. So no real straight "yes or no" answer, I'm afraid. All you can do is try it.

Worst comes to the worst, you should hopefully still be able to login at httXp://yourdomain.com/wp-admin to reset/change your theme, even if your site doesn't load on the front-end.

Not really. Pinging doesn't do a whole lot. It can get a new page indexed more quickly in some cases, but often - for most people - it doesn't seem to happen any more swiftly just because you've pinged the search-engines, than it likely would have naturally, just by the search-engines casually visiting "off their own accord" ... if you get what I mean.

And let's face it anyway, there's no point in most of us getting "instantly indexed", because without backlinks to our new pages, we're not going to be ranking anywhere near well enough for our pages to be seen.

(Of course, it might be a different story once your site is built up, and authority-laden, etc.)

As far as I recall, it does - yes. You can use the one mentioned by the above poster. So long as it outputs in XML, it should be compatible with Google Sitemaps (since that is what most of the XML sitemap plugins are created for anyway).

I use "Redirection" (I think that's the name), which handles redirects in the event I change my page-names or URLs, and also keeps track of 404 errors and what not.

I also use "all-in-one SEO" (again, if I remember the name correctly), but I'm not sure I'd really call it essential.

1. It is easy to try: activate your old theme on a WP3 and see it. Most likely the custome menus feature will not work, but other than that... it should be fine.
Note. No harm activating a theme. If you get a blank page or something wierd - delete the theme folder via FTP from wp-content/theme/your-old-themes-name/
and WP reverts back to the default.

2. TwentyTen - it comes with WP 3.x.x

3. NO!!! All those "smart-a$$" ping lists are useless.

4. Needs the plugin.

5. None. All the lists with "my 365-must-have-plugins" are BS. Do you need a special feature? If cannot be done by copy/pasting 2 lines of code... you may want to find a plugin.
Plugins for the sake of having plugins are absolutely counterproductive.

HTH

Thank you everyone for the expert info.

-John

No problem! Best of luck!

-Tim

Probably, you were.

I searched the forum for you:
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-services.html

1) Can old themes be used with WordPress version 3.x? I have a theme that was for WP version 2.x and would like to use it. I'm just a little hesitant to try it because if something can go wrong, it will.


HI THERE, IT'S REALLY SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO PRACTICE WITH, SOME WILL DO BETTER THAN OTHERS.

2) If I can't (or shouldn't) use it, can you suggest a popular, STABLE, clean, free theme (preferably with 2 columns)?

HAVE A SUGGEST WHEN YOU'RE IN WORDPRESS DASHBOARD AND GO TO THEMES AND DO A SEARCH TO ADD A NEW ONE AND LOOK FOR TWO COLUMN OPTIONS THERE, AND THEY'RE FAST TO INSTALL.


3) Do I really need to mess with the ping list? Doesn't WP have a "built-in" ping list?

IT MAY NOT BE AS COMPREHENSIVE AS YOU'D LIKE IT OR ONLY LIST ONE SITE, IT'S REALLY UP TO YOU.

4) Does WP require a plug-in to create a Google sitemap or is that feature built in?

WHEN YOU'RE IN WORDPRESS DASHBOARD GO TO PLUGINS ADD NEW AND DO A SEARCH FOR GOOGLE SITEMAP AND YOU'LL SEE PLUGINS WITH THE HIGHEST RATING AT THE TOP, ACTIVATE IT AND YOU'RE GOOD TO GO.

5) What are the plug-ins that are, for the most part, considered ESSENTIAL. I don't want to install a bunch of plug-ins (both for the sake of avoiding set-up hassles AND for loading speed).

ALL IN ONE SEO

MAXBLOGPRESS PING PLUGIN WHICH AVOIDS TOO MUCH PINGING

BLOG PROTECTOR WHICH PROTECTS YOUR CONTENT FROM COPYING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

AKISMET

THERE'S BOUND TO BE MORE BUT I CAN'T THINK OF THEMO FF THE TOP OF MY HEAD.
That's it for now. Let the answers begin. Fill my noggin with your WordPress wisdom!

LOL

WARMLY

COLLEEN

Thanks,

John

They aren't stupid questions at all. I get PM's all the time asking the same questions as these

If you have hosting with a Cpanel, use fantastico and set up a subdomain (domain add-on) very easy to do!

use this as your test blog and try the theme. Blank screen or screwy, then just delete the theme or the whole site!

The info above is accurate and this is just another way to comfortably 'test' stuff out.

Greg

Such a i am not understand why use this people... so please tell me why use this....

Most can, some can't. The only way is to test it.

The default Twenty-Ten theme is quite nice.

It uses Ping-o-matic by default. That service provides pretty decent coverage and is generally enough. I've experimented with some alternate ping lists and they neither helped nor hurt.

You'll need to use a plugin to do this. I don't recommend that you use one though unless your site is huge, especially one that builds the map automatically. This is because many of these plugins are processor intensive and can cause your hosting account to be suspended.

Platinum SEO or All-In-One SEO are the only essential ones I can think of right off. Others depend on what the site is needing in terms of features.

Johnny, I just wanted to comment about your first question. If your old theme is a paid "premium" theme, chances are quite high that it has been upgraded over time to work on the newest (v 3.0+) version of Wordpress. If it's a free theme, then it's probably a crapshoot and the only way you'll know for sure is to give it a try!

Paul

Just a quick note - if you install and activate too many plugins, it will also slow down your site - because wordpress will have to run all the plugin codes.

So, just use only what you need. No hard and fast rule though - some hosts (eg. VPS or dedicated can probably handle lots of plugins, but a shared server that's nearing its capacity, having too many active plugin will make your site craw)


Best,
Adrian

There are no "top" and "must-have" plugins. Period.

There are only individual blogs with different requirements, so never copy other people's plugin list.