WordPress guides

  • Hello Elementor. Goodbye bloated themes

    My favorite WordPress and WooCommerce theme nowadays is Hello Elementor. It’s more of a theme placeholder than a traditional theme really. Haven’t you heard? Themes are dying!

  • WordPress as a component system

    Remember component stereo systems? WordPress is a component system too. Or it’s supposed to be if you’re using it optimally. From sites I’ve inherited I’ve observed developers breaking this by: WordPress is best used as its core, hosting, theme, and plugin components. Add to that a thin layer of custom design code or business rules…

  • WordCamp LAX 2020 presentation

    Video on database cleanup, prune legacy plugin and theme cruft to free-up resources

  • Abandonment issues

    Theme and plugin abandonment is common. Themes and plugins need to be updated about monthly to reflect testing with latest core components, addressing community requests, fixing issues and developing new features. It takes a critical mass for the business side to work.

  • WordPress Santa Clarita presentation

    I’m presenting on the topic Database Cleanup at two events coming up. Everyone’s invited! The first venue will be WordPress Santa Clarita Valley Meetup the evening of Tuesday Sep 15th 7:00pm over Zoom. The second venue will be taking place mid October and will be announced soon…

  • Local WordPress development update

    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. There’s myriad options for local WordPress development environments. Some…

  • It’s just like using a word processor

    Think of the WordPress block editor as an ever-expanding word processor for your website.

  • Making good plugin choices

    Plugin decisions tell me a lot about how the site was put together. Each plugin consumes resources and slows down a site, particularly on weaker hosting. Plugins can also clog-up the database by caching a bunch of data or storing oversized settings…

  • PHP 7.4 is here and performing well

    WordPress hosting companies are notoriously behind in upgrading PHP – the web service that processes a website’s data and logical code into HTML output. The cost of this delay is enormous in terms of website maintenance and performance. The jump from PHP v5 to v7 was a big one that required software updates and often…

  • Giving out Administrator access

    Let’s say you’ve reported a bug that you’ve observed in a theme or plugin. Good job by the way! Should you provide the developer admin access to your production site so they can diagnose or repair the issue? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Blog categories