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Why every website needs a 50,000 mile checkup
Hey, if WordPress is so great why do so many web developers offer maintenance plans? Is WordPress really that insecure? Fragile? Hackable? No! A well-built WordPress site on a good hosting plan is surprisingly secure. So… why should you still get a good WordPress maintenance plan? Here’s how I explain things to my clients: WordPress…
Read MoreAnswering the question “Why is email through Wordpress so complicated?”
Why aren’t website’s contact form messages showing up in my inbox? It’s a common problem. It’s a common question. Here’s an answer. On a Reddit support forum for WordPress users, in a now-deleted post, someone said they were having trouble getting their contact forms and other email delivered when using 3rd-party email providers like Microsoft’s…
Read MoreFrom the horse’s mouth – what content does Google look for?
Summary: Cool set of questions that Google looks for when ranking website content. You’ll often hear people say the best way to boost your ranking with Google is to have great, useful, relevant content. Which to be honest ought to be pretty obvious… but isn’t, given the zillions of ways people come up with to…
Read MoreDon’t just update WordPress, update your Zoom apps too
Just a reminder that for desktop users the Zoom app we use for meetings (including meetings to discuss maintaining, fixing, or building WordPress websites) doesn’t update automatically. And at least my Mac desktop version doesn’t even remind me to check for updates. Everyone else may have already known about this so maybe I only need…
Read MoreAre ThemeForest and other paid themes really that bad?
In a private Facebook group about WordPress speed someone asked an excellent question: I have a question about paid templates for WordPress, e.g. Themeforest.Is it true that cool looking templates, with e.g. animated buttons or an interesting mouse cursor, are definitely slower and less optimized than the simpler, more standard-looking ones? It’s true that there…
Read MoreHow cheap is “cheap” hosting vs a “cheap” VPN?
We’ve updated this post with new hosting information In a private Facebook group for WordPress hosting someone who’s trying to save as much money as possible asked a specific question about two hosting plans. They’d initially bought a plan from commodity provider HostGator but had been advised to switch a more premium SiteGround account. It…
Read MoreGood reasons not to rely (completely) on backup from (even really great) hosting plans
So another participant in a private Facebook group for WordPress users echoed something I’d said about the importance of making your own backups. Similar to David Innes I use [a commercial backup plugin] for Scheduled backups ([cloud-based storage firm] is my choice, but there are many others)…And a lot of people when backups have been discussed…
Read MoreSpring, 1998, building my first website with my son…
It’s funny how much things have changed since I built my first website back in 1997 or so. It might have been for a hand-coded “blog” I tried to manage all in HTML (not a good idea, but WordPress and precursors like MovableType weren’t really a thing yet.) Or it might have been for an…
Read MoreAbout WordPress and image compression
A contributor to a WordPress Facebook had a question about image compression: I have [an image-optimization] plugin installed to compress my images and I noticed while doing a bulk compression that there are multiples of the same image (in different sizes) that it compressed. I did not do this manually. It seems that something created…
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