Category Archives: wordpress news

wordpress news

WP Engine and Automattic Trade Cease-and-Desist Letters

[ad_1] If you follow WordPress at any level, it’s hard not to have heard about the drama surrounding Matt Mullenweg’s attack on WP Engine at the tail end of WordCamp US, something that marred what otherwise seemed like a very lovely event. If you haven’t heard anything about his comments yet, the short version is that he attacked WP Engine for allegedly free-riding on WordPress and not pulling its weight when it comes to contributions, going so far as to call WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.” ‘Wait, what?!’ Here’s the full context: He also claimed that WP Engine confuses users about what “WordPress” is and doesn’t deliver the “real” WordPress experience because it disables post revisions by default. A lot of this has already been hashed out on Twitter/X, so I won’t spend too much time pointing out that… I’ve never met a WordPress user who has been confused about the difference between WP Engine and WordPress, but nearly every single new WordPress user is confused about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. We even have a post about it, as does every other WordPress blog. So…a weird hill to die on for the guy behind WordPress.com. 🤷‍♂️ WordPress.com has an $18 per month plan that doesn’t allow users to install themes and plugins, which seems like a bigger limitation than WP Engine disabling revisions by default (and then letting users enable revisions if they talk to support). Matt says that WordPress.com can’t afford to let people install plugins/themes on this plan, but many other WordPress hosts seem to have figured out the economics. 🤷‍♂️ What’s new, though, is that WP Engine doesn’t seem to be taking Matt’s comments lying down: WP Engine sends a cease-and-desist letter On Monday, September 23, WP Engine responded with a cease-and-desist letter…and let’s just say that there are some very interesting allegations in the letter. You can read the full text here, but let me cover what I think are the highlights: As far as I can tell, WP Engine seems to be accusing Matt of allegedly extorting them for money, with him making his comments at the WordCamp US Q&A contingent on whether or not WP Engine played ball: In the days leading up to Mr. Mullenweg’s September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, Automattic suddenly began demanding that WP Engine pay Automattic large sums of money, and if it didn’t, Automattic would wage a war against WP Engine. The letter includes screenshots of text messages between Matt and various high-level executives at WP Engine, including one that seems to imply he threatened to “proceed with the scorched earth nuclear approach to WPE.” The implication in the letter is that this is how Matt would proceed if WP Engine did not meet his/Automattic’s financial demands. I mean, let’s be real, some of the text messages are kind of ridiculous and bring to mind some type of Mafia shakedown. What’s crazy to me here is that WP Engine alleges the demands were to contribute money to Automattic/WordPress.com – not even to the non-profit WordPress Foundation.  Based on Matt’s Reddit comment, this amount was to be 8% of WP Engine’s total revenue (around $32 million based on 2024 numbers), though Matt also claimed that they could make this contribution via “people” as part of Five for the Future commitments. A lot of these problems come back to the longstanding issues with Matt holding positions as both the CEO of Automattic and the “benevolent dictator” of the open-source WordPress project. When he calls WP Engine a cancer, is he speaking as the CEO of a for-profit competitor to WP Engine or is he speaking as a representative for the open-source WordPress project? Who knows! Automattic and Matt Mullenweg fire back Not to be outdone, though, Automattic then responded with its own cease-and-desist letter regarding alleged unauthorized trademark usage. Matt (or someone else with access) also surreptitiously updated the WordPress Foundation trademark policy, specifically calling out WP Engine. You can see those differences here, which display what is quite honestly an impressive level of pettiness. And on a somewhat related note, people also noticed that the WordPress Foundation filed two trademark applications back in July – one for “managed WordPress” and another for “hosted WordPress.” So yeah…lots of drama. As things are going, it seems like this might expand from regular ‘ole internet drama into real lawsuits, so I’m sure that I’ll be covering this more in the future. What do you think, though? Let us know in the comments, or get in on the action on Twitter/X. … Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below: Was this article helpful? No Thanks for your feedback! Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)! [ad_2] Source link

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New Social Web Foundation Launched with Automattic’s Support   – WP Tavern

[ad_1] The Social Web Foundation was officially launched on September 24, 2024, with a mission to foster a “growing, healthy, financially viable, and multi-polar Fediverse.” This non-profit organization is spearheaded by Evan Prodromou (Research Director), Mallory Knodel (Executive Director), and Tom Coates (Product Director) and is dedicated to uniting social networks through the open standard protocol, ActivityPub. The Fediverse is a collection of interconnected, decentralized social media platforms that communicate using open protocols, with ActivityPub—developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)—as the primary standard. “Until now, no major organization has taken on advocacy for ActivityPub as its central goal. Many people have ideas about what the Fediverse needs to be bigger, safer, and easier to use. But the solutions they propose fall between the cracks of anyone implementer or service. We want the SWF to be the entity that takes on those jobs.”, said Evan Prodromou, often referred to as “The Father of the Fediverse.” Tom Coates emphasized the foundation’s straightforward goal: “Fundamentally, its goal is pretty simple – it’s there to help the Fediverse grow in a sustainable and healthy way that benefits everyone.” The Social Web Foundation is our best chance to establish the conditions in which the new social media operates with zero harm. – Mallory Knodel The foundation aims to address challenges within the ActivityPub ecosystem and support its growth, especially in the commercial sector. Key areas of focus include: People: Educating the public about the Fediverse and its benefits. Policy: Clarifying policy frameworks for international and federated networks. Protocol: Developing and maintaining open standards. Plumbing: Building the necessary infrastructure Thirteen prominent companies, including Automattic, Mastodon, Meta, Ghost, and Medium, are backing the foundation. Automattic & Fediverse Automattic’s involvement with the Social Web Foundation comes as no surprise, given its long-standing contributions to the Fediverse. Back in 2021, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg expressed interest in bringing ActivityPub support to Tumblr. In 2023, Automattic acquired the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress from German developer Matthias Pfefferle and made the ActivityPub feature available across all WordPress.com plans. “Automattic is excited about the launch of the Social Web Foundation and its mission. We’re eager to collaborate with the Foundation to expand platform diversity and enhance the support for various content types—especially long-form content—within the Fediverse, fostering greater interoperability across the ecosystem.”, said Matthias Pfefferle, Open Web Lead at Automattic. To know more about Automattic and Fediverse, check the YouTube series, The Fediverse Files.  [ad_2] Source link

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Top Speakers and Sessions at WordCamp US 2024 – Portland’s Must-Attend Event

[ad_1] WordCamp US 2024 is right around the corner, and this year’s list of speakers is bigger and more impressive than ever. Taking place over three days from September 17–20 at the Oregon Convention Center in vibrant Portland, Oregon, the annual WordPress community gathering boasts a jam-packed schedule full of unmissable demonstrations, presentations, and workshops. With so much going on, attending North America’s biggest WordPress event of 2024 means making some tough decisions when it comes to planning your itinerary. To help you out, we’ve rounded up this year’s top speakers at WordCamp US ’24 and the must-see sessions they’ll be delivering. 10 WordCamp US 2024 Speakers You Don’t Want to Miss 1. Alexandra Guffey Reach for the Sky: Disney Experiences’ Magical Transformation with Gutenberg Source: https://us.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/alexandra-guffey/ Alexandra Guffey leads on user experiences at The Walt Disney Company. On the opening day of WordCamp US, she reveals how the global entertainment giant used over 50 pre-made Gutenberg blocks and that trademark Disney magic to create an enchanting multi-site communication hub. This engaging session highlights the challenges, successes, and valuable lessons learned in creating the ultimate Disney Experience. Alex will also be showcasing the brand’s unique approach to WordPress design and development. 2. James LePage Deeply Integrating AI with WordPress Source: James LePage Linkedin Of all the product demonstrations we’re looking forward to at WordCamp’s first-ever showcase day, James LePage’s introduction to the AgentWP artificial intelligence agent may be the most exciting. We’ve covered scores of top AI WordPress plugins over the past few years. Of them all, we’d argue that AgentWP has the potential to be to WordPress AI what Yoast is to SEO or WooCommerce is to WordPress eCommerce. LePage, whose company WPAI created the AI product, will take to the WordCamp stage to show us how the platform can transform the way we use WordPress. He’ll also provide a glimpse ‘under the hood’ to explain how AgentWP works safely and stealthily within WordPress. 3. Jon Ang & Stuart Shields How We Grew and Optimized RecipeTin Eats to Reach 45 Million Monthly Views (from 25M) Stuart Shields: Source – WordCamp US Jon Ang: Source – WordCamp US Jon Ang and Stuart Shields come to Portland representing Human Made, a digital agency that works with high-profile enterprise clients. In this presentation, the duo share how Human Made inherited a content website, optimized it to enterprise-grade standards and grew its monthly views from 25 million to 45 million. A fascinating look at integrating newer technologies with legacy websites, there’s sure to be a lot of insights into large-scale growth and the infrastructure behind it. 4. Christy Nyiri Highlights from the Automattic Special Projects Team Any time you see Automattic among the list of WordCamp speakers, you know it’s a must-see. This particular speaker is Christy Nyiri who heads up the design side of the Automattic Special Projects team. In this engaging session, Christy shares the team’s favorite websites and digital tools and explores how the team contributes to the wider WordPress community. Source: WordCamp US 5. Joseph Jacks Open Source Is Eating Software Faster Than Software Is Eating the World Source: WordCamp US OSS Capital founder Joseph Jacks kicks off Thursday’s proceedings with what is sure to be a fascinating keynote speech on the vital importance of the open source ecosystem. Covering its impact on crypto, AI, and software technology, Jacks’ opening speech will certainly set the right tone for this annual celebration of our favorite open source platform. 6. Bryce Adams & Travis Lima Decoding the Woo and WordPress Strategies of Industry Giants Bryce Adams: Source – WordCamp US Travis Lima: Source – WordCamp US Bryce Adams is the founder of reporting and email marketing platform Metorik. Travis Lima is an online entrepreneur and Customer Success Manager for Woo. Between them, the two have helped develop and support scores of large-scale eCommerce sites. In this session, Adams and Lima share examples of how major brands have leveraged WooCommerce to grow at scale. 7. Linnea Huxford From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: How the New York Post Mastered Scalability Source: WordCamp US If you ever had any doubts about WordPress’s capacity for scalability, Linnea Huxford’s deep dive into how the platform powers The New York Post is a must for your WordCamp schedule. Huxford is a Principle Software architect a WordPress core contributor and Principle Software Architect at Alley, a digital agency focusing on enterprise-scale publishing solutions for news and media sites. Catering to technical leads and developers, her session uses the New York Post WordPress site as a jumping ground to provide both important lessons and solid proof that WordPress has what it takes to handle massive sites. 8. Markus Robinson Empowering Black-Owned Businesses: The iOne Digital Story Source: WordCamp US Kick off your Friday with a dose of inspiration and insights courtesy of Markus Robinson, SVP of Product and Technology at iOne Digital. Robinson talks attendees through his company’s use of WordPress to launch 70+ online platforms for black-owned businesses. A must for WordPress users involved in managing multisite networks, there’s a lot to learn about the technical and strategic elements of growing digital spaces. 9. Jonathan Desrosiers & Aaron Jorbin Releasing a Version of WordPress in 8 Hours or Less If the title of this session alone isn’t enough to leave you captivated and curious, the story presented by Jonathan Desrosiers and Aaron Jorbin surely will be. Aaron Jorbin. Source – WordCamp US Jonathan Desrosiers. Source – WordCamp US Desrosiers and Jorbin are experienced WordPress Core committers who were there the day Core contributors turned around an entire new WordPress release in less than a day. Their joint talk provides compelling insights and useful lessons, making it a must-see session for anyone involved in WordPress security, development, and release management. 10. Matt Mullenweg Keynote Address and In-person Q&A Last but certainly no means least, the festivities wrap up with a word from the WordPress co-founder himself, Matt Mullenweg. Source: Wikimedia Commons Attiribution: Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Join Our Survey About WordPress Brand Tone and Voice

[ad_1] Over the past few years, we have seen increased efforts to better position and market the WordPress brand. Along with these efforts, we now have a Brand Writing Style Guide that defines how the WordPress voice should sound and what tone it should convey. The brand book was first created in August 2018 and has undergone several updates since then. It serves as a manual for all marketing messages, campaigns, and communication from WordPress. However, the place where the brand book should have the most influence is the CMS itself – the interface, the dashboard, the WordPress Admin. This is the product that powers 43.5% of all websites. This is where the brand can make the biggest impact. Of course, there’s WordPress.org, Make WordPress, and social platforms like X/Twitter or even TikTok now. But these channels have limited reach, targeting just a portion of WordPress users – what we often refer to as “the WordPress community.” The average user doesn’t follow WordPress developments or attend WordCamps. That’s why I believe the end-user’s interaction with WordPress itself is what ultimately shapes the brand. This is where the stakes are highest and where most efforts should be focused to keep everything on-brand. But let’s get to the point. Here’s your chance to speak up about how things look from your side of the dashboard. The survey has two parts: The first part covers WordPress’ tone and voice. The second part looks at specific phrases used throughout the WordPress interface. Feel free to jump in! It takes between five and eight minutes to complete. And don’t hesitate to add your input whenever the listed options don’t reflect your perspective. 🤔 Not many of you may remember, but this isn’t the first survey we’ve conducted on this topic. Back in 2015, WPShout was the first to discuss the need for a unified brand voice for WordPress. However, with only 62 respondents, the insights were limited. This time, I hope we can gather feedback from a much larger group – so 👉 please share the survey link with your peers! The more responses we get, the clearer the picture we’ll have of how WordPress is truly perceived. No matter how many responses we receive, I’m confident we’ll learn something valuable, and who knows – we might even help shape the future of the WordPress brand. Thank you for taking the time to participate! … Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below: Was this article helpful? No Thanks for your feedback! Yay! 🎉 You made it to the end of the article! 10 articles Sabina enjoys reading for pleasure and sometimes writes for a living. Loving the outdoors and climbing. Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)! [ad_2] Source link

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WordPress Enforces Plugin Check and 2FA for New Plugin Submissions – WP Tavern

[ad_1] Security Review Lead Chris Christoff has announced two new changes for the WordPress Plugin Directory, effective from October 1, 2024. These changes aim to enhance plugin directory security and promote best practices among plugin developers. Mandatory Two-Factor Authentication As of October 1, 2024, all plugin owners and committers must enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to submit new plugins to the WordPress Plugin Directory. This change was announced by Automattic-sponsored developer Dion Hulse last month. Plugin owners are encouraged to enable 2FA, review committers’ access levels, and use additional security features like the SVN password option and Release Confirmation. Detailed guides on Configuring Two-Factor Authentication and Keeping Your Plugin Committer Accounts Secure are also available. Plugin Check Tool From now on, any new plugin submitted to the Plugin Directory will first go through a pre-submission check using the Plugin Check tool. If any errors are found, the submission will be blocked until they are fixed. This new step aims to reduce the review queue by enabling plugin authors to catch common issues before submitting their plugins for manual review. Plugin Check helps by identifying frequent issues, such as mismatched versions between the plugin header and the readme.txt file, incorrect text domains, and erroneous “Tested To” values in the readme. Although Plugin Check adds a layer of automation, it will not replace the manual review of plugins. David Perez from the Plugin Review Team recommended making Plugin Check a part of the development workflow as “In addition to things relevant for the review process, the tool flags violations or concerns around plugin development best practices, from basic requirements like correct usage of internationalization functions to accessibility, performance, and security best practices. It does so using both static checks using PHP_CodeSniffer and dynamic checks, where it actually activates your plugin to test it “live”.” The Plugins Team is working to expand Plugin Check’s coverage to existing plugins. A roadmap detailing this broader application will be released in the coming months. Contributors can help improve the tool via its GitHub Repo. The WordPress community has responded positively to these updates. Josepha Haden Chomphosy tweeted “This was years in the making and is a huge deal. Congratulations (and big thanks) to everyone who contributed!” These two measures are expected to help the WordPress Plugin Team improve the security of the platform while reducing the backlog of plugins awaiting approval. [ad_2] Source link

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An Easy to Use and Fully Loaded Membership Plugin

[ad_1] Building a membership website is a fantastic business idea. You can earn recurring income, enjoy the freedom to create content as you wish, and commit to your user base with value products and services. As this Paid Memberships Pro review will show, there are plugins that can do the job, and then some. That functionality can also help with other business models too, such as creating customer email lists, and building a community. I have to do both of these as part of my relationship with WordPress, so I’m excited to take this plugin for a spin. Throughout this Paid Memberships Pro review, I’ll look at why the features, functionality, interface, and pricing are all stellar. By the end, you’ll know just why I’m a fan, along with thousands of other users! Introducing Paid Memberships Pro Paid Memberships Pro does what it says on the tin. It’s a WordPress membership plugin that lets you sign up users to access your website’s content. The plugin focuses on facilitating user memberships, but its feature set has a lot of scope. As you’ll understand, that functionality can work for many different types of site that center around curating users and building a community ‘hub’. Speaking of which, here’s what Paid Memberships Pro offers in a nutshell: Content restriction and drip feeding for the whole site, and on a page-by-page basis. The ability to set up groups and member directories, to help you build a community with your site. Plenty of user management options, tier creation settings, and administration tools. Multiple payment options, including account pauses and proration. This isn’t everything the plugin can offer, but I’ll show you throughout the rest of this Paid Memberships Pro review what the plugin can do. DOWNLOAD Paid Memberships Pro Paid Memberships Pro Review: The Plugin’s Feature, Functionality, and Pricing Rather than simply tour the dashboard and run through the feature set, I want to explore what Paid Memberships Pro is like on a day-to-day basis. As such, I’ll work within the dashboard, set the plugin up, add memberships tiers, and look into extending the functionality of the plugin. Of course, to follow along, you’ll need your own copy of Paid Memberships Pro. Let’s start with how much the plugin costs. Pricing While there’s a free version of Paid Memberships Pro on the WordPress Plugin Directory, that’s not my focus here. Instead, I’m looking at the three premium tiers on offer. These will bundle in extras to the core plugin based on the plan you choose: Standard ($347 per year). This gives you a single-site license, more than 20 add-ons (more of which later), and functionality such as customization recipes, tracking for affiliates, e-commerce, and analytics, along with plenty more. Plus ($597 per year). While two site licenses seems ‘ungenerous’, I can’t deny the functionality you get in return. This tier comes with the full feature set of Paid Memberships Pro, which includes over 30 add-ons, pro-rata pricing options, variable pricing, and much more. Enterprise (over $5,000 per year). The plugin’s functionality is here in full too, but includes 50 site licenses, hosting, and a more personalized experience for your needs. For instance, there is telephone support, consultancy, onsite visits, and more. For most, the Plus plan will give you everything Paid Membership Pro has in the box, but you’ll pay a hefty price in return. However, each purchase comes with a 100-Day, 100 percent money-back guarantee. What’s more, there are regular sales on offer, which sometimes gives you 50 percent off of the typical price. New User Onboarding Once you complete the installation process, you’ll begin with an onboarding wizard. This asks you to fill in a number of fields across five different pages. There are a few key fields to discuss here: General Info. You’ll want to make sure the plugin generates the required pages to help build your site. Fortunately, this is an active checkbox by default – but make sure to take a second look before you continue. Also, check the box to indicate whether you will take payments on your site, and enter your license key to claim your extra functionality, support, and updates. Memberships. It’s up to you whether you let the plugin create membership levels for you at this screen. If you are new to the plugin, I’d recommend this so you can see the ‘optimal’ method of doing this. The final screen – All Set! – lets you know your site is ready, and offers up a helpful guide on building the type of membership site you chose from the General Info screen. You’ll also find some recommended add-ons, which we’ll get into later. Before that, I want to cover the rest of the typical process you’ll take to create your membership site. The User Interface (UI) and Experience The Memberships > Dashboard screen within WordPress is the hub for everything you do with Paid Memberships Pro: There’s a lot to get through here, and I won’t cover it all. However, there are seven top-level sections of settings: Dashboard. This gives you quick links to common pages, some analytics and reporting, along with links to social media and documentation. Members. Here, you can create, add, manage, and delete members of your site. Orders. In this context, “orders” means those who purchase a membership. If you only offer premium memberships, this will essentially show your current paying set of members. Reports. This screen shows the same reporting as on the Dashboard. You can see your active members, sales, revenue, visits, logins, and much more here. Settings. This is a collection of many screens that cover options for membership levels, payment gateways, security, design, and a lot more. Add Ons. You can install any Paid Memberships Pro add-on you have access to here. It looks a lot like the WordPress Plugin Directory dashboard, which makes it straightforward to use. License. This is where you’ll input and view your plugin licensing information. You should take a look at the setup

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Patchstack Secures $5M in Series A Funding – WP Tavern

[ad_1] Patchstack, a leading WordPress security company, recently raised $5 million in its Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Karma Ventures, G+D Ventures, and Emilia Capital, an investment firm backed by Yoast founders Marieke van de Rakt and Joost de Valk. “With the Series A, we plan to accelerate Patchstack product development and build a top-level sales and marketing team,” said Patchstack’s co-founder and CEO, Oliver Sild. He believes Patchstack could “potentially hyper-automate the entire open-source software security process.” In 2022, the company received a €2.7M R&D grant from the European Innovation Council. Earlier this year, Patchstack was also selected by Google for its AI for Cybersecurity accelerator program, leveraging its vast dataset—the largest in the world of open-source security vulnerabilities. The company’s managed VDP platform, developed in collaboration with the European Union, is free for all plugin and theme developers and helps projects comply with the upcoming European Cyber Resilience Act.  Last year they published 76% of all known WordPress-related security vulnerabilities and became the largest CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) Naming Authority by volume in 2023. Their Zero-Day Bug Bounty Program awarded the highest bounty in WordPress history – $14,400- to John Blackbourn, who exposed a critical vulnerability in the LiteSpeed Cache plugin last month. “I have been following Patchstack’s progress for some time, have had many great discussions with Oliver, and think that the team is on a noble and exciting mission to protect users of open-source technologies from cyber threats,” said Kristjan Laanemaa from Karma Ventures. [ad_2] Source link

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8 of the Best SEO Tools & WordPress Plugins For Maximum Visibility

[ad_1] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for any website that wants to maximize its traffic and visibility. As such, most websites will want to employ a number of SEO tools to help. WordPress websites can also install plugins for all sorts of SEO-related tasks. The real challenge is to choose the most valuable ones to help get you to the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). For this post, we’ll look at the best SEO tools around, mixed in with top-tier WordPress plugins. We’ll also summarize everything in a handy table towards the end, answer some burning questions, and give you advice on how to choose the right plugin for your needs. What You Should Look for in SEO Tools and WordPress Plugins While it would be straightforward to head to a list of generic, all-purpose SEO tools, this isn’t possible. In fact, you have two areas to consider when it comes to choosing SEO tools and relevant WordPress plugins: The tool’s focus. There are different types of tool that all cover different ground. For example, some help you manage 301 redirects, while plenty of others let you research keywords. Of course, you’ll want to look for SEO tools that match your specific needs. Your potential tool’s quality. Once you have tools on a shortlist, you have to make sure they are high quality solutions. There are a few ways you can do this, and combining them will be the best approach. When it comes to the latter, we recommend a few considerations. Social proof is important (such as ratings and reviews), as you will also likely be one of the happy bunch. Also, checking how much the developer updates a tool will help you decide how ‘invested’ they are in it. You won’t want to spend money on a premium solution only for the developer to move onto other products in their range. The Top 8 SEO Tools And WordPress Plugins For Maximum Visibility Next, let’s look at the eight SEO tools we want to feature. Right now, they’re in no order. Later on though, we’ll rank them – more on that shortly. For now, let’s go through the list. 1. Semrush Finding keywords is an SEO fundamental. Without them, your content won’t have any direction (from an SEO standpoint anyway). Semrush is one of many keyword research tools, and it’s also one of the best. In fact, this is a collection of over 55 different tools to help with lots of SEO aspects. It includes keyword research, but also competitor analysis, market analysis, on-page SEO, and much more. Semrush offers almost every tool you’ll need to help your SEO strategy succeed. 👍 Pros 👎 Cons Almost every tool you need for SEO Cost could be prohibitive Best-in-class keyword research The huge number of tools Semrush offers could be overwhelming The official WordPress plugin doesn’t have good reviews from other users. Pricing: Semrush offers three premium tiers starting from $129.95 per month. Each tier will include a greater number of features and functionality. Try Semrush 2. Rank Math Rank Math represents the first WordPress SEO plugin on our list. It lets you optimize your posts and pages using a variety of tools from the WordPress dashboard. Its on-page SEO functionality is excellent, but it can do lots more for your site. For instance, you can preview how your content will appear across SERPs, social media, and more from within the Block Editor. You’re also able to view Google Search Console content from the WordPress dashboard. This means you can log into your site and see all of the most valuable metrics to help improve your SEO. 👍 Pros 👎 Cons Fantastic SEO analysis within the Block Editor sidebar The whole package may be too overwhelming for some users who want simpler functionality. Plenty of extra Includes Content AI, which helps you write articles with near-perfect SEO Pricing: Rank Math’s core plugin is free to download. However, a premium subscription begins from $5.75 per month and gives you the ability to track a greater number of keywords, the use of a Schema generator, and more. Related: Rank Math Vs Yoast SEO: Which Is The Best WordPress SEO Plugin? Try RankMath 3. Yoast SEO When it comes to WordPress SEO analysis, the champion for millions of users is Yoast SEO. It was one of the first of its kind available, and uses a ‘traffic light’ system to highlight where your SEO is good, bad, and able to improve. While we could give you all the juicy details, we have a comparison article elsewhere on the blog that looks at Rank Math vs Yoast SEO in depth. You’ll want to read that to understand how to find out more about Yoast SEO, and how both of these excellent plugins differ. 👍 Pros 👎 Cons As a free SEO plugin, there’s arguably no better option on the market Lots of users don’t enjoy the inline ads for premium Yoast SEO products The traffic light system to analyze your SEO is near-perfect for efficiency and prioritization The plugin can be buggy at times, especially if an update breaks a particular piece of functionality Some of the metrics in the Readability section are valuable and unavailable in other SEO tools. Pricing: Yoast SEO is free to download from the WordPress Plugin Directory. The vast majority of users will only need this version of the plugin. However, the premium edition is $99 per year and gives you further ways to analyze your site’s SEO, social media previews, and more. Try Yoast SEO 4. Mangools If Semrush doesn’t appeal for whatever reason, there are numerous competitors. Mangools is one of the best, thanks to its straightforward usability and fantastic price. Our main focus is on the keyword research tool here, although there are other apps that focus on backlink mining, SERP rank tracking, site profiling, and SERP analysis for specific keywords. However, the keyword research app is almost a one-page tool. You have keyword

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WordCamp US 2024 Kicks Off On September 17!

[ad_1] Hey there, WordPress fans! I am checking in today to let you know that WordCamp US 2024 is about to kick off! (I shared a word or two about the event the previous week here.) The event starts on September 17 (Tuesday) with Contributor Day, which gives in-person attendees/contributors a chance to collaborate. September 18 (Wednesday) will bring the new Showcase Day, which highlights some of the biggest and best examples of WordPress sites, along with helping attendees understand how WordPress can scale even for large organizations. After that, there will be two days of talks on September 19 (Thursday) and September 20 (Friday). If you’re already attending WordCamp US 2024 in person, you probably didn’t need this post (I hope, at least). If you did need this post, I would book those flight tickets right away, because you’re running out of time to get to Portland! I’m still sharing this, though, because WordCamp US 2024 will also be livestreaming all of the talks online. So, even if you’re not attending the event in person, you can still follow along online and live vicariously through the streams. 👉 If you’re interested in checking out some of the talks, you can view the full schedule here. To catch those live streams, head over to the WordPress YouTube channel – this link should take you directly to the streams (which are available in the Live tab). All of the streams are already scheduled on YouTube, so you can copy the links for the talks that you’re interested in now, instead of struggling to find the right link when the talk is about to start. In the future, these videos will also be added to WordPress.tv (but the livestreams themselves will not be available on WordPress.tv). That’s it for this news update! But once the event concludes, I’ll be back to share some of the best recaps and summaries of the event. … Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below: Was this article helpful? No Thanks for your feedback! Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)! [ad_2] Source link

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Matt Mullenweg’s Ecosystem Thinking for Open Source Success  – WP Tavern

[ad_1] WordCamp US 2024 is in full swing, and Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, shared his thoughts on a powerful philosophy driving Open Source.  Ecosystem Thinking Mullenweg introduced the concept of “Ecosystem Thinking,”  a philosophy that drives successful collaborative projects.  “Actual Open Source licenses are the law that guarantees freedom, the bulwark against authoritarianism. But what makes Open Source work isn’t the law, it’s the ethos. It’s the social mores. It’s what I’m now calling Ecosystem Thinking: the mindset that separates any old software with an open source license from the software that’s alive, that’s humming with activity and contributions from a thousand places.” he noted. This philosophy comprises four essential elements: Learn: Embrace the beginner’s mindset and constantly engage with new ideas. Evolve: Apply what you learn to the next iteration, allowing real-world feedback to guide you. Teach: Teaching others reinforces your own understanding, spreading knowledge throughout the ecosystem. Nourish: Share the fruits of your success with the broader community to help everyone thrive. ‘Nourish’ is the philosophy behind WordPress’s Five For the Future initiative, where companies and individuals commit a portion of their resources to supporting the WordPress project and ecosystem. This ethos is what keeps Open Source alive and vibrant. Mislabeling Open Source He also shared the challenges Open source is facing. Even though Open Source has taken over as an “intellectual and moral movement,… false prophets like Meta are trying to co-opt it.” He referenced Meta’s “open-source” AI model, Llama, as a prime example of this trend. While LLaMA is free, its license restricts use for companies with over 700 million active users. Mullenweg argued that although Meta has the right to impose such terms, labeling it as “Open Source” misleads the public. Vote with your Wallet Mullenweg encouraged the community to “vote with your wallet” by supporting companies that actively contribute to the Open Source ecosystem. He praised organizations like Newfold, Awesome Motive, 10up, Godaddy, Hostinger, and Google but warned of “parasitic entities that just want to feed off the host without giving anything back.” To make his point, Mullenweg compared the Five For the Future contributions from Automattic and WP Engine, a competitor of similar size. Automattic contributes 3,786 hours per week, while WP Engine contributes just 47. “Those of us who are makers, who create the source, need to be wary of those who would take our creations and squeeze out the juice. They’re grifters who will hop onto the next fad, but we’re trying to build something big here, something long term—something that lasts for generations,” he said. Mullenweg urged the community to be mindful of their choices: “Think about that next time it comes up to renew your hosting or domain, weigh your dollars towards companies that give back more, because you’ll get back more, too. Freedom isn’t free.” This is not the first time Mullenweg has discussed this point. “Those who care about the future of WordPress should spend their dollars with less parasitic companies,” he said in 2022. [ad_2] Source link

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