WordPress has become one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, with over 40% of websites being built on it. While there are numerous website builders available, including Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Joomla, WordPress stands out for several reasons. In this article, we will examine why WordPress is better than other website builders and why you should consider using it for your next project.

WordPress is free and open source

WordPress is a free, open-source platform that can be downloaded and installed on your own server. This means that you don't have to pay any fees to use it, and you have complete control over your website. Other website builders, such as Wix and Squarespace, require you to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee to use their platform. This can add up quickly, especially if you have multiple websites or need advanced features.

In addition, because WordPress is open source, it has a vast community of developers who contribute to its code and plugins. This means that there are thousands of free and paid plugins available to add functionality to your website, such as contact forms, SEO optimization, and social media integration.

WordPress is highly customizable

One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is its flexibility and customization options. With WordPress, you can create any type of website, from a simple blog to a complex e-commerce store. WordPress offers thousands of themes and templates to choose from, as well as the ability to create your own custom theme or modify an existing one.

In addition, WordPress allows you to easily add and manage content, such as blog posts, pages, and images. The WordPress editor is easy to use and offers a variety of formatting options, such as headings, lists, and images.

WordPress is SEO-friendly

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for any website to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). WordPress is designed with SEO in mind and offers several features to help optimize your website. For example, WordPress allows you to easily add meta descriptions, titles, and keywords to your pages and posts. It also offers plugins such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack that provide advanced SEO features, such as XML sitemaps, canonical URLs, and social media integration.

In addition, WordPress offers clean and optimized code that is easy for search engines to crawl and index. This can help improve your website's loading speed, which is also a factor in SEO rankings.

WordPress is secure

Security is a major concern for any website owner. WordPress takes security seriously and offers several features to help protect your website. For example, WordPress regularly releases updates to address security vulnerabilities and bug fixes. It also offers plugins such as Wordfence and iThemes Security that provide advanced security features, such as two-factor authentication, malware scanning, and firewall protection.

In addition, because WordPress is open source, it has a large community of developers who contribute to its security. This means that any security vulnerabilities are quickly identified and addressed.

WordPress is scalable

Whether you're building a simple blog or a complex e-commerce store, WordPress is scalable and can grow with your business. WordPress offers a variety of plugins and themes that can add functionality and features to your website as your business grows.

In addition, WordPress can handle high levels of traffic and is designed to be scalable. This means that your website can handle an increasing number of visitors without experiencing downtime or performance issues.

WordPress offers excellent support

Finally, WordPress offers excellent support for its users. Because WordPress is so popular, there is a vast community of developers and users who provide support through forums, blogs, and social media. In addition, WordPress offers documentation, tutorials, and support forums to help users troubleshoot any issues they may encounter.

To Conclude

Overall, WordPress stands out from other website builders for its flexibility, customization options, SEO-friendliness, security, scalability, and excellent support. While there are other website builders available, none offer the same level of control, customization, and functionality as WordPress.

In conclusion, if you're looking to build a highly customizable website, SEO-friendly, and secure, then WordPress is the way to go. With its vast community of developers and users, there is always someone available to help you troubleshoot any issues you may encounter. Whether you're building a simple blog or a complex e-commerce store, WordPress is the CMS of choice for millions of businesses worldwide.

ChatGPT, ChatGPT, ChatGPT. Oh my, it has taken the world by storm, hasn't it? Every time you read any news site or even TV, there it is.


I have been getting questions about it, so I thought a good demonstration would be to simply ask it to write an article. I asked "write me an SEO optimized article including pictures on the topic "how AI will change web design/ development"

It is a pretty good article, I don't know what it was doing with the picture links all at the bottom, but I just copied exactly what it had output. It is overall not the best SEO optimized, but definitely passable.

So, here it is:


Sure, here's an SEO-optimized article on "How AI Will Change Web Design/Development" with pictures.

Title: How AI Will Change Web Design/Development: The Future of Smart Websites

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize web design and development, making it easier and more efficient to create attractive and functional websites. As AI technology advances, it is becoming increasingly integrated into the web development process, providing developers with new tools and techniques to improve the user experience and create smart websites that adapt to the needs and preferences of users. In this article, we will explore how AI will change web design and development, and what it means for the future of smart websites.

  1. AI for Web Design

AI can be used to analyze large amounts of data about user behavior and preferences, which can be used to inform web design decisions. For example, AI can analyze the user's interactions with a website, including clicks, scrolls, and time spent on the site, to identify areas of the website that may be causing confusion or frustration. This information can then be used to improve the website's layout, content, and navigation, making it more user-friendly and engaging.

  1. AI for Content Creation

AI can also be used to generate content for websites, including text, images, and video. For example, AI-powered content generators can analyze the user's browsing history and preferences to create personalized content that is tailored to their interests. AI can also be used to automatically optimize website content for search engines, making it easier for users to find and improving the website's search engine ranking.

  1. AI for Website Optimization

AI can be used to automatically optimize website performance, including page load times, image optimization, and caching. AI-powered tools can analyze the website's code and structure to identify areas of improvement, such as reducing file sizes, compressing images, and improving server response times. This can result in faster, more responsive websites that provide a better user experience.

  1. AI for Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots can provide a personalized and interactive experience for website users. Chatbots can use natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand and respond to user inquiries, providing quick and accurate answers to common questions. Chatbots can also be used to provide personalized recommendations and guidance, helping users navigate the website and find what they are looking for.

  1. AI for Security

AI can also be used to enhance website security by detecting and preventing cyber threats. AI-powered security tools can analyze website traffic and user behavior to identify potential threats, such as suspicious login attempts or malicious activity. AI can also be used to automatically update website security protocols and patches, keeping the website secure and protecting user data.

In conclusion, AI is already changing the way websites are designed and developed, and it will continue to have a significant impact on the industry in the years to come. By leveraging the power of AI, web developers can create smarter, more efficient websites that provide a better user experience and stay ahead of the competition. As AI technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative uses for AI in web design and development.

Image sources:

  1. https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-using-white-laptop-computer-on-brown-wooden-table-215955/
  2. https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-microphone-6912424/
  3. https://www.pexels.com/photo/code-coding-computer-data-574077/
  4. https://www.pexels.com/photo/happy-woman-talking-to-robot-4164066/
  5. https://www.pexels.com/photo/cyber-security-network-technology-concept-4173228/

Hello, this subject keeps coming up. It is how do I work on sites without breaking the live thing. Then taking the changes and pushing them into production.

This is the method that I use. There are hundreds of ways to do this. This is just my preferred.

Steps

Install "all-in-one-wp-migration"

First step is to use this plugin by ServMask. It is rock solid. The free version supports sites up to 500MB in size. That might not sound like a lot but it is enough in most cases.

Install and activate from the wordpress plugin repository.

Once installed click "backup location" = "local". This will archive every single thing that is in the site. It will wrap it up into a nice file with a .wpress file extension

If your site exceeds the free limit of "all-in-one-wp-migration"

There is hope. You do not need the pro version. If you want to support the company and save some time then by all means show the dev's some love.

If you want to go another route that is more time consuming then use the native import/export function of WordPress.

Steps

This method is not preferred because if there is an issue then you have no tidy backup file to lean on.

However, I have done it multiple times with no problem

Spin up local Bitnami WordPress LAMP stack in a virtual machine

Go to Bitnami wordpress stack -> virtual machine. Download the virtual disk file

Download VirtualBox. It is available for Linux, mac, and windows

Import the virtual disk into a new VM

Make sure to change the networking to "bridged" also if needed change the disk space size.

Import live site to virtual machine

If you used all-in-one then the plugin will be preinstalled on the new stack. All you need to do is select the backup and let it do its thing.

If you used the wordpress native import/export then follow the above steps.

After all is complete the sandbox might not load. That is where the next step comes in

Change hosts file to point to vm

The "hosts" file on your computer enables hard DNS overrides. You can tell your computer to, when resolving a domain, resolve here instead of live dns records.

We do this with the sandbox because it prevents having to change the sandbox wordpress install domain. Saving time and ensuring a smooth transition back to the live server.

So simply go to the hosts file and change it to resolve the domain to the local IP of the sandbox.

You can find the sandbox IP by typing "ip a" in the console or looking at dhcp leases on your router.

Now you just work on the site

Easy enough right? there are some corks. Mostly that if it is an Elementor site with pro Elementor the license will not be active. There is no way to activate it except changing the WordPress install domain to something.dev

That is very annoying. For most plugins they will behave normally. I have never found one as tight fisted as Elementor.

Otherwise. If you need to visit the live site just change back the hosts file to not manually resolve the domain

Export site back to production

Now the scary part. Overriding a live site. This can be nerve racking but just remember that you have a copy of the original files on the server.

If you used all-in-one then the original .wpress file will still be on the server. If you used the alternative method then you have the files downloaded.

Well when you are ready, take a backup of the staging site and reupload it to the live site. If you used the native method then you will also need to upload images to the live server separately. There is no automatic method for the live site to grab images from the sandbox.

Now you are done. Yes there is likely a more smooth way to do this, however this just works

Everyone has an opinion on how to do this best. Some use all online sandbox sites. This way is free. Some hosts have sandbox services, some do not.

Whatever the case the above methods will work every time. Regardless of hosts.

Any questions leave them bellow.

WordPress and MySql, One in the same

BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!!! Before attempting this. Full server snapshot. Not just WordPress backup!

Hello, today I had a task and was unable to find a complete guide for it. So here you go.

This is a simple task. You have two sites on the same database server using different databases. You want to merge them into the same database.

I needed to do this so I could share user tables between sites. Without using Multisite.

Steps:


Grant site1 user privilege's on site2's database

We need to let the MySql user of site1 be able to make changes on site2's database.

Database username will be in wp-config.php
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON site2's-db.* TO 'site1s-username'@'localhost';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Change site1's database prefix

Now we change the prefix of site1 so that there is no conflicts when we move over it's tables to site2's database.

Select all tables in site1's database and click "replace table prefix"

Now we must correct all the inner-table prefixe's.

Come over to here in php-my-admin (in the database of the site you just appended.)

Run the following queries:

SELECT * FROM `NEW-PREFIX-GOES-HERE_options` WHERE `option_name` LIKE '%wp_%'

That will give you all the table entrys that still have the old prefix. You need to manually change every entry displayed to the new prefix

Do the same with the results of this query:

SELECT * FROM `NEW-PREFIX-GOES-HERE_usermeta` WHERE `meta_key` LIKE `%wp_%`

Merge databases

Now time to merge the two sites databases together into one.

Make a folder somewhere where you can save the .sql export to. You will only need it for a second.

I made a directory called "dbspot" in /opt (ignore the home folder ls, I accidently did that)

Now time to export site1's database to it

You need to be logged in as root for this.

sudo -i

mysqldump -u root -p SITE1'S-DATABASE-NAME > /YOUR-CREATED-DIRECTORY/ANY-NAME.sql
password: MYSQL-ROOT-PASSWORD

Now a copy of site1's database is in whatever directory you put it in.

Now time to import it to site2's database (will still need to be logged in as root.)

mysql -u root -p SITE2'S-DATABASE < /YOUR-CREATED-DIRECTORY/SITE1-BACKUP-NAME.sql
password: MYSQL-ROOT-PASSWORD

Now site1's database is merged with site2's

Change site1's wp-config.php to reflect changes

Now you have to change site1's wp-config.php to use site2's database.

Change this value in site1's wp-config to the name of site2's database
Change prefix to one you changed it to.

That's all folk's (of course restart the server)

You have merged two WordPress sites into a single database.

Any questions feel free to comment below.

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