WordPress

Do you ever use the “Tools” section in the backend of your WordPress site? Most bloggers + business owners don’t and that has a lot to do with the fact that not much lived there. Until WordPress introduced Site Health. What is Site Health This new feature of WordPress 5.2 + above gives you the ability to check the status of your site’s health based on criteria deemed important by the folks at WordPress. Aka it’s WordPress’s way of letting you know if your site is doing well or at…

The term “widget” isn’t specific to WordPress. In fact, Merriam-Webster has an entry for the noun widget. But today we are defining widget as it applies to WordPress websites + blogs. Not what it means for any piece of software. WordPress widgets According to WordPress.org, “widgets add content and features to your sidebars.” If your theme has a sidebar, odds are you can head to Appearance > Widgets + see a place to add elements to a sidebar. Default WordPress widgets include Categories, Search, Navigation Menus + Text — which…

They can have different names, depending on who you’re talking to. Theme, template, layout, skin + design are all options that I’ve heard used before. Whatever you choose to call them, the quick explanation is that you affect the look of your website with your WordPress theme. I stick with the lingo that WordPress uses too. Which is why I talk about themes + not templates or skins. Notice that when you click on “Appearance” in your left hand menu, the options are Themes and Theme Editor? WordPress vs WordPress…

In December 2018, WordPress released version 5.0 of the open-source blogging tool. With this major update, they introduced the Gutenberg editor + Gutenberg blocks. Instead of treating pages + posts like traditional Word documents, WordPress now lets site owners add components to each page with a more visual approach. First things first. If you don’t see blocks on your new page or post, make sure you aren’t using the Classic Editor plugin. This plugin was created for website owners that didn’t want to use Gutenberg OR had issues with their…

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of automation + time-saving techniques. (This post, this post + this post are evidence.) Which is why I also love using keyboard + WordPress shortcuts as much as humanly possible. Time is money, so saving time makes me a happy camper. Before I get too geeky about the topic, let’s start with a definition of each: Automation: an automatically performed task or function. i.e. something that you configure/program/setup + then don’t have to think about or touch again. Keyboard shortcuts: a keystroke or pattern that invokes a specific function within…

Are you ready to make your site faster + less enticing for hackers? The great news is that it’s pretty easy to secure WordPress after installing it. While these steps are not required to use WordPress, they will help you avoid some shitty situations or needing us to unhack your site. This post is the last part of a series in setting up your own WordPress website, DIY style. If you missed the third post, check it out here. The most simple way to secure WordPress is by clearing out the…

When it’s time to dig into creating your WordPress site, you’ll need 3 things — a domain, a hosting account + a database. I know they all sound nerdy, cause they are. But once you know what steps to follow, it only takes a few minutes of work to get started with WordPress. This post is the first part of a series in setting up your own WordPress website, DIY style. Get started with WordPress, the essentials Already have your domain + hosting account? Then you can skip ahead in…

If you’ve found yourself swearing at WordPress, you’re not alone. Setting up, updating and maintaining your own website can be headache-inducing — no matter what platform you’ve picked. And after working with this platform for over a decade, I realized that people don’t actually hate WordPress. They hate what has cropped up because of its features. Shitty WordPress code WordPress itself isn’t poorly coded. It’s a pretty spectacular tool thanks to years of hard work from the team behind it. But because WordPress is open-source, anyone can have at it….