by Page no: D92
Table of contents
Explanation |
Videos and Pics |
CDN CallCloudfare CDN Call |
Cloudfare CDN Call - Click to enlarge |
With tens of millions of sites on the internet using WordPress, many WordPress sites have decided to use Cloudflare to make their site faster with our free CDN and to make the site more secure with our security. Since we get a lot of questions about WordPress online and in our support channel, as well as a lot of common areas of confusion, we’ll cover recommended first steps in an easy to read article. All of these steps take very little time to do complete, and any WordPress user should be able to do most of the steps in a few minutes or less.
The article starts from the perspective that you have already followed the process to create your Cloudflare account and added your website to Cloudflare. You can also learn more in Cloudflare 101 section.
Step #0 – Preparing the Server
If you have control of your web server, here are some tweaks that will make your life a little easier, if you want don’t have control of your web server feel free to skip this section.
On an Apache server, it is a great idea to install the latest version of Mod_Cloudflare. This will ensure that Cloudflare works transparently by ensuring your IP Address is logged correctly in both Apache logs and web applications. In addition to this, Mod_Cloudflare will now also ensure that Flexible SSL will work transparently. In order to install Mod_Cloudflare please see our resources page.
In addition to this, be sure not to rate limit or block Cloudflare IPs, you can find a list of Cloudflare IPs here.
Explanation |
Pics |
Install CloudflareInstalling Clodflare Plugin Step #1 – Install the WordPress Plugin The official Cloudflare plugin for WordPress allows you to ensure your site is running optimally on the WordPress platform. In order to install this plugin you will first need to login to your WordPress dashboard, go to the plugins section, search for ‘Cloudflare’, and and install the WordPress plugin. |
Installing Clodflare Plugin - Click to enlarge |
Activate CloudflareActivating Cloudflare Plugin After the plugin has been installed click the “Activate Plugin” button. You can then go ahead and configure the plugin by going to Settings and clicking the Cloudflare menu option: |
Activating Cloudflare Plugin - Click to enlarge |
Cloudflare LoginCloudflare Plugin Login You will then be greeted by the login page where you can now enter in your credentials: |
Cloudflare Plugin Login - Click to enlarge |
Cloudflare DashboardCloudflare Dashboard In order to find your API key, you can look in the drop down in the top right corner of your Cloudflare dashboard and click “My Profile”, the API key options will be under the Account > API Key section. |
Cloudflare Dashboard - Click to enlarge |
API KeyHow to find Global API Key Panel You will find the Global API Key panel on that Page: |
How to find Global API Key Panel - Click to enlarge |
Apply SettingsApply Default Settings Once you have entered your Global API key into the WordPress dashboard, click “Save API Credentials” and we’re good to go. Step #4 – Load Optimized Defaults You can now enable the Optimized Defaults in the WordPress plugin so Cloudflare works optimally on your platform. You can do this by clicking the “Apply” button next to this setting. |
Apply Default Settings - Click to enlarge |
Enable CacheEnable Automatic Cache Automatic Cache Purge will allow you to automatically flush the Cloudflare Cache when your WordPress site appearance is updated, you should enable this too. |
Enable Automatic Cache - Click to enlarge |
Next Steps
After following these steps, you can now go ahead and improve your security and performance by customizing your Cloudflare configuration.
- Hardening WordPress Security
- Caching Anonymous Page Views with WordPress or WooCommerce
- Speed Up WordPress and Improve Performance