Development

In this tutorial, we will talk about how to style web links via CSS. Links are a central part of any website. They allow you to move visitors on to other parts of it, refer to sources to underline the points you are making, help readers discover more relevant blog posts, and more. Learning how to change their design allows you to make sure that are recognizable as links and fit the rest of your website. CSS offers many different ways and properties for that, so lets go over them one by one. Link Standards and Default Link Styling Before […]

Making changes to your live WordPress website can be time-consuming and risky. If something goes wrong during an update, you can lose all your work and inconvenience your site visitors. Fortunately, by using a local development environment for your site, you can make changes in private. You’ll have a safe space to build and edit your website without affecting the live version. In this post, we’re going to explain more about what a local WordPress environment is. Then, we’ll explore four cases when it makes sense to use one. Let’s get started! An Introduction to Local WordPress Development A local […]

In this post, we’ll talk about how to use the WordPress pattern directory for faster website development. Whether you’re a newbie to WordPress or a grizzled pro, approaching WordPress block patterns might be a bit strange. However, when used correctly, they offer a way of quickly building complex page layouts much faster. That’s why familiarizing yourself with block patterns and the pattern directory offers numerous benefits for your web development workflow.  Today, we’ll discuss what some of those benefits are, offer up details on what block patterns exist, and then show you how to use the block pattern directory to […]

Local environments are a lifesaver for developers, and tools like Local make them easy to get up and running on your work machine. The only hitch comes when it’s time to deploy your local development site to your server. It can be a confusing process, especially if you’ve never worked with Local before. How does it work? Where to start? Stuck on the final step? Thankfully, there are an abundance of options to push your local environment live. You can do it with the Local tool itself, with a managed hosting solution like Flywheel, or with a variety of WordPress […]

Having problems arise on a website or even within the local installation of a website can be nerve-racking. After all, site performance issues or bugs can result in site downtime. And site downtime can mean lost traffic, missed opportunities, and even lost revenue. Thankfully, numerous debugging solutions exist for identifying and repairing site issues. But how can you know what will work best for your situation?  In Local, there’s a multi-pronged approach available for debugging. Here, we’ll be discussing the default debug options included with Local, as well as ways to identify errors, and additional add-ons you can use for […]

Are you looking to simplify your WordPress website? Perhaps you’re finding your dynamic website too slow, or maybe you’ve realized there’s a lot of the back end you don’t need. To resolve those issues, you can generate a static version of your website. This can help boost its performance and security. Although we wouldn’t recommend static sites for every use case, they can be a great option for small websites that don’t need updating often.  In this post, we’ll start by discussing the differences between static and dynamic websites. Then we’ll show you three ways to build a static WordPress […]

Serving your website over a secure connection is important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and data protection. That’s why it’s a good idea to configure your site to use HTTP/2. However, figuring out how to go about it can be tricky. The good news is that you can complete the process in a few simple steps. You’ll need to check whether your server currently supports the latest HTTP protocol, then run a few commands to enable it (assuming your service provider hasn’t already done so). In this post, we’ll explain what HTTP/2 is and its benefits. Then, we’ll discuss how […]

If you aim to build plugins for WordPress, making use of Git workflows can be extremely beneficial, especially to foster collaboration. However, figuring out how to set everything up is a challenge when you’re new to the process. Perhaps you’ve never seen Git before and don’t know how it works? Or maybe you’re unsure as to how it use it with Local?  Today, we’ll go over all of that. This post will discuss what Git is and how it works, then show you how to use it in Local. You will learn how to install Git, create a Git repository […]

In a recent article for The WP Minute, I shared my newfound appreciation of WordPress as an open source project and my commitment to giving back. I believe that WordPress is for everyone – from the most technical to the least. It is, after all, intended to democratize publishing. In this article I’d like to break down why no-code or low-code contributions to WordPress are vital to the project, ideas for tracking & celebrating those types of contributions, and how anyone can get started contributing to WordPress. Why no code contributions to WordPress matter As mentioned above, the WordPress community […]

Conducting site backups on a regular basis, whether local or in the cloud, can be a time-consuming task. So much so, that many site owners will forego it altogether, which can lead to significant data loss and even lost revenue. And then, all that concern over time lost performing backups seems like small potatoes compared to the time and money lost when your data vanishes into thin air.  Luckily, making use of a straightforward backup tool can save you time and effort, and ensure the safety of your data with minimal fuss.  The Cloud Backups add-on for Local (aka Local […]