One of the most valuable pieces of information you can obtain about the performance of your page is how users are interacting with it. Without it, you can only guess as to what your users are thinking, and what grabs their attention. For a long time, like everyone else, I had to use trial and […]
How I Dropped My Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) To Zero
Last week, Google made waves by introducing a new bunch of KPIs with regards to page speed, calling them “Core Web Vitals”. In addition to refining some existing ones like changing “First Contentful Paint” (FCP) to “Largest Contentful Paint” (LCP), they introduced entirely new measurements. One of these is the “Cumulative Layout Shift” or CLS. […]
How To Test Your .htaccess File For Errors
Yesterday as I sat down to work, I took the time to update some plugins on my site. Based on my golden rule, I always wait until an updated plugin has been out for at least 4 days before applying the patch. This allows time for the developer to become aware of any new bugs, […]
Are 3rd Party Website Backup Services Secure?
In part 2 of my series on offsite backups, I discussed how “pull” backups work with services like DropMySite, CodeGuard, and Jetpack Backup. The idea is that they connect to your website from outside and download the changed files one by one, along with the database. I argued that they were more efficient than other […]
When Is It OK To Modify WordPress Plugins And Themes?
When you start delving a little more deeply into WordPress and want to customize things beyond what is offered by default via the GUI customization options, you enter the world of modifying code to suit your needs. At this point, it’s important to do things correctly. Every WordPress site tells you to be careful and […]
How Is WooCommerce Hosting Different?
Web hosting providers like to call their packages by many different names. “WordPress Hosting”, “Magenta Hosting”, “Odoo Hosting”, and more. Basically, whatever software or architecture is “hot” on the market, gets its own branded landing page. This gives the illusion that these packages are somehow different from ordinary web hosting in a meaningful way. But […]
Why I Gave Up Tracking My SEO Keywords
Some web hosts include SEO add-on packages that allow you to track a bunch of keywords on search engines. I’ve never recommended that users purchase these add-ons in the first place, but even if you need something like that, I feel it’s better value to get them separately rather than attached to an unrelated service […]
The RIGHT Way To Block PHP Files in Wp-Includes In WordPress
NameHero has a partnership with DropMySite to backup your website on a daily basis. One of the advantages of this, is that it allows you to see which files are modified – particularly, the error logs can be quite useful. Recently, this allowed me to isolate a recurring error logged in a “php_errorlog” file that […]
When Just “Web Hosting” Isn’t Good Enough
Pure web hosting services are dime a dozen. Provided a host fulfills some basic requirements like having DNS tools and hosting space, you can get your website online on any one of them. And for many, it’s a race to the bottom to see who can get away with making it as cheap as possible! […]
Why Amazon AWS Will Never Replace Web Hosting
The big tech giants are scary companies to compete with. I remember there was a time when Google was entering industry after industry, and the local players were petrified that it would destroy them. Folklore has is that VCs, when presented with a business proposal, used to ask, “What will you do if Google comes […]