Articles

Whilst doing some research on WordPress performance I came across this excellent article from Kinsta® It’s in-depth and long read but there’s some great value in here if you want to get your head into the technical aspects. https://kinsta.com/learn/speed-up-wordpress/ ...

With the PowerToys Run utility Windows 10 users get a decent Mac Spotlight equivalent. It can be launched with Alt + Space. I’ve been trying it for a few weeks now and I really enjoy it. So much so that I’ve stopped using the Windows key altogether for launching apps, and have remapped it to start the new Run utility. I like the simplicity of it – and for the most part it’s...

Whether it’s your website or a clients it’s important to have responsible practices for WordPress backups. You need to be proactive about backing up your WordPress website. Do not not rely on the chance that nothing will go wrong. Ideally you want to choose a web hosting supplier who has backups built into their service. My recommendation is to always look for WordPress specific packag...

I saw Geoff Graham had put a neat CodePen together recently with a chequerboard reveal. I figured I should have a go, so ended up using one of my wife’s photos from our trip to Canada a few years back. See the Pen Checkerboard by James (@jamesevers) on CodePen. I’m pretty sure this could be worked into a nice hero section somehow with a little more finesse. However the reveal concept...

I received my HEY for work invite a little while ago, and wanted to share my first impressions of the service with you. So if you’ve had your head in the tech news at all during the last few months you’ll probably have heard of HEY. I first became aware of HEY through the Rework podcast and was instantly intrigued. However I wouldn’t be surprised if you first heard of it in the g...

My recommendation for this week is Harry’s Marketing Examples. Which you can find here: https://marketingexamples.com/. So far I have found the Marketing Examples website helpful as it’s full of easy to understand advice. It’s all quite logical and actionable. My goal for 2021 is firmly aimed at growth through better marketing of myself, with the key differentiator being value. H...

Thanks to the FancyZones utility Windows 10 finally has an option for managing and snapping windows. At least beyond a 50/50 snap either horizontally or vertically. As a web developer I frequently have multiple applications open when working on projects. This usually includes my code editor, web browser, terminal, communication tools and project management app. I’m sure there’s probabl...

This weeks recommendation is Henri Helvetica’s talk “The Tipping Point: How Performance Decisions Make Accessibility Differences”. This talk was for the 2019 Inclusive Design 24 event, and although it’s from a couple of years ago it’s still relevant today. It’s a very thoughtful account on the state of best practices when aiming to align performance and accessib...

Learning the WordPress visual editor shortcuts can really save you time. It will help you get the most out of your content creation experience, and keep you in the flow when you’re writing. You don’t want to be searching for buttons on the toolbar when you’re trying to express your thoughts. With that in mind I’ve compiled a cheat sheet of the most common shortcuts I use. Y...

If you’re about to relaunch your website you might want to consider whether you’ll need to setup 301 redirects. But what are 301 redirects, and why might you need them? A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect which informs search engines that a URL has changed. This is important in helping maintain rankings and link authority. Dead links will stop ranking, and users visiting them will b...

If your website performance sucks it doesn’t matter how pretty the design is. It is essential that you understand how performance effects the conversion rates of your customers. It is imperative that you are able to identify if your website is slow and what to do about it. If you take away only one thing from this article please make sure it is this: Website performance should be your highes...

A very interesting article by Malte Ubl @cramforce (brought to my attention via the CSS Tricks newsletter) about the current state of optimising images on the web. There’s some really interesting concepts which I wasn’t aware of. Certainly worth a read for most front end developers I imagine. Article link here: https://www.industrialempathy.com/posts/image-optimizations/ ...