Imagine you run a WordPress blog for boat repair and product reviews. You have a significant reader base who love your in-depth analysis, but recently, you’ve been receiving feedback about slow load times. You’ve noticed a slight drop in traffic as well, which might be due to the slow speed. Now, you decide to take action to optimize your website speed.
The post “WordPress Speed Need a Boost? Here’s What You Need to Know” first appeared on WP Mayor.
If you use Yoast SEO on your site, you’re probably familiar with features like the SEO analysis or the snippet preview. You might also know our inclusive language analysis, and how easily you can link to related posts or create redirects in the premium version of the plugin. But there’s (much) more! For instance, the Yoast SEO plugin has so-called hidden features. You won’t find them in your settings, but they do great work. Today, we’ll dive into these hidden features: which ones do we have and how do they lighten your load?
You can optimize a website in many different ways. Imagine having a toggle for all these options! That’s why, when developing our Yoast SEO plugin, we decided not to translate all these options into settings. If we believe something is beneficial for every Yoast SEO user, we turn the feature on. We call these features hidden features because as a user you’re not necessarily aware of their existence. You might even think we don’t have certain features because there’s no setting for it. But the opposite is true! We’re quietly taking care of things for you.
To help you understand what Yoast SEO does for your website in the background, we’ve listed some of the hidden features for you below. Let’s go through them one by one!
Yoast SEO outputs a fully-integrated structured data graph for your posts and pages. But what is a structured data graph? And how does it help you optimize your site? To answer these questions, you first need to know what Schema is.
A few years ago, search engines came up with something called Schema.org to better understand the content they crawl. Schema is a bit like a glossary of terms for search engine robots. This structured data markup will help them understand whether something is a blog post, a local shop, a product, an organization or a book, just to name a few possibilities. Or, whether someone is an author, an actor, associated with a certain organization, alive or even a fictional character, for instance.
For all these items there’s a set of properties that specifically belongs to that item. If you provide information about these items in a structured way – with structured data – search engines can make sense of your site and the things you talk about. As a reward, they might even give you those eye-catching rich results.
Adding structured data to your site’s content is a smart thing to do. But as the number of structured data items grows, all these loose pieces of code can end up on a big pile of Schema markup on your site’s pages. Yoast SEO helps you prevent creating a big and unorganized pile of code. For every page or post, our plugin creates a neat structured data graph. In this graph, it connects the loose pieces of structured data with each other. When the pieces are connected, a search engine can understand, for instance, that a post is written by author X, working for organization Y, selling brand Z.
You can even build full how-to articles and FAQ pages using the free structured data content blocks in Yoast SEO!
If you want to learn more about structured data, we’d advise reading Edwin’s story on how Yoast SEO helps search engine robots connect the dots.
Canonicals were introduced as an answer to duplicate content quite some time ago. So, what’s duplicate content? Duplicate content means you’ve published content that is the same or very similar to other content on your site. In other words: it’s available on multiple URLs. This confuses search engines. They start to wonder which URL they should show in the search results.
Duplicate content can exist without you being aware of it. In an online store, for instance, one product might belong to more than one category. If the category is included in the URL, the product page can be found on multiple URLs. Another example would be campaign tags. If you add these tags to your URLs when you share content on social or in your newsletter, it means the same page is available on a URL with and without a campaign tag. And there are more technical causes for duplicate content such as these.
The solution for this type of duplicate content issues is a self-referencing canonical. A canonical URL lets you say to search engines: “Of all the options available for this URL, this URL is the one you should show in the search results”. You can do so by adding a rel=canonical tag on a page, pointing to the page that you’d like to rank. In this case, you’d need the canonical tag to point to the URL of the original page.
Should you go through all your posts now and add the canonical tag? Not if you’re using Yoast SEO. The plugin does this for you, everywhere on your site: single posts and pages, homepages, category archives, tag archives, date archives, author archives, etc. If you’re not really a techy person, the canonical isn’t easy to wrap your head around. Or perhaps you simply don’t have the time to focus on it. Why not let Yoast SEO take care of it? Then you can move on to the more exciting stuff!
Read on: rel=canonical: the ultimate guide »
rel=next / rel=prevAnother hidden feature in Yoast SEO is rel=next / rel=prev. It’s a method of telling search engines that certain pages belong to an archive: a so-called paginated archive. A rel=next / prev tag in the header of your site lets search engines know what the previous and the next page in that archive is. No one other than people looking at the source code of your site and search engines see this piece of code.
Not so long ago, Google announced that it isn’t using rel=next/prev anymore. Does this mean we should do away with this feature? Certainly not! Bing and other search engines still use it, so Yoast SEO will keep on adding rel=next / prev tags to paginated archives.
Keep on reading: Pagination and SEO: best practices »
If you have a WordPress site, you most likely have a login link and a registration link for the backend of your site. But the login or registration page of your backend are places that visitors and search engines don’t ever need to be.
Therefore, Yoast SEO tells search engines not to follow links for login and registration pages. Yoast SEO makes sure that search engines will never follow these links. It’s a tiny tweak, but it saves a lot of unneeded Google action.
This hidden feature is based on Google’s Search Essentials documentation. Google wants to prevent users from going from a search result in Google to a search result page on a website. Google, justly, considers that bad user experience.
You can tell search engines not to include a certain page in their search results by adding a noindex tag to a page. Because of Google’s guidelines, Yoast SEO tells search engines that they shouldn’t display your internal search results pages in their search results with a noindex tag. But the links on these pages can still be followed and counted, which is better for your SEO. The plugin tells them not to show these pages in the search results; the links on these pages can still be followed and counted which is better for SEO.
Read more: Which pages should I noindex or nofollow on my site »
This last hidden feature is quite a technical one. In short, it prevents your site from creating lots of URLs with no added value. WordPress has a replytocom feature that lets you reply to comments without activating JavaScript in your browser. But this means that for every comment, it creates a separate URL with ?replytocom variables.
So what happens if you get a lot of comments? Search engines then have to index all those URLs, which is a waste of your crawl budget. Therefore we remove these variables by default.
Our plugin comes with loads of features and settings that will benefit the online visibility of your website. The free version of Yoast SEO already gives you access to a lot of features that will help you do well in the search results. Yoast SEO Premium gives you access to additional tools, like the internal linking suggestions or the redirect manager. This makes many SEO-related tasks much easier and saving you time.
Unlock powerful features and much more for your WordPress site with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin!
Keep reading: Why you should buy Yoast SEO Premium »
The post Yoast SEO’s hidden features that secretly level up your SEO appeared first on Yoast.
Redis is revolutionizing caching with its rapid performance and scalability. Ideal for WordPress sites with high user load requirements, it optimizes read and write operations. Whether it’s small-scale cache or a full-blown backend solution for static content, Redis has you covered. Learn to harness its power for a faster, more responsive website.
The post “Introducing Redis: Boosting WordPress Performance and Scalability” first appeared on WP Mayor.
The WordPress get_posts function lets you retrieve posts, pages, and custom post types based on given parameters. It works by filtering the posts based on criteria like date, author, type, permission, or meta key. WordPress site owners can use this function to show relevant content to users quickly. For example, they can display lists of […]
The post What Is the WordPress get_posts Function and How to Use It to Build PHP Post Lists appeared first on Hostinger Tutorials.
Blogging has been around since the late 1990s and has become one of the most popular mediums for people to express their thoughts, share information, and generate income. If you’re thinking of starting a blog of your own, it’s important to understand the steps needed to be successful. In this post, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog. So, let’s dive in and explore the possibilities.
A blog is an online platform where you can regularly publish and share content. It acts as a digital journal or online diary, allowing people to express ideas, experiences, tutorials, or opinions on various subjects. They can cover multiple topics, provide a space for writers to connect with others, and create a community around published content. With the ability to incorporate text, images, videos, and interactive elements, blogs offer a dynamic and accessible resource for sharing information and fostering an online community.
One of the most popular platforms for a blog is WordPress. There are two iterations of WordPress: .org and .com. Either one will suit your needs, but it’s important to understand their differences. WordPress.org is a self-hosted solution, which means you install and host the software on a WordPress hosting provider. On the other hand, WordPress.com offers a blogging platform with its own hosting, which can be a solid choice for beginners. For this tutorial, we will focus on the .org version of WordPress and walk you through the steps to launch your online blog.
To succeed at blogging, it’s important to set goals, determine who you intend to cater to, and pay attention to more technical considerations. These include picking the right host, choosing a worthy platform, and incorporating all the moving parts needed to support your efforts.
The first and most important step in the process is planning. Sit down and list what you’d like to accomplish with your blog. Are you interested in monetizing your blog? If so, research how you want to turn your blog into a money-making machine. Consider whether you want to run ads directly on your blog or use other methods, such as Google Adsense. You can also incorporate a good advertising plugin that will allow you to create and host banner ads on your blog quite easily.
Consider creating an informational blog if monetization isn’t in the cards right now. These types of blogs are a great source of information and tend to perform well in search results; that is, if your SEO copywriting is up to par.
Lastly, decide whether to incorporate social media into your blog. Having a social media presence on your website is a wonderful way to drive more traffic to your website. There are a lot of excellent social media plugins available that will allow you to embed social feeds, schedule posts to Facebook, or incorporate events.
The next thing to evaluate is whether you want a lifestyle blog that encompasses various topics or drill it down to be more of a niche blog. In general, niche blogs are great for people looking for specific information on a topic versus a more generalized lifestyle blog. There are several benefits to creating a niche blog, including appealing to individuals with particular interests, being excellent for building email lists, and, most importantly, being easier to manage.
The next crucial step in the process involves securing a domain name, which plays a pivotal role in shaping your online presence. When choosing a domain for your business, it’s important to ensure that it is both memorable and easy to spell, while accurately reflecting your business’s niche. While various top-level domain (TLD) extensions are available besides .com, opting for this widely utilized TLD is often best due to its trustworthiness. However, alternatives like .net or .org can also be considered, particularly if your preferred domain with the .com extension is unavailable.
In certain cases, it is possible to acquire a domain that has already been taken, although this can be challenging, especially if the desired domain already has an associated website. To explore available domains, we recommend using a reputable domain name registrar such as Namecheap.
Once you’ve planned out your blog and chosen a niche and a domain, you’ll need to find a good hosting provider. Generally speaking, you’ll want to avoid free hosting platforms and opt for a good managed hosting provider like SiteGround, because they offer the most bang for your buck. Not only do they provide competitive pricing, but they’re one of the fastest hosting companies you can get.
A fast host is crucial to your blog’s success for several reasons. First, no one likes a slow website. Potential readers who land on your site and wait for the page to load aren’t going to stick around. Secondly, a fast website is good for search engine optimization (SEO). Because Google and other search engines prioritize speed, going for a quality host is in your best interest.
Now that you have all of the necessary moving parts in place, it’s time to start the exciting process of creating your blog. In this section, we’ll advise you on the best blogging platform to use, recommend a good theme and plugins, and walk you through the process of setting up your categories, tags, and templates.
While there are many blogging platforms to choose from, they are still far from matching the versatility of WordPress.org. With full site editing capabilities and a platform that was built for blogging, WordPress is the way to go. It’s free to use, has a huge following, and provides endless customization options. Plus, it’s relatively easy to learn, making it a great solution for beginners.
When it comes to installing WordPress, you can usually leave the dirty work to your web host. The best WordPress hosting providers will install WordPress for you when you set up your account, making your life a lot easier. However, that also depends on the hosting you choose. Most VPS hosting or dedicated hosting companies won’t offer this feature, requiring you to install it on your own through cPanel.
Now that we’ve opted for WordPress.org as a place to build our masterpiece, we’re going to need a good WordPress theme for bloggers. Although we may seem a bit biased, Divi is the absolute best solution. With the ability to create pages using a no-code Visual Builder incorporating more than 200 design elements, Divi is capable of showcasing your blog beautifully.
Plus, you’ll gain the benefit of full site editing, which allows you to create custom templates for your posts, categories, tags, and more, through Divi’s Theme Builder.
One of the best aspects of WordPress is the ability to install plugins. They add features and functionalities to your site, allowing you to build any website you wish. For example, if you’d like your blog to have gated content, you can install a membership plugin, set up a paywall, and you’re off to the races. There are plugins for literally anything you can fathom. You can get a little help getting seen in the search engines by installing a good SEO plugin, such as Rank Math.
Furthermore, you can track how your posts are performing by incorporating a plugin such as MonsterInsights, which provides crucial information on what’s working on your site and what’s not. This is especially important when you’re just starting out. No matter what you want your site to do for you, there’s a plugin for it. To help you determine what you need, take a look at our article, 31 Best WordPress Plugins in 2023 (Everything You Need).
Before you can start writing posts, you’ll need to create categories. Using categories is an essential part of SEO and, if done correctly, can help bring traffic to your website. For example, let’s say you’re building a blog about pets. You’ll want to create categories for the types of pets you want to write about and subcategories that would pertain to those pets.
To add categories, navigate to the WordPress dashboard, then hover over posts. Next, click categories.
The next step is to give your new category a name, add a description, then click Add New Category.
Once you have created a main category, you can create new top-level categories or subcategories by assigning a parent category.
Alternatively, categories can be created on the fly at the post level. To accomplish this, click on Posts > Add New.
To add a new category at the post level, click the Categories dropdown on the WordPress editor’s right-hand side. Then, click Add New Category.
Once you have added all the categories you need, you can showcase your category list on a blog roll page in a sidebar or any other page. As a Divi user, you can even find creative ways to display them in your header or footer by using the Theme Builder.
Next, we’ll use Divi to create our first page. To keep things simple, we’ll use one of Divi’s awesome layout packs. First, we’ll create the home page from the Marketing Layout Pack for Divi. Navigate to Pages > Add New in your WordPress dashboard.
Add Home as the title, then click the Use Divi Builder button.
Next, select Browse Layouts.
Choose the marketing layout back by clicking on it.
Next, click on the Homepage layout.
Finally, click the Use This Layout button to insert the design into your page.
If you’d like to import the presets of the layout pack, be sure to check Import Presets, then click the Import button.
Once the page reloads, you can edit the text and images in the layout’s modules by hovering over the module you’d like to edit, then clicking the gear icon to bring up the module’s contents.
Make your edits by replacing the placeholder content in text modules.
Once you’ve completed the editing process, save your draft or publish the page by clicking the corresponding button in the lower right-hand screen of the Visual Builder.
As previously mentioned, Divi’s Theme Builder allows you to create custom templates for every section of your website. Design custom headers and footers, blog post layouts, category and tag page templates, and more.
The default website template (1) is the section you’d use to create a global header, body, and footer. This allows you to create any layout to feature your blog’s navigation. To create new templates, you’ll click the Add New Template button (2). If you want to use a premade theme builder set, click the + icon (3). To save your templates, click the save button (4). The remaining icons allow you to delete (5), view your design history (6), and import or export your layouts (7).
As you begin creating templates for your website, you’ll notice that multiple templates can get messy. So, take steps to organize them so they are easier to find.
Ok, on to creating your first template. Start by navigating to Divi > Theme Builder.
As noted, you’ll click the Add New Template button to create a template. Select Build New Template from the popup.
Next, tick All Posts, then click the Create template button. These selections will allow you to create a template for posts which will be applied to every post you write.
Next, click Add Custom Body in the All Posts template. Click Build Custom Body when the popup appears.
From there, you can use the Visual Builder to design a blog post template to match your site’s design.
Now that your pages and blog post template are created, you can concentrate on forming a content marketing strategy. It involves creating content that is specifically related to your niche. Strategizing your content can help you get your business noticed, build a good reputation, and boost your SEO. You’ll be best served by analyzing your competition, learning about your potential audience, and conducting keyword research.
When the time comes to write your first post, the most important thing is to focus on writing quality content. Be sure to keep your target audience in mind so that you’re delivering content that aligns with their interests. Start by organizing your thoughts, creating a blog post outline, and structuring your post to maximize your reader’s attention. Remember, writing your first post sets the tone for your blog, so take your time and make it a captivating and valuable piece that leaves a positive impression on your readers.
When writing in WordPress and Divi, there are a couple of ways to create your post, either in the Visual Builder, classic editor, or the Gutenberg editor. Since we created a template for our blog posts, the easiest route is using Gutenberg. It functions much like the word processors of the past, allowing you to directly type text, or use blocks to add other content.
If you find yourself suffering from writer’s block or need a little help crafting a good headline or outline for your post, consider incorporating a good AI writing software to help jumpstart your creativity.
Once you’ve added all of your content, you can easily make your post live by clicking the Publish button.
You can write the best content in the world, but you’re missing the mark if you aren’t optimizing for SEO. To optimize your content, start by using a good keyword strategically throughout your post, avoiding keyword stuffing. It’s also important to add alt tags to your images, ensure that you’re using headlines properly, and keep your paragraphs concise, yet engaging.
Additionally, pay close attention to on-page SEO elements such as titles, permalinks, and meta descriptions, as they contribute to search engine visibility. Finally, ensure that you’re focusing on mobile SEO, considering more than half of all internet users utilize a smartphone to navigate the internet.
To help you keep a handle on things, consider incorporating a good SEO tool, such as SEMRush, in addition to your chosen SEO plugin.
Next, you’ll want to plan how often you release new posts. Set a regular posting schedule that works for you and your target audience, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. A good editorial calendar plugin helps you plan how often to release new content and helps to keep track of your goals. By establishing a good routine, you create expectations for your readers to keep them coming back for more.
Once you have established a solid foundation and built your audience, you can take steps to generate income with your new blog. One popular method is through native advertising, where you can display ads or sponsored posts anywhere on your blog to earn revenue based on clicks or impressions.
Another option is affiliate linking, where you promote products or services to earn a commission for every sale. Remember that choosing affiliate partnerships that align with your niche is important to provide value to your audience.
You’ll also want to incorporate a good affiliate marketing plugin to help disguise ugly links, gain access to reporting, or offer discounts on purchased products.
Starting a successful blog requires careful planning, dedication, and consistent effort. By following our step-by-step process, you can establish a strong foundation for your blog and increase your chances of success. It begins with setting a clear goal and identifying a niche that truly resonates with your audience. As you progress, partnering with a reputable host like SiteGround provides a reliable platform for your blog to thrive. Remember the importance of optimizing your blog for search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure maximum visibility. Let’s not forget about the exciting prospect of income-generating opportunities that can put some cash in your pocket.
Are you looking for more tutorials? Check out a few Divi-related how-to’s to kick your new blog into high gear:
Featured Image via Fonstra /Â Shutterstock.com
The post How to Start a Succesful Blog in 2023 (Detailed Tutorial) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.
Are you wondering whether you should hire a web designer? There are tons of beginner-friendly tools available to help you create a website yourself. However, you might believe that a web designer can get the work done much quicker, and achieve a higher level of quality. Fortunately, it’s easier to decide whether to hire a web designer when you consider some key factors – which we’ll share with you in this post.
The post Should You Hire a Web Designer for Your WordPress Site? appeared first on Themeisle Blog.
WordPress’ admin is on deck for a long-awaited makeover after Gutenberg lead architect MatÃas Ventura published plans for a revamped admin design as part of the Phase 3: Collaboration road map.
“As WordPress turns twenty years old, the overall aim of this work is to improve upon this experience at a foundational design level, giving plugins and users more control over the navigation while ensuring each WordPress experience is recognizable, intuitive, accessible, and delightful,” Ventura said.
His post is a follow-up to some earlier admin concepts he published a year ago which evolves the admin towards more fluid browsing and editing flows. This is similar to the block editor design that positions the admin frame as a shell that wraps around a canvas that contains the content in a zoomed state. Instead of users clicking back to access navigation tools, the tools remain present but outside of the canvas view.
Although contributors have not yet officially produced any designs for the project, Ventura shared a light version of an admin concept.
One aspect of the proposed plans that has energized the developer community is the prospect of the admin getting rebuilt with an extensible design system.
“This effort is also an opportunity to formalize the design primitives and interaction paradigms that are part of the UI component system begun in wordpress/components,” Ventura said.
“A crucial aspect is to ensure WordPress itself is built with the same pieces and APIs that plugin authors can use. Aside from color themes, our set of primitive components also need to work in dense environments like the editor, as well as environments that need more breathing room and focus like admin sections. Density, clarity, usability, and accessibility are paramount.”
The admin design concepts have renewed developers’ excitement about the future of WordPress, but they are also hoping this revamp will solve several long-standing problems with the interface.
One recurring theme in the feedback was the need to find a way to curb the pollution of top-level menus and the out of control admin notices, which are hijacked by plugin developers in the absence of a standard notification system.
“It’s really about aligning APIs, ensuring we have semantic descriptions of capabilities, and offering the right levels of controls for both plugins and users,” Ventura said.
“I know it’s a fairly limited example, but there’s a nice balance in the ability to pin or unpin plugin sidebars on the editor, from the perspective that plugins can be opinionated, and users can still interact with those opinions.”
Another challenge that concerns developers is ensuring the new design adequately accommodates WordPress sites with large numbers of posts, pages, categories, menus, comments, and other things that can easily overwhelm a UI that was intended to be simplified.
“As part of leveraging the components across the admin interface, we need to address functional gaps (like table and list views, bulk editing operations, etc) and assist plugin needs for anything that might not be already addressed that should be addressed,” Ventura said. “Ultimately, the design library needs to be showcased in the wordpress.org website as a clear resource for people building upon WordPress.”
Developers who participated in the comments were optimistic about the project and reacted positively to the concepts Ventura shared.
“I often say, white space is where the magic happens,” WordPress designer and developer Brian Gardner said.
“The light admin concept is breathtaking and gets me even more excited than I am now about the future of WordPress.”
Several developers commented on how eagerly they are awaiting an update to a modern UI that reduces the number of page refreshes.
“Wow! It’s gonna be amazing!” WPMarmite founder Alex Borto said. “A complete admin fluid browsing experience is much needed. I dream of navigating through the admin area without any page loads!”
For years, WordPress developers have been expected to try to match WordPress’ dated admin UI on their settings pages and the Yoast SEO plugin drew criticism when it released version 20.0 with a new modern interface. Many users are not keen on plugins building their own UI in the admin, as it can make things more confusing. Having a standard set of UI components would make things easier for developers who are extending WordPress.
“This gives me great optimism about securing the next 20 years of WordPress’s success,” WordPress developer Mike McAlister said. “The fact that you can do anything with WordPress is incredible, it’s probably our biggest strength.
“But without standardized design patterns for the admin, we’ve seen that devolve into a UI/UX headache with plugin and theme developers baking their own experiences inside WordPress. Reining this in and creating a unified experience for everyone to buy into will not only make it easier on product creators, it will also be a huge win for users.”
Ventura said this document is just an outline of the admin design project and that it will be followed up with more in-depth design explorations further down the road.
If you ask someone in the WordPress community what’s the best place to learn about the Block Editor, they will probably suggest the Gutenberg Times. The site presents a dose of news and opinion pieces from the WordPress community about the Gutenberg Block Editor.
The mastermind behind this platform is Birgit Pauli-Haack, a WordPress Core Contributor. She personally curates the site content with inclusivity and diversity of perspective in mind. By doing so, she hopes everyone can benefit from it, no matter their background and knowledge level.
We are lucky to write about Birgit and her project in our first WordPress Expert article series edition. Today, we will cover the genesis of Gutenberg Times, how she runs it, and the importance of knowledge sharing in open-source projects.
Birgit got fascinated by Gutenberg the moment it was introduced at WordCamp Europe 2017 – just six years ago.
She felt like she saw a raw diamond. “I believed it would make content production so much easier and richer. Truly WYSIWYG. I could see once it was merged into the core software, content creators would love it,” she says.
But the main reason why Birgit was so interested in Gutenberg was that it allowed users to create or modify templates right from their WordPress site without any code. This means that you no longer need programming skills to tweak your site. As for Birgit, it simplifies content management for her digital agency clients.
“When we worked with clients, we often were asked to change how posts look on various pages. For example, adding categories or removing the author. It was fast for us to do as we worked with code, but it was hard for site owners. The change is now very easy to do via the Block Editor,” explains Birgit.
On top of that, Gutenberg can lock certain design features, like the color scheme and typography. This way, you won’t inadvertently ruin the overall design carefully crafted by the design team.
Birgit also discovered that agency developers could use block themes for prototyping the overall design and information flow with their clients. This is great for designers who are not developers, too. Meanwhile, seasoned developers who are used to developing with classic themes can easily adapt to the block themes as they follow the same template hierarchy as the classic ones.
However, like many people new to WordPress, Birgit needed help understanding this new technology. So, in June 2017, she started curating tweets and blog posts about Gutenberg, as she wanted to learn all about it and what other people do with it. She collected them in a social networking site, aiming to make it available to all WordPress enthusiasts.
After all, an open-source project can only move forward if there is plenty of publicly available information.
Half a year later, Birgit decided to create the Gutenberg Times website, so she could have a dedicated space for the information she had collected. Having a website enables her to organize her content as she wants.
On top of that, Birgit started getting more organic traffic –people can find her site when searching for Gutenberg-specific information in search engines.
Also, people kept asking her if she had a newsletter, which ensured her even more game up her publishing game.
This wasn’t the end of her journey – now, Birgit also hosts the weekly Gutenberg Changelog podcast, where she discusses the latest Gutenberg releases with WordPress enthusiasts and experts.
“We don’t just talk about what is in the release log – our goal is to go a little deeper into that. Kind of being up to date and on the cutting edge of things. This is because Gutenberg is the beta version of what will come with the next release,” Birgit explains.
Recently, Hostinger’s resident WordPress Content Strategist Leonardus Nugraha, was invited to the 81st podcast to talk about WordPress 6.2.
Birgit also holds live Q&As from time to time. Their format is a panel discussion where people can register and ask questions.
Since Gutenberg’s early days, there has been a prominent debate about Classic Editor vs Gutenberg. It’s one of the biggest changes happening to WordPress this decade. Gutenberg has been constantly iterated, and not everyone is keen to learn the new interface.
Birgit then found that the resources about Gutenberg she encountered online were most likely talking about the controversy rather than about what people could really do with it. That’s when she decided to solely focus her knowledge-collecting effort on Gutenberg: so that she and her readers could learn how to use Gutenberg to solve their problems.
Birgit aims to make Gutenberg Times’ content as inclusive as possible, so readers with skill levels can learn what they need. Because of that, each Gutenberg Times’ content category has its own target audience.
Those categories include:
As for the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, it caters to people who want to be up to date with every Gutenberg release.
Maintaining a website with multiple types of content with different target audiences is a lot of work. Still, Birgit sees it as an essential task, especially for open-source projects like WordPress.
Besides visionaries and geniuses, open-source projects can only be successful if someone explains to other users how to use and build on the technology.
“The exchange of ideas, problems, and solutions is essential for an open-source community as it speeds up growth and software quality,” she says. “There are things I would not have known until I tried. When I finally know how to do it, I want everybody else to know how. So when you share it, you help everybody else in the project to become better.”
On top of that, Birgit finds that explaining tech problems and solution to others helps her as well.
“My website is a public place, but it’s also a place I can return to. For example, “How can I get a JSON file into Excel?†I have to look it up every time, but because I wrote it, I can come back to it anytime, and that’s very time-saving.”
So far, Gutenberg Times has been solely run by Birgit herself. She’s been a full-time WordPress contributor sponsored by Automattic since 2021, and running the Gutenberg Times is now part of her day job.
“Starting out, I would not have dared to dream that after five years of Gutenberg Times, I would be able to continue to publish as part of my work, full-time, in the open-source project.” She’s grateful to all supporters who subscribed, listened, and, most importantly, shared their own ideas and suggestions.
When asked about the struggle of running a website alone, Birgit admits it’s challenging to find some quiet time to put everything together. “Everything is just so fascinating! Sometimes there’s just too much to do.”
However, Birgit doesn’t see that as a struggle after all.
“I think the struggle probably will come when every WordPress outlet and all the talks on WordCamps are all about the block editor,” she reckons.
Birgit recalled when her friend questioned whether the Gutenberg Times would be obsolete once Gutenberg merged with WordPress’s core software. She believes the Gutenberg Times will stay relevant as long as it evolves.
Well, WordPress is 20 years old, and Gutenberg is still five years in development. Looks like it’s nowhere near obsolescence.
So how does Birgit keep on top of all her tasks – creating various types of content in a streamlined way? Gutenberg has a new version released every two weeks, so that must be a lot of stuff to review and update the website.
“I make an effort to check in on what’s merged in Gutenberg’s GitHub repository every other day,” Birgit explains.
She also keeps a habit of immediately creating notes when future publication ideas pop up. For example, she always works on the weekly Weekend Edition articles since the previous week, collecting ideas day by day.
“When I have an idea fresh in my mind, I note it and decide whether it goes into the podcast or write it as an article.”
Birgit points out that if you make it a daily habit, it will feel like a small piece of work. Then, schedule when you will process that certain set of ideas. “The Weekend Edition is published every Saturday, so I will check my notes on Friday afternoon and see what I have flagged for this week’s edition, and then I’ll assemble it.â€
Sorting her ideas like that especially helps since Birgit also works on some other Gutenberg-related documentation. For example, she co-edits the What’s New for Developers monthly roundup for the WordPress Developer Blog, and edits the Keeping up with Gutenberg Index in the Core Handbook every week.
She also funneled the material from the official documentation into the Gutenberg Times’ Weekend Edition and Gutenberg Changelog podcast. This way, she kills two birds with one stone as she adapts the same information for various channels.
Since its first release in 2018, the Gutenberg project has undergone several phases. Phase 1 was the birth of the Block Editor, Phase 2 was all about merging full site editing into WordPress. Now in 2023, it’s time for Phase 3, which will focus on collaborative editing.
At its beginning, Gutenberg might look like ‘just’ an option available to give WordPress users more creative freedom. But as time goes by, it becomes quite clear that the Block Editor, blocks, and new interfaces will sooner or later take over the current WordPress in various aspects.
“It can still take a few years until it all comes to pass. It’s a gradual change, but they will come. And for many years, the Classic Editor will not go away.” says Birgit. “If you’re in the web-building business, change is the only constant in your life.”
Birgit also emphasizes that WordPress won’t just take out the Classic themes. WordPress will always have backward compatibility for its features, plus the Block Themes actually follow the same template hierarchy as the Classic ones.
However, she suggests developers should adapt and familiarize themselves with this Gutenberg-powered website creation to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
The Block Editor also opens up vast possibilities for everybody with a creative streak, even if they don’t have a technical background, to create Block Themes with a plugin. “They can do it right in the editor, export it, and then you have a theme. You don’t need to code,” Birgit underlines the no-code future that is now opened more inclusively.
And for Gutenberg enthusiasts out there who also want to share their knowledge with the community but are still determining where they will share it, there are several alternatives. One of Birgit’s suggestions is to contribute to the open-source project by filing bug reports from Gutenberg’s GitHub repository.
This is an important task because sometimes users experience a feature differently than the developers.
“There are various ways to handle certain features, and we need to figure out all the different ways people use things,” – Birgit says. This way, community members can build on each other’s knowledge and improve both their skills and WordPress development.
The post Birgit Pauli-Haack: Fostering Community Spirit Through Knowledge Sharing appeared first on Hostinger Blog.
If you want to launch a website, the first step is to decide how you’re going to build it. As a powerful and highly customizable platform, WordPress is an excellent choice for the job. But, if you’re a beginner, you might be wondering – is WordPress hard to learn? The short answer is “no” and we explain why in this post.
The post Is WordPress Hard to Learn in 2023? appeared first on Themeisle Blog.
WordPress 6.3 will make site editing several clicks faster for users who are moving from the frontend to edit the corresponding template. When you click the “Edit Site” link in the admin bar from a category page, for example, you currently get dumped out into the Site Editor on the home page. From here it’s several clicks more to get to the template you intended to edit. The upcoming release changes it so that the “Edit Site” link is aware of the current template.
WordPress developer Brian Coords pointed out the fix on Twitter today. It’s a delightful bit of good news for anyone who works regularly with the Site Editor and becomes annoyed by how long it takes to click through to the applicable template. WordPress is now more context aware, delivering site editors to the correct template directly from the admin bar.
The update applies to posts, pages, archives, 404 templates, front page, and anywhere the user happens to be on the frontend. Check out the Gutenberg issue and the related WordPress Trac ticket for more technical details on how contributors arrived at this implementation.
This small fix is important because it removes the requirement for the user to have to know the name of the template they intend to edit. It’s now as easy as clicking directly from the frontend. The more WordPress can reduce friction and the need to have special knowledge in order to edit templates, the more accessible it becomes as a design tool for someone who is just starting out and has no framework for the idea of underlying templates.
WordPress 6.3 is on track to be released with this fix on August 8, 2023. Beta 4 landed today with 40+ (Editor) and 60+ (Trac) updates since Beta 3, and RC 1 is expected next week.