Episodes

  • Interview with Bryan Muthig, CEO of A2 Hosting.

    Interview with Bryan Muthig, CEO of A2 Hosting.
    Apr 23 2019

    I am joined by Bryan Muthig, CEO of A2 Hosting.

    Some of the topics we cover are;

    WordPress security
    Optimized WordPress hosting
    Hosting Trends
    A2 Hosting 20x Faster web hosting
    And much much more….

    A2Hosting.com
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Linkedin
    YouTube
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    36 mins
  • WPVR, can help you get started with Virtual Reality tours in WordPress.

    WPVR, can help you get started with Virtual Reality tours in WordPress.
    Apr 2 2019
    What is a Virtual Reality Tour?

    A Virtual Tour is a simulation of a real location. It is often made with media that would include a 360-degree camera and can mix text, video, audio and much more. Virtual tours provide the user a way to explore locations from the comfort of their home, business or on the road without having to physically go there.


    Why are Virtual Reality Tours important?

    Here is a excellent case study on why Virtual Tours work.
    The bottom line, it increases SEO, interaction and bookings. By allowing your customers to see your place of business in a whole new way.

    Virtual Tour ideas.

    Bed and BreakfastReality – they have been doing it for years.
    Restaurant
    Night club or Bar
    Winery
    Locations for weddings
    Any retail store
    The list goes on and on. If you have a physical business location, you should have a Virtual Reality Tour.

    How do you do that in WordPress?

    With WPVR plugin for WordPress allows you to create and promote Virtual Reality tours inside of WordPress.

    From the plugin page.
    With the WPVR, set up a virtual tour for site visitors where they can navigate a 360 view of your location, switch between several spots (or rooms), get information on items on the location, zoom in and out to get better view, and get an overall idea about how your place may look in reality.
    Get the plugin FREE HERE.
    WPVR Documentation
    RexTheme Website
    RexTheme Facebook
    RexTheme Twitter
    RexTheme YouTube
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    32 mins
  • Status of PHP in Web Hosting. WordPress 5.1.1 is out. Gutenberg block add-on with 19 ready made blocks.

    Status of PHP in Web Hosting. WordPress 5.1.1 is out. Gutenberg block add-on with 19 ready made blocks.
    Mar 18 2019
    Today on Episode 29 Web Hosting Podcast. The status of PHP and web hosting. WordPress 5.1.1 has been released with some great improvements. A gutenberg block add-on with 19 ready made blocks. The status of PHP and hosting. I found a few articles regarding the deprecation of PHP before 7.1 and that relates to the amount of sites still using old and no longer supported versions of PHP. I was stunned, to say the least, that the number of users using no longer supported versions of PHP is so high. According to this article by kinsta.com from January 24th, a staggering number of users, 77.5%, are still using outdated versions of PHP. That number is mind blowing. Considering that 33% of all websites use WordPress and PHP is used by 78% of all websites on the internet, that is a lot of outdated and potentially vulnerable websites. I know I keep saying words like stunned and staggering, but there is no other way to put it. I am having a hard time understanding why there is not a bigger push to get users on current and supported versions of PHP. There are some great benefits to using PHP 7.2. So why should you make the switch to a newer version of PHP. Security. Older versions of PHP are no longer being patched for security issues and vulnerabilities. Performance. PHP 7.2 has been shown to be almost twice as fast as previous versions of PHP. In a world where site speed is important, just moving from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.2 could dramatically improve site speed performance. For hosting providers, PHP 7.2 uses less memory, cpu and can handle more requests per second than older versions of PHP. This means lower overall server load.Support. Older versions of PHP require more development to maintain backwards compatibility. Things will eventually break and moving forward on a better version of a code base is needed.New Features. PHP 7.2 has a load of new features that developers can take advantage of to add site improvements. These features can only be used on the latest versions of PHP.It is just the right thing to do. It really is. For the safety of the internet as a whole, we all should be doing our part to make sure our applications support the latest secure versions available. Shared hosting, which most of us use, is a bad place to be when a few website owners don’t want to update their application. It puts all the sites on the server at risk to total take over and hacking. You are only as secure as the weakest link or website. Interesting fact about stats for WordPress along with PHP versions. WordPress 5.1.1 is released. Notes From the release notes.Site health notifications. This release introduces WordPress’s first Site Health features. WordPress will start showing notices to administrators of sites that run long-outdated versions of PHP, which is the programming language that powers WordPress. When you install new plugins, WordPress’s Site Health features will check them against the version of PHP you’re running. If the plugin requires a version that won’t work with your site, WordPress will keep you from installing that plugin. FINALLY!! It is recommended to install the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. This plugin will allow you to run a check on your WordPress install and determine if there are any common configuration issues and known issues. Once installed, go to Dashboard Menu then select Health Check. This will run a little check of your site and report any findings. The one menu marked “Tools” will allow you to do a file integrity check. This is done by validating the files against a known state or also known as a checksum. If the checksum does not match what it should, then either your site core files have been modified (which you should not be doing) or your site has been hacked. This is not 100% foolproof as some people do modify the core files, but if you are in curious give it a try and see what your results are. Another useful option is the “PHP Information” tab. This will show you all the information about the current PHP version you are running. Finally the “Troubleshooting” tab will allow you to disable all of your plugins and go back to a default theme for you, but your site remains fully functional to others. This is a brilliant idea for trying to determine if a plugin is not functioning correctly or if a theme is breaking your site. You can enable each plugin one by one and change back to your theme at any time. Once done, you just take the site out of troubleshooting mode.Editor performance; improved gutenberg editor speed improvements. I have been using WordPress 5.1 since it was released and I think this update is well worth the install. The improved performance of the gutenberg editor is wonderful. The addition of the Site Health notifications and the prevention of installing plugins that may not work on your currently selected version of PHP is fantastic. WordPress is ...
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    17 mins
  • My Depression, WordPress 5 is released, google page speed

    My Depression, WordPress 5 is released, google page speed
    Jan 14 2019
    Today on episode 28, Web Hosting Podcast. Where have I been and what is going on with the podcast? Have you taken the jump to WordPress 5 yet, if not then you are going to want to ensure you do a few things first. Google Page Speed is up to some new tricks with images. My depression. You may have been wondering why there has not been an episode in a while. It is time to talk about my depression and how I deal with it.Some things I do to try and reduce the effects of my depression, anxiety and panic attacks. If this helps even a single person get through their own depression then this will be worth it. Eat right. I eat breakfast when I first get up and try to eat as healthy as possible for the rest of my meals.Get good sleep. This is very critical for me. If I don’t get a good deep sleep then I am possibly going to be a train wreak the next day.I work out regularly and have a schedule. I find that by doing 30 minutes of exercise first thing in the morning, I can alleviate some of my anxiety. I make sure to bathe every day. This may sound strange to put on a list, but it does help me. It is part of my routine and schedule. For me it signals the fresh start of a new day.I put on my shoes. You may ask why this is its own entry. I find that if I do not put my shoes on after my shower that I am more apt to sit around and not do much. By putting on my shoes, I am unable to talk myself out of going for a walk or leaving the house. It is a mind game I play with myself. Shoes go on, ready for the day and anything it can throw at me.Dress for how you want to feel. Another thing that has helped me is to dress how I want to feel. I work from home most of the time, so you might imagine working in pajamas. This can be great, but do it for a decade and you never leave your pajamas. I have been known to actually dress up, sometimes I put on a shirt and tie. Watch something or read something uplifting. I recently started reading “Chicken soup for the fathers soul” when I am feeling depressed. I also started watching a new TV show, that I would not normally watch, called New Amsterdam. Then there is always Hogans Heroes. The point is, find something that picks you up.Task yourself to learn something new every day. I try and learn something new everyday. It can be as simple as a new knot (don’t laugh knots are hard to master), or as difficult as getting a certificate for something. I try and challenge myself with something that I know that I can ultimately complete. Giving myself that win feeling and boosting my confidence just a bit. It is important for me to make sure that I finish the task and to not set the difficulty too hard, I want to complete it after all. By completing it, I get the “I have accomplished something” feeling that ultimately helps my moral and boosts me up.Check in with yourself. This gets more into knowing your moods and your body and it is something that anyone can do and should do. It is not well known that your body/mind remembers tragic events that have happened. These are anniversaries of events. If you are feeling more depressed than normal, try and determine if there is a specific thing that has happened around the same time of year that you might be struggling with. I have many anniversaries that I have to deal with, most of them are around Thanks Giving and Christmas.The most important thing is to never give up. If you are struggling with depression, as I do, find someone to talk to. I highly recommend a good counselor. I have been teased relentlessly by others for seeing a therapist or counselor. Honestly, I have no idea why it is so taboo to go see one. We all go to a doctor when we are sick, we see a chiropractor when our back it out. Why would we not want to take care of the most important part of our body, the brain. I go see mine on a regular basis or more as the need arises. There is nothing wrong with getting a mental checkup and helping yourself cope with the world as a whole. Don’t let anyone give you a hard time for seeing or wanting to see a counselor, ever! If you can’t afford to go see one, there are many free resources out there. A lot of times insurance will also pay for some of the visits. Panic Attacks. If you also suffer from panic attacks, I feel for you. I have them quite regularly and have learned to identify when it is going to happen and how to deal with them. This may not work for everyone, but this is what I do when I suffer a panic attack. I start by watching my heart rate on my iWatch. If it is climbing faster than it should and I am in a situation that is unsafe, driving for example, I get to a place where I can pull over or stop what I am doing. The first feeling of a panic attack for me is a sudden flood of stomach butterflies. The ones you normally get when you are nervous about something. When those start up, my legs go almost numb, ...
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    25 mins
  • Are websites becoming irrelevant? With Megan from websites503.com

    Are websites becoming irrelevant? With Megan from websites503.com
    Oct 29 2018
    Today on episode 27, Web Hosting Podcast. I sit down with Megan of websites503.com and discuss the current state of websites. Are websites really needed in a world of apps, social media, and smart devices? Are website going to be extinct or irrelevant in the coming years if not already? Are websites becoming irrelevant? With google indexing and providing a constant flow of instant information for things like business listings, movie showtimes, sports scores and a wealth of other information. Is it time to think about if the website as we know it is dead or dying. With the initial invention of Siri and now alexa, google, and apple homepod, information is only a command away. Social media has never been stronger in use for marketing in a app based world. Is the website, as we know it, gone? This is the question I proposed to Megan of websites503.com and I ask you, the listener. Have you stopped putting emphasis on your website in favor of joining the billions of others in a app based world? You can currently do just about anything right from your phone or smart device. I myself find I don’t use websites nearly as much as I once did. I use google to direct me to the information that it has indexed on the topics I request. Need to know how to fix something? I search google, and it normally directs me to youtube. Want to know if a movie is worth seeing? This will take me to a app on my phone. 80% of my searches and internet viewing is done from my mobile device, using a mobile app. Want to start a ecommerce website, redbubble, etsy, shopify all have mobile apps. Even WordPress has a mobile app. You can even create and master videos using adobe apps on your devices. The current trend is mobile first and even google is preferring mobile in their indexing of your content. The app based world is here and it is likely going to stay, even if it will evolve into something more than what we currently use. I don’t think or know if a website will be entirely irrelevant. I do enjoy the browsing experience on a large screen and personalized domains are also likely not going away. So what does this leave for the future? This is what Megan and I discuss in this episode. This recording took place a while ago on a whim. I hope you enjoy it and we would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.
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    25 mins
  • WordPress 5 release date, Social Media experiment and CloudFlare turns 8.

    WordPress 5 release date, Social Media experiment and CloudFlare turns 8.
    Oct 15 2018
    Today on episode 26, Web Hosting Podcast. WordPress 5 gets a tentative release date. I discuss a social media experiment I tried. And cloudflare celebrated its 8th birthday in style by releasing some great new features and services. WordPress 5 has a tentative release date of November 19th, 2018 Release Notes This date could be pushed back as needed and even moved to 2019. It appears that this may coincide with the coming release of PHP 7.3, which is due December 13th, 2018. If you are currently using the Gutenberg editor plugin in your current version of WordPress, then version WordPress 5 will be familiar to you. You will still have the ability to go back to the classic editor, the one currently in use, by installing a plugin. However, there are likely big code changes that are still going to break a lot of plugins and themes when WordPress 5 comes out. Here are some things you must know before the big WordPress 5 release comes out. 1. Test your plugins and themes as well as any custom code you may be using on your site. Option 1, for a while, there was a Gutenberg database of listed plugins that you could use to validate your install. This project has since been abandoned and is no longer maintained. The CSV file is still available to download, but it is likely very outdated. Use with caution as it might not be complete or current. Download CSV here. Option 2, copy your current website to a staging url. Something like test.yoursite.com or dev.yoursite.com. Then activate the Gutenberg plugin. You will then need to manually test every plugin and theme you use. This is a very tedious task and is fraught with perils. You really are going to need to know what you are doing. I would recommend, if you plan to try this, to disable all plugins and set the theme to a default theme after you copy/clone your site to the staging environment. Then one by one, make sure your plugins are updated and then activate them and test. If you find a plugin that does not work, then you may have to start over unless you know how to debug plugins or deactivate plugins using ftp/sftp methods. Once you are completed with the plugins testing, then I would update and activate your theme. You will have to test again and again after each and every change. This sounds like a monumental task, and lets be honest it is, but it is something either you or your developer really needs to do. The last thing you want happen is for your site to be updated and then break. 2. Make sure you have a full and complete backup of your WordPress install and you know how to restore from it. I can’t stress this enough at this point. If you do NOT know how to make a backup or do a restore using the backup, then you or your developer need to get on this. I mention backups in almost every episode and it is very very important that you take this step seriously. If your site automatically updates and things break, there is likely no way to go back to a previous version even if you try the classic editor plugin, your site may still not function as expected or just not render at all. There are dramatic code changes in a major release that my just not work, even in classic mode. Before hitting that update button on WordPress 5, make sure you have all your options thought out. Backups, any testing needed, a good developer on standby and a restore plan. It is very likely that a large number of installs will break and your web host of choice will very likely have their hands full. They may not even help you at all without charging for it. So be prepared for the worst and work backwards from there. Social media Top social media platforms in the U.S. Facebook – 2 billion active monthly users YouTube – 1.9 billion active monthly users Instagram – 1 billion active monthly users Last month, I did something as a test for myself. I used social media heavily and I mean really heavily. I challenged myself to post regularly on twitter and instagram, preferring to use instagram as my platform of choice for video. My personal challenge was to promote the podcast, but to also have fun and be myself. I posted random cloud photos, pictures of my dog, and information about my podcast. The task was to see if doing this would have any impact on my podcast downloads and website hits. I posted at least once a day, but more as needed or when the desire struck. I primarily used instagram, but by doing this I also allowed instagram to post to facebook and twitter. My primary use for twitter is to post news articles that I find relating to hosting or security. My results shocked me, in the 3 weeks that I tried this I gained almost 600 new podcast downloads and it is still climbing. I went from having 1 or 2 downloads a day to having 20 or 30 a day. Think about that, in the case of a podcast they are listeners, but in a business that could be customers and potentially big sales opportunities. Now, it should be noted that I am not a social media master or anything like that. I ...
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    16 mins
  • cPanel tools you will use most often.

    cPanel tools you will use most often.
    Sep 24 2018
    Today on episode 25, Web Hosting Podcast. Some of the most common cPanel tools you will use after you signup. Did you know there is a app for cPanel access that also includes webmail? We will be going over installing, and then configuring the app which is available for both iOS and Android. cPanel App for iOS and Android. Go into your devices app store and search for cPanel. Go through the process of installing the app, like you would any other app. Before you launch the newly installed cPanel app, you will need to have your cPanel login information. The items you will need are: Domain: This is normally the website on your hosting account. Username: This is the cPanel username, not your CMS username, that you use to login to cPanel. Password: This is the cPanel password, not your CMS password, that you use to login to cPanel. You will also want to have your email address and password if you want to setup access to your webmail account in the app. Open the cPanel app that you previously installed. You are now presented with a few options to add an account, don’t worry we will be going over all of the settings you need. In the server information are three boxes, name, address, service. In the name area, give this a unique name. This can be anything you would like to identify this connection. In the address area, this is where you will put the login url you use to get into your cPanel account. This can possibly be your website url, or the server hostname. If one does not work try the other. Hopefully you were sent a welcome email when you signed up with this information. In the service, change this to cPanel. Do not use WHM or Webmail. Now in the authentication box do the following. In the username box, put in your cPanel username. In the password box, put in your cPanel password. In the touchID, if your devices supports it I would highly recommend using it. This is the same as unlocking your iPhone with a fingerprint. If you do not use touchID, then you will be asked to enter your password every time you want to connect. Once these are filled in, click on “CONNECT”. If everything went correctly, you should now have a setting that will connect, it should have logged you in. If not, check your settings and try again. Make sure you are using the correct username and password. As a diagnoses process, you can try logging into your cPanel account through a web browser first. Once you are logged in, you can now do anything you would normally do from a web browser inside cPanel. To setup webmail, click on the “+” icon to add another setup. Give this a unique name as well in the name field. In the address area, enter the address to connect to your webmail. This too will often be the domain you use for your email. In the service area, change this to webmail. In the username field enter in your full email address. This is important, the full email address including the “@” is required. In the password field enter in your password for your email address. In the touchID, if your devices supports it I would highly recommend using it. This is the same as unlocking your iPhone with a fingerprint. If you do not use touchID, then you will be asked to enter your password every time you want to connect. Once these are filled in, click on “CONNECT”. If everything went correctly, you should now have a setting that will connect, it should have logged you in. If not, check your settings and try again. Make sure you are using the correct username and password. As a diagnoses process, you can try logging into your webmail account through a web browser first. You should now be presented with a few options, depending on your web hosting provider. In my app, I am able to choose between horde, roundcube and squirrelmail. Horde is the only one that seems to be mobile friendly. All of them do work but you will have to move around on the screen to see everything. Below these options, you are presented with the mail client automatic configuration scripts, mail client manual settings and the ability to email setup instructions to a specific email address for the account you logged in with. Mail Client Automatic Configuration Scripts. This is used if you are on a desktop client and do not seem to work on a iOS/Android device. It is best to just ignore these. Mail Client Manual Settings. These are provided to you so that you may manually setup your email client of choice. These are great instructions for the do it yourselfer. The instructions provide the username, incoming and outgoing mail server, and the ports needed. Email Instructions. This allows you to email the same settings from the manual settings to a specific email address. This is handy if you have a user that has a gmail or other email account already and you would like to provide them with specific email setup information for an account you have setup for them. Why you would want to use the app. The app is a handy and convenient way to be able to login to ...
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    40 mins
  • Google pagespeed insights headache.

    Google pagespeed insights headache.
    Sep 12 2018
    Today on Episode 24, Web Hosting Podcast. Are you obsessed with page speed ranking? Speed is always a great thing to have but the realization is, getting that perfect score is almost impossible with a website. Megan joins me to discuss some things that may cause your site to be slow. We also dive into pagespeed insights and discuss some surprising and shocking results we got. What can make your website slow? Slow hosting environmentImages too largeNo caching setup on website, expireslong database queriesRunning old versions of software, PHP, Apache, CMS software (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc..) If you use google pagespeed insights or pingdom website speed test, you may have got a low score for your website. A low score would be something in the 60-70 range. Anything above a 80 would be considered a pretty good score. I just want to point out that you should not obsess about getting a perfect score. google pagespeed insights Pingdom website speed test Both of the pagespeed tests use a score from A (great) to F (fail). Of course you want to try and get all A in your grade score. But sometimes it is just not possible. For a base line, I installed a default version of wordpress (4.9.8) on a domain I own. Right after installing, I ran both google pagespeed and pingdom website speed tests. The site is being served over SSL using the default free cPanel SSL certificate. Google – Mobile = 70 Google – Desktop = 92 Pingdom = Overall 88 (B) When you first run the test, you will get a list of currently applied optimizations as well as improvement recommendations. My list of currently applied optimizations on a default install are as follows. NOTE: these may be different depending on your hosting providers setup and environment. Avoid landing page redirects Enable compression Minify HTML Optimize images Prioritize visible content From the list, you can see that I do not have redirects for the landing page, I have gzip compression enabled, my html is minified, my images are optimized, and I have content that is visible that is prioritized. But what does this all mean? Landing Page Redirects : This occurs when you redirect the main site the user is going to, to another page. Google provides some great examples. Here are some examples of redirect patterns: example.com uses responsive web design, no redirects are needed – fast and optimal! example.com → m.example.com/home – multi-roundtrip penalty for mobile users. example.com → www.example.com → m.example.com – very slow mobile experience. Enable Compression : We actually discussed this in the very first episode and it is worth noting again. Compression will shrink down elements before sending them to the browser. This saves bandwidth and can improve site speed by sending smaller elements through the internet. You can enable gzip compression in cPanel by going to “optimize website” and click on compress all content. Minify HTML : According to google here is what they mean by Minify HTML: Minification refers to the process of removing unnecessary or redundant data without affecting how the resource is processed by the browser – e.g. code comments and formatting, removing unused code, using shorter variable and function names, and so on. You should minify your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript resources: To minify HTML, try HTMLMinifier To minify CSS, try CSSNano and csso. To minify JavaScript, try UglifyJS. The Closure Compiler is also very effective. You can create a build process that uses these tools to minify and rename the development files and save them to a production directory. Optimize Images : This rule triggers when PageSpeed Insights detects that the images on the page can be optimized to reduce their filesize without significantly impacting their visual quality. This means that I do not have a image that is to large and scaled to fit the area. Do not scale images in your web framework. Always scale the image before uploading. My initial run of items that needed improvement. Reduce server response time In our test, your server responded in 0.64 seconds. There is not much to be done here. That is almost 1/2 a second for a response time. It could certainly be better, but this value will shift up and down depending on a lot of factors. If this value is higher than 1 second, then you may have a overloaded server. Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content Your page has 1 blocking CSS resources. This causes a delay in rendering your page. None of the above-the-fold content on your page could be rendered without waiting for the following resources to load. Try to defer or asynchronously load blocking resources, or inline the critical portions of those resources directly in the HTML. Leverage browser caching Setting an expiry date or a maximum age in the HTTP headers for static resources instructs the browser to load previously downloaded resources from local disk rather than over the network. This is simply setting a...
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    54 mins