For those of us who manage our clients’ websites, we create new WordPress websites all the time. Perhaps you’re starting one from scratch for a customer or are migrating to a new server and need to re-create the same setup. For everyone like this, it can be a pain to install a bunch of WordPress […]
With ChatGPT AI, Forums Are The Future Of The Web
I’d recently written about how to write so that your content compares favorably with AI. The idea was that since AI can only synthesize what’s already out there, the way forward is to create content that can’t be synthesized. Opinions and writing in the first person are the best ways to do this. However, I […]
Google Analytics “Site Speed” Alternatives?
I’d written earlier about Google discontinuing support for Universal Analytics and migrating everyone to GA4. Unfortunately for most of us, we can’t replace Google Analytics just yet, even though plenty of solutions offer overlapping functionality. But one area where we’ll have to look for an alternative is in measuring site speed. Right now, Google Analytics […]
Should You Worry About Spam Backlinks?
A few years back, someone or something started to inundate my site with spam backlinks in what I can only assume is an attempt at “negative SEO”. These attacks have continued on my site to this day. Ahrefs, for example, regularly shows me new websites that link back to my site with anchor text involving […]
Get To The Point, Because A Google Crackdown On AI Is Coming
How many of us regularly append “reddit’ or “site:reddit.com” to a query on Google? I know I do it regularly, and I suspect you do too. And the reason is that Google search results are getting worse when it comes to queries that seek the opinions of real people. Most articles on the web are […]
How To Disable Inbound Mail On A Managed VPS
Updated: January 4, 2024 If you’re like me, you don’t use your VPS server for incoming mail. Instead, I only want to receive e-mails from my VPS for server events. But the hassle of configuring an incoming mail server, dealing with spam, storage issues, and more are too much for me. Instead, I outsource all […]
How To Ensure That Google Shows The Whole Title
There’s no point in carefully crafting your page title if Google doesn’t show it! Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to tell if Google will truncate your title. There are some shorthand guidelines. For example, we’re told that your title length must be below 66 characters. But this isn’t true. Sometimes Google cuts off titles that […]
How To Prevent Simple DDoS Attacks On A VPS
For ordinary people, VPS security measures need to start with preventing the most frequent threats and only later focus on the rare ones. A true DDoS attack can be impossible to mitigate for a single server – merely processing each request uses some resources, and a full-fledged attack can quickly cripple a server. For example, […]
How To Ensure Your VPS Server Emails Aren’t Marked As Spam
If you’re like me, you rely on e-mails from your VPS server to inform you about important activities like backups, updates, and expiring SSL certificates. If you properly set up notifications, you minimize your time logging into your VPS and checking stuff. So it’s extremely important to ensure that these e-mails reach you on time. […]
Why Changing Your WordPress Theme Isn’t A Good Idea
Like most of you, I’ve repeatedly considered changing the WordPress theme on my site because I sometimes get into the mood to “keep it modern”. I look at the latest frameworks like Genesis and GeneratePress and hear about how they adhere to the latest coding standards and whatnot. But then, when I consider the work […]