You have probably seen the Gutenberg prompts on your website, letting you know that a new editor is coming to WordPress. In this post I want to tell you what Gutenberg is, how it will impact your WordPress site, and how to negate any problems it introduces.  Lastly I’m offering a testing service for you to trial the new editor in a safe environment. What Is Gutenberg? It’s a replacement for the standard WordPress text editor, it provides a visual way to drag and drop sections of content and arrange them on your page. If you have used one of […]

I cannot believe another year has sped past us. It’s the time of year when I write my annual post about installing festive plugins to decorate your website. There are dozens of plugins which allow you to jazz up your site, here are my favourites. WP Super Snow Have a flurry of snowflakes falling over the header of your website. WP Super Snow (Falling Snow, Customizable) Xmas Lights Get a string of twinkly lights for the header of your website Xmas Lights Christmas Music Drive your site visitors to the very edge of madness with Jingle Bells on a recurring loop. Christmas […]

On this day, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. This coming Sunday, the 12th of November we observe Remembrance day in the UK (and other Commonwealth Countries) so in the spirit of peace and reconciliation, I want to end my war with the Grammar Nazis. To do this I’ve started to use a tool called Grammarly which will hopefully pick up more of my spelling and grammar errors and stop the Grammar Nazis in their tracks. What Is Grammarly? Grammarly is a spell checking and grammar correcting software […]

As you are wondering the world wide interwebs, you may have noticed a new thing, websites are asking if you want push notifications when the site update. In this post I’m going to talk about WordPress web push notifications and do you need them. What Is WordPress Web Push Notifications When you visit a site with a supported browser such as Google Chrome a popup will appear on your screen asking if you want to get notifications. Already I’m annoyed yet another popup! I’ve gone for a simple red icon bottom right of the screen. You don’t need to enter any […]

What is two phase authentication?  I’ll tell you, it’s an additional control you can add to you WordPress site to increase security. Phase One The first phase of authentication is your standard WordPress login user ID and password. Phase Two You are asked to enter a code which is sent to a device, usually your mobile phone. Types Of Phase Two Authentication There are a number of ways the code for phase two here are some examples: An app that give you a code You are sent a text message with a code Phase Two Has An Expiration Date The […]

“Why has my site been hacked?”. I hear this a lot from site owners who’s site has been attacked, and I inevitably tell them. “IT’S PROBABLY NOT PERSONAL” People feel violated about a hacked, and they have a need to know why this particular blog has been targeted.  In this blog post I want to shine a light on the motivation behind a hack. Why Sites Get Hacked? Sites are hacked for a number of reasons, here are the tops reasons I see: For kicks – there is an intellectual challenge to hacking a site, and some people do it […]