Tag: wordpress

How to Make a WordPress Website in 2023 (Beginners Guide)
WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and manage websites easily. Whether you’re a blogger, freelancer, or business owner, WordPress offers a minimal learning curve, multiple ways to customize it, and create any website your heart desires. In this post, we’ll show you how to make a WordPress website, including purchasing a domain and hosting to designing and launching your site. So, let’s dive in.

What is WordPress?

Originally created as a blogging platform in the 1990s, WordPress has evolved into a versatile CMS that can be used to build various types of websites, including membership sites, forums, learning management systems (LMS), ecommerce sites, and more. With its user-friendly interface, extensive theme and plugin options, and versatility, WordPress gives users the control they need to bring their website to life. Whether you’re a beginner or a tech-savvy web developer, WordPress offers a user-friendly and scalable solution for creating and maintaining your online presence.

Why Choose WordPress?

Aside from its versatility, customization options, and user-friendly interface, WordPress has a large following. With over 44% of the internet built on it, there are hundreds of reputable developers providing tips and tricks almost daily. Plus, WordPress is free to use. That said, there are hidden costs, such as hosting, plugins, and a domain. Additionally, new WordPress users will have the support they need to learn WordPress.

What You’ll Need to Get Started

When creating a new WordPress website, you’ll need a few things to get the process going, including a domain, web hosting, and determining the site’s structure. Let’s take a deeper look into the steps needed to be successful.

Purchase a Domain Name

Image courtesy of VZ_Art | Shutterstock

Before considering where your website will live or its content, you must decide on the perfect domain name, you’ll want it to stay true to your brand, so ensure that you’re researching the best domain names for your business.

Additionally, consider which top-level domain (TLD) extension you’d like to use, whether it be .com or something else. For most people, .com makes the most sense due to its recognizability and trustworthiness. TLDs are an important part of the selection process for several reasons, including SEO.

After you’ve decided on your domain name, you’ll need to purchase it. You can do this through a hosting provider or using a good domain name registrar, such as Namecheap. The process isn’t difficult and is a crucial first step. However, it is generally advised to refrain from purchasing your domain from a hosting provider since it can complicate matters if you switch hosts for your website. Therefore, we recommend keeping the two separate to retain greater control over your domain.

Purchase Hosting

Another important step is purchasing a WordPress hosting plan for your website. You’ll want to arm yourself with information before making a final decision. First, learn about the different hosting types available to determine which is best for your unique situation.

Next, decide which host aligns best with your needs. You’ll want to choose one that fits your budget and has the most features. Good hosting providers will guarantee at least 99% uptime, take care of security patches and updates, and provide freebies such as SSL, emails, backups, staging sites, and good security.

A rock-solid option that includes all of these features is SiteGround. Their hosting plans are optimized for WordPress and include benefits such as fantastic support and affordable prices. For newcomers, SiteGround’s StartUp plan is an excellent jumping-off point. With 10 GB of storage, freebies such as an SSL, CDN, business email, migration, staging, and more, you’ll have everything you need to get started for under $15 a month. As an added bonus, based on our own testing, it’s also the fastest WordPress hosting you can get.

Planning Your WordPress Structure

Image courtesy of aliaksei kruhlenia | Shutterstock

Before setting out to build your website, it’s important to plan the structure of your site. Consider the pages you want to include, such as an about page, services or product pages, a blog, contact information, and any other relevant pages. By mapping out the pages in advance, you’ll provide visitors with a well-organized and easy-to-navigate website.

Additionally, consider the content you need for each page, including text, images, videos, or other elements such as social media feeds. By outlining your content, you can write good SEO copy, create videos, images, and other elements. Taking the time to do this the right way gives you an excellent shot at boosting your position in the search engine ranking pages (SERPs) and provides a seamless user experience for your visitors.

How to Make a WordPress Website

There are a lot of steps involved when setting out to build a WordPress website. From installing the platform to taking it live, we’re here to walk you through every step, giving you a great shot at success.

Subscribe To Our Youtube Channel

Step 1: Install WordPress

The first step to creating your masterpiece is by installing WordPress. This can be accomplished in several ways. If you opted for a VPS or dedicated hosting provider, you’ll likely need to install WordPress on your own. If you chose a managed hosting company, the steps to install WordPress are quite different. For example, using SiteGround, you can install WordPress in just a few clicks. This is the method we plan to use in this tutorial. Check out our in-depth post, How to Install WordPress, if you’re looking for tips on other installation methods.

SiteGround provides a simple way to install WordPress. Once you set up your account, you’ll be directed to your account dashboard. Click the Start New Website button to install it.

Next, choose whether to install WordPress on a new, existing, or temporary domain. We’ll build our new site on a temporary domain so we can design and perfect it before pushing it live.

When the screen refreshes, you’ll notice you’ve been assigned a temporary domain for your website. Proceed by clicking the continue button.

Next, click Start New Website.

Then choose WordPress as the application.

For the installation details, provide your email address, create a password (or generate a strong one), then click continue. Be sure to save your login information, as this is how you’ll log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.

Click the finish button to install WordPress.

When your screen refreshes, you’ll have three options: view your site in a browser, log in to the WordPress admin panel, or head to SiteGround’s site tools dashboard. Click the log in admin button to view the admin panel.

Step 2: Choose Your WordPress Theme

A WordPress theme allows you to change how your website looks to visitors. You can customize colors, the layout, fonts, and other design elements to match your branding or style. There are two types of themes available, including free and premium themes. Free themes are available through the WordPress directory. Premium themes are offered by third-party developers, like the makers of Divi, and usually provide excellent features such as no-code page builders, full site editing capabilities, and premade layouts.

To view available free themes, navigate to Appearance > Themes.

Click the Add New Theme button to add a new theme.

From here, you can search for themes (1), use one of SiteGround’s recommendations (2), browse the WordPress directory (3), or upload a premium theme (4).

If you prefer to start with a free theme, click browse the WordPress directory, peruse the available options, then click the install button once you’ve made a selection.

For this tutorial, we’ll use our favorite premium theme, Divi. Click on the upload theme tab to upload a theme, then click choose file to upload your zipped WordPress theme file.

Finally, click Install Now to install your WordPress theme.

Click the activate button to make your theme live on your site.

Step 3: Add Your Pages

Now that your theme is installed and activated, we’ll create our pages. We’ll create a home, about, services, blog, and contact page for our site. This is a basic setup for most starter sites. We won’t add any content; we’ll just set up the page structure to create our navigation in the next step.

Creating your first page is simple. Navigate to Pages > Add New in the WordPress dashboard.

Every new WordPress installation comes standard with two pages: privacy policy and sample pages. We’ll leave those alone and add a new home page to our site. To add a new page, click the Add New button on the top left of the page.

Next, give your page a title (1) and click publish (2) to create the page.

Click the WordPress logo at the top left of the page to return to the pages section in WordPress.

To add more pages, repeat the process above until all your pages are created.

Step 4: Set Up Your Navigation

The next step is to set up the navigation for our site. Let’s start by setting up our home page in WordPress settings. Navigate to Settings > Reading (1), click the static page radio and choose your home page (2), tick the checkbox to discourage search engines from indexing your site (3), and save the changes (4).

Note: It’s a good idea to discourage indexing while building your website. It keeps unwanted traffic from discovering you before your site is ready for prime time.

Now, we’ll set up our main navigation for the site. Head to Appearance > Menus (1). Give your menu a name (2), tick the Primary Menu checkbox (3), then click create menu (4).

Next, click the View All tab (1) and select the pages we just created (2), then click Add to Menu (3).

Once your pages are added, you can click and drag them to change their order (1). When satisfied with their placement, click the save menu button (2).

Step 5: Build Your First Page

Creating your home page is the next and possibly most important step when learning how to make a WordPress website. The home page serves as a window into your business’s identity. It should reflect what your business is about, along with supporting content.

As a general rule, your home page should contain all of the information a new visitor should see, including:
- Your logo
- Navigation
- A headline
- Sub-headline
- Images
- Calls to action (CTA)
- Text content (at least 300 words)
- Footer
- Social proof (optional)
- Video content (optional)
- An eye-catching design (a must)
When building your page, there are several ways to add content. You can use WordPress’s default editor, Gutenberg, or a page builder like the Divi Builder. Since we chose Divi as our theme, we can add elements to our home page using Divi’s Visual Builder, a no-code front-end builder that allows you to view your design in real time. Divi offers more than 320 full layout packs with over 2300 individual pages, making building your WordPress website a breeze.

Building a WordPress Page Using Divi

To showcase its ease, we’ll walk you through importing a layout into your home page using Divi. Head back to Pages in the WordPress dashboard. Next, click on home within your site’s pages.

Next, click Edit With The Divi Builder.

Once the screen refreshes, you can tour the Visual Builder or start building your page. Select start building.

Next, select choose a premade layout.

Select the marketing layout pack (or another one of your choice here).

Then select the home layout.

Finally, select use this layout to insert the design into your home page.

From there, you can hover over any module to reveal the settings. Click the gear icon to edit any module.

Once you have edited all text modules and replaced stock images and videos, you can save your page by clicking the green save button at the bottom right.

If you’d like to learn everything there is to know about Divi, check out our extensive documentation. It contains more than 70 helpful Divi tutorials to aid in building your website.

Building a WordPress Page Using Gutenberg

Using WordPress’s native Gutenberg editor is quite simple. To add content, you can choose from various blocks, such as rows, text, images, videos, social icons, and more, to construct your pages. Start by clicking the + icon to add a block to your page.

In addition to singular blocks, you can create reusable blocks or block patterns for use throughout your website.

Once you’ve added all content to your page, you can publish it by clicking the update button.

Page Checklist: What To Do Before Publishing

Before you can publish your page, there are a few essential things to consider, including:
- Check your page’s responsiveness: Ensure that all content on your page is optimized for all screen sizes.
- Look for placeholder content: Ensure you’ve replaced all placeholder text and images.
- Use alt tags: Every image on your page should contain an alt tag.
- Check for misspellings: Use an integrated browser spell check or a service like Grammarly to ensure your content is spelled correctly and flows well.
- Configure SEO: Ensure that SEO best practices are being used. Make sure there is a keyword assigned and fill out the meta box (title, URL, meta description)
Step 6: Modify Your Headers and Footer (if Needed)

If you use a full site editing theme, you can customize headers and footers for your site. For example, you can create any number of custom templates using Divi’s Theme Builder. Alternatively, a block theme such as GeneratePress allows you to edit permanent sections of your site through full site editing.

To create a new header or footer in Divi, navigate to Divi > Theme Builder.

Next, click Add Global Header.

Finally, select Build Global Header to launch the Visual Builder.

You can use a premade header and footer pack, or use one of Divi’s 200 modules to easily create a header (or footer) for your website.

Step 7: Install Plugins

Now that your content is in place, you must decide which plugins to use. Generally speaking, there are several essential WordPress plugins that you should include on your site to help with various aspects, including SEO, security, and caching. Other optional plugins, such as social media, affiliate marketing, or live chat, are worth consideration. Since WordPress is so popular, there are thousands of plugin choices. This can be overwhelming for newcomers, so here is a breakdown of some essential plugins you will need for your WordPress website.
- SEO: Choose a good SEO plugin, like RankMath, so you can easily configure your SEO, both on and off-page, to give yourself a fighting chance at ranking high in search pages.
- Security: Protecting your site from nefarious actors and malware should be one of your top priorities. Incorporate a security plugin into your site for peace of mind.
- Optimization: Keeping your site speedy involves adding a speed optimization plugin to your site. You should also consider a database optimization plugin to keep the bloat out of your site’s database. Cleaning your database keeps your site running smoothly for the long haul.
- Caching: If you’re using a shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting provider, you may need to install your own caching solution. These cache plugins are considered the best of the best, ensuring your site’s files are served fast, keeping your bounce rate down and customer engagement up.
Optional Plugins To Consider

In addition to must-have plugins, plenty are available to add extra functionalities, such as social media, advertising, live chat, and more. Here are a few additional plugins you might consider using. Depending on the type of website you plan to build, some of these may need to be revised. That said, it’s good to know what’s out there in case you need to add one in the future.
- Chat: Incorporating a chat plugin into your website is an excellent way to stay connected to your customers. Plus, it’s a lot more personal than sending an email.
- Affiliate marketing: If you have aspirations of turning your website into a money-making machine, adding an affiliate marketing plugin may be exactly what you need.
- Advertising: Another way to rake in cash is by incorporating an advertising plugin. You can create banner ads, import ads from Google, and track their progress to boost your online sales.
- Social media: Social proof is a key marketing strategy that every website owner should consider. You can boost SEO, increase engagement, and build trust with your audience by giving visitors a glimpse into your social platforms. A good social media plugin can give you all of those things.
Step 8: Go Live!

The last and most exciting step in creating your WordPress website is taking it live. At this point, you’ve made your navigation, configured your SEO, and added content. This last step involves tying up a few more loose ends. With that in mind, we’ve created a handy checklist for you to follow to ensure you don’t miss anything.
1. 1. Conduct a content review: Make sure all content is accurate, free of misspellings, and check all links.
  2. Optimize: Make sure all images are under 200kb, and enable caching and modification to ensure your site loads fast. Run a GTMetrix report to see how well your site is performing.
  3. SEO and Analytics: Set up Google analytics, integrate it into your site and check all posts and pages to ensure a keyword, title, URL, and meta description are configured properly. Using an SEO plugin, generate an HTML sitemap.
  4. Security: Update all plugins, themes, and WordPress core.
  5. Check all forms: Test all forms to ensure email deliverability. If you encounter any issues, install and configure an SMTP plugin.
  6. Connect your domain: Point your domain to your new website, then install an SSL.
  7. Search engine visibility: Head back to Settings > Reading and uncheck the discourage search engines from indexing this site checkbox.
  8. Back up your site: Before pushing your site live, make a backup of your website either with your host or a plugin such as Updraft. If disaster strikes, you want to be sure you have the most recent iteration of your site to fall back on.
Final Thoughts on How to Make a WordPress Website

Creating a WordPress website doesn’t have to be scary. You’ll bring your vision to life by following the steps outlined above. With careful planning, thoughtful content creation, partnering with the right host, and incorporating necessary plugins, your WordPress website will be optimized for search engines, safe against threats, and engaging for your visitors.

If you’re looking to create a WordPress website that caters to a specific demographic, check out some of our handy tutorials to help you create the specialized website of your dreams:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Before we wrap up, let’s answer some of your most common questions regarding WordPress website creation. Did we miss one? Leave a question below, and we will respond!

How do I make a WordPress website?

Choose a domain name, hosting provider, and a WordPress theme to create a WordPress website. Install WordPress on your hosting account, customize your theme, add content, and install plugins for added functionality. Regularly update and maintain your site for optimal performance.

Can I create a WordPress website for free?

Technically, yes, you can create a WordPress.org website for free, but it will require a domain name and hosting, which may have costs associated with them. Additionally, some themes and plugins may also have fees. Free options are available, but they may be partially free, depending on your needs.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) that powers millions of websites. It allows users to create and publish content, customize the appearance and functionality of their sites with themes and plugins, and manage their site’s back end through a user-friendly interface.

Why should I use WordPress to make my website?

You should use WordPress to make your website because it’s easy to set up, has a user-friendly interface, offers a wide range of customizable themes and plugins, and is SEO-friendly. It also has a large community of users, so you can get help and support quickly. Plus, it’s free to use.

Can a beginner build a website with WordPress?

Yes, a beginner can build a website with WordPress as it offers user-friendly tools and templates for designing websites without technical expertise. With its intuitive interface, drag-and-drop features, and customizable themes, beginners can easily create a professional-looking website. Additionally, numerous online resources are available, including tutorials, forums, and support communities, to assist beginners in building their WordPress website.

Does WordPress require coding experience?

No, WordPress does not require coding experience. It has a user-friendly interface and offers a variety of pre-designed templates, plugins, and widgets that you can easily customize without any coding knowledge. However, some coding skills can be helpful for advanced customization.

What kind of websites can be created using WordPress?

You can use WordPress to create various websites, including blogs, business websites, eCommerce stores, portfolios, forums, social networks, online directories, non-profit websites, and much more. Its flexibility, scalability, and user-friendly interface make it popular for website building.

Where can I learn more about WordPress?

You can learn more about WordPress on their official website, WordPress.org, where they offer documentation, guides, forums, and a community of users. You can also read blogs and tutorials on blogs like ours and WPBeginner, attend WordPress meetups and conferences, or enroll in online courses on platforms like Udemy and Coursera.

Where should I host my WordPress website?

Several options for hosting your WordPress website include shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, and VPS hosting. Factors to consider include budget, website size and traffic, technical expertise, and desired level of support. Popular hosting providers include SiteGround, Hostinger, Cloudways, and Pressable. You can read our detailed comparison of various WordPress hosts here.

Which WordPress Theme should I use for my website?

Choose a WordPress theme that aligns with your website’s goals, has a user-friendly interface, and is regularly updated for security and compatibility. A theme such as Divi can be an excellent choice for your WordPress website, as it comes with multiple pre-made templates, inbuilt integrations with numerous services like WooCommerce and Mailchimp, a full-blown theme builder, transparent and affordable pricing, support, and a lovely community!

What are the top plugins I should install?

The top plugins you should install vary depending on your website’s needs. However, some essential ones include RankMath for SEO optimizing your content, UpdraftPlus for timely backups, and EWWW Image Optimizer for compressing images. Additionally, you may consider plugins like WP Rocket for speed optimization, WPForms for form creation, and MonsterInsights for analytics and data. Look at our comprehensive list of every plugin you need here.

Which is better, Wix or WordPress?

WordPress is better than Wix because it offers greater flexibility and customization options, a wider range of plugins and themes, better SEO capabilities, and more control over website hosting and data ownership. Additionally, WordPress is open-source software, meaning it is free and community-driven, whereas Wix is a proprietary platform with limited control over its features.

Featured Image via Darko 1981 / Shutterstock.com

The post How to Make a WordPress Website in 2023 (Beginners Guide) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

Go to source
20.07.2023
WordPress Speed Need a Boost? Hereâ€™s What You Need to Know

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.

Go to source

20.07.2023
Yoast SEOâ€™s hidden features that secretly level up your SEO

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?

Why hidden features?

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.

The hidden features of Yoast SEO

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!

1. A structured data graph

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 thereâ€™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.

How does the Yoast SEO plugin help?

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!

A structured data graph: Yoast SEO connects blobs of Schema markup in one single graph, so search engines understand the bigger picture.

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.

2. Self-referencing canonicals

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.

How does the Yoast SEO plugin help?

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 »

3. Paginated archives with rel=next / rel=prev

Another 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 isnâ€™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 »

4. Nofollow login & registration links

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.

5. Noindex your internal search results

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 »

6. Removal of replytocom variables

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.

But that’s not all..

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.

Buy Yoast SEO Premium now!

Unlock powerful features and much more for your WordPress site with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin!

Get Yoast SEO Premium Only $99 USD / year (ex VAT)

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.

Go to source

19.07.2023
Introducing Redis: Boosting WordPress Performance and Scalability

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.

Go to source

19.07.2023
What Is the WordPress get_posts Function and How to Use It to Build PHP Post Lists

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 […]

Read More…

The post What Is the WordPress get_posts Function and How to Use It to Build PHP Post Lists appeared first on Hostinger Tutorials.

Go to source

14.07.2023
How to Start a Succesful Blog in 2023 (Detailed Tutorial)
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.

What is a Blog?

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.

How To Start a Blog: Step by Step

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.

Step 1: Setting a Goal for Your Blog

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.

Step 2: Picking a Niche

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.

Step 3: Picking Your Domain

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.

Step 4: Choosing Your Hosting

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.

Step 5: Create Your Blog

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.

Pick a Platform

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.

Pick a Theme

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.

Install Key Plugins

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).

Set Up Categories

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.

Create Your Pages

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.

Create Your Templates

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.

Step 6: Create a Content Strategy

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.

Step 7: Write Your First Post

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.

Step 8: Optimize Content for SEO

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.

Step 9: Post Content Consistently

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.

Step 10: Monetize Your Blog

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.

Final Thoughts on How to Start a Blog

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.

Go to source
14.07.2023
Should You Hire a Web Designer for Your WordPress Site?

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.

Go to source

14.07.2023
WordPress Plans Ambitious Admin UI Revamp with Design System, Galvanizing Broad Support from the Developer Community

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 theÂ UIÂ component system begun inÂ 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, andÂ accessibilityÂ are paramount.”

image credit: Matias Ventura – Admin Design

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.

“Itâ€™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 itâ€™s a fairly limited example, but thereâ€™s a nice balance in the ability to pin or unpinÂ pluginÂ 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 theÂ wordpress.orgÂ 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 lightÂ adminÂ 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! Itâ€™s gonna be amazing!” WPMarmite founder Alex Borto said. “A completeÂ adminÂ 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 areÂ not keenÂ on pluginsÂ 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 WordPressâ€™s success,” WordPress developer Mike McAlister said. “The fact that you can doÂ anythingÂ with WordPress is incredible, itâ€™s probably our biggest strength.

“But without standardized design patterns for theÂ admin, weâ€™ve seen that devolve into aÂ UI/UXÂ headache withÂ pluginÂ 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.

Go to source

14.07.2023
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Fostering Community Spirit Through Knowledge Sharing
If you ask someone in the WordPress community whatâ€™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.

The Dawn of Time

Birgit got fascinated by Gutenberg the moment it was introduced at WordCamp Europe 2017 â€“ 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 wonâ€™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 â€“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 wasnâ€™t the end of her journey â€“ now, Birgit also hosts the weekly Gutenberg Changelog podcast, where she discusses the latest Gutenberg releases with WordPress enthusiasts and experts.

“We donâ€™t just talk about what is in the release log â€“ 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, Hostingerâ€™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.

Mission: Gutenberg 101

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:
- DIY Site Owners â€“ Dedicated to non-developers site owners, with content like tutorials of the latest Gutenberg iterations
- For Developers â€“ Contains in-depth documentation on topics like how to use the Gutenberg scripts.
- Weekend Edition â€“ This section has something for everyone â€“ itâ€™s where Birgit compiles the news, commentary, tutorials, plugins, or themes related to the block editor and the Gutenberg plugin every Saturday.
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, â€œHow can I get a JSON file into Excel?â€ 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.”

Behind the Scenes of Gutenberg Times

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 â€“ 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 whatâ€™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. â€œThe 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 Whatâ€™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.

Is Block the Future?

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,” â€“ Birgit says. This way, community members can build on each otherâ€™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.

Go to source
12.07.2023
Is WordPress Hard to Learn in 2023?

If you want to launch a website, the first step is to decide how youâ€™re going to build it. As a powerful and highly customizable platform, WordPress is an excellent choice for the job. But, if youâ€™re a beginner, you might be wondering â€“ 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.

Go to source

12.07.2023