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You Can’t Just “Set It and Forget It.” When you first launched your website, it was exciting, right?Fresh design. Clever copy. Buttons that worked. Dreams of new customers rolling in.  But fast-forward a year (or three)… -A few broken links here-A plugin held together with duct tape there-A homepage that loads slower than your uncle’s…

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There are many conversations about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its ongoing relevancy. SEO at its root tends to be a very long-term strategy. It is rare that a new website that is just getting started with SEO and creating will outrank competitors immediately, but it doesn’t mean that it will stay that way forever.…

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A slow website can drive visitors away before they even get a chance to see what you have to offer.  Many people know this, and with this in mind, run automated tests at Google or Hubspot or wherever, and then want to take action to speed things up. Which is great, but, what I am…

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As the flowers bloom and the birds chirp, the arrival of spring signifies a time for renewal and rejuvenation. Unless you are on the East Coast in which you are taking a daily guess on whether you need your snow shovel or rain boots. But it’s not just our homes that benefit from a thorough…

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“Mobile Browsing Overtakes Desktop Browsing” – a headline that we have seen time and time again within the land of websites. With it coming as a shock to none, since many social media platforms are the most visited sites on the internet, and only 21% of all social media traffic is being accessed from a desktop…

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Safeguard Your Site: The Crucial Role of Regular WordPress Updates in Ensuring Security As software evolves, and security issues are discovered, it becomes more important to keep your websites updated and current. In this post, we will talk about the role that regular WordPress updates play in safeguarding your site against potential threats and helping…

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One day, I am going to get my old barn finished and in theory move in some power tools. One thing I want a band saw. I’ve been looking on Marketplace and Craigslist and also at some new ones, pretending I have space to put one.  That’s when I found this. People, those are square…

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It’s no secret that we’re being tracked. But it is both amazing and scary how it works. Earlier my wife texted me about the NYT Spelling Bee.  She tried to make a word – peckable – that the game didn’t count as a word. (Sounds like a word. What do I know.) So being both…

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Foundation issues can become a nightmare for homeowners, and also for WordPress site owners.  Some website problems are easily repairable. A little spackle of SEO here, a fresh coat of paint on the whole plugin situation. Boom.  But there can be some major issues that aren’t as easy as a trip to the Home Depot…

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Something happened to me the other day that was very unusual. A few months ago, the old exhaust fan in the bathroom broke. Or, rather, died. It sure sounded like something dying, that’s for sure. Standing on a ladder with a flashlight, I could make out the manufacturer and model number. I was even able…

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Don’t you just hate it when… your quoted paragraphs look like this?  Or have you ever even noticed? The typographic problem here is – the punctuation isn’t “hanging.” That’s when, in this case, the first quotation mark isn’t moved off to the left creating a smooth left margin.  This is big problem! 🙂 I saw it,…

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If you’ve recently launched a website and are wondering why you aren’t showing at up in Google after a few days, there is one setting you should make sure to check. WordPress and other CMSs have a setting that blocks the site from being indexed.  This is usually used during development so that you don’t…

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Down the hill behind our deck is a – pond. Sort of. I think technically it’s a vernal pool, since in dry years it dries up. This time of year, if there is water, it is mostly green.  Off to one side, sticking out in the water, is a rock. Almost every afternoon there are…

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Some days we simply have too much cache. For better or worse, we live in the era of cache (pronounced like the money), with local cache, browser cache, server cache, Google cache, CDNs, and sometimes double secret cache all seemingly conspiring against us as we make website edits and updates. Because what cache does is…

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Last month I had to replace a ceiling fan. When we moved in, this fan sort of worked. It was stuck on ‘low’ speed, and the part of the fan that controls the speed was broken. Parts were not available. So, finally, we ordered a new fan and I went to install it. Other than…

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In the olden days, file names on a PC could only have 8 characters. Then with Windows 95, all of a sudden… you could name files almost anything you wanted. And, as far as web servers go, things took a turn. 11+NAME+Resource+Reference2+Managing+Development+&+(1)Workshop+09132022.docx.pdf I downloaded something with that file name the other day (some words changed…

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For websites, faster is better.  One client’s site was loading slowly on phones, and asked me to take a look and see what could be improved. Sure, we all love high-res photos with glorious detail. And in some cases, that resolution is needed. But for thumbnail-sized images – 150x150pixels, for example, you don’t need all…

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Right? No matter how you feel about Buffybot, we can agree that that line is confusing. (And yet I remember it years later… anyway…) I mean, she may as well have said “edit your A record to point to the new IP address, bingo!” What? You may think you know what a website is. Or…

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Just sit right backAnd you’ll read a taleA tale of an old web site, That launched back in Twenty-fourteenWith plugins full of plight. The site was working fine one dayUntil the plugins crashed. The pages used to work ok,But now the site is trashed,Now the site is trashed. The home page is a freakin’ mess,The…

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All your links and passwords, too. Guess how many clients don’t have access to their own websites? More than you’d think. And even if you never log in, this is important information for every website owner to have, because sometimes this happens: Whether it’s a WordPress issue, a misplaced semicolon, a plugin incompatibility, or simply…

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Maybe you can use a tip from some hawks. For the last several years, we’ve had Red-Shouldered hawks around (see photos – these are the actual hawks living here this year.) This year they are building a nest in our yard. We can see it from our living room – I can also see it…

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Heads up – Google Analytics is changing, and we all need to change with it. If you are already using Google Analytics on your site, you may need to make some adjustments so your site keeps tracking after July 1, 2023. I have seen things that say if you didn’t do this in March 2023,…

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It’s quite a ‘site’ to behold.  Quick poll: Which version of PHP is your WordPress site using? __ What’s PHP? __ Huh? PHP is the scripting language that lives behind the scenes in WordPress (and other) website platforms. It’s software, and, like any other software, there are updates and patches and security releases over time. …

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Day after day I’m more confused Yet I look for the light through the pouring rain… So this song came up on the radio the other day and it reminded me – It doesn’t matter what it is, or how easy anyone else says it is, or how easy it’s supposed to be, if you…

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Have you ever needed a pizza form?  Last month I was asked to help out with streamlining a school lunch pizza ordering system, that seemed to rely on a series of spreadsheets and PDFs and Google docs and abaci. As part of the solution, I was looking at forms and ways to have the web…

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So – if you read part 1, you may recall that having relevant page titles and meta descriptions on your web site pages can help boost your SEO and search results. But you still need to know what words to put in there! The short answer is, put in words that your customers will use…

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(Is that good or bad? I think it’s good.) When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was “Carry on, Mr. Bowditch” by Jean Lee Latham.* It tells the story of Nathaniel Bowditch, who grew up in Salem, MA, in the late 1700s, in the time of tall ships and the spice trade. …

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So I had to make a pie. My Pie Poll called for apple. Though I am practically surrounded by cookbooks, my pie-making history has not been the best so I headed online. When you put “pie” (or any search) into Google, a few things happen.  First it checks domain names for your search term(s). So…

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It’s almost the end of the year (how??), and like everyone, I am trying to get a head start on my 2023 – stuff – and encouraging my clients to do the same. As you plan your website needs for January and beyond, here are a few things to think about: Do you need a…

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In part 1, we talked a little about the importance of having smaller images on your website. Here in part 2, we talk briefly about how to do it. There are two areas you may need to make smaller, and depending on your editor, you may see different numbers or terms. 1 – the image dimensions/area…

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Not long ago, a client asked me to take a look at their home page and see if I could figure out why it was loading slower. I did, and, I did. I found a 42mb photo (that is way big!) loaded into the top banner area. They had loaded in a photo from a…

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Here at RPS, we wear many hats. I personally wear several on any given day. And on any given project – our extended team is wearing even more. The Design hat.   Custom code hat. WordPress hat. Development hat. Maintenance hat. Client Service hat. Red Sox hat (maybe not this season…) SEO hat. The “Just make…

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Are you and your WordPress site ready for 2023? If you are still relying on the Classic Editor plugin, you may not be. When WordPress 5.0 (also known as Gutenberg or block editor) launched in late 2018, the Classic Editor plugin became one of the most popular plugins available. This plugin let you ignore the…

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Have you ever had an older phone and the operating system updated (intentionally or accidentally) and things started not working quite right or not working at all?  That’s similar to what can happen with an older or outdated WordPress website when updated without care.  Wonkiness. From pages not loading properly to missing styles to no…

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So last week I talked about having too much stuff. This week – let’s talk about keeping your stuff updated. There are three parts to keeping WordPress updated. WordPress core, any themes, and any plugins you are using.  If these updates aren’t done regularly, you can easily get a few versions out of date –…

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Old themes, old plugins, giant images, even entire old site versions can all be taking up too much space on your website’s server, and that server can become a hoarder if you’re not careful. And after a while, this can become a problem in a couple ways.  First – sheer volume of files can put…

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As someone on the sharp end of website development, I interact with a variety of web hosting companies. And over the years I’ve narrowed it down to a few I prefer to work with, and that I recommend to my clients. The reasons are simple – security, support, and features that save me time –…

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If you have a new-ish wordpress website, the best thing you can do to keep it safe and running smoothly is to it keep it updated.

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At RPS, we make your website work the way you need it to work—for you and for your business. 

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