Who said WordPress is slow on Windows Server IIS? Gzip compress and serve WP-Super-Cache or Cache Enabler static HTML files, to supercharge your WordPress blog. Here is how to serve gzip compressed HTML files through Windows Server IIS: create smaller, compressed, static HTML files, that are downloaded faster. This works with WP-Super-Cache and Cache Enabler on IIS!
How to optimize your WordPress hosting – 9+ practical tips
Isn’t it true that, when you (start to) develop WordPress websites for clients, and you host them yourself, you find yourself in a situation where you need to know a lot about “stuff” other than WordPress development? In this optimizing WordPress hosting post, I provide 9+ practical tips for you, to improve WordPress hosting performance. Especially useful if you plan to develop and host WordPress websites yourself.
SSL in WordPress: how to move WordPress to HTTPS? The definitive guide
Having an SSL certificate in your WordPress is the de-facto standard nowadays, did you know that? Google ranks sites having HTTPS higher in their SERP. But in WordPress, how do you configure an SSL certificate and HTTPS URL? You’ll learn the important steps to move WordPress from http to https in this post.
17+ Useful WordPress snippets
Here are 17+ valuable WordPress snippets for site-specific plugins and functions.php to provide you a better WordPress experience. Enhance your WordPress site with these small PHP snippets: WordPress filters, actions and functions. Quickly add or extend the functionality you need for your WordPress website! Read on…
Optimize WordPress MySQL tables through Cron, behind the scenes
To regularly optimize my WordPress database tables, I created a small plugin that utilizes the WordPress Cron feature. This comes in handy to perform database optimization for WordPress on a regular basis, without forgetting about it. Just activate and enjoy. And here is the plugin code.
How to add conditional analytics tracking code in WordPress Multisite
In my WordPress multisite, I use one theme for three sites and a tracking code for analytics on my websites. Whether it is Google Analytics or Piwik doesn’t matter. Here is how you can conditionally add tracking codes to your WordPress Multisite: Use a condition in functions.php to add the tracking code for Piwik/Matomo Analytics or Google Analytics.
My WordPress web.config
Do you host your WordPress website on Windows Server IIS? And are you having trouble with your web.config? I often receive questions about how to use a web.config file in WordPress on Windows Server, and which settings are important for a WordPress site. Maybe it’s because I’m a WordPress on Windows Server IIS enthusiast, so here is my web.config for your convenience (really, it’s not that special).
Disable WordPress comments (how-to)
The WordPress comment system can be a bless for your blog, because of the user interaction. However, when the WordPress comment option is abused by spammers, it becomes a real pain in the “@ss”. With thousands spam reactions, disabling -and removing- WordPress comments is the only way to go. Here is how to disable WordPress comments in both the WordPress Dashboard interface and in your MySQL database.
Display commas in WordPress tags
How to use a tag with a comma in it in WordPress? Normally, in WordPress all tags are comma seperated: php, wordpress, website, functions.php. But what if you need to use a tag with commas in it? For instance “cafe, bar, restaurants”. Easy, create a filter in your WordPress functions.php, and here is how…
Send authenticated SMTP email over TLS from WordPress
How to configure TLS for SMTP email in WordPress. I was suprised WordPress is not able to send email using an SMTP server out-of-the-box. Not to mention using authenticated SMTP or TLS transport for security. A quick Google search showed me multiple plugins to handle this, but I wanted to create something myself. Here is how to override the wp-mail() function and send email using authenticated SMTP and StartTLS from WordPress.
Huge increase in WordPress xmlrpc.php POST requests
WordPress xmlprc.php DDoS and brute-force attacks. How to identify, block, mitigate and leverage these xmlrpc.php scans, brute-force, and user enumeration attacks on WordPress sites… Secure WordPress xmlprc.php interface and reduce service disruption.
Minify JavaScript, CSS and compress images
Optimizing, minify and compressing JavaScript and CSS files, the easy and fast way? With YUI Compressor on the Windows-, Linux- and macOS command line of course! Compacting HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can speeds up your website because of smaller and faster downloads, parsing, and execution time.
WordPress wp_options table autoload micro-optimization
Learn how to add an index and optimize WordPress’ wp_options table for faster database results. This probably isn’t a big issue, but today I noticed a slow MySQL query coming from a WordPress database (WordPress wp_options table). This made me investigate and to optimize the WordPress wp_options table “autoload” feature. The autoload feature loads and caches all autoloaded options, if available, or all options. The default option is to autoload, and over time when the wp_options table grows, this degrades performance.
Install WordPress plugins without WP-admin access
Install WordPress plugins without admin access, and automate your WordPress customization and plugin installation. WordPress has a little drop-in plugin option available in the form of /wp-content/install.php. This install.php file is not present at default, but when created it can be used to install plugins without wp-admin access. This might come in handy for unattended WordPress installations, customization, and so on.