Why Open-Source Software is Important For Your Website

People make decisions between proprietary (closed-source) software and open-source software daily without even realizing it. Do you own an Android phone or an iPhone? Are you browsing the internet with the Safari browser or Firefox? Internet Explorer or Chrome? Open-source software has a significant place in the world and in our lives, and that is especially true when it comes to all-things-internet-related. Chrome, Firefox, and the new Microsoft Edge browser are all open-source. As is the Android mobile operating system. At least a third (probably significantly more than that) of all websites are hosted on servers running Linux, an open-source operating system, and more than a third of all websites run on WordPress and many more are on Drupal, Magento, Joomla, and other open-source content management systems.

WordPress Pages vs Posts: What’s the Difference?

WordPRess Pages vs Posts: What's the Difference?

A standard WordPress installation offers two different post types: Posts and Pages. If you’ve never worked with WordPress before, you may be asking yourself, “What’s the difference?” Both posts and pages have nearly identical editing interfaces, and at a glance, it is not obvious when to use each post type. If you find yourself asking these questions, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’re going to break down the differences between WordPress posts and pages and give you the confidence you need to know when to use each one.

How to Speed Up a WordPress Website

Slow WordPress Site

Are you frustrated by your slow WordPress site? Do you routinely receive emails from your user base complaining about the site speed? Fortunately there are many ways to speed up a WordPress website. There isn’t one magic bullet to solve all problems, but a combination of the below will get your site up to speed in no time.

Picking a WordPress Theme … In the Age of Gutenberg

This was going to just be a post about WordPress themes. We were going to talk about why you might want to pick one type of theme over another (and we’ll still get to that). But when you look into what is happening in the world of WordPress themes right now, you start seeing articles and posts with titles like this one: The End of WordPress Themes is in Sight. And that’s worth talking about. That headline might be a bit extreme, but there is definitely a change in the role themes play looming on the horizon.

WordPress Redirection

As your WordPress website evolves over time it is inevitable that you will remove old pages, rename pages, and add new pages.  This is especially true when completing a redesign project or content restructuring.  Another common instance we see this occur is when an organization grows, changes the business model, or merges with another organization.  When this happens, you need to take special care to ensure that any page URLs that were removed or changed are properly redirected to an existing page, otherwise your site will generate what are called ‘not found errors’ until search engines like Google fully re-index the site (which can take some time).  Also, any links back to the site you or others posted on social media, online directories, or via other site’s blog comments which no longer exist will return that same dreaded ‘not found error’.  These external links, called ‘back links’, are especially important for search engine optimization (SEO) not to mention user experience (linking to a ‘page not found’ as a first impression of your website is far from ideal).  Oh, and those ‘not found errors’?  Too many of them can have a negative effect on SEO too.  

User Testing: Find the Bugs in Your Website Before Your Customers Do

bug on leaf

Recently we provided some tips on successfully launching a Magento Ecommerce site. Regardless of what type of website your are building, there really is no better way to prepare for launch than allowing real users to interact with the site. User testing is an excellent way to find all the bugs you may have overlooked before your live customers discover them.

Is gtag.js the same as Google Tag Manager?

Google Analytics is one of the most popular Analytics platforms out there, allowing site owners to monitor traffic to their website. It lets you see how many visitors you’re receiving, where they’re coming from, and what pages they are looking at. It’s an indispensable tool for figuring out how users are interacting with your website.

Migrating Subscribers and Recurring Payments into WordPress

E-commerce can be complicated, tricky and is absolutely essential for many modern websites. Sometimes, we encounter clients for whom getting things set up right the first time was so challenging that they just don’t ever want to mess with it again, let alone try to migrate to a new site or even a new platform. So they end up settling for what “works” instead of figuring out how to make it better.

Magento 2.3 – Improved Security & Performance

We have developed Magento sites for many years, and have watched the platform evolve from the early days of Magento 1.x up to the state-of-the-art sophistication of the Magento 2.3.x environment. The Magento ecosystem is always being improved over time, and because it powers tens of thousands of ecommerce sites, it is a common target for hackers.

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