Category: WordPress
-
How to Surface Archive Pages in WordPress Search with ElasticPress
Using Elasticsearch for your WordPress site search is a powerful feature. It allows for advanced faceting options and generating highly relevant search results. It’s possible to increase the weight of keywords in specific fields like titles and bylines, add a date decay algorithm, and much more. There are several powerful plugins like SearchPress and ElasticPress…
-
From Pixels to Words… Testing AI’s ALT Text Skills
The rise of AI has sparked countless debates about its potential for good and its risks for misuse. While the future remains unwritten, one application stands out today as undeniably impactful: AI generated ALT text. ALT text serves a dual purpose: it ensures screen readers can describe images to those who can’t see them and…
-
Scaling WordPress: Key Strategies for Handling High-Traffic and Large Databases
Scaling WordPress to handle massive amounts of content and traffic is a challenge that many organizations face, especially as their site grows in size and popularity. Every site is unique, but there are common obstacles encountered when building a WordPress site that can efficiently serve millions of users and manage vast amounts of content. Over…
-
How WordPress Empowers Content Teams: A Behind-the-Scenes Look
In Portland, Oregon, at WordCamp US 2024, I had the pleasure of presenting not just once, but twice. The energy at WordCamp was amazing—everyone was so friendly, and the exchange of ideas was inspiring. I received positive feedback from both of my talks, which covered different aspects of how WordPress can power large-scale, content-driven sites.…
-
From Block Editor to Business Rules: Customizing WordPress for Large-Scale Sites
One of WordPress’s most powerful tools is the Gutenberg Block Editor. Out of the box, it provides a modern and flexible content creation experience. With custom blocks and workflows, it can be transformed into a tool tailored to an organization’s editorial needs—whether for SEO, acquisition, or revenue generation. The block editor is a true module…
-
Enhancing WordPress Stability: Addressing Gutenberg Block Editor Preloading Issues
As a Principal Software Architect at Alley, I’m constantly working to ensure the stability and performance of one of the largest WordPress installations in the world. Our team recently tackled a significant issue in the Gutenberg block editor, which prompted a valuable contribution to our open-source plugin, Alleyvate. In this post, I’ll share how I…
-
My First Contribution to WordPress Core: Fixing the Metabox Data Saving Issue
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve become a WordPress core contributor! This has been a long-time goal of mine, and I’m proud to finally achieve it. My career in software development has largely focused on creating enterprise-level WordPress websites, and contributing to the core felt like a natural next step to give back to the…
-
WordPress WP_Query Tip: Always Specify Post Status
One of the quirks with working with WordPress queries is that the default arguments may not be suitable for your application. WordPress was originally a blogging platform. Now its use has expanded to many other types of websites, including news sites and e-commerce sites. Furthermore, with the advent of the Gutenberg block editor and Full…
-
If you know JavaScript, Learn PHP (Career Advice for Software Developers)
JavaScript is a popular first programming language. It is the language taught in frontend web development courses. JavaScript frameworks like React are very popular. With HTML & CSS & JavaScript, you have the perfect skillset to create a really awesome website. You can also build mobile apps with JavaScript.
-
Monitoring Website Downtime for Free
I’ve been using Uptime Robot to keep track of my site uptime for years now. I’ve been asked before “Does it work?” and my answer is a resounding “Hell, yes!” It’s a great business idea, and well executed. They’re doing everything correctly, as far as I can tell. They monitor up to 50 sites for…