WordPress guides

  • Database Cleanup 2023

    I’m presenting again on WooCommerce and WordPress database cleanup. This time my presentation is for our WooCommerce and WordPress Meetup group event. I’ve previously covered this topic in my WordCamp Los Angeles 2020 presentation and I posted on it in my blog post Cleaning up your WooCommerce database. This is a popular topic with evolving…

  • Blocks versus Page Builders

    Blocks came out in late 2018 initially for blog posts and page contents. The Block Editor project, originally named Gutenberg, has gradually expanded since. Starting January this year WordPress core introduced Block Themes (AKA Full Site Editing) where Blocks are used for templates, headers, footers, sidebars and more. That made 2022 a game changer because…

  • You’re running PHP 8 by now, right?

    WooCommerce had a little blip in this week’s release of version 7.1.0 where the PHP requirement was bumped to PHP 7.4 prematurely. They’ve fixed it, supporting PHP 7.2+ at the moment, but took the opportunity to issue a warning that PHP 7.4 is losing security support in just two weeks time. See PHP supported versions.…

  • Older Safari web browsers

    I’ve noticed a trend where several clients have forwarded to me trouble their users have faced using outdated versions of the Safari web browser. While it’s more typical to only support the latest version of popular web browsers that can normally be upgraded; there is meaningful traffic on the previous version of this browser –…

  • Tips on using LocalWP sandboxing

    June 2024 update: These days I recommend the lightening fast SpinupWP control panel connected to a Dedicated CPU Premium Intel server at Digital Ocean. This is faster than any local environment I’ve ever used. Remember to follow good security practices and password protect any dev environment. LocalWP, known as Local and formerly Local by Flywheel,…

  • WordPress blocks, templates, and themes

    Full Site Editing (FSE) is here. This was just released for production with WordPress 5.9 yesterday, January 25, 2022. This follows earlier development and testing of this new core technology via the Gutenberg beta tester plugin and a variety of block based themes that made early inroads into the tech. With full-site editing now in…

  • It’s time to upgrade sites to PHP 8.0

    PHP 8.0 was released over a year ago. Version 8.1 released this past November. That’s right – most of us are behind on this one! PHP 8.0 is a significant change that improves performance with a just-in-time compiler. While there’s clear benefits to making this upgrade as soon as possible, the reality today is most…

  • Who should have Administrator access?

    I often come across sites that have questionable WordPress administrator accounts. I work with clients to reduce this exposure. It’s dangerous offering full privilege accounts to anybody besides fully trusted and technically capable vendors and staff. Regular review is recommended since there tends to be shifts in staff and roles over time. Here’s why admin…

  • Dealing with Elementor bloat

    There is a performance cost to operating a page builder, Elementor being no exception. This effect can be mitigated by paying careful attention to the following.

  • Browser-safe fonts and page performance

    Fonts are one of the more critical web page performance items. Some sites load unnecessary fonts, font styles, font formats, failing to set them to load in display:swap mode, or failing to declare the unicode-range to load. Any of these can deteriorate performance. Thirty-plus fonts most devices already have There’s no need to load the…

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