Any good content marketer worth his or her salt knows the value of using links in their content. It's a good strategy to practice - whether you're linking internally to content you've written in the past or to external resources you mention in posts. However, a lot of people overlook a small, single detail that could mean the difference between someone staying on their website…
It's no secret that I love WordPress. I've built this site on it, for one, but I brag that I've used WordPress for nearly all of the projects I've done over the last few years. Other platforms have come and gone, but WordPress has remained steadily at the top of my list of "must-use" tools. My workflow has changed, but it still all centers…
Just in time for Christmas, the amazing WordPress contribution team is getting geared up to release WordPress 4.1 on December 16. Right now, we can settle for the "WordPress 4.1 Release Candidate" In case you missed it, here's what to expect from WordPress 4.1: A new theme, Twenty Fifteen. It's more blog focused, and is very much designed for mobile as well as desktop. A…
WooCommerce is one of the most powerful WordPress eCommerce solutions on the market. Out of the box, it does everything you'd expect an eCommerce system to do: Host products Have a scannable product listing Take orders for products Accept payments through PayPal Allow people to use coupons But, sometimes, you need to think outside of the box. Sometimes the default functionality is great, but…
Since I've switched to my new design, I've also done quite a bit of cleanup work on the content side of things. I pruned a lot of old articles that weren't bringing in search traffic (and weren't related to the site anymore), cleaned up a lot of the categories, and set my permalink structure to something that was a little easier to digest. The…
If you run a blog (or a church site with some sort of event calendar or news section), having a place where your visitors and members can share your content is absolutely invaluable. Sometimes all it takes is for people to start spreading the word about an event. By giving them the chance to do so, you increase your chances for people to know what's…
No site is complete without having a contact form of some kind on it. Whether you use it for lead generation, user submitted content, or just to have people stop and say hello, having a form visitors can easily fill out to send you a message is crucial. WordPress is privileged to have an amazing selection of contact forms, both free and paid, that…
If I were to mention to a casual WordPress user something about the WordPress Heartbeat API, most would have never even heard of it, much less know that it's been in WordPress since version 3.6(!) with very little fanfare. But, as it turns out, the Heartbeat API has gained traction in the developer community, as people are starting to utilize it to create some…
Jetpack - WordPress' popular "modular" plugin - released a major update on May 20th, and with it came a slew of major design changes and a few additions to the plugin, dubbed "Jetpack 3.0". Those familiar with Jetpack will recognize a lot of the same great functions you know and love - just wrapped in a nice, pretty shell. Let's dive in and see just what's changed,…
If you're a WordPress developer, migrating a finished development project can be one of the trickiest parts. There's moving parts in many places that have to be taken into consideration, and migration is (unfortunately) where WordPress actually could use some improvement. However, it's a necessary evil - one that I've done almost daily for a few years now. I've developed a nice system to…