In the meantime, those of us who can work from home are doing so, and this includes me updating your websites at once or twice every week to keep it safe. Rest assured, I am keeping a lookout for any potential viruses that might be lurking. If you want weekly security updates please contact me and we can add it to your service. My program has the potential to add services that may be useful to you. But because they cost more, I don’t include them in the normal subscription.

Today, I made Divi Theme updates to over 30 websites, two Woo Commerce database updates that had to be done manually, over 20 plugin updates to various client websites. There were no scammy comments to delete. One website’s dashboard recommended I check on a potential virus. I had the Manage WP program review it and it was declared safe. All sites are backing up fine so no corrections were needed.

These are the things I check on every week…

Until next month stay safe and take advantage of your down time with family and loved ones.

It’s time to update your Divi!! Before I update this theme in your Web Care Subscriptions, I let a week or two go by for two reasons. Sometimes major updates can have a few bugs that will be found and corrected within a week. Another reason is I need to check out all the new updates on my personal website first. Which I did!  I’m happy to say there are no major issues. Stay tuned for more blog posts and possibly a DIvi class. Here is a Elegant Themes VIDEO you can watch to see what’s new with DIvi! And go to their website page on Divi for more info:

What I Know So Far

Some great new features are FASTER, IMPROVED MENUS, CUSTOM HEADERS & FOOTERS, BLOGS and WOO COMMERCE MODULES! See three header options below. UPDATE: The main problem Divi users are experiencing is the custom headers such as below are not sticky. As a user scrolls the menu scrolls up out of the screen. But as long as we use the standard headers we are fine.

Header 1: Note Search bar at right and custom Social Media buttons at left and a CTA button on second line, right.

Header 2: Note Logo aligned with Phone and Email, Socials at right and a Join Today section.

Header 3: Great for E-Commerce and lots of area for information.

Here is a way to circumvent the WP builder, which is not at all user friendly. Divi users are already have a beautifully working builder and why would we want to change? Divi also, in answer to this new WP update, went ahead and reworked the design of their interface and it is slightly less user friendly than the Classic, but will be fine once you get used to it.

[Be aware that I may have already changed your settings. If you don’t see any difference, then you are all set.]

Now for the instructions: In your Divi Theme Options, you will see the default General area, turn off the two Minify options which are just above the black css panel. Save. Then go to the Tab labeled “Builder” and open its Advanced tab. Here you turn off what is currently on and enable the New Divi Builder Experience and The Classic Divi Builder. Save.

Now, when you go to your pages, look for the Return to Classic Builder button on the bottom right hand side. Immediately you will return to the familiar interface of the Classic Builder.

During the updating process, a couple of clients, including me, lost some recent edits in their website. I’ve talked to both BlueHost and the Elegant Themes people (who design Divi), and no one seems to know why. Remember, though, that I have monthly backups and can revert you back in time to that version. Some clients may want to consider weekly backups. Let me know if you prefer that service. It is only $2 more per month. All Pro Users now get this in their package as part of their subscription.

For those of you who do not use the Divi Theme, there is a plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic–editor/) that will get you back to the classic editor. Support will continue for the Classic Editor into 2021.

Here’s to a happy and healthy New Year with no more big WordPress updates!

We all know that cell phone use in the United States (and worldwide) continues to increase each year. Statistica.com states that “…73 percent of the population in the United States were actively browsing the internet from their mobile device.”  So, if you are hobbling along without a responsive website, you are falling behind. An article on the Five Reasons You Need a Responsive Website, they list three additional important points.

• Great User Experience is a Must.
• Responsive Website Design is Ideal for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Speed of Your Responsive Website is Key

The tendency to use plugins to fix your lack of a modern theme runs a risk of it not working well. It can take several hours better used to build a new site and lastly, it sets up a scenario where the plugin causes conflicts and the site breaks. The free versions are far from perfect.  The plugin may not include a tablet version. Pro versions are costly. And why would you pay to have a band-aid option?

Meet Divi. Our modular theme includes all the tools to customize both cell and tablet versions. You can resize text and remove sections or images. It is built into the theme and completely compatible.

Since DIvi is constantly being updated and improved, you won’t need to change themes ever again. There are thousands of designers and developers that can help you make changes and even alter the look and feel of the site.

So for me, it’s a no brainer. Switch to Divi and take control of your website for the rest of your life. (Divi can be purchased by you at https://elegantthemes.com or through your web designer…me.  😉

I arrived at 8:15 or so and found a nearby parking lot for only $12, despite being warned it could cost $30 due to a Red Sox game held today…. making up for the $75 parking ticket I got last month at a meter during a Red Sox game! But, that’s another story. If you’d like to skip this first hand account and read real transcripts, go to the WordCamp website.

I found out from the first talk, Intuitive Editing Workflows by Erik Bernskiold, that Structured Data Input is an important feature to offer clients, so they can keep their web sites fresh. Problem is, there isn’t a plugin or theme that does this very well yet. We have two options: Create Custom Post Types for the client to write in updates or use a Builder type plugin or theme. The second option can be dangerous as the design can get destroyed without the client realizing it. Some themes, such as Divi by Elegant Themes allow editor roles, thus limiting the ability to change the format.

Next that morning was, The Frustration with Website Security, hosted by Surcuri software. It was labeled WordPress 101, which I took to mean it was for “beginners”. I picked up a few tips, but basically it reinforced what I already knew. 1. Back up your site, not on the server, for instance with Amazon SImple Storage, Dropbox or on your hard drive. Do not rely on the hosting to do it for you. Their backup may also get infected. 2. Attacks are highly automated. which make money for the hackers, even with your small family website, as it can act as a jumping off point to infect other sites. 3. Use a password manager, such as Evernote, so you can have a different password for everything. 4. You can get malware from many places, even plugins!

Designing and Theming for Performance by Matt Dorman was really nerdy, so I won’t go much into it. In a nutshell, Performance of your website, i.e. speed, is important. And there are various tools to determine and help you fix that problem. Obviously, you don’t want your site to load in more than two seconds or you’ve lost the smart phone customer. Sometimes it’s the size of your imagery, or its a plugin or the theme or even the hosting. Test your site on Pingdom, Yahoo’s YSlow, or Google’s Page Speed Insights and then let your web designer/developer know there is a problem so they can help you.

Designer’s Panel with four designers/developers of various backgrounds was next. A lot of chatting, but the important points were: Sliders are on the way out… too much movement especially for phones, which is where all the design is focused now. Give reasons for your design decisions and back it up with information. Quote data and anecdotes. Clients don’t always know what is best for their websites. Consider that what is fast for you and the client, because we have good wifi, is not necessarily the case with many of our users. Someone said the next iteration of WordPress, REST API, will focus on design components and not just the whole page.

Page Builder Showdown given by Gina Deaton rated six or so page builder themes (such as Divi) for creating web page design. A couple came out at the bottom, a few in the acceptable range and two on top. Surprisingly, Divi got knocked down a few points because Gina felt there was a learning curve and the theme only builds out to four columns. She acknowledged that it is a powerful theme, but that in order to use it at it’s full potential, you need to know css coding. The winner was Beaver Builder and a simpler free new theme called Elementor.

Why Good Design Matters was given by a young designer, Andrea Trew,  from the agency Fly Wheel. She mentioned a few books on design or design philosophy including As Little Design As Possible by Dieter Rams. She designed a clever intern campaign based on the Wes Anderson movie, Moonrise Kingdom. New interns were given notebooks backed with fake fur. The take home was “It’s not how it looks, it’s how you make people feel.”

Organizing Your First Website Usability Test by Anthony D Paul, was all about testing web design prototypes. Some results can be “too much content” which can be determined early in a testing environment and problems with Brand Perception, which usually takes some time to uncover and shopping cart abandonment. His favorite quote is “The Price of Light is less than the cost of darkness, by Arthur C.Nielson, market researcher.

Intro to Wireframing, by Karalyn Thayer pointed out that wireframing saves time and money, because you can easily make changes early on. A wireframe, either low fidelity such as a sketch on a napkin, or high fidelity made with software,does not contain any color, fonts, or other stylish elements. The client can more easily understand the hierarchy of content, layout and path of the user.

Are we having fun yet? That’s it for Day one!