Category: WordPress

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) powered by PHP, MySQL and JavaScript. WordPress is the world’s leading system to create websites and blogs. Currently, approximately 38% of all the content on the web was built with WordPress.

Need more? Design Rush has compiled a list of the Top WordPress Developers Of 2020 according to Design Rush.

Threads: ActivityPub and WordPress
Meta has released a new microblogging app: Threads. It leverages the user base of Instagram and the users’ followers to pre-build an audience for new members. This may be an excellent antidote to the death spiral of Twitter. After Elon Musk’s petty and disastrous Twitter tactics, Web321 pulled back from using Twitter. By July 6, the new app had been downloaded thirty million times, becoming the most rapidly downloaded app, beating even the adoption speed of Chat-GPT.

The game changer of Threads vs. Twitter: interoperability. Threads connects via a newer protocol, ActivityPub. Mastodon, WordPress and likely a growing number of new services will use this protocol. The success of the Web came from protocols that allow communication between systems and services. As Facebook grew to the point where people asked, “Do we need the Web if we have Facebook?” people missed that systems like Facebook and Twitter are websites– websites with lots of connectivity, but still not an actual communications platform. Protocol lean on the Internet’s capacity for durability and openness. With Threads adopting ActivityPub, it’s going where Twitter cannot go.

ActivityPub

The ActivityPub protocol is a decentralized social networking protocol based upon the [ActivityStreams] 2.0 data format. It provides a client to server API for creating, updating and deleting content, as well as a federated server to server API for delivering notifications and content. This is an excellent feature because ActivityStreams encompasses all the essential terms required to depict the various activities and content circulating within a social network. It is highly probable that ActivityStreams already encompasses all the necessary vocabulary; however, in the rare case that it doesn’t, ActivityStreams can be expanded and augmented using [JSON-LD]. If anyone peeks at the source code of Web321 websites, they’ll notice that we use JSON-LD to create machine readable content for services like search engines to read-in. It’s a really powerful means of connecting a website’s message to the intended audiences.

ActivityPub implementations make possible the decentralized social web, and being able to use clients and client libraries that work across a wide variety of social websites).

The decentralized web, also known as the fediverse, aims to provide social media users with a more transparent, ethical, and decentralized platform to communicate and connect with others. Instead of relying on a single company or server, the fediverse consists of many independent servers hosted by various organizations and individuals worldwide. Each server has its own rules and community, but they can all work together. If you don’t like any existing options or want to try something new, you can simply download open source software and create your own server. Each server can function as its own social network, giving users more freedom and control.

The best part: ActivityPub integrates with WordPress.

WordPress

WordPress’ Automattic has released the ActivityPub plugin. It brings a new level of social networking to your website by integrating it with the wider federated social web: a decentralized means of publishing and interacting with other social networks and other publishing sources. The plugin allows you to easily share your content and interact with users on Threads, Mastodon and other platforms that also support the ActivityPub protocol. (here’s the short list, but expect it to grow with Threads’ launch).
- Friendica
- HubZilla
- Mastodon
- Misskey
- Pleroma
- Pixelfed
- SocialHome
Installing the WordPress ActivityPub plugin is easy:
1. From your WP-Admin dashboard, go to the “Plugins” and search “ActivityPub” (all one word). Alternatively, you can click here and go directly to the plugin page. Uses on the WordPress.com service will need to upgrade their service level to Business or Corporate. Web321 clients will be able to use ActivityPub with their website.
2. Click “Install and activate.”
3. Once activated, you can click “Manage plugin,” which allows you to choose the type of content that will show up in fediverse feeds — if you’re not quite ready for that, you can always access it later under “Settings” → “ActivityPub.”
4. Make sure your blog’s author profile page is active.
5. Go to Threads and search for your author’s new federated profile, and follow it. Your new profile will be in the form of @[username]@[website], so that is what you’ll search for.
6. Back on your site, publish a new post.
7. From Threads, check to see if the new post appears in your Home feed. Messages are sent to the federated platforms using a delayed cron job on your website. This avoids breaking the publishing process for those cases where users might have lots of followers.It may take up to 15 minutes for the new post to show up in your federated feed.
Need A Hand? Let’s talk.
July 7, 2023
Why Custom WordPress Themes Are A Mistake
So, you’re embarking on the journey of creating a new website or giving a facelift to your current one. It’s likely that you have grand visions regarding its appearance and the innovative features you want to include. You browse through various themes, including the top-rated ones, but nothing seems to hit the right chord. You’ve likely tripped over the limitations of other theme engines like Elementor, Divi, GeneratePress or Avada. People often view using a ready-made theme engine with scorn, as if using a cake mix while everyone praises recipes made from scratch. Two recent prospective clients insisted on a custom theme. They were so invested in the machismo of a custom theme that they were willing to spend an extra $10,000 in one case, and over $30,000 in another, rather than paying $100 to $500 per year for licensing.

You might be thinking, “Hire someone to construct the whole thing from the ground up with a custom WordPress theme makes it exactly how I want it.” The same people would never buy a custom coffee maker, a custom car or a custom word processor think nothing of going for a custom theme.

Standardization is key to success: everything from units of measure to railways are built with standardization. They allow for features to be added on known factors. People with standardized skillsets can take on work without much of a learning curve. When something goes wrong with a commercial theme, Googling an answer can resolve issues quickly. A bespoke design has no community support.

Why a Custom WordPress Theme is a Bad Idea for Your Web Project

Some reasons why a custom theme can be problematic.
1. To Bake A Cake, First You Need To Create The Universe
  That’s what Carl Sagan believed and I agree with it. Everything that creates the final input needs to be accounted for. The theme needs to interact with as many existing WordPress functions as possible
  - Here’s a list of what a WordPress theme needs.
    
    Display for a post
    
    Display for a page
    
    Display for archives, or lists of posts
    
    Custom post type support
    
    CSS theming elements
    
    Javascript theming elements.
    
    WordPress Theme Customization Support
    
    Heading support (sizing, styling and font face)
  - Here’s a list of nice to see built into a theme.
    
    Caching controls
    
    Template building
    
    Error log system
    
    Header addition
    
    Footer controls
    
    LD-JSON controls
    
    Meta-data control
    
    Integration to third party plugins (popular ones like
    
    Integration to third party services (social media, etc.)
2. You need to keep paying for updates.
  Sure, you might have set aside funds for the initial development of the custom theme, but have you considered the ongoing costs for code updates? Without regular code reviews and updates by a developer, your custom theme could be susceptible to bugs, security issues, and compatibility problems.
  It’s crucial that your website is compatible with the latest versions of PHP. For instance, PHP 7.4 was highly recommended for WordPress and offers numerous performance improvements compared to older versions.
  If your theme isn’t compatible with PHP 7.2, and your server’s PHP version is updated to 7.2, this mismatch could cause significant issues for your website. But hang on: most servers have upgraded to PHP 8.1 and some are onto PHP 8.2.
  WordPress core updates are something to keep an eye on. As new WordPress versions are on the horizon, Beta and Release Candidate versions are made available for developers to test their themes and plugins. If your custom theme isn’t actively updated, it may not function properly once the new WordPress version is live.
3. Who’s Checking Out The Security?
  When you purchase a commercial theme license, it comes with support and updates: vital for site security. As security flaws are identified, theme developers update their code to address these vulnerabilities. However, with a custom theme, unless you’re paying for regular security checks, your theme is probably not being updated or examined for security issues.
4. Incompatibility with Popular Plugins
  One of the frequent issues we resolve for sites under our care at Web321.co is conflicts between plugins and themes. Well-established commercial themes are tried and tested with top WordPress plugins, either by the developers or by the community.In contrast, a custom theme won’t undergo these tests until you attempt to use the plugins on your site – and they might just break your website.
5. Missing Opportunities with Popular Plugins
  When I roll out a site, Yoast, ACF Pro and a handful of other plugins are a given. There is a suite of plugins that make WordPress work really well. If someone is making a custom theme, these plugins need to be considered– how could they integrate with the theme. If there isn’t work put in to make a custom theme work well, the case for a custom theme gets all the weaker.
6. The Coding Quality Might Be Weak
  With commercial themes used on multiple websites, users consistently report issues to developers. Developers familiar with a theme’s code often communicate with the theme developer to address any problems.However, for a custom theme used solely on your site, the only scrutiny it gets is from you and the developer. This limited oversight can let bugs slip through, the code could perform poorly or your site could be prone to malware.
7. No Community Support
  One of the perks of using reputable commercial themes like Divi or Beaver Builder is the support from the developer and an active user community that shares advice and lends a helping hand.When I, as a Divi builder, get stumped I hop of the Elegant Themes support and work through the problems with them.In contrast, a custom theme doesn’t have a community of developers experienced with that theme. This means that whenever the theme requires maintenance or modifications, you’re likely going to incur extra costs.
8. Go Boldly… Where Everyone Has Gone Before
  Creating a completely custom theme essentially means redoing what others have already achieved and refined. Regardless of the developer’s expertise, they remake features that likely exist in a commercial theme. Setting skills aside, consider the labor and time to launch. A commercial theme typically involves over 1000 hours of labor. If one developer tackles it, they would need 25 weeks of full-time work to deliver the theme. Save 20 to 24 weeks of development and launch faster by building a child theme, which is much easier. Almost all commercial themes worth using support child themes.
  A child theme lets you enjoy the benefits of modifying a commercial theme and demands less coding compared to building one from scratch. The savings in time and cost are significant. You can allocate the development budget saved from not reinventing the wheel to theme enhancements, performance improvements, and quicker delivery time.
Compared to some IT projects, $10k or $30k may seem tiny in comparison, but it’s unnecessary and it’s a poor value proposition compared to using a well-supported commercial theme. Our specialization at Web321 is working with the Divi theme. We spend every day getting the most out of the system and bending it to our will. We’ve encountered plenty of sites hobbled by an outmoded or inefficient theme. We’ve worked with them to make their site work better by replacing their theme with a Divi deployment.

For those who have a hate on for commercial themes, there are open source starter themes available:
- Underscores – A theme meant for hacking, to use to build next, most awesome, WordPress theme out there.
- Understrap – WordPress starter theme framework that combines the aforementioned Underscores and Bootstrap.
- Joints WP – JointsWP is a blank WordPress theme built with Foundation 6. It’s a go-to for many agencies as it looks like custom theme build.
- WP Bootstrap Starter – It’s a starter theme that like some of the above use the Twitter Bootstrap, Font Awesome along with some other libraries.
If the idea of delving into a custom theme concerns you, your concerns are valid. At Web321, we assist companies through technology consulting. Our wide range of services includes WordPress support and web design. We would be happy to provide insights on your theming decisions and demonstrate the possibilities with a commercial theme like Divi.

From speed optimization, unlimited website edits, security, support, our experts are here to assist. Collaborate with Web321: a team that provides every facet of exceptional WordPress support services. Involve us as webmasters who are ready to deliver advice on the best path to realizing your online strategy.
July 1, 2023
Why We Like Combining Divi and ACF
I want to show you how we can use ACF and Toolset to insert dynamic content into our text editor. With ACF, we can easily find available fields and insert them into our content. We can also enable raw HTML to display content verbatim. Toolset works similarly, but it drops in shortcodes instead. However, the Divi builder can sometimes have trouble with inserting shortcodes, so I approach this cautiously. Overall, using ACF and Toolset can help us easily populate ACF elements and add styling to our content.

More on:
June 22, 2023
How To Get Your House In Order – Technical Improvements To Web Design

Some recommendations to improve its SEO and potentially catch up with the competitors out there. Consider these factors when you seek to get the best web design outcome.

Improve Site and Page Authority: If The site and page authority of your site is lower than that of your competitor get mentioned by others: clients, citation websites, etc.. These metrics are used by search engines to determine the credibility and relevance of a website. You can improve these metrics by gaining high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.

Optimize Meta Descriptions: Make sure the meta descriptions are well-written, but it could be optimized further by including more relevant keywords. This can help improve the website’s visibility in search engine results.

Improve Keyword Usage: Do an analysis. If that doesn’t show specific keywords that are close to your needs, then it’s time to do some competitive research. It’s important to identify and use relevant keywords in the website’s content, meta tags, and alt tags to improve its search engine rankings.

Content Updates: Regularly updating the website with fresh, high-quality content can help improve its search engine rankings. This could be in the form of blog posts, new product descriptions, or updates to existing content.

Improve Load Speed: Loading speed is a tie-breaker when it comes to awarding ranking. It’s always beneficial to aim for the fastest load speed possible. This can be achieved by optimizing images, reducing the use of unnecessary scripts, and using a reliable hosting service.

Use H1, H2, H3 Tags Effectively: These tags are used by search engines to understand the content of a webpage. Make sure to use these tags effectively to highlight the main topics and subtopics of your content. H1, H2, etc. are organization tags that can get formatted. Don’t fall into the trap of using them to block out space. Pay attention to the hierarchy. Likewise, using orderered and unordered lists is a good way to organize content for search engines and users alike.

Robots.txt: This is a file that is usually generated by a plugin like Yoast SEO. It will tell search engines to ignore some pages. It can also point to an XML sitemap.

XML Sitemap: Plugins like Yoast SEO can auto-generate all of the code needs to tell a search engine where your important pages and contents reside. It spoon feeds the search engine paths to your content.

SEO is a long-term strategy and improvements may take time to show results. It’s also important to regularly monitor and adjust your SEO strategy based on changes in search engine algorithms and competitor activities.
April 7, 2023
What is the best WordPress hosting site?
Choosing the right web hosting service is one of the most important decisions you’ll make when building a website. The best answer to “What is the best WordPress hosting site?” is going to differ from person to person. It’s going to be a combination of price, performance and customer service. A good web host should provide reliable uptime, fast loading times, and excellent customer support. When it comes to WordPress hosting, there are plenty of options to choose from. What follow is a list of hosting options and some brief info on each. I have personally posted clients to almost everyone of these services over the years. Full disclosure: if there is an affiliate link available to connect from this article to a particular option, I’ve used that affiliate link.

Let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress hosting sites and compare them to help you make an informed decision.

What to Look for in a Web Host

Before we dive into the best WordPress hosting sites, it’s important to know what to look for in a web host. Here are some key factors to consider:
1. Uptime: Uptime refers to the amount of time your website is up and running. A good web host should provide at least 99.9% uptime.
2. Speed: Your website’s loading speed is crucial for user experience and SEO. Look for a web host that offers fast loading times.
3. Customer support: If something goes wrong with your website, you need to be able to get in touch with your web host’s support team quickly and easily.
4. Security: Your web host should provide robust security features to protect your website from hackers and malware.
5. Scalability: As your website grows, you may need to upgrade your hosting plan. Look for a web host that offers scalable plans so you can easily upgrade when needed.
Good pricing that’s not too good to be true: some services offer very low cost services that fall short. After that, they may try to upsell the customers on the level of service they actually need. Some services may offer low low prices to pull in a lot of clients, then they run it until their systems implode.

Now that we know what to look for in a web host, let’s take a look at some of the best known WordPress hosting sites.

Bluehost: Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting services on the market, and for good reason. They offer reliable uptime, fast loading times, and excellent customer support. Bluehost also provides a one-click WordPress installation process, making it easy to get started with WordPress. Their plans start at $2.95 per month, making them an affordable option for beginners.

SiteGround: SiteGround is another popular web hosting service that’s known for its excellent performance and customer support. They offer fast loading times, reliable uptime, and top-notch security features. SiteGround also provides a one-click WordPress installation process and automatic updates. Their control panels gives customers access to memcaching and dynamic caching as well as a SiteGround CDN. Their plans start at $6.99 per month.

WP Engine: WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting service that’s designed specifically for WordPress websites. They offer lightning-fast loading times, excellent security features, and top-notch customer support. WP Engine also provides automatic updates and daily backups. Their plans start at $25 per month, making them a bit more expensive than other options on this list.

WPPro: Exclusive ClassicPress / WordPress hosting for the discerning user. This hosting package is excellent for personal users and most businesses using ClassicPress or WordPress. Servers are optimized for both ClassicPress and WordPress and they provide you the freedom to run a great website.

DreamHost: DreamHost is a reliable web hosting service that offers excellent uptime and fast loading times. They also provide a one-click WordPress installation process and automatic updates. DreamHost’s plans start at $2.59 per month, making them an affordable option for beginners.

Hosting Nation: Hosting Nation’s cloud-based hosting plans for web designers are for professionals like you who would rather spend time designing beautiful sites than dealing with billing, renewals and technical support.

InMotion Hosting: InMotion Hosting is a reliable web hosting service that offers excellent uptime and fast loading times. They also provide a one-click WordPress installation process and automatic updates. InMotion Hosting’s plans start at $2.49 per month, making them an affordable option for beginners.

WPX Hosting: WPX Hosting is a premium WordPress hosting provider that focuses on speed, security, and customer service. It offers free site migration, daily backups, and malware removal. Its customer service is highly praised, with fast response times. However, it may be a bit pricey for small businesses or individual bloggers.

HostPapa: HostPapa is a great option for small businesses, offering a range of affordable plans with plenty of features. It provides free domain registration, unlimited bandwidth, and a user-friendly control panel. It’s less expensive plans are hemmed in on how much processing they have available, and some full featured sites may feel the pinch. It also places a strong emphasis on green web hosting, using renewable energy to power its servers.

GreenGeeks: As the name suggests, GreenGeeks is an environmentally friendly hosting provider. It’s an excellent choice for those who prioritize sustainability, as it’s committed to putting three times the power it consumes back into the grid in the form of renewable energy. It also offers solid performance and security features.

A2 Hosting: A2 Hosting is a web hosting company that provides a range of hosting solutions for individuals and businesses. They offer shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and reseller hosting plans, as well as specialized hosting for WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla sites. A2 Hosting boasts high-speed servers, 24/7 customer support, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They also offer a range of developer-friendly features, such as support for multiple programming languages, SSH access, and free SSL certificates. Overall, A2 Hosting is a reliable and affordable option for those looking for a variety of hosting solutions.

When it comes to choosing the best WordPress hosting site, there are plenty of options to choose from. Hosting Nation and WPPro.ca are great options for Canadian websites. SiteGround and WP Engine have something for US websites. All of these are excellent choices that offer reliable uptime, fast loading times, and excellent customer support. Ultimately, the best WordPress hosting site for you will depend on your specific needs and budget. Be sure to consider factors like uptime, speed, customer support, security, and scalability when making your decision.
March 13, 2023
What’s the difference between posts and pages in WordPress?
In WordPress, both posts and pages are common ways to publish content, but they serve different purposes:

Posts:
- Best for timely, regularly updated content: Use posts for blog entries, news updates, or announcements.
- Organized by date, categories, and tags: Posts appear in reverse chronological order (newest first) and can be browsed by specific categories or tags. This structure helps readers explore related articles and stay up to date.
- Dynamic and evolving: Because posts are time-sensitive, your list of posts naturally grows and changes as you publish more.
Pages:
- Ideal for static, timeless content: Use pages for information that doesn’t need frequent updating, like an About page, Contact page, or Pricing page.
- Organized in a hierarchy: Pages can have parent/child relationships, making it easy to create a logical site structure. Visitors can navigate through your website to find what they need without scrolling through a blog feed.
- Stable and long-term: Pages usually stay consistent over time and don’t rely on categories or tags.
Both posts and pages use the WordPress editor, so adding text, images, and other media is familiar. However, pages often have simpler layouts, while posts may include more formatting and interactive elements to engage readers.

Posts help you share timely content and keep your readers informed, while pages help you present important, lasting information about your site or business in a clear, navigable way.

Posts and pages have different features and settings. For example, posts may have comments enabled by default, whereas pages may not. Posts may also have tags and categories, while pages do not. It’s important to understand these differences when creating content on a WordPress website, as it can help you choose the right content type for your needs.

Posts are used to create blog posts, which are typically chronological and timely. Posts are organized by date and can be commented on and shared on social media. They are meant to be timely much like blog posts.

Pages are used to create static content, such as your website’s homepage, about page, or contact page. Pages are not organized by date and cannot be commented on or shared on social media. Pages are more evergreen and foundational to your site: front pages, contact pages, FAQ pages etc..

The biggest distinction is how they use different templates. Styling a page can be much more unique. If you update the blog template it will affect every blog.

From a templating / theming perspective, in the core of WordPress you will see single.php and post.php. Then you will learn about the loop. The loop is what lists multiple posts and summaries. You will never have a summary of pages. The template hierarchy is very useful, you can read about it here. It’s common that a loop will iterate through relevant posts, but it’s uncommon to find a list of pages. That said, WordPress’ search will usually display both pages and posts in the search results.
February 14, 2023

Linking Gravity Forms to BuddyPress Forums

I was posed with problem: make BuddyPress forum topics from a Gravity Forms form submission. Turning Gravity Form submissions into posts isn’t a big party trick– that is built in. What doesn’t work, is the linkage to a particular forum as a new topic. So: I did some hacking (see the code below).

I made a gravity form
I have it posting to the post_type for topics
I put in a hidden value with the label of “forum_id” and the number for that forum id as the default value for the hidden value
I had an existing plugin that was mine. I added the code below to listen for Gravity Form events and then act on the submission.
WordPress will do the submission, save the post, then go to this function to act and create linkage between the form submission and a forum.

// publish and associate the form

function sboxr_application_submission( $entry, $form ) {
	if (function_exists('bbp_update_forum')) {
	    //getting post
    	$post = get_post( $entry['post_id'] );

	    //changing post content
	    foreach ($form['fields'] as $key => $values) {
    		if ($values['label'] == 'forum_id') {
    			$post->post_parent = $values['defaultValue'];
    			break;
    		}   
	    }

		$forum_meta = array(
			'forum_id' => $post->post_parent,
			'topic_id' => $post->ID,		
			'comment_status' => 'open'
		);
		$post->comment_status = 'open';	
		$post->post_status = 'publish';

		bbp_update_forum(array('forum_id' => $post->post_parent));
	    //updating post
		wp_update_post($post);
	
		foreach ( $forum_meta as $meta_key => $meta_value ) {
			update_post_meta( $post->ID, '_bbp_' . $meta_key, $meta_value );
		}	
	}
}

// Hook to make the gravity form submission to connect to forum post creation
add_action( 'gform_after_submission_2', 'sboxr_application_submission', 10, 2 );

January 31, 2023

Hiring a Webmaster vs. Retaining a Web Management Company
According to data from the Canada’s Job Bank, the median hourly wage for web developers in Canada is $30.50. That works out to an annual salary of around $63,000 based on a full-time work week. It’s important to consider other costs associated with hiring an employee: benefits, training, and employment insurance. These costs can add significantly to the overall cost of putting a full-time webmaster on staff.

It’s important to carefully consider the costs and benefits of hiring a webmaster on staff versus using a website management company, and to consult with a web design professional or marketing specialist to determine the best course of action for your business.

Things to consider when deciding whether to hire a webmaster on staff or use a website management company:

Cost. Hiring a webmaster on staff can be more expensive in the long run. A website management company may charge a monthly or annual fee for their services.

Expertise. A webmaster on staff may have more in-depth knowledge of your business and its website, but a website management company may have a team of experts with a wide range of skills and experience.

Time commitment. Hiring a webmaster on staff may require a larger time commitment in terms of training and management, while a website management company can handle all website-related tasks.

Scalability. If your business is growing quickly or experiencing sudden spikes in traffic, a website management company may be able to scale up their services more quickly than an in-house webmaster.

The best option for your business will depend on your specific needs and resources.

Is Having A Full-time Webmaster Too Much AND Not Enough?

With a webmaster on staff, you have a full-time staffer and all of the costs that come with them. A WordPress support agency can cost much less than a dedicated staffer. In a pinch, they can bring the whole force of their service to the clients in times of need. When something goes really wrong, there’s not way to scale a single webmaster, but WordPress support can commit multiple people to making a fix.

Traditionally, WordPress support services commonly include:

Troubleshooting and bug fixing. Experiencing issues with your WordPress site? We can help diagnose and fix problems.

Plugin and theme support. If you’re using a plugin or theme that’s causing issues on your site, a support company can help troubleshoot and resolve the problem.

Security support. WordPress support companies can help secure your site by installing and configuring security plugins, performing regular security scans, and helping you recover from a hack or malware attack.

Performance optimization. If your WordPress site is running slow or experiencing other performance issues, a support company can help optimize your site’s speed and performance.

Design and customization. Some WordPress support companies offer design and customization services to help you customize the look and feel of your site. Web321 adds projects to the support work. We can create custom plugins or themes.

Ongoing maintenance and updates. Many WordPress support companies offer ongoing maintenance and update services to ensure your site is always running smoothly and securely.

WordPress support services can help businesses and individuals who use WordPress to manage their websites by providing a range of technical and design support services. Beyond the basic services, Web321 offers more services to fulfill the role of a webmaster.

When Is It Time To Hire or Retain WordPress Support?

The best time to retain a WordPress support company is when the company is too big to ignore the Web (ie. if the company grosses more than $100k), yet small enough that they can’t bear the expense of a dedicated staff member. If a company is spending $500,000 on payroll, one full time webmaster would cost $60-80k or 11 to 16% of the overall payroll. Ideally, the webmaster role should account for 5 to 10% of the payroll. Their work should be key to digitization of the business and the marketing successes. Put another way: what’s the return-on-investment (ROI) of a full time webmaster on the payroll? If they cost $80k/yr, they need to do work that generates far more than $80k per year. Is that the case? if the role of the webmaster is only making a modest gain on the company bottom line, then a less expensive option is the better solution. A company like Web321 can come into play to help the company, but create a positive ROI. This is what we do: we take care of websites and offer WordPress support.
December 9, 2022
Turning the Clock, One More Time (Daylight Savings Time)

On November 1, many provinces and territories across Canada may be turning the clock back an hour for the last time. Before automation in technology, we were required to remember two special dates that required the hard labour of changing our clocks by an hour. This quirked its way into two sayings we’ve engraved into our brains “Spring Forward” and “Fall Back” – a way to depict which direction to move the hour based on the season.

However, even with technology advancements that meant automatic daylight savings time changes on our laptops and cellphones, provinces and territories across Canada have still chosen to get rid of the practice.

The End of An Era

Though it isn’t official across the country, many provinces and territories have had conversations individually to scope whether or not Daylight Savings Time will continue in their respective regions.

At the moment, British Columbia is under work to remove daylight savings time after 93% of a sample size of 220 000 people stated they were in favour of the decision. Following British Columbia’s lead in this conversation is Ontario while areas in Eastern Quebec, Nunavut, and all of Saskatchewan have already made the move to Standard Time. Though there are plans to remove Daylight Savings Time in BC, there are provinces headed against the grain, which may complicate time zones moving forward.

But, why are there so many people interested in removing daylight savings time?

Daylight Savings Time Disasters

The top reason why people have shown disdain towards daylight savings time is the impact the time difference has on our health. The time period of up to a week after the time change has proven to have an impact on our physical and mental health.

Physically, our bodies are exhausted – for the obvious reason that we lost an hour of sleep, however, the effects of one less hour of sleep have been very dangerous. The number one complaint the day after and within an adjustment period of a week is the feeling of grogginess or being “tired”. This has resulted in an increase in car crashes and heart attacks.

Mentally, our bodies are distracted and our focus is shifted on ourselves. Studies show that there are spikes in depression and feelings of distraction that cause cyberloafing, lack of work productivity, and unhealthy dietary trends (such as overeating).

Projected Impact on Business

With all of the negative impacts and side effects of daylight savings time, it only makes sense that there is resistance towards it – but what does this mean for business?

First and foremost, there will no longer be a transitional period that comes with daylight savings time. The week of adjustment and feeling back to oneself will no longer hinder business, bringing a general flow throughout the year.

Productivity

An end to Daylight Savings Time means employee productivity would remain the same all year, saving companies money from worker hours lost to exhaustion.

More Sales

The removal of Daylights Savings Time would also mean customers would no longer be adjusting to a time difference – suggesting more projected sales for businesses.

Communication

Without the twice-yearly time change, communication within a single time zone might improve, but the grey area comes with communication between zones. For businesses that do business or have employees across Canada, working out which provinces have changed their times versus which have not may impact communication between provinces.

October 28, 2020
It’s 2021: These Are Seven “Features” That Shouldn’t Cost Extra
When it comes to web design, there are many designers and packages available. Various players in the web industry have tried to differentiate themselves with new features and buzzwords – but how many of these “premium features” are actually standard? In many cases, your provider may be artificially throttling a feature they get for free, or in unlimited supply, just to turn around and sell it to you as something special.

When looking for your next website design, make sure that you are not paying a premium for the following features:

1. WordPress Website

WordPress websites are fast, powerful, and secure – but they are built using open-source software which, on its own, is free. Web developers may use WordPress as a foundation to build great websites, but they aren’t paying anything for the tool they’re using. Granted, it does take a small amount of effort for a developer to install WordPress and connect it to a database, but that’s true of any website content management system. WordPress should be marketed as a feature – because it’s definitely one of the better platforms out there – but if a package charges you a premium for WordPress, look out!

2. Mobile-Ready

In a time where almost everything is digitally driven, 45-55% of website audiences are viewing sites using mobile devices. In fact, having a mobile-ready (“responsive”) website is more important than ever! 57% of users visiting a non-responsive website on their mobile device won’t recommend that business. A good web designer should make every site they build responsive by default, without a premium charge. If your designer is trying to tack on extra fees for this “feature”, look elsewhere!

3. 99% Uptime

Website uptime is the time that a website or web service is available to the users (“up”) over a given period. Optimal website uptime is 99.9%, which guarantees your website is up and running with only 43 minutes of downtime out of the 720 hours in a month.

If your website has an uptime of 99%, out of the 720 hours in a month, your website will have a downtime of 7.2 hours per month. That difference is huge!

A 99% uptime guarantee is nothing special and falls far short of the minimum 99.9% uptime you should be looking for. If you’re being charged a premium for 99% uptime, in our opinion, you’re getting fleeced.

4. Unlimited Email Addresses

Hearing “unlimited” always sounds like a win and mentally justifies a premium price. However, you may not know that most hosting comes with unlimited email addresses for your domain – all your web designer has to do is activate them for you. What’s actually limited is the drive space available on the server – and most providers will cap the size of each email account to prevent hitting the drive space limit. Essentially, if your web designer is charging you extra for more email addresses, they are charging you a premium for something they get for free.

To put this in perspective, imagine a pizza parlour offering you a pizza that has 20 slices. This sounds like a great deal, however, is the pizza really any bigger than if they cut the same pizza into 10 slices? Be careful you aren’t paying more money for the same thing just because there’s a more impressive number attached.

5. Unlimited Blogging

Here’s another example of how packages use the word “unlimited” to create the illusion of a juicy deal. The space available on your server, or server farm will reach a cap at some point. However, this cap is usually very large and isn’t a problem for most businesses (unless you’re an extremely large firm such as Facebook).

When it comes to blogging, you shouldn’t have a limit to how much you can publish. Blogging as a tool on your platform helps create viewership on your website and demonstrates your thought leadership. It gives you the opportunity to drive search traffic, generates leads, and acts as content for email newsletters.

If you’re given a limit of how many blogs you can post on your website, your provider is artificially throttling your growth simply so they can ask you for more money. The only limit on how much you blog isn’t server space – it’s subject matter and time. (We can actually help with that, too.)

6. Unlimited Form Submissions

Forms on your website allow your future clients to contact you about purchasing your services, request quotes, or inquire about your company. Form submissions are the key to successful conversion on your website.

Some providers are stingy with their bandwidth, and will actually throttle the number of form submissions you’re allowed – even though their capacity to handle form submissions is huge! This means that at some point, you’ll reach a limit of form submissions for a given time frame. If you want more, you’ll have to shell out extra money for this “feature”. Not cool.

7. Content Editors

As your business grows, you’ll probably look towards hiring talent to contribute or edit the content on your website. A hidden element of some packages is artificial “limits” to how many content editors you are allowed on your website. On WordPress websites, for example, there are no practical limits to how many editors you can add to the site – unless your web developer imposes one.

When it comes to your website, you may want to limit the number of content contributors for administrative or tracking purposes, but your web provider should never impose a technical limit on this number. If they do, they’re likely looking to make an extra buck off you.

Web321 is Different

At Web321, we know you don’t have money to waste. You shouldn’t need to bribe your web design, web management or hosting company for features that should come standard. Our pricing structure is simple – $321 for everything you need, no artificial limits imposed. That means if we don’t pay for it, neither do you.

So if you want an all-in-one web design, hosting, and management experience that includes standard in every build:
- WordPress website platform
- mobile responsiveness for every screen size
- free premium plugins
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- unlimited email addresses
- unlimited blogging
- unlimited form submissions
- unlimited content editors
- unlimited done-for-you content updates
- and a lot more…
…visit our website at https://web321.co or email us at [email protected] for info.
September 21, 2020

Category: WordPress

Threads: ActivityPub and WordPress

ActivityPub

WordPress

Why Custom WordPress Themes Are A Mistake

Why a Custom WordPress Theme is a Bad Idea for Your Web Project

Why We Like Combining Divi and ACF

How To Get Your House In Order – Technical Improvements To Web Design

What is the best WordPress hosting site?

What to Look for in a Web Host

What’s the difference between posts and pages in WordPress?

Linking Gravity Forms to BuddyPress Forums

Hiring a Webmaster vs. Retaining a Web Management Company

Is Having A Full-time Webmaster Too Much AND Not Enough?

When Is It Time To Hire or Retain WordPress Support?

Turning the Clock, One More Time (Daylight Savings Time)

The End of An Era

Daylight Savings Time Disasters

Projected Impact on Business

Productivity

More Sales

Communication

It’s 2021: These Are Seven “Features” That Shouldn’t Cost Extra

1. WordPress Website

2. Mobile-Ready

3. 99% Uptime

4. Unlimited Email Addresses

5. Unlimited Blogging

6. Unlimited Form Submissions

7. Content Editors

Web321 is Different

We’ll take good care of your website.

Contact Us

Socials

More

Quick Links