And these last few weeks were not different in that regard. We saw new interesting plugins and products, some new rules were brought to light, new stats about WordPress itself, and much much more.
July 2016 in WordPress
Is it time for WordPress to start endorsing the newer versions of PHP and actually recommending them over the more popular but older ones? There’s been a heated discussion lately, with voices on either side. At the end of the day, though, it seems that WordPress will indeed bump the recommended PHP version from 5.6 to 7.0 by the middle of 2017.
Read the full story here, and also Andrey Savchenko’s controversial post on WordPress’s alleged crusade against technical responsibility that somewhat started the discussion.
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Orion is out! The ManageWP guys just launched their new toy, which has been under construction for 2 years. The authors claim it is “the most comprehensive and most sophisticated software for managing WordPress ever made.”
Orion brings a very modern and friendly interface, cloud backup, client reports, advanced SEO, uptime monitor, and white label features. In a couple of weeks, automated security backups, automated performance scans, and automated client reports will join the features package.
If you’re using tons of media files on your WordPress site then this is for you. You can now organize them more efficiently due to the new free plugin called Attachment Taxonomies, made by Felix Arntz.
The plugin lets you add category and tag taxonomies to every attachment you upload to your site. Besides, it inserts drop-down filters into the media toolbar and media modal. In short, get the plugin to manage your images, videos, and audio files better.
The WPCampus survey has concluded and the results are now live. How well is WordPress doing in the educational institutions?
For starters:
- over 64% of campuses have been using WordPress for 3 or more years.
- 29% of campuses have been using WordPress for 6-10 years or more.
- 4% of campuses said WordPress was not an approved CMS for their institution.
The survey comes with plenty of interesting numbers. Check it out!
If you’re working with sounds, this is good news for you. Now you can post a featured audio clip instead of an image. The new Featured Audio plugin was just launched and can be downloaded for free.
The plugin is compatible with any theme, and the audio player will borrow the theme’s look and design. You can simply upload an audio file just like you’d upload an image. Musicians, radio people, podcasters, brace yourselves, Featured Audio is coming!
Great Articles From Around The Web
One of the ways to reduce page load time is to add lazy loading to your WordPress website. This will not only improve the speed, but will also offer your content an elegant note. Read this post to see how it can be done.
How to Safely Change Your Permalink Structure Without Killing Your SERP Rank
Permalinks matter a lot if you want to rank well in Google. They are indexed depending on their structure, quality, and keyword relevance. WPMU DEV offers some tips on how to change your permalinks without affecting your rank.
12 Cool Chrome Apps and Extensions That You Can Use For WordPress
Everybody’s working to make WordPress easier. There are even Chrome extensions and apps that provide you with an opportunity to make your website better without getting your hands dirty.
Lessons Learned from Migrating 1,000 Blog Posts to WordPress
In the author’s own words: “This is the story of the team that inherited a ten-year-old blog and migrated it to a new platform to redesign the entire user experience, juice up organic search traffic, and keep content writers from throwing their laptops out the window in frustration.”
To make things really pop, you should use featured images for every post on your blog. But what to do if your designer is on vacation, or you simply don’t have one? Check this out.
WordPress Reviews: The Good, The Bad, and the Stalker
Got a one-star review from an unhappy customer? There’s no reason to be sad or angry. The guys from Halfelf treat this topic with amusement and irony. Read, laugh, and learn how to react.
How to Use Git for WordPress Development
Git is one of the most popular platforms that efficiently manages the development activity of a team. Learn how to use it to increase your WordPress productivity.
Everyone wants to know as many tricks as possible to improve their site’s performance and to avoid unpleasant issues. Here’s iThemes listing 10 of them that can really make a difference.
How to use Pingdom to Measure (and Monitor) the Performance of a Website – Effectively!
Pingdom is a great tool if you want to measure your site’s performance and find the exact areas you could improve. There is a methodology to all this, though. Daniel Pataki goes into the details.