WordPress has climbed to great heights in the last 14 years. What started as a blogging platform today powers more than 28 percent of the Internet. The dynamic CMS can be used to create anything from a portfolio to enterprise site. The first annual International WordPress Awards (IWP) is looking to celebrate some of the most …
Torque Toons: Wapuu Down Under
This week was the third WordCamp Brisbane and it looks like it was a big hit. But it got me wondering what it must have been like when Wapuu, the WordPress mascot, first started appearing at meet-ups around the world.
How WordPress Makes It Easy to Combine Content and Commerce
Content and commerce are two of the main driving forces of the online economy. In the end, most websites come down to creating content and/or selling stuff. It makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, we are all here to earn a living. Bloggers need to monetize their site to live off of their writing. Online …
Simple Yet Proven Ways To Boost Your WordPress Website Speed
Speeding up the website is one of the most crucial ways to bring more success for your business. It can make or break a brand reputation among customers. In 2010, Google stated that site speed is the major facet which truly impacts search results and rankings. According to the surveys, when a page loads slowly, …
3 Ways to Protect Your WordPress Website Without a Dedicated Plugin
Developers are a resourceful bunch – when an issue arises, you’ll tend to develop your own solutions. Website security is no different, although it may be worth considering the extra liability involved. While there are a number of security plugins already on the market, you can easily update your theme’s functions.php file to add a …
How to Start a WordPress Blog for Your School or University
In the modern world of social media, having an online presence is essential if you want to spread the word about anything. That includes making prospective students and parents aware of your school or university. If you want to get people interested in attending your organization, as well as letting parents know about what is …
An In-depth Tutorial on How to Use Yoast SEO (Updated 2017!)
Question: Which plugin appears first in Google when you type in “WordPress SEO,” has over one million active installs, a 4.8-star rating in the WordPress directory and is a regular on the favorite plugins list? If you just answered Yoast SEO you would be correct. The plugin by Team Yoast is one of the best …
Torque Toons: Zen and the Art of Distraction Free Blog Maintenance
Last week, I shared a short video review of the upcoming Gutenberg Editor. While I loved the minimal and “distraction free” format of the new editor while writing, it ended up being very distracting whenever I needed to do anything else, like add an image between two paragraphs that I’d already written, or adding a …
Using BrowserSync for Cross-Browser Testing
One crucial component in the process of developing a website is making sure your site is compatible with all target devices and browsers. While in an ideal world, every end-user would be using the latest versions of contemporary browsers such as Chrome or Firefox, this is, unfortunately, not always the case. A site’s content and …
A Practical Guide to Unit Testing Your Code
I’ve lost count of the number of posts I’ve read about unit testing; how to set it up, why you should do it, and what tools to use. It’s something I’ve been pushing myself to do and get better at but I’ve always struggled to translate what I’ve read about testing into writing tests for …
Implementing the Repository Pattern in WordPress
One of the many advantages of object-oriented programing is that it allows us to write more descriptive code — code that by design has to be used a specific way. This helps move us from conventions to programmed rules in our code. That’s good, but it can complicate things. Arrays and standard class objects can …
A Developer’s Checklist for Redesigning Your Clients’ Websites
One of the biggest tasks you can undertake with a client is a complete redesign of their website. However, WordPress has a myriad of moving parts, which can make producing consistent work a challenge. When tackling a redesign project, you’ll benefit from a clear checklist to guide you through the process. Everyone has their own …
