A look at Google’s New Web Stories Plugin for WordPress
Wait, Stories for Google?! Yes, you heard that right! How we consume content has certainly changed over the years with social media growing in popularity. Now there’s a new way to stand out among the millions of blog posts published every day called Google Web Stories. What are Web Stories? Web Stories are a free,…
50+ WordPress plugins across 10 essential categories
One of the major advantages to having a self-hosted WordPress (wordpress.org) site is being able to access over 50,000 plugins in the WordPress Plugins Directory and hundreds more premium plugins available all over the web. Plugins allow you to easily add extra functionality to your blog without having to manually code it yourself. Here are…
Want to turn your WordPress site into an e-commerce store? Here are 3 plugins that will add shop functionality to your site
Are you looking to build an online store using WordPress but not sure how to go about it? It can be overwhelming trying to figure out the best option to get started with. So here are three of the most popular e-commece plugins available for WordPress users. 1. WooCommerce WooCommerce [affiliate link] is one of…
Gain more insights about your blog with Google Site Kit
We have several different hats as bloggers and freelancers. And because of that it can be quite easy to drop the ball on the webmaster tasks we should be doing – especially when we’re busy creating content, managing social media and marketing our latest offering. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the amazing tools offered…
WordPress missed schedule error: why your scheduled post didn’t publish and how to fix it
You spend a lot of time creating a post, set the date and click schedule. Easy, right? Well, no! If you regularly schedule content on WordPress you know the frustration of a missed schedule error, which stops your post from publishing correctly. I’m going to share a quick solution with you to prevent this from…
How to create Custom Post Types on WordPress
One of the reasons WordPress powers more than 39% of the internet is down to its versatility. WordPress uses more than just posts and pages to organise content. One way you can expand your site from being “just a blog” to being a flexible bespoke website is using custom post types. In this post, I’ll explain…
How to create a sitemap for your WordPress blog (and why you should!)
If you’ve ever read anything about SEO, you’ve probably come across the term sitemap. If that’s the case, then you have probably read that you should have one and that you should tell search engines about it. If you have no idea what they are, how to create one or why you should submit it…
How to safely update WordPress, Themes and Plugins
Ready to update your WordPress version, plugin(s) or theme but not sure where to start and afraid something might go wrong? While this is understandable, it is important to use the latest version of WordPress, plugins and theme for the best security and performance of your website. How to update WordPress themes and plugins Outdated themes…
How to access your WordPress files via FTP using FileZilla (for beginners)
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the need for bloggers to understand the technical side of their websites. This post will show you how to set up and login to an FTP client and access your WordPress files. Related: Hosting 101 – complete guide to web hosting What is FTP/SFTP? FTP is short…
Automatically backup your WordPress site for free using UpdraftPlus
There are several free and paid plugins that will automatically backup your WordPress site, today I’ll show you how to schedule backups using UpdraftPlus. It is one of the most popular free WordPress backup plugins available. It currently has over 2 million active installations and 3,000+ 5 star reviews. UpdraftPlus [affiliate link] allows you to…
Hide Pinterest Vertical Images on WordPress and Blogger (while staying on Google’s good side!)
As a blogger, Pinterest has the potential to drive huge amounts of traffic to your site. Optimising your blog posts specifically for Pinterest by using vertical images is important, but sometimes it doesn’t suit to have such a long image in your post. One technique is to hide vertical images in your post so that…
Need to show a brand your content before publishing? Here’s how others can preview your post on WordPress…
There are times with blogging where you’ll want to let someone see the finished formatted blog post before you hit publish. To do this, you could send them a screenshot of the post preview or set up a user account letting them login… but neither of these solutions are ideal. Instead try the WordPress plugin…
5 basic but must have WordPress plugins
One of the most popular things about WordPress is the ability to instal plugins. There is literally a plugin for everything and usually they are pretty easy to work with! With so many out there it’s hard to know what to choose so here are some basic plugins that I think are the most necessary…
Essential security tips for WordPress users to avoid being hacked
One thing you have to think about when you go self-hosted with WordPress is security. It’s better to be safe than sorry and decrease the risk of being hacked, after all the time and resources that goes into building a site. Hacks are typically done at random by bots that scan for non-secure sites. Here…
How to fight spam comments on WordPress
Spam is probably one of the worst things about running a blog. It’s a tough situation because you want to make it difficult for spammers but easy for your readers to comment. It’s best to avoid things like word verification or CAPTCHA. They are pretty difficult to read and can be time consuming. I previously…
