Welcome to ManageWP!
User Guide
Get to know the basics, and a few helpful tips & tricks along the way!
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Add a website to ManageWP
ManageWP connects to your website using the ManageWP Worker plugin. The plugin can be installed automatically when you add a website, after you enter your WordPress login credentials.
If you’d rather not enter your credentials, you can manually install the Worker plugin on your site and use the connection key to add it. The connection key is available in your WordPress admin area, on the Plugins page, within the Worker plugin’s description.
Keep in mind that only WordPress websites can be added to ManageWP, and the site must be publicly accessible for the Worker plugin to connect successfully.
Add a website using WordPress credentials
- Click the plus icon in the top-left corner of your dashboard.
- Enter the website URL, then click Add website.
- Make sure the URL matches exactly as it appears in a browser (including HTTP vs. HTTPS and WWW vs. non-WWW). We recommend copying the URL directly from the browser.
- Enter your WordPress username and password.
- If you use a custom admin URL instead of wp-admin, you’ll be prompted to enter the custom login slug.
- Click Add website.
Use connection key
Add your website without entering your WordPress admin credentials by pasting the connection key found on the website’s Plugin page, in the Worker plugin description.
- Click Add website.
- Click the plus icon in the top-left corner of your dashboard.
- Enter the website URL, then click Add website.
- Make sure the URL matches exactly as it appears in a browser (including HTTP vs. HTTPS and WWW vs. non-WWW). We recommend copying the URL directly from the browser.
- Click Use connection key instead and paste the connection key.
- If your site uses a custom login URL, enter the custom slug.
Add multiple websites with a .CSV file
- Prepare a .CSV file listing all websites you would like to add. Use the following format for each website: http://www.example.com,username,password and pay close attention to include the commas correctly. Alternatively, you can do it in columns in the .CSV.
- Click the plus icon in the top-left corner, then click Add website.
- Click Import from file.
- Click Import file.
After you add your websites, we can take a quick tour around your dashboard.
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Get to know your ManageWP dashboard
The top bar
When you log in to your ManageWP dashboard, the top bar gives you quick access to key actions:
- Plus icon (top-left): Add new websites or use Template Builder.
- Find a Website field: Hover over to see a list of your websites, or type to search for a specific one.
- Sync icon: Pull the latest information from your websites. Hover over to see when your dashboard was last synced, or click to start a new sync (a progress bar will appear indicating the progress of the sync).
- Avatar & account name: Click to access Settings, Billing, tools (Template Builder, White Label, Collaborate, History), info sections (Service Status, Changelog), to contact support, or log out of your account. Here you can also apply for our early access program.
- Bell icon (top-right): View all dashboard notifications.
The left icon sidebar
This sidebar has four main icons that lead to different dashboard tabs:
- Overview: Displays widgets that summarize feature metrics across all your websites.
- Websites: Shows all your websites, with options for bulk management and assigning tags and clients.
- Clients: Displays the list of all your clients along with the option to manage them and add new clients.
- Add-ons: Displays the list of all your websites with the breakdown of active and inactive add-ons along with the option to activate or deactivate add-ons on multiple websites at once.
Each tab is explained in detail below.
Overview tab
When you select the Overview tab from the left icon sidebar, there will be several widgets that display metrics and information for all your websites. You can rearrange them by dragging and dropping.
Updates widget
It displays all available plugin, theme, translation, and WordPress core updates across all your websites.
You can select a checkbox next to the items you want to update, and then perform regular or Safe Updates (if you have premium Backups) or use the option to Update All at once, across all your websites.
When you click on individual plugin, theme, translation or WordPress core installation that needs to be updated, you’ll get an expanded view with the list of all websites where this update is available.
A yellow triangle next to an update indicates a known vulnerability, so you should prioritize these updates.
The default grouping of your updates is by item type (Plugins, Themes, WordPress) but you can group them by website by clicking the icon in the top right corner of the Updates widget.
Also, here you can choose to Ignore certain updates and they won’t show up in your ManageWP dashboard.
Optimization widget
Use the Optimization widget to tidy up your website’s post revisions and spam comments, as well as MB Overhead. Having too much spam, overhead, and/or post revisions can increase the weight on your database which will slow down your website over time.
You can choose what you wish to optimize and what websites to perform this action on or select Optimize All.
To change the number of post revisions to keep, adjust this option in Advanced Settings.
Services widget
This widget allows you to have an overview of your Backups, Security, Performance, Link Monitor, Uptime, SEO and Analytics for your websites. At a glance, you’ll see all the important information for your websites.
When you click each feature in the Services widget, you get to see more details.
Backups
Backups display an overview of all your websites with successfully completed Automatic backups, backups with Problems detected or Deactivated backups.
By clicking Automatic Backups, you’ll get the info on the last backup created for each website and an option to initiate a backup.
By clicking Deactivated backups you’ll see the websites without active backups and you’ll be able to activate them.
If there is a problem with your backup, you’ll see a Problems detected section. Click on it to get more details about the issue.
Security
Click the Security feature to see how many of your sites are Clean, have Problems Detected or have No Recent Checks.
Clicking each status will get you more details along with the option to initiate a new security check.
Performance
The Performance section shows if your sites are Fast, Standard, Slow, or if there are No Recent Checks.
Link monitor
Click the Link Monitor section to see which websites have broken links and which are free of issues and where Link Monitor is not enabled.
Uptime
Uptime displays how many of your sites are Up and running, which are with Paused monitors, Currently down or with Deactivated monitors. Click on each status to view more details.
SEO
Click your ranking status (Rankings up, Rankings down, No Change or No keywords) to get more in-depth display for each group of rankings.
Analytics
Analytics section displays weekly or monthly view of your websites’ statistics as a pageview total for all your websites. Here you can also Connect Google Analytics.Click your ranking status (Rankings up, Rankings down, No Change or No keywords) to get more in-depth display for each group of rankings.
Comments widget
The Comments widget displays all recent comments on all your websites as Pending and Approved and gives you one-stop shop to manage them. After you hover over an individual comment, you’ll have an option to Approve or Disapprove it, move it to Spam or Trash, or Delete it completely. You can also Delete all pending comments.
Websites tab
Websites tab displays all your websites that are added to ManageWP. Switch between a Thumbnail view and a List view by clicking the corresponding icons below your avatar.
Besides each website, there is a Status Icon that displays the status of your website in one of the following colors:
- Green – No updates available (everything is up to date)
- Orange – Updates available
- Red – Disconnected website
- Grey – Paused/Not synced website
A yellow triangle next to a website indicates a known vulnerability.
Additionally, in a List view, you’ll be able to see Tags and Clients associated with each website.
You can sort your websites by name, status & URL, client, or WordPress version in both Thumbnail view (by clicking the dropdown menu in the top-right corner) and List view (by clicking the corresponding item above the website list).
Hovering over an individual website
When you hover over an individual website, a set of additional options appears:
- Open Website Dashboard—Takes you to the single site view for that website. If your website is disconnected, you’ll see the Reconnect website icon instead and if it’s paused you’ll see the option to Un-pause website.
- Open WP Dashboard—Gets you to the WordPress admin area. This is available to connected websites only.
- View Backups—Takes you to the Backups page for that site.
- View Uptime Monitor—This icon is available for disconnected websites only. It takes you to the Uptime Monitor page for that site.
- Site Options—Provides a new screen where you can adjust multiple options and it will be described below.
- Star website—Mark your favorite websites, and they will be displayed at the top of your screen, collected separately. In List view, click the star icon and in the Thumbnail view, click the three dots and then Star website.
Edit site options
If you click Site Options, a new window will appear with several tabs:
- General—Here you can change Site Title, select the default user for logging in (via the Admin username dropdown), Reconnect Website, Refresh Thumbnail, Pause or Unpause Website, or Remove Website from your ManageWP dashboard.
- Tags/Clients—Assign a client and tags (up to 5) to your website.
- Google Analytics—Here you can select or change the associated property. Once the property is associated, you can pick which metrics to display.
- Advanced—In this tab, you can specify the protocol your website uses, which is particularly helpful when adding or removing SSL. If your site uses HTTP basic authentication, select the corresponding checkbox and enter the credentials to ensure it doesn’t interfere with the ManageWP connection. You can also hide updates from appearing in the ManageWP dashboard and discourage search engines from indexing the website.
- Safe Updates—if you have premium Backups enabled, here you can adjust settings for Safe Updates.
Bulk actions available from the Websites tab
When you select the checkbox next to one or more websites, you can perform the following actions on all selected websites simultaneously. After you click Tools at the top bar, you’ll be able to:
- Create Client Report.
- Add, activate, deactivate, and delete Plugins as well as schedule plugin Updates and Safe Updates.
- Add, activate, deactivate, and delete Themes as well as schedule theme Updates and Safe Updates.
- Add and manage WordPress Users.
After you click Tags and Clients in the top bar, you’ll be able to assign tags and clients to the selected websites. You can assign up to 5 tags per website.
Clients tab
The Clients tab gives you the overview of all your clients with their basic info and an option to Add new client in a top-right corner. For existing clients, here you can Assign website or check which Websites they already have assigned.
To edit client details for an individual client, click Settings. You’ll see options to change their basic info (first and last name, company name, email, phone number), image, assign websites and add a note, generate and schedule Client Reports and see the scheduled reports history.
In the Report History tab, there’s a list of all previous reports. You can click the date on each row for additional options. If you click the report title, the report will be downloaded.
In the Schedule Report Settings tab, you can make adjustments to the scheduling options.
Add-ons tab
The Add-ons tab lists all your websites that are added to ManageWP along with details about which premium add-ons are currently active or inactive for each site.
By selecting the checkbox next to one or more websites, you can manage add-ons in bulk. Click Activate Add-ons or Deactivate Add-ons to choose which tools you want to enable or disable across the selected websites. You can also click Tool Settings to adjust settings for Backups, Uptime Monitor, Security Check and Performance Check.
At the bottom of the Add-ons tab, you’ll see cost optimization suggestions, including bundle options and any applicable discounts. If you decide to activate a bundle, simply click Bundles at the top to open the page where you can enable or disable bundles.
The left filter sidebar
In the Overview, Websites, and Add-ons tabs, on the left, you’ll see an additional sidebar with filters, besides the icon sidebar. Here you can filter websites by:
- Add-on status (active/inactive for free and premium tools)
- Website status (connected, disconnected, paused, etc.)
- Tags (up to 5 per site)—you can use the wrench icon to create or edit tags. It will help keep your dashboard organized.
- Clients—you can use the wrench icon to create or edit clients.
- Language
- WordPress version
- PHP version
This filter is not visible in the Clients tab.
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Get to know your single site dashboard
After you select the website you would like to manage, either from the Websites tab or by using the Find a website field, you’ll get to a single site dashboard.
The top bar
In the single site dashboard, the top bar gives you quick access to key actions:
- Plus icon (top-left): Add new websites or use Template Builder.
- Find a Website field: Hover over it to see a list of your websites, or type to search for a specific one.
- Sync icon: Pull the latest information for this website only. Hover over to see when your website was last synced, or click to start a new sync (a progress bar will appear indicating the progress of the sync).
- Avatar & account name: Click to access Settings, Billing, tools (Template Builder, White Label, Collaborate, History), info sections (Service Status, Changelog), to contact support, or log out of your account. Here you can also apply for our early access program.
- Bell icon (top-right): View all dashboard notifications.
What’s below the top bar?
Just below the top bar, there’s another bar showing the back icon (to return to the full website list), clients and tags associated with the website, as well as hosting provider and WordPress version details.
On the right, if you click Advanced view, you can choose which widgets are displayed in your single site dashboard. The selected widgets will apply for all websites.
The left icon sidebar
Check out the main dashboard description for more details.
The left tool sidebar
At the top, you’ll see a website thumbnail generated from a snapshot of your site. Just below are the website name, URL, and a star icon you can click to mark the site as a favorite. Starred websites are grouped separately and shown above others in the Websites tab.
Next, you’ll find an option to log in to the WordPress admin area by clicking WP Admin. If your website is disconnected, the Reconnect option will be displayed instead. For paused websites, here you’ll be able to Unpause the website.
When you click Settings, you can adjust the following:
- General—Here you can change Site Title, select the default user for logging in (via the Admin username dropdown), Reconnect Website, Refresh Thumbnail, Pause or Unpause Website, or Remove Website from your ManageWP dashboard.
- Tags/Clients—Assign a client and tags (up to 5 per site) to your website.
- Google Analytics—Select or change the associated property. Once the property is associated, you can pick which metrics to display.
- Advanced—In this tab, you can specify the protocol your website uses, which is particularly helpful when adding or removing SSL. If your site uses HTTP basic authentication, select the corresponding checkbox and enter the credentials to ensure it doesn’t interfere with the ManageWP connection. You can also hide updates from appearing in the ManageWP dashboard and discourage search engines from indexing the website.
- Safe Updates—if you have premium Backups enabled, here you can adjust settings for Safe Updates.
At the top of the list of tools, you’ll have a Dashboard tab, which returns you to the single site dashboard overview after using any of the tools below.. Here you have a sync icon that instructs ManageWP to pull the latest information from this website only..
Just below, there’s a list of features you can click to access the corresponding tools:
When you click More Tools at the bottom, you’ll see the additional four items:
- System Info – detailed information about your website’s server, WordPress version, Worker version, and PHP version.
- Maintenance mode
- Code Snippets
- History
Central dashboard area
The central part of your dashboard contains widgets that display key metrics and insights for your website. You can rearrange them by clicking and dragging a widget’s name, allowing you to organize the layout to fit your workflow. If a widget is missing, click Advanced view at the top-right corner to ensure it’s enabled.
Updates widget
It displays available plugin, theme, translation, and WordPress core updates on the website.
You can select a checkbox next to the items you want to update, and then perform regular or Safe Updates (if you have premium Backups) or use the option to Update All at once.
A yellow triangle next to an update indicates a known vulnerability, so you should prioritize these updates.
By clicking the icon in the top right corner of the Updates widget, you’ll get the option to sort the updates by name or by vulnerabilities.
Also, here you can choose to Ignore certain updates and they won’t show up in your ManageWP dashboard.
Backups widget
If you have active Backups, here you’ll see the status of your latest backup and if you click View Backups, it will take you to the Backups page for that website. If you have premium Backups, next to View Backups, you can click the arrow to initiate a new backup or clone your website.
If you haven’t enabled Backups on this website yet, in this widget you’ll see only the option to Activate Backups.
Optimization widget
Use the Optimization widget to tidy up your website’s post revisions and spam comments, as well as MB Overhead (Database Performance row). Having too much spam, overhead, and/or post revisions can increase the weight on your database which will slow down your website over time.
You can choose what you wish to optimize and what websites to perform this action on or select Optimize All.
To change the number of post revisions to keep, adjust this option in Advanced Settings.
SEO widget
This widget shows how your website ranks for the keywords you’ve added and compares your performance against competitors. We refresh the results every Monday.
If you haven’t enabled SEO on this website yet, you’ll see only the option to Activate SEO.
Uptime widget
Use the Uptime widget to see the current status of your website as well as historical status changes.
If you haven’t enabled Uptime Monitor on this website yet, you’ll see only the option to Activate Uptime Monitor.
Analytics widget
By clicking the Analytics section, you can check out a weekly or monthly view of your website’s metrics. Here you can also Connect Google Analytics.
Comments widget
The Comments widget allows you to see all of the recent comments on your website, and filter them as Pending and Approved. After you hover over an individual comment, you’ll have an option to Approve or Disapprove it, move it to Spam or Trash, or Delete it completely. You can also Delete all pending comments.
Notes widget
Use this widget to make notes about this website, like what’s on your to-do list, for example. We don’t advise keeping credentials or other sensitive information here.
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