Caring for your WordPress site
Security
“All I want to know is: are you a good bot or a bad bot?”
“But I’m not a bot at all.”
Sorry, weird allusion to The Wizard of Oz.
Internets bots abound, collecting data 24/7. Most of them are harmless and helpful. Some are bad.
iThemes (soon to be rebranded as SolidWP) recently published an extensive guide to bots and particularly, how to deal with bad bots (spoiler: get iThemes Security Pro and it will deal with them for you).
Performance / SEO
If your website has images (which it does), you might have heard that those images need ALT-tags.
If you don’t know what that means—and even if you do—you should learn what they are, why they’re important, and how to best use them.
Education
Most website owners and managers know they need to update their site with fresh content. One of the easiest ways to do this is by adding a blog.
Except maintaining a consistent blog schedule is not as easy as it sounds (personal experience speaking here).
If you’re struggling to maintain a sustainable social media schedule, here’s a nicely designed blogging planner for about $20. It also includes pages for social media, goal tracking, and more.
Caring for Clients
Last week, a client asked me to use a company video on their Home page.
Usually, I recommend creating a YouTube channel, posting videos there, and then embedding the YouTube video on the website.
But for a hero image, you can simply upload the video to your hosting server (via WordPress dashboard > Media Library) and then use the video wherever you would normally use a background image. How to do this depends on your theme and site builder.
What is harder to find is the optimal size and formats for this application.
Here’s the most concise guide I could find: Video Background Spec Recommendations
Caring for Yourself
Apparently, the average American spends 93% of their time indoors.
If you spend a lot of time working on your website, that might even be higher.
Yikes.
Forest bathing is a great solution, but at least begin by stepping outside for 30 minutes.
ToolBox
I’ve used iThemes Security to help protect dozens of WordPress website over the past 10+ years.
It works so well, I have time to go for daily, peaceful walks in the forest.
Do you maintain your own WordPress website?
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