Welcome to Northeme Theme Documentation!
This documentation covers installing and setup your theme and how to use theme features. Assuming that you already have a domain name (E.g. example.com) and web hosting service that WordPress has been installed on it.
If you’ve already installed WordPress, sign in to northeme.com and head to My Account page in order to download your theme.
My Account page lists the themes you’ve purchased. Click Download button to access theme related files and documentation.
Click Download Theme File to download the theme as a zip file. Theme License / Product Key should be entered to Northeme > Theme Update section in order to receive auto-updates.
The most convenient and easiest way to install your theme is to use WordPress Theme Installer.
This is less convenient yet another easy way to install your theme.
Some web hosting companies may keep file upload limit as low as 2MB and therefore you may not be able to install theme file via WordPress Theme Installer (You may ask your hosting provider to increase upload limit).
But there is nothing worry, you can still install the theme via FTP.
Important : Installation via FTP may require to set file permissions to 755 (read / write). Check WordPress Help for more information.
Theme registration is important to get automatic theme updates.
Head to Northeme > Theme Updates section and enter your Northeme account e-mail and product key. Once it’s set, you’ll be notified whenever a new update released and you’ll be able to update your theme by single click.
If you need any further information about installing themes please see the following article :
https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
Installing a live demo gives you a head start. Live demos are pre-made demos that you can see on northeme.com and can be installed to your WordPress by single click installer.
Please note that installing theme demos and auto update feature requires your web hosting to allow external connections. Certain hosting providers may put your website behind the firewall. Before installing a demo, visit Northeme > Status page to make sure that your hosting allows external connections.
It’s highly recommended to install live demos on a WordPress only once to prevent content duplicates.
Right after activating your theme, you’ll be redirected to Theme Registration page. Otherwise, head to Northeme > Registration :
Registering your theme is important to install required / recommended plugins and theme live demos.
The product key can be found at My Account page on northeme.com. Click to Download button then Theme License / Product Key to reveal product key. Copy license key and use it with your account e-mail address to register your theme.
It’s important your website meets the theme requirements to avoid issues with registration, installing theme demos and bundle plugins. Visit Northeme > Status page from your dashboard to check the theme requirements and fix the issues by following the instructions.
Certain hosting providers may put your website behind the firewall. If you see any errors on Status page, please contact your web hosting provider to have them fixed.
You can update your theme at Northeme > Theme Update.
If there is a new update for your theme, you’ll be notified with NEW badge and version number right beside Theme Update menu item.
Change log and the scope of latest update can be seen in Change Log window. The latest version can be installed by clicking Update to the Latest button.
If the latest version is already installed, Theme Update page should display Check for Updates button.
Check for updates allows to look up for newer version in case you cannot see the latest version on your dashboard yet.
In case of having problems with auto-update due to theme requirements failure or other reasons, you can also update the theme and plugins manually.
In order to update manually, you’re supposed to download the latest version of your theme and bundle plugins (if necessary) from My Account page on northeme.com.
Before installing the latest version, you must remove the theme from Appearance > Themes on your dashboard. Removing theme will NOT cause any data loss since the website content is being stored in MySQL database. Afterwards follow the same steps of Theme Installation to update your theme.
As for bundle plugin updates, go to Plugins on your WP dashboard and install plugins by uploading the plugin files that you’ve downloaded from My Account page on northeme. Uploading the updated version of plugins also requires to delete the plugin first.
Recommended image width is below 2500px wide with any height for posts, pages and Composition (media) section. If you upload any image above 2500px, WordPress will automatically resize the image in order to maintain performance.
Northeme Options panel is located at Northeme > Theme Options. You can manage the basic and advanced theme settings such as branding, layout, grid layout templates and more.
Even though each page and post offers individual post settings panel, Theme Options panel is where you can manage the global settings.
Although the most options and features are common, each theme has their own exclusive options and features.
Probably the first thing you would like to do is adjusting branding and website layout to get started. Go to Northeme > Theme Options to manage these settings.
Northeme > Theme Options > Branding section is where you can upload the logo image and footer / copyright text. Three separate size options provided as Desktop, Tablet and Mobile for logo image. You can set sizes in pixels for a better look on different viewports.
Theme logo can be an image or plain text according to your needs. Logo text font settings can be managed at Fonts > Font Styling section at Theme Options.
Some of our themes may also provide Tagline that will appear right below the logo image. It can also be set here and font settings can be managed at Fonts > Font Styling.
Mobile Tabs is a feature that allows to build a bottom tab bar for mobile devices. Items are customizable and adding up to five tab item is allowed. Please see the section below for more information.
Tab content can be managed at Northeme > Mobile Tabs section.
Mobile tabs can be adjusted at Northeme > Mobile Tabs from your WP dashboard.
Please note that although five tab fields provided in options panel, you can use any number of tabs up to five and leave blank the rest.
Following options provided :
Icons
Font Awesome icon library can be used to insert tab icons. Visit Font Awesome website and pick an icon :
https://fontawesome.com/search?o=r&m=free
All you need to do is to copy font class names (E.g. fa-solid fa-store) and paste it into icon field. Icon should appear in the same field.
For example you may see the icon code as :
<i class=”fa-solid fa-store”></i>
Use only the class names in icon field :
fa-solid fa-store
Please note that Font Awesome also has PRO (paid) version and some icons in their list might be available for paid version only. Only free version icons can be used in tabs.
Title
Title is an optional field. Assign a title to display it beneath the icon. Leave blank if you don’t wish to display a title.
Link
Links is a dropdown built by available pages on your website. Pick one to assign it. This field is required and tab will be ignored if it’s not set.
This section is consisting of several customization options like icon size, title size, BG and text color.
Skins & Colors menu in Theme Options panel allows to use one of Light, Gray or Dark pre-defined color sets or switch to Custom tab to build your own.
All color element options will reveal once Custom tab is selected. Additional options such as BG pattern, border type etc. can be found below the color options panel.
Fonts section in Theme Options reveals two sub sections as Font Types and Font Styling.
You can select one of the font type options : Google Fonts, HTML Fonts and @fontface. Each section allows to select fonts for Heading and Body separately.
Google Fonts
Easiest solution to use a font is choosing a font from a huge library of Google Fonts. It’s constantly updated font library by Google. Visit Google Fonts website, find a font that suits your needs and type in its name into Header and Body font fields. E.g Open Sans
Google Fonts is case-sensitive and it’s important to enter the font name as is. For example, if you wish to use DM Sans, typing the font name as dm sans will NOT work. Make sure that you entered the exact name.
Separate font names can be used for Header and Body. Additionally you can enter charset to UTF-8 field to expand character set.
HTML Fonts / Typekit
While HTML Fonts allows to use plain HTML fonts such as Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif etc. you can also use fonts from Typekit and other 3rd party font providers. All you need to do is to add font embed script provided into the Font Embed Script field and type in font name into Header and Body fields.
@fontface
@fontface is the most flexible option for using font files that you have. Click to Upload button to expand font upload panel.
If you have a font file (.ttf or .otf), it’s supposed to be converted to web fonts first. Visit Fontsquirrel Website and convert your font files to @font-face format. Download file should contain four different file formats : ttf, woff, svg, eot. Upload files to corresponding fields and click on add button to upload. Once the font files uploaded click to add font and new font should appear in the lists.
Font Styling section is available for advanced font management options. Mobile Menu, Main Menu, Headers (h1 to h6), Body and Excerpt fonts can managed. Font family, line height, style, weight options provided.
Also responsive font settings provided. You’ll find Desktop, Tablet and Mobile tabs for each font setting. It allows you to set different font size, line height and letter spacing for each viewport separately.
Grid Layout Templates is a section that you can manage / create your own custom layouts and use them with any post type and gallery grid (including shop / products).
This section is only related to thumbnail sizes and placement in the grid layout. Displaying post titles, excerpt, category and other option can be managed at Portfolio, Blog, Shop sections under Theme Options.
Default grid layout templates offered as Small, Medium, Large, Portrait, Masonry and Square. You can assign them to any post type (Portfolio, Blog, Shop) without making any changes.
Each pre-made template can be modified according to your needs by clicking to Manage button. Otherwise, click on Create New Template button for a new one.
Show Layout Preview displays a simple preview of grid layout. If you’re satisfied with the results, click Save & Create Layout Type button to create layout.
Post view settings are listed under POSTS section in theme documentation. Portfolio, Blog, Shop (Woocommerce) view options can be managed here.
Posts page, single post layout, Related Posts (Blog & Portfolio) are located at corresponding post section. Just to add, Related Posts are being listed below a single post page.
Also Slug / Taxonomy tab contains Portfolio and Custom Post Type settings that you can change post slug, post title, category name etc..
Social media icons and post sharing buttons can be managed at Northeme > Theme Options > Post Sharing & Social Media.
Social links can be displayed on different locations of your page (depending on the theme : header, sidebar or footer). Click Add New Icon button to add a social link with an icon from Font Awesome library.
Typing any Font Awesome icon name with fa- prefix (fa-facebook, fa-instagram etc.) allows to use a Font Awesome icon as social icon. Otherwise, you can use plain text to link a social website.
Social sharing buttons will appear on single post pages (blog, product, custom post type). Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Linkedin, Tumblr and Vkontakte buttons listed in the social buttons. Facebook like button is provided along with sharing icons.
Pages can be created / managed under Pages menu on your dashboard. Pages is one of the primary sections that allows to build your website’s content.
Click to Add New page to create a new page.
Pages can be created / managed at Pages menu on your dashboard. Pages is one of the primary sections that allows to build your website content.
In order build a page, you can use WordPress Editor which allows to build a page through blocks.
On the other hand, we recommend using Elementor plugin, which is free and your theme comes with exclusive widgets to build content. It’s an easy-to-use solution to create pages and there are many free Elementor extensions you can find to extend its features.
Click to Add New page to create a new page. Some of our themes may offer exclusive page templates other than Default Page.
Additionally Enable Big Heading (Premium only) option is provided. Activating this option will disable page header and will use excerpt instead.
Excerpt
Excerpt field is one of default fields of WordPress and it’s pretty useful field for Regain. If you cannot see excerpt field, activate it by clicking Screen Options button on the top right and opt-in for excerpt. Page and post excerpts will be displayed right below the title if it’s set.
We recommend to use a rich text excerpt plugin such as :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/rich-text-excerpts/
Custom CSS (Premium Only)
Add Custom CSS rules that will be applied to this specific page only.
Blog posts can be managed under Posts section at dashboard.
Blog also requires a posts listing page. If you haven’t created a blog posts listing page yet, go to Pages and create a page with Blog Template.
Creating a new post is pretty straight-forward process by setting title and content. Also post excerpt is being used as a secondary title that appears right below title. Excerpt will also be displayed posts listing page as well.
Regain is optimized for WordPress Editor. You can use WP Editor blocks to build pages. Also larger and full width content are supported for certain blocks such as Image in order to create unique pages.
Post content width is 650px by default and your entire content will be displayed within main container. In order to use larger container inside a post such as full width image or WP gallery, you’re supposed to use Content Width Limiter wrapper shortcodes :
** Regain Blog doesn’t have variable with option and only allows to use [wrapper] [/wrapper] for full width.
You have content here. Wrapper shortcode can be used anywhere in the visual editor and doesn’t have to be in between or beginning of content.
[wrapper]
My Content / image / video etc. here. Wrapper is 100% wide by default.
[/wrapper]
Your content goes on…
[wrapper width=”image”]
Image width is around 750px to standout your content from main text.
You can use text, image, large, full options as width.
[/wrapper]
[wrapper width=”80%”]You can also use a custom value as 80% or 800px to customize width
[/wrapper]
Three options provided : Thumbnail and Video
Thumbnail is default option and also provides optional hover image field. If hover image uploaded, it will show up on hover action.
Video supports Youtube, Vimeo URL or embed code directly. You can also use built-in slider shortcodes on this field to display slider as featured image.
Blog View Options can be managed at Northeme > Post Layout. You can manage posts listing page settings such as post limit, layout, pagination type and related posts.
Regain Blog (Free Version) offers layout option only.
Visit Settings > Reading page on your dashboard, switch to A static page at Front Page Displays. Select a page from Front Page select box and click Save Changes to set it as home page / front page.
Please note that in order to set a page as home page it must be present at Pages. That being said, archive, category or single posts cannot be set as homepage.
Portfolio comes with your theme and installed by default. If it hasn’t been installed or you’ve deleted, it can be created at Northeme > Theme Options > Create New Post Type section. For more information, please see Custom Post Types section.
Portfolio page is required to list the Portfolio posts and can be created at Pages. Go to Pages > Add New from your WP dashboard to create a new page. Add a title to this page (E.g. Portfolio, Works etc.) and select Portfolio template from Page Attributes section.
Any projects added to portfolio will appear on this page according to the layout type you can manage at Northeme > Theme Options > Portfolio. Also grid layout templates can be managed at Northeme > Theme Options > Grid Layout Templates.
See Grid Layout Templates section for more information about grid layouts.
If you wish to set portfolio page as homepage, select this page at Settings > Reading > Front Page.
Portfolio and other post types will appear below Posts on your dashboard.
Use Add New Project button to create a new project.
Categories are dedicated taxonomy of Portfolio. Categories name can be changed from Slug / Taxonomy tab at Northeme > Theme Options > Portfolio.
Re-Order menu allows to re-organize category and posts ordering by drag&drop interface.
Add / Edit Project page offers an exclusive meta box called Composition (Media).
Composition section aims to make easier adding, re-ordering and arranging project assets through a series of options (It’s not required to use if you prefer using visual editor with Visual Composer)
* Layout and Padding features are not provided for Svea and Regain themes
Also each element in the composition has individual options panel :
Two options provided for featured image : Thumbnail and Video
Thumbnail image is default and comes with optional hover image field. Video requires video site URL (Youtube, Vimeo etc.).
Recommended thumbnail size is depending on the grid layout preferences and can be seen end of this box. Grid layouts can be managed at Northeme > Theme Options > Grid Layout Templates section.
This section might be different for Svea and Regain themes
Editing a post page reveals Post Settings tab in Page Settings panel. Post Settings allows to override the global single post settings that you can manage at Northeme > Theme Options > Portfolio.
You can hide Title, Categories, Tags. Also layout view options can be changed for a specific post (Layout view options may not be available for all themes.)
Portfolio View Options can be managed at Northeme > Theme Options > Portfolio. You can manage posts listing page settings such as post limit, grid layout, pagination type etc. along with related posts settings and single post settings.
You may want to change Portfolio title, slug or even category name. Slug / Taxonomy tab which is located under Northeme > Theme Options > Portfolio allows to rename Portfolio labels. For example, you can rename Portfolio as Projects or Categories as Creative Fields or whatever you wish.
Your theme supports WooCommerce Free E-Commerce Plugin. You can have the benefits of WooCommerce Plugin by installing it at Northeme > Plugins or visiting plugin’s website :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/
WooCommerce related pages should automatically be created by the plugin. Plugin settings can be managed at WooCommerce menu on your WP dashboard.
For WooCommerce instructions and support please visit the URL below :
https://support.woothemes.com/hc/en-us
WooCommerce E-Commerce support is an optional feature and is NOT required to use this theme. If WooCommerce Plugin is not installed, any WooCommerce related files or scripts will be excluded from your website.
Navigate to Northeme > Theme Options > Shop section to manage theme related WooCommerce features. Layout types, post display limit, single post appearance and related products settings provided. You’ll see a question mark (?) beside each option that explains its function.
Also Northeme > Theme Options > Layout > Website Layout section offers several options such as shopping cart icon, member page icon and uploading credit card logos.
Two options provided for featured image : Thumbnail, Video
Thumbnail image is default and provides optional hover image field. Video requires video site URL (Youtube, Vimeo etc.).
Grid layouts can be managed at Northeme > Theme Options > Grid Layout Templates.
** Animated GIF option has been removed since original images are being used by the recent updates and it has become obsolete
Portfolio and Blog posts can be reordered at Re-Order page which is located under the corresponding post type menu (E.g. Portfolio > Re-order).
Post re-ordering is not being provided for blog posts and they will be re-ordered by date descending as in default.
Categories and taxonomies can also be re-ordered in this section.
Drag&drop your posts and categories to re-order. Custom Ordering must be selected from drop-down menu to apply custom ordering settings. Otherwise select Order by Title, Order by Date (descending) or Order by Date (ascending).
Blog posts cannot be re-ordered.
Please note that this is an advanced feature.
If you don’t intend to build a unique post type such as Articles, News, Books etc., we strongly recommend to use Portfolio categories instead of building a new post type.
For example, creating post types such as Illustrations or Photography is not needed because Portfolio categories already provide this flexibility.
Custom Post Types allow to extend your website. Portfolio is default post type of your theme.
Custom Post Types can be created at Northeme > Theme Options > Create New Post Type. Maximum 10 custom post types (including Portfolio) allowed. A new posts listing page will be created at Pages automatically whenever a new post type created.
If you’ve accidentally deleted the listing page at Pages section, you can create a new listing page at Pages by choosing the corresponding post type template from Page Attributes.
Northeme > Theme Options > Create New Post Type section displays a form with the following options :
It’s common to have conflicts due to misconfigured slugs. It’s important to set unique Post Slug, Category Slug and Page Slug to prevent conflicts. This is being forced by theme and it will be checked before saving settings if there are any conflicts. However, choosing proper names will prevent such problems in the first place.
Post Slug and Category Slug can be found at Northeme > Create New Post Type and after creating a post type Northeme > POST TYPE > Slugs tab. As for Page Slug, A new posts listing page will be created automatically for each new post type and it can be managed at Pages on your WP dashboard. Edit posts listing page and edit its slug (right below the page title) if it’s necessary.
For example, you’ll create a new post type as Events. Here are the example slugs :
Page Slug : events (https://example.com/events)
Post Slug : event (https://example.com/event/single-post)
Category Slug : event-categories (https://example.com/event-categories/category-name)
As in this example, Post Slug and Posts Listing Page slug should not share the same name. Therefore Posts Listing Page is using “events” while Post Slug is using “event”.
Once it’s all set, go to Settings > Permalinks and click on Save Changes button to reset permalinks.
After creating a new post type, it’ll appear at Northeme > Theme Options > POST TYPE. Post type view settings can be managed there along with main post type options such as Post Title, Category Name etc. :
To create a navigation menu, go to Appearance > Menus and click Create a New Menu link.
You’ll find accordion menu that contains pages, posts, categories, links (custom URL) helper menus to add items to your menu.
Once a menu is created, it must be activated from Display Location. Opt-in for Northeme Main Menu in order to activate it.
Your theme offers Classic Menu option that can be setup at Northeme > Layout. Please note that Classic Menu does NOT offer multi-level menus.
As for multilevel menus, parent menu cannot have an URL. Clicking a parent menu shows sub menu items. Therefore, you may prefer to add a clickable sub item menu. Simply use pound sign (#) as Custom Link’s URL in order to use it as parent menu.
Example :
Portfolio
– All
– Graphic Design
– Illustration
All sub menu item should be added since Portfolio is not linkable item
Wordpress offers extensive options to add new items to your menu. To expand these options, click on Screen Options button that is located at top right of the screen and opt-in for the sections.
For more information about custom menus, check out the following link :
https://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Menus_SubPanel
Sidebars are tools to add widgets to your pages.
Your theme offers Footer and Page Sidebar and they can be managed at Appearance > Widgets on dashboard.
Footer widgets are located as 3 columns on the left side of the footer. It’s recommended to use up to three widgets yet if you use more than three widgets, they will be stacked on the left side of the footer.
Visit Settings > Reading page on your dashboard, switch to A static page at Front Page Displays. Select a page from Front Page select box and click Save Changes to set it as home page / front page. Leave Posts Page option unset.
Please note that in order to set a page as home page it must be present at Pages. That being said automatically generated pages such as archive, category or single posts cannot be set as homepage.
Built-in Sliders is lightweight solution to build simple sliders.
Slider / Gallery Manager is located at Sliders menu on your dashboard. You can create unlimited sliders and use them via shortcodes.
Click Add New Slider button or Edit link of a present slider to build a slider.
Slider editing page offers Image and Video buttons to add media to the slider. Embed videos allowed from 3rd party video providers such as YouTube, Vimeo etc. along with WordPress video player for self-hosted videos.
Slider images will be displayed in a lightbox if an image is clicked. Disable Lightbox option allows to disable this action.
Once a slider created, you can add it to any post or page’s visual editor via shortcode. Corresponding shortcodes can be seen on listing page and slider editing page. E.g.
Slider settings can be managed at Northeme > Plugin & General Options section. Animation speed, icon speed and various settings can be adjusted.
Your theme is ready to translate. Default language files are located in languages folder inside the theme folder. We highly recommend using a child theme and copy languages folder into child theme directory. Using a child theme is required to maintain your changes after theme updates. See Child Theme & Customizations section of this documentation.
In order to activate the new language, rename language files with WordPress Locale code (E.g fr_FR.po and fr_FR.mo). Then, change Settings > General > Site Language to your language and WP_LANG code to wp-config.php file :
define ('WPLANG', 'fr_FR');
To translate default language files, you’re supposed to use a 3rd party editor. POEdit is most popular and free option to edit po / mo files:
https://www.poedit.net
As a on-site solution, Loco Translate WordPress Plugin is a great solution to translate the theme from your dashboard instead of working with language files :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/loco-translate/
Our themes are fully compatible with WPML multilingual plugin.
WPML
WPML is one of most popular WP multi-language plugins can be downloaded from WPML website :
https://wpml.org
By default, all post and pages are available to translate and no action required. As for custom post types and particular fields :
IMPORTANT :
Northeme Framework offers a section for adding custom CSS and Scripts at Northeme > Theme Options > Custom CSS & Scripts.
You can add custom styling rules into Custom CSS to override default theme stylings. Although we offer extensive modifications features at Northeme > Theme Options, it may help for further modifications. You can use Google Chrome’s Inspect Element feature to find out specific classes.
Also, you can install and use CSS modification plugin, SiteOrigin CSS :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/so-css/
Custom Scripts field is offered in order to add scripts into <head> tag. That allows to include any 3rd party or your own scripts to the page :
/* Typekit import */
<script src="//use.typekit.net/XXXX.js"></script>
<script>try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){}</script>
/* Including your custom JS or CSS files without using a child theme */
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/path/to/my_css_file.css" type="text/css" media="all" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/my_js_file.js"></script>
Download blank child theme template from My Account section on northeme.com and upload it into wp-content/themes folder. Before activating it, make sure that you’ve made the following changes :
Check out following example :
Default child theme style.css file content should be looking as follows.
Make sure that Template value points to parent theme folder name (E.g. workality-plus-master or reframe-plus-master etc.) :
/* Theme Name: Workality Child Theme Theme URI: https://northeme.com/ Description: Child Theme for Workality Theme Author: Northeme.com Template: workality-plus-master Version: 0.1.0 */
Theme Shortcodes are no longer needed since Elementor support is available for our themes. You can still use them but it’s highly recommended using Page builders instead.
Shortcodes are helpers to add rich content to visual editor. Your theme comes with button, alerts, icons, tabs, Google Map, columns and contact form shortcode and can be added through Shortcodes button that is located on visual editor panel :
Content Width Limiter shortcode is quite easy to use tool for managing content width. Selecting Content Width Limiter will add shortcode to the visual editor :
You have content here. Wrapper shortcode can be used anywhere in the visual editor and doesn’t have to be in between or beginning of content.
[wrapper]My Content / image / video etc. here. Wrapper is 100% wide by default.
[/wrapper]Your content goes on…
[wrapper width=”image”]Image width is around 750px to standout your content from main text.
You can use text, image, large, full options for various container width.
[/wrapper] [wrapper width=”80%”]You can also use a custom value as 80% or 800px to customize width
[/wrapper]
Your theme is built with 12 column grid system and Column Type option allows to choose how many columns will be displayed on a row. Half, Two Third, One Third options provided along with standard column count.
Wrap text or paragraph with Small Text shortcode to display text in smaller size. Secondary Text color will be used for small text.
The best feature of WordPress is that it’s extendable through numerous free and premium plugins.
Here are couple of free plugin *recommendations :
Elementor Page Builder
Elementor is one of the most popular page builders for WordPress. We provide exclusive widgets for elementor and it’s available for all our themes.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/elementor/
Yoast / WordPress SEO
No doubt that a website cannot be completed without SEO optimization. Your theme’s HTML structure is coded with semantic SEO guidelines but also you must use a SEO plugin that offers extensive features for all search engines, social media etc. WordPress SEO by Yoast offers great features and it’s completely free!
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
WP Super Cache
Website caching is essential for a better website performance but it might be tricky. WP Super Cache provides an easy way to activate caching for your website.
Important reminder : Make sure that you disabled caching for known users (signed in users). Otherwise changes you’ve made on dashboard may not take effect immediately :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/
SiteOrigin CSS
Although we already provide dozens of modification options and Custom CSS field for advanced stylings, this plugin may be useful for beginner / novice users who want to make further styling modifications :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/so-css/
* Note that we do not offer support for 3rd party plugins. Please visit the plugin’s support forums or contact the author of respective plugin about plugin related issues.
There are dozens of free backup plugins for WordPress out there yet we recommend UpdraftPlus which is one of the most popular backup plugin for scheduled backups :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/
As for transferring / cloning your entire website, there are several WordPress backup / transfer plugins to make it. Duplicator is a free and easy-to-use option :
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
Once the plugin is activated, go to plugin’s page at your dashboard and create a backup & installer. Afterwards upload installer file (install.php) and backup zip file to the root of your new web hosting and browse install.php with your favorite browser. Simply follow the instructions to complete cloning process. More information can be found at Duplicator’s website.
Please note that Duplicator may fail if you have large files to transfer. Although we suggest using Duplicator since it might be successful in most cases, we cannot offer support for transfer issues.