#WP20

Did you know: WordPress came out seven years before TikTok (2016), four years before Tumblr (2007) and the first iPhone (2007), beat Facebook to market by about a year (2004), and is about five weeks older than Tesla (July 2003).

2023 marks the 20th year of WordPress. Back in 2003 is when Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little forked b2/cafelog to create WordPress Version 0.70. Now here we are in 2023, the 9th year of me using WordPress. WordPress has been downloaded more than 2.8 billion times over the years. But, the most impressive stat is the project’s staggering 112,000 contributors, past and present, who have improved and energized WordPress with their passion, talent, and hard work. Where would the world of the internet be without WordPress as a platform for everyone to work on building sites? Just think about that for a minute! While many technologies, software stacks, and fashion trends have come and gone throughout the past two decades, WordPress has thrived. This is due to the fantastic work and contributions of the WordPress community, comprised of thousands of contributors and millions of users who have embraced the four freedoms of WordPress and the mission to democratize publishing.

My answer to todays task was from another user Rich Holman AKA dogwonder who’s post here inspired this one from me.

This is such a minor thing, an inconvenience ever, probably a slight annoyance, and even more probably a waste of a good wish by any good developer/designer that has ever worked with WordPress. But there is one thing as a user I try and do all the time from WordPress when I update a post or page, and that’s using the ‘View post’ link that is way down to the bottom left of the screen almost invisible if you didn’t know about it (I know I’ve missed it numerous times before). 

I know it seems really minor to most users and I know that there is the panel on the right where you can find a link to the post, but something like this would make my day, and everyone else’s, so much easier (not even just moving it but just a new link top right next to the Update button, to view the post once published). 

The main reason for this is I edit a lot of posts and pages (that have already been published) and often use ⌘-click (right click) on links to open in a new tab to look at them. So my user experience is edit edit edit, click update (top right) – wacky races with the mouse or trackpad to go to bottom left in time to click ‘View post’, and if you don’t make it in time then it’s like 3 clicks to get to the url. The above solution would be inline with the Update button.

Who knows, maybe if enough people mention this the developers working on the next version of WordPress might make it happen.

Today’s task was to talk about making a post in the WordPress app. It’s a really simple task when using the app to do just about anything like making a post such as this one.

Once logged in to the app, you are presented with all kinds of options on what you can do. One of those options is to write a post that can be done one of two ways. You can either tap on posts to go to all your posts and then create a new post from there. Or, you can tap the blue button at the bottom, then select create a post. Once you have done either of those options, the experience is virtually the same as creating one online as normal.

Today’s task was to talk about my contribution to WordPress. Sadly, I have yet to contribute to WordPress, but I would like to one day.

I would like to contribute with a block of some kind if I can think of one that doesn’t already exist. Or, I could even contribute to WordPress as a whole if and when I learn the language necessary to contribute to it.

All of this will take time, of course, but I’m more than willing to learn and grow in my abilities to one day be able to.

AI in WordPress is a game changer. It allows users and developers to speed up their productivity so much. It can write code and content for any website with just a few prompts from the user.

Having said that, it’s also a big threat to those vary same users and developers of WordPress. More specifically the developers and content creators people hire to make websites and content for them. These can at some point be replaced by a future AI. Anyone will be able to build a site all on their own with the assistance of AI, all they will have to do is just write what they want and in seconds it will be generated by the AI.

One tip I can give to make your life easier when making a website is to have a good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugin. The one I find is the best is Yoast’s plugin called Yoast SEO. This plugin is crucial when building a website because not only does it help with the tech side of things but also helps you with your writing skills as well.

This plugin looks at the readability of your text and also makes sure you use inclusive language. These are crucial in having the best, well written content on our website for your visitors. On the tech side Yoast SEO enables you to set rel=canonical values, create XML sitemaps, and utilize rel=next and rel=prev, just to name a few of the things it does. All of these things are made easy, especially if you’re a beginner and don’t know where to start. Just let Yoast SEO do the work for you – for free!

If you wish, you can upgrade to their premium plugin for just $99 USD. This adds features like: Be first to get new features & tools before everyone else, Save time and focus on your core business, Get more visitors from Google & social media, Takes away your worries and guides you doing SEO, and also Includes complimentary access to Yoast SEO academy.

Today’s task was to share a “Two Truths and a Lie” about my experience with WordPress. Here it goes…

I have built 4 sites with WordPress, 3 of them are live and one is still under construction.

I am still learning the language necessary to be able to contribute to the inner workings of WordPress or one day making a new plugin for it.

I have attended a WordCamp in the past.

Let me know in the comments what you think is the 2 truths and one lie I have written here today.

My favourite WordPress website to date has to be one that I have built. That site is for a business called Long Point Island Hugger Tours, which is a local ecotourism business located in Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada.

I built this site 7 years ago for a friend that was just getting this business going, it’s amazing how much this site and that business has grown over the years. For more information on that business go to the site listed above, if you want me to assist you in your dream of having a website you can contact me using the different ways listed here.

My favourite plugin in the WordPress Plugins Directory would have to be Yoast SEO by the people at Yoast. This is one plugin that I will include in all my projects. It is the perfect plugin to assist with writing excellent content on your site.

Yoast SEO

This plugin, since its inception in 2008, has helped millions of websites worldwide to rank higher in search engines than sites of non users. Yoast’s mission is SEO for Everyone. Their plugin’s users range from the bakery around the corner to some of the most popular sites on the planet today.

Yoast SEO Free contains everything that you need to manage your SEO, and the premium plugin and its extensions unlock even more tools and functionality for you to use.

For more information on this plugin you can go to its page in the WordPress Plugins Directory or my post about it and many others that I use in most if not all my projects.

Wow WordPress Launch day, that was way back on May 27th, 2003. Back then I was just finishing up grade 10, and this was the year I had discovered the world of web design but I didn’t know about WordPress at that point. It wasn’t until after I had graduated high school and started building my own site that one day, back in 2014, I had stumbled across WordPress after reading some articles on web design.

From that point on there was no turning back. I had discovered the ease of building a website using WordPress and the many themes and plugins. All this is what made building a site easier and helped me rank better than ever before on searches.