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Developers are increasingly separating WordPress and utilising its backend as a headless Content Management System (CMS), but what exactly is a headless CMS, and how can it benefit your business?
<h2>What is a headless CMS, and why is it different?</h2>
Content Management Systems like WordPress comprise of two separate parts that are joined together in one package, the frontend (or head), and the backend (or body). The front end is what a user sees in the browser when they visit your website. The backend is where you create and customise the content, and this is then stored in a database. 
In a traditional setup both the frontend and backend are built using the same coding language and framework. Using WordPress normally you can manage your content as well as the front-end visuals using themes or block editors from the dashboard.
With this traditional setup, developers are limited to a theme-based, and plugin structure and customising can be difficult and limited to whats available within the WordPress ecosystem. 
In a Headless CMS essentially we separate these two parts essentially removing the head from that body, hence the name headless. In doing so we can turn the backend into a data source that can then be accessed by any frontend framework. 
Content can be managed like it always has been through the dashboard, but developers are free to use any frontend technology which allows for greater customisation, and the ability to take advantage of newer frontend technologies.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14181 size-large" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-700x522.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="522" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-700x522.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-250x187.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-768x573.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-1536x1146.jpg 1536w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-2048x1528.jpg 2048w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/andrii-leonov-P5nZwlbTngI-unsplash-1-120x90.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>Advantages of going headless</h2>
<h3>Fast loading page speed</h3>
One of the main benefits of using a headless CMS is better page speeds. Page speed is important for these core reasons:
<ul>
<li>Faster loading web pages provide a better user experience for your users.
<ul>
<li>Faster pages mean that Users can complete their purchase or conduct any other business on your site in a shorter journey with less friction.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Google now explicitly considers page speed as part of its ranking algorithms.
<ul>
<li>Having better page speed than your competitor could be the factor that brings you more organic traffic if all else is equal when your page is compared against a competitor&#8217;s by a Search Engine.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Why is Headless WordPress faster?</h3>
WordPress is built using php and pages are built with php templates. When a user requests the page the server needs to gather the content from the database, load the content and build the page using the template and then display it in the browser.
In total an average of 30 actions are needed to load each webpage and this will run every time a user navigates to a new page. As a result this can cause the website speed to suffer.
Headless websites can be built in whatever coding language a developer chooses as we are no longer limited to php and php templates. This means developers can use modern front end frameworks like React.js or Vue.js.
With these modern frameworks pages are pre build and stored on the server and can be sent to the browser as soon as they are requested leading to much faster loading times.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14180 size-large" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash-700x466.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="466" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash-700x466.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash-250x166.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash-768x511.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash-120x80.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kirklai-_RM0idp0M2c-unsplash.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h3>Greater control and flexibility</h3>
While WordPress allows for a great amount of customisation options you are limited to whats available. To extend WordPress you need to use plugins and can be limited to whats available. Plugins can also add more functionality than you actually need leading to a much bigger code base than whats needed. 
With headless we are no longer limited to plugins and functionality can be extended in whatever way the developer chooses. This will also cut down on any excess code leading to smaller builds and easier maintainability.
<h3>Better Security</h3>
With a headless solution, the front end of the site only accesses the content through an API. Therefore the database is completely separate from the front end. 
This means an attacker will have a much harder time finding your database adding an extra security layer to your site.
<h3>Multi-Channel Content Publishing</h3>
With a traditional setup, it can only be used to build a standard mobile and desktop website. However, as a business scales, they may want to use their content on other channels like mobile apps, social media sites etc.
With a headless setup, because we can access the data from any front end we choose we can effectively turn WordPress into a centralised source for multiple publishing sources. This can allow a marketing team to have one dashboard for all their content and when changes occur they will be reflected across all platforms.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14183 size-large" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-700x466.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="466" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-700x466.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-250x166.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-768x511.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/venti-views-g-5tSFQSb7w-unsplash-120x80.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h2>Traditional WordPress Vs Headless WordPress</h2>
<h3>Differences in development</h3>
Building a basic WordPress site can be done using themes and plugins and a very simple basic site can be built without any coding ability. Headless WordPress doesn&#8217;t use themes and templates so to set up a headless site you will need an experienced developer to do so, or knowledge of frontend javascript frameworks.
<h3>Differences in functionality</h3>
Because we have separated the front end from the backend Unfortunately we lose some of the default WordPress functionality. Previews will no longer work and an alternative solution will need to be added during development. Some popular plugins have been adapted to be used by headless WordPress websites but not all have so you may not be able to use plugins like you&#8217;re used to and the development team will need to create other solutions.
<h3>Differences in hosting</h3>
Hosting a headless website will be slightly different also. WordPress is traditionally hosted on a server running PHP with the frontend and backend on the same server.
With headless, we can host our WordPress backend on a PHP server and we will then need to host our frontend on a separate server build to host javascript frontend frameworks. This will mean we now have instances on servers to maintain. It also means that if the WordPress backend server was to go down for any reason our frontend will still be live running on cached content until the backend is back up and running.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-14182 size-large" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash-700x393.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="393" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash-700x393.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash-250x140.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash-768x431.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash-1536x862.jpg 1536w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash-120x67.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/taylor-vick-M5tzZtFCOfs-unsplash.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h3>Which businesses can benefit from Headless WordPress?</h3>
Any business that is looking to deliver a more satisfying and frictionless experience for their Users will benefit from using Headless WordPress.
A Headless setup can improve page loading speeds, provide better security, allow for multi-channel and many different types of sites can be built with it. 
Including:
<ul>
<li>Blogs</li>
<li>Brochure websites</li>
<li>Marketing websites</li>
<li>eCommerce websites</li>
<li>Web app</li>
<li>Mobile apps</li>
</ul>
<h2>Headless WordPress is here to stay</h2>
With WordPress powering over <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40% of the web</a> it is clear that it isn&#8217;t going anywhere any time soon. Headless WordPress is very quickly being adapted across the enterprise space with a study from <a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://wpengine.co.uk/blog/state-of-headless-study-finds-adoption-surging-in-the-enterprise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WP Engine finding that 64% of enterprise respondents are currently using headless,</a> and 90% of those who don&#8217;t plan to evaluate this in the near future. 
With massive performance benefits from updating to headless, Headless WordPress is looking to be the future of WordPress Development.
If you want to experience a Headless WordPress website for yourself, just continue to browse through our site and witness the low friction experience.
If you want to understand more about what Headless WordPress can do for your business, <a href="https://www.friday.ie/contact/">talk to us today</a>.
&nbsp;

Headless WordPress: Why Losing Your Head Is The Future

You will know by now that your website needs to load fast.
You just need to Google it to remind yourself as to the many reasons why, so we will not do that again here.
In summary: happier users, better conversions rates and more conversions.
There&#8217;s no need to make it any more complicated because that’s all it is. Why else would you focus on it?
You don’t need another blog post about % of revenue loss for every % of extra second of load time. Zzzzzzzz. You’ve hit the snooze button on that a few times, so just turn off the alarm now.
Let’s look to the near future instead…
<h3>Great user experience</h3>
In May 2021 things will start to get very real when Google begin to label search results that have what they call a &#8220;great user experience&#8221;. They may begin testing this sooner, but that&#8217;s the official rollout date.
By ‘user experience’, we are not talking about UX in a traditional sense. We refer to ‘user experience’ in the way that Google defines it algorithmically – so, how fast and uninterrupted a web page is when loading.
In May, if yours is not up to scratch, then your click-through rates will decrease. There’s no question of that. It was probably already annoying users anyway.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="328" height="268" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11731" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/giphy-2.gif" alt="" />
This is the Google Page Experience Update.
An article on Search Engine Land <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-page-experience-update-to-launch-in-may-2021-343581">last year</a> said of this update: “Many SEOs expect it will be relatively minor.”
Well, let me tell you that this will not be ‘minor’. You can be damn sure of that.
The impact on rankings will be direct, since Google themselves have called this an &#8220;upcoming Search ranking change&#8221; and also there&#8217;s the potential indirect ranking loss suffered as a result of your competitors being labelled as a ‘great user experience’ when you are not.
It&#8217;s already there in the code within Google Search Console, if you know where to look:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="640" height="361" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11743" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/t-google-search-console-page-experience-appearance-filter-1612963427.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/t-google-search-console-page-experience-appearance-filter-1612963427.jpg 640w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/t-google-search-console-page-experience-appearance-filter-1612963427-250x141.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/t-google-search-console-page-experience-appearance-filter-1612963427-120x68.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/t-google-search-console-page-experience-appearance-filter-1612963427-80x45.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
Without investment, this is the beginning of the end for some websites. There are those that will, in a year or two, essentially end up on Google’s scrapheap as a result of this.
<h3>Something tangible</h3>
This very tangible thing, an actual visual signal in Google search results saying that your website is a &#8220;great user experience&#8221;, will be something that’s desired because it’s visual.
In-house marketers will have something tangible to tell their teams or agencies: “That’s what we want.” It will not be achievable in all cases, and if you do not have this label then your click-through rates (CTR) from search results may not suffer massively, but it will definitely be desirable.
What they won&#8217;t tell you is that this still remains slightly relative. If you are in a sector with just a few competitors then it may be okay at first to just have a faster web page than the others &#8211; but your end goal should still be to be fast by comparison to most others.
Before now, this discussion was usually held on the back of PageSpeed Insights scores (which are mostly bullsh*t and unreliable) and Lighthouse tests (a bit more detailed and sometimes useful, but not always accurate).
And then Google clearly stated that it’s the Core Web Vitals scores in Search Console that you need to pay most attention to, but many are still not listening.
<a href="https://web.dev/vitals/">Core Web Vitals</a> are a set of real-world, user-centred metrics that quantify key aspects of the user experience. They measure dimensions of web usability such as load time, interactivity, and the stability of content as it loads. For example, you can probably remember more than one time when your thumb clicked on the wrong thing while a page was loading and aligning. Not great if you&#8217;re anywhere near a one-click purchase.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-11725 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic.jpg" alt="Google Page Experience Update" width="960" height="540" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic.jpg 960w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic-250x141.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic-700x394.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic-768x432.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic-120x68.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Search_Page_Experience_Graphic-80x45.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" />
<h3>Actual Google Chrome users</h3>
The fact that these scores are based on actual Google Chrome users who visited your website should be all you need to know. The data comes from the Chrome User Experience Report and reflects actual usage data on your site from users around the world.
Well now, it’s Core Web Vitals that will help you to achieve this new label in search results. So it’s time to listen and stop running Page Speed tests on just your home page and sharing those results internally with a sigh of relief &#8211; they mean nothing now, they are just indicative at best.
Now here’s one of the toughest parts&#8230;
There are websites that use plugins and functionalities which are fundamental to how they have worked up until now. There are those that use page types and layouts that are heavy loading but they are what users have come to expect from that brand&#8230; websites like these may need a lot of work before they can achieve the status of being a ‘great user experience’ in Google’s eyes.
So if you haven’t begun to look at this now then you need to do so immediately. Some time, effort and investment will likely be needed.
<h3>Help your SEO</h3>
It is important to dispel the myth that better Page Speed scores instantly ‘help your SEO’. They can, but not always directly. Google is now looking for the complete user experience – great load times, strong click-through rates from search results, and strong engagement with the page itself.
To give an example: You can have a landing page that loads extremely quickly but if the content is sh*t and the user has no idea what to do next then they will bounce (leave your website) and your rankings will drop.
Google is not just a search engine, it is a suggestion engine. And they want to suggest websites that are not just fast but are also the perfect result for what the user searched for. They hate being wrong.
<h3>Fit for purpose</h3>
Don’t just take this time to focus only on Core Web Vitals and Page Speed. Take a fresh objective look at whether or not your website and core landing pages are even fit for purpose.
“Great page experiences enable people to get more done and engage more deeply,” Google say.
“In contrast, a bad page experience could stand in the way of a person being able to find valuable information on a page.
“By adding page experience to the hundreds of signals that Google considers when ranking search results, we aim to help people more easily access the information and web pages they&#8217;re looking for, and support site owners in providing an experience that users enjoy.”
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="244" height="182" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11732" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/tenor.gif" alt="" />
None of this should be news to digital marketing professionals. Google has previously had known and established factors influencing its mobile-first index.
Up to now, those have been mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS/HSTS, popups, interstitials, and more. Until now, it has been very much a focus on ‘mobile-friendly’ and ‘mobile-first’, but now it’s very much ‘mobile-fast’.
<h3>Next steps</h3>
You must revisit your website&#8217;s performance, security, and mobile-friendliness. These are already important, but they&#8217;ll become even more so.
You should also:
<ul>
<li>Check that your hosting service is fast, reliable and responsive.</li>
<li>Check that your website is not overstuffed with visual content (videos, images) that are going to make your site slow. Use a <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/cdn/what-is-a-cdn/">Content Delivery Network</a>, if possible.</li>
<li>If your website is not responsive and mobile-friendly by now, then you should be tearing it down to build it again.</li>
<li>Ensure that you have the correct security measures in place. HTTS/HSTS&#8230; Google may even begin to check your site for a firewall.</li>
<li>Avoid pop-up banners where possible. Nobody enjoys them. Cookie notices have already done enough damage.</li>
<li>Run some manual tests for loading, interactivity, and visual stability. So, do your pages load fast and look right?</li>
<li>Monitor Core Web Vitals data regularly.</li>
</ul>
As always, the most important next step is simple…
Get in touch with Friday Agency and let us show you <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/" data-trid="267">what we can do</a>.

Google’s Page Experience Update is Almost Here

In April this year Friday turned 5 and to celebrate, the whole team travelled out to Sandyford and had a blast shooting a couple of hundred zombies at <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://zerolatencyvr.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://zerolatencyvr.ie/">Zero Latency</a>.
Now the reality is of course that we didn’t shoot anything, but it certainly felt like we did. In reality, we were all running around a large empty room with headsets on looking fairly ridiculous, but in Virtual Reality we were all 100% engrossed in an abandoned factory, being attacked by zombies.
That got us all chatting about VR / AR in general and whether there was any practical application on the web or in advertising that we could apply it to right now.
With the recent release of the Aero App by Adobe, the AR banter intensified.
&#8220;What is it? Can we use it right now? Is there anything cool we can try it out with?&#8221;
A few of us in the studio got together and tried to figure out some of the most important questions in (AR) life.
&nbsp;
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">What is AR?</h2>
For those completely new to the term, AR stands for Augmented Reality. In simple terms, Augmented Reality is when a computer-generated image is super-imposed as a layer on a user’s real world view, in live 3D space, via the camera on a mobile device.
<div id="attachment_10327" style="width: 1030px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10327" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-10327 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar.png" alt="" width="1020" height="576" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar.png 1020w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar-250x141.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar-768x434.png 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar-700x395.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar-120x68.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pokemon-go-ar-80x45.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px" />Pokémon Go - arguably the most talked-about AR application in recent years.</div>
In comparison, Virtual Reality (VR) is where the user is completely immersed in a computer-simulated environment, and there is no link between what the user sees and the real world — usually through the use of a headset.
<div id="attachment_10330" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10330" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-10330 size-large" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example-700x394.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="394" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example-700x394.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example-250x141.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example-768x432.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example-120x68.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example-80x45.jpg 80w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/vr-example.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />The VR experience at Zero Latency, Dublin.</div>
So VR is feeling like you are immersed in a room full of zombies where you might actually be in an empty room. AR is Using your headset or mobile device to superimpose a zombie into your live environment — e.g. a zombie on your desk at work.
<div style="width: 986px;" class="wp-video">
<video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-10325-1" width="986" height="456" poster="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/desk-zombie-poster.png" loop="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zombie-on-desk.mp4?_=1" /><a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zombie-on-desk.mp4">https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zombie-on-desk.mp4</a></video></div>
Virtual Reality is a more intensive experience, requiring hardware (a headset) and depending on the experience, space and safety concerns come into play.
AR is physically much more accessible in that it doesn’t need a headset to work (although headsets can be used for a more immersive experience). Most modern mobile devices have some sort of AR support built-in, and it looks like it won’t be too far in the future before AR becomes mainstream and accessible to all.
It has huge potential in terms of informational/educational/directional information, and of course advertising. There’s been a big surge in investment and interest in AR technologies in recent years.
Google has completely abandoned it’s VR offering, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://arvr.google.com/daydream/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://arvr.google.com/daydream/">Daydream</a>, in favour of AR. With Daydream, they had hoped to bring VR to the mainstream via a smartphone-powered affordable headset. However, due to low consumer and developer interest, they have <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-discontinues-daydream-virtual-reality-view-headset-2019-10?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-discontinues-daydream-virtual-reality-view-headset-2019-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">abandoned the project</a> in favour of focusing on developing a Google powered AR platform.
&nbsp;
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Can we use it right now?</h2>
It’s relatively easy to explain what AR is, but much more difficult to explain what we can do with current AR platforms in 2019. As it stands, the 3 main players in the ring (for developers) with regards to web AR right now are ARCore, ARKit, and AR.js.
Google’s ARCore
As noted already, Google is working on its own AR offering. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://lens.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://lens.google.com/">Google Lens</a> uses the principles of AR for translation and search features. Google Chrome now has the capacity to allow a user to place 3D objects from Chrome search results <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://arvr.google.com/ar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://arvr.google.com/ar/">directly into their environment using AR</a>. AR features are built directly into the Pixel camera and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18535715/google-ar-maps-walking-directions-pixel-phones-augmented-reality-io-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18535715/google-ar-maps-walking-directions-pixel-phones-augmented-reality-io-2019">Google Maps</a>. Google’s AR offering is called <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://developers.google.com/ar" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://developers.google.com/ar">ARCore</a>, and availability for use on the web is currently limited to Android devices running ARCore 1.9 or later.
Apple’s ARKit
Apple has also been investing heavily in its equivalent offering <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/">ARKit</a>. While SR experience is easily embedded on the web using ARKit, it’s currently limited to iOS devices. Adobe has been developing apps with ARkit in mind, namely Dimension and Aero, and these are focused more on the creative applications of AR rather than the practical implementations that Google has already adopted.
Adobes Aero app is free to all and allows users to use a simple UI to place 3D assets, either from a predefined set of stock assets, or to upload custom ones via a Creative Cloud account — add simple interactivity and share with friends.
Ar.js
So ArCore is currently limited to Android. ARKit is currently limited to iOS. is there any way to use AR on the web across Android and iOS? Enter AR.js.
AR.js is an open-source javascript library that allows you to integrate AR into any web page and will be supported by Android and iOS. The downside? Yup, there is one. AR/js can only trigger an AR experience using a marker or a specific location. Whereas ARKit and ARCore can respond to any environment, AR.js needs a specific location or image to trigger the AR environment.
Depending on your needs, this may not be a drawback at all, however, and there are plenty of applications where you might need/want to trigger AR from a specific image or Location co-ordinates. Imagine someone scanning an ad with their phone for example via a dedicated webpage, triggering an AR experience that shows the product in question in 3D space.
&nbsp;
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">But I want AR and I want it now!</h2>
No worries! Companies like <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.8thwall.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://www.8thwall.com/">8th Wall</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://seekxr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://seekxr.com/">Seek</a> are offering cross-platform AR integration for the web right now, but for a steep price tag. And that price tag just covers the ability to display AR on your site. The 3d assets you’ll require to make the experience worthwhile will likely cost a lot more.
Say you want all of the products in your shop to be viewable in AR, in the same way, that Ikea does for example — well you’re going to need good quality 3D renders of every product in your shop first — but hey, maybe cross-platform AR on the web will be much more easily achieved by the time you’re done with that.
Right now, AR is a nifty feature to play around with, but the resources and budget it would require to implement in a practical sense put it outside the reach of most SME’s.
However the potential with AR is limitless and we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on developments within the industry, ready to pounce once it becomes stable and viable for all.
Thanks for reading. Watch this space.
&nbsp;

The state of AR on the Web in 2019

Whether you’re looking at food recipes on a blog, shopping for a new jacket or booking a holiday, imagery has become significantly important for our everyday use on the web. It should be no surprise that images are typically the largest asset a website serves to its users.
If we can reduce the size of those images as much as we can without affecting their overall quality, it will greatly improve the user’s experience and page speed on your website. Converting your images to a next-gen image format, like WebP, is one of the best ways to achieve this.
<h2>What&#8217;s WebP?</h2>
WebP is an image format created by Google way back in 2010. It is an alternative to image formats like JPG and PNG by serving much smaller file sizes without losing too much image quality.
<div id="attachment_9749" style="width: 1270px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9749" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9749 size-gallery-panel" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/webp-jpg-2-1260x620.png" alt="" width="1260" height="620" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/webp-jpg-2-1260x620.png 1260w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/webp-jpg-2-120x60.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/webp-jpg-2-80x40.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px" />WebP 59KB vs. JPG 167KB</div>
Have a look at the two cat images above and see if you can notice any differences between them (I couldn’t anyway).
The image on the left is a 59KB WebP and the image on the right is a 167KB JPG. That doesn’t sound like much, it’s only a few KB but that’s a 95% difference in file size. If your website is particularly reliant on imagery, those few KB quickly add up!
<h2>Why Use WebP?</h2>
From the reduced image file sizes you get from WebP you can expect a number of benefits:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Improved page load speed will allow your users to navigate through and interact with your website with ease. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Meeting user’s expectations of how fast your website should load also enhances user engagement. The longer you keep a user waiting the more frustrated they will become, increasing the chance they will leave your website.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Google likes websites that serve images in next-gen formats as they offer “faster downloads and less data consumption”. So having WebP images is one way in which Google will reward your website with an improved SEO ranking.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Can we use WebP now?</h2>
At the time of writing this article, about <a href="https://caniuse.com/#feat=webp">80% of all web users, and most modern browsers, will be able to benefit from WebP images.</a>
Internet Explorer and Safari are the main browsers that still don’t support WebP. As WebP is a product of Google, Apple seem reluctant or unable to support it on Safari. There was a <a href="https://twitter.com/html5test/status/752434454061322240">tweet back in 2017</a> that Safari on iOS 10 was going support WebP but it was scrapped before final release.
It is also extremely unlikely WebP will see support on Internet Explorer as Microsoft has since abandoned support in favour of their new browser, Edge.
<div id="attachment_9751" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9751" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-9751 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bye-bye-ie.gif" alt="" width="500" height="281" />Protip: Stop using Internet Explorer</div>
So yes, we can use WebP now but there&#8217;s a catch. Two sets of images need to be provided: the WebP image and a JPG/PNG fallback in case the user’s browser doesn’t support WebP. However the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages so it is well worth your time to implement WebP images.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
For huge reductions on image file sizes, WebP can be used in place of PNG and JPG images. Smaller image file sizes has many benefits such as better page load speed, improved SEO ranking and enhanced user engagement.
Despite Safari and Internet Explorer not supporting WebP, the reduced image file sizes are too great not to implement on websites.
Smaller image file sizes means less data, less data means faster pages, and faster pages makes for a happier web.
<hr />
Why not check out some of my other articles <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/author/jonathan/">here</a>?

Next-gen Images: Page Speed’s New Best Friend

“We’ll go with the website but we can’t afford the SEO right now…”
I still hear this. Often. And realistically, if you can&#8217;t afford to invest in SEO, you can’t afford a website.
This post could have been written ten years ago, but sadly, for some, things haven’t changed so it still needs to be written today.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="320" height="240" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9037" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/O1Lp.gif" alt="" />
What’s happening far too often is that businesses ultimately have a website that is not a sales tool. And it’s because they think SEO is not important, that it’s optional, or that they can invest modestly and still expect to see results. Hell, some even think it’s a scam. And in a way, you can’t blame them if you <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/seo-if-you-think-best-expensive-wait-hire-bad-one/">look at how</a> some so-called ‘professionals’ behave.
SEO drives visibility amongst those who have potentially not heard about your brand. Without it, your website is mostly getting traffic from those who already have.
Without an ongoing investment in Search Engine Optimisation, you might as well just walk out on to the street and show your new website to strangers on a laptop. Because that’s probably the only way they’ll ever see it. And they might be the only people to see it.
<h3>Your First Website</h3>
So, there are two scenarios here. First is that you’re a new brand, perhaps a start-up. You need your first website. You get a few quotes from a few agencies or developers. And hey, you’re a start-up so you go with the cheapest one. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, right?
Well no, it’s really not. It’s wrong on so many levels.
You need to ensure that this website is being built with SEO in mind. They might tell you that your website will be “SEO friendly”, but actually there’s no such thing because you cannot launch a website and expect it to eventually rank highly on Google unless there has been a strategic approach to SEO and content.
A strategic approach to SEO include: getting to know your business and audiences, keyword research, competitor research, a content gap analysis, backed up by a content strategy and calendar… and it should be informed by research too.
And by research, we&#8217;re not talking about clipboards on Grafton Street (in Dublin) here… this is surveys of your actual audiences, focus groups and so much more.
From this information, you can then better understand what your potential audiences want, certainly content-wise.
And of course, there’s that little important part of finding out who they are and what makes them tick, where they engage online and how. This ALL informs SEO.
So if you are launching your first website, and none of the above has been discussed, then no, it is not “SEO-friendly” at all.
<h3>A New Website</h3>
Many websites will go through a complete overhaul, re-design or re-development. They will change their URLs and structure. If you do not factor in SEO at this stage, then you WILL lose traffic. There is no question of that.
So this is where I come back to SEO not being optional…
If you are requesting quotes from agencies for a new website, and they have returned a quote without a recommended investment for SEO &#8211; then tear it up, or delete the e-mail.
If you are disqualifying agencies or developers because SEO is included but you think it’s too expensive, then stop and think. Don’t do that. It’s essential. Without it, you WILL lose traffic and revenue.
If you are migrating to a new website, then allow us to explain WHY it’s so important. But do remember that this is just top-line stuff. There’s a lot more to it&#8230;
If you are changing your URLs, even slightly, then your previous ones all become broken pages. This also means that any website that previously linked to you, and was likely helping your rankings, now points to a broken page.
Also, If URLs change then your referral traffic that has historically sent leads or revenue will also be pointing to broken pages. That’s revenue lost.
This is the ideal time to revise your core SEO elements, so page titles, descriptions, rich snippets, for example. However, if SEO is not included then do not expect this work to be done.
Furthermore, if it’s not in scope then you might end up with some peculiar-looking search results. As an agency, we would never allow small things like this to happen, but some might&#8230;
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="582" height="422" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9032" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09.png" alt="no meta data" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09.png 582w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09-250x181.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09-120x87.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09-80x58.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px" />
Website migration is also the ideal time to begin introducing new research-based content. Some of this will come from your overall research initiatives and even <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/user-experience/usability-testing/">usability testing</a>, but then can also be guided by keyword research specific to the audiences we have identified.
So, this can be done right. And a website migration should be seen as a way to correct those past wrongs, and actually, increase your traffic as opposed to just protect what you had before.
We built a new website for a client at the end of 2017. Look at the increase in SEO Users to the website since then.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="800" height="456" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9034" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02.png" alt="seo success graph" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02.png 800w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-250x143.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-768x438.png 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-700x399.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-120x68.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-80x46.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
It’s not bad, eh?
It’s good to note that the increases above were not just down to SEO. It was a perfect mix of all digital disciplines coming together &#8211; research, content, architecture, design, build… and SEO. It was the result of a brand who know of the importance of SEO as a part of an entirely new website and migration.
So, is SEO optional? No.
Can it ever be? No.
Without it, a brand new website will hardly ever be found. Without it, a new website migration can, and likely will, have catastrophic results.
With it, you should see some great results and that’s all that we’ve seen on our watch.
<a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch</a> with Friday if you’re planning a new user experience or if you want to improve your SEO. You&#8217;d be in safe hands.

Enough is Enough: SEO is Not Optional

Gutenberg. The name may sound familiar to you if you’re a historian. Johannes Gutenberg is the lovely fella who invented a printing press with movable type. It may sound familiar for another reason; WordPress has recently released a page builder that allows users to create pages with movable “blocks”, named Gutenberg (Get it? Movable type? Moveable blocks? Same same but different?).
Gutenberg aims to replace the old CMS text editor WordPress user’s have come to know and love with these new movable blocks. Unfortunately, it has been met with resistance and poor reviews from the get-go.
Let’s take a look at what went wrong, if it deserves the hate it has been receiving, and if there’s any hope for Gutenberg&#8217;s future.
<h2>What is Gutenberg and how does it work</h2>
Gutenberg is a visual content editor which aims to give WordPress users greater control over the layout of pages and posts. A user can choose from a variety of block elements (Text blocks, image blocks, things like that) to arrange and order them on the page.
If you are familiar with site builders like <a href="https://www.squarespace.com/">SquareSpace</a>, <a href="https://www.wix.com/">Wix</a> or even similar WordPress plugins like <a href="https://visualcomposer.com/">Visual Composer</a>, then it works kind of like them.
<h2>What does the community think?</h2>
Okay, a built-in page builder on WordPress sounds great! Let’s go take a look at what other people think about… Oh, dear…
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-8932 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/overall-review.jpg" alt="" width="330" height="246" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/overall-review.jpg 330w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/overall-review-250x186.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/overall-review-120x89.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/overall-review-80x60.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px" />
Please no…
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-8930 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-03.png" alt="" width="635" height="140" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-03.png 635w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-03-250x55.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-03-120x26.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-03-80x18.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px" />
That’s enough!
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="628" height="271" class="size-full wp-image-8929 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-02.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-02.jpg 628w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-02-250x108.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-02-120x52.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/bad-review-02-80x35.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px" />
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-8934 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/stop-hes-already-dead.gif" alt="" width="411" height="308" />
You may think I’ve cherry-picked these reviews but just take a look at <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/#reviews">Gutenberg’s review page</a>, it’s a bloodbath of bad reviews. At least it was at the time of writing this article but hopefully, that will change.
As Gutenberg is now standard on WordPress versions 5+, plugins that disable it have become extremely popular. The two top plugins that remove Gutenberg, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/">Classic Editor</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg/">Disable Gutenberg</a>, and replace it with the old text editor have over 3.2 million active downloads. It’s also worth noting that many people are simply not updating their WordPress site to version 5 to avoid using Gutenberg.
After testing it out myself, I don’t think Gutenberg is in a usable state the way it is now. WordPress developers are releasing improvements with each WordPress version update but it will be a few more months minimum before it reaches a point where it could be feasible to add it to existing sites.
The positives I take away from Gutenberg is that it provides much more functionality and control over pages in WordPress compared to the current editor. There is more of a learning curve but once you learn your way around the new interface, it’s not actually so bad to use.
I can see how newer, or less tech-savvy users would find it intimidating to use. Although there is more functionality, a lot of the new blocks are an edge case and wouldn’t be used for most sites. What you’re left with is menus being cluttered with blocks that will, in most cases, not be used.
There’s a test site for Gutenberg which lets users play around with the editor. You can find the <a href="https://testgutenberg.com/">Gutenberg Test Site here</a>.
<h2>Why do people hate it so much?</h2>
<h3>Compatibility</h3>
Unfortunately, Gutenberg has compatibility issues with frameworks, plugins and any software that is directly related to the old text editor. If your site has a plugin, that’s related to the text editor, that hasn’t been updated by their developer to play well with Gutenberg then it’s not going to work.
<h3>Difficult for users</h3>
As one of the bad reviews stated above, Gutenberg is more difficult to use than the standard text editor. One of the core reasons to use WordPress was due to its ease of use. The text editor was extremely simple to use. Just click in the editor and start typing away. Easy.
Gutenberg now requires users to drag, drop, change element blocks and go through lists of blocks to find what they need. Of course, these new blocks add a lot of new possibilities of how pages can look and function but for someone using WordPress for the first time, it is an overwhelming amount to take in.
<h3>Forced upon users</h3>
Gutenberg was standardised into WordPress versions 5+. If you were to download WordPress now, Gutenberg will be there instead of the text editor. If you updated your existing WordPress site past version 4.9 to 5, Gutenberg will be there. 
Naturally, a lot of people weren’t happy with being forced to give up the text editor for Gutenberg. Especially when it breaks their website because it doesn’t work with lots of plugins…
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="450" height="253" class="size-full wp-image-8933 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sammy-baby.gif" alt="" />
<h2>Is there hope for the future of Gutenberg?</h2>
In fairness, a lot of the reviews on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/#reviews">Gutenberg plugin page</a> would have been written back when Gutenberg was still in beta. However, even two months after the official release of Gutenberg, there are still lots of compatibility issues and bugs, and negative reviews are still being submitted.
In WordPress, most recent release, version 5.1, Gutenberg has been given performance improvements so “The editor should feel quicker to start, and typing should feel smoother”. They also state that more performance improvements are due in the next few releases.
Although 5.1 improves performance, it may be a while still until Gutenberg is compatible with most WordPress sites and bug-free.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Gutenberg, a native page builder for WordPress would be a great improvement on the old text editor but due to being highly incompatible with numerous WordPress sites and being forced upon users, it has received a lot of negativity from WordPress users and developers alike.
The good people at WordPress are still going to be releasing improvements to Gutenberg but it may be a while before it’s at an acceptable standard to be used for all WordPress sites.
For now, it seems the best course of action is to stick with the conventional WordPress text editor.

WordPress: The Gutenberg Controversy

Fast cars, fast money, fast….websites?
More and more users are browsing the web from their mobile devices rather than their desktops.
Mobile users generally won’t have access to high-speed broadband when they’re on the move meaning it will be more difficult for them to load websites which have been poorly optimised for page speed, so it has become increasingly important for websites to deliver their content to cater to these users.
Unfortunately, it’s going to take a bit more work than just jamming lots of speed holes into your website.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter" title="Page Speed" src="https://i.imgur.com/zll6M.gif" alt="" width="395" height="304" />
There are tools to assist in identifying ways to improve a website’s load speed which provide a checklist of optimisations you can perform on your website which should decrease page load speeds.
There are plenty of tools on the web that will do this, but here we&#8217;re looking at <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">Google PageSpeed Insights</a>.
<h3>What Is Google Page Insights?</h3>
<a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">Google PageSpeed Insights</a> is a tool that analyzes a website’s load speed optimization and provides suggestions on how to make improvements to your website and make it load quicker.
These suggestions include reducing image sizes, compressing and minifying files, enabling browser caching and improving your server.
There are lots of other page insight tools available, such as <a href="https://gtmetrix.com/">GTMetrix</a> and <a href="https://tools.pingdom.com/">Pingdom Tools</a>, but since page load times directly affect a website’s rankings in Google’s search results, we’ll be using <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">Google PageSpeed Insights</a>.
<h3>Why it is Important to Aim for a High Page Speed</h3>
Before we get into the why, let’s get into the what. Page Insights measures your Speed Score and Optimisation Score.
Speed Score uses two real-world metrics to compare your site speed against other sites across the web, First Contentful Paint (How fast the first piece on content loads) and DOMContentLoaded(How fast for all content to load):
<ul>
<li>Fast: The site’s average metric value is in the top third of all page loads.</li>
<li>Average: The site’s average metric value is in the middle third of all page loads.</li>
<li>Slow: The site’s average metric value is in the bottom third of all page loads.</li>
</ul>
Optimization Score determines how well a website follows common performance best practices and evaluates the site giving it a score between 0 and 100:
<ul>
<li>Good: The page score is 80 or over. Awesome! Your website follows many best performance practices and there’s little room for improvement.</li>
<li>Medium: The page score is between 60 and 79. Your website follows some of the best performance practices and there is a moderate amount of room for improvement.</li>
<li>Low: The page speed is between 0 and 59. Your website does not follow best performance practices and there is a lot of room for improvement (Ie. it NEEDS improvement).</li>
</ul>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="350" height="134" class="size-full wp-image-6814 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/speed-optimization-good.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/speed-optimization-good.jpg 350w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/speed-optimization-good-250x96.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/speed-optimization-good-120x46.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/speed-optimization-good-80x31.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" />
Looking good! (and fast!)
Keynote: Some sites will have the “Speed” section unavailable. This is because Google doesn’t have enough data to measure your site’s page speed yet. So if your site has light traffic, you will not be able to view this statistic until an undisclosed amount of data is available. Not particularly helpful for smaller sites, unfortunately.
“My website’s optimisation score isn’t up to 100, it needs to be 100!” Em&#8230; no, it doesn’t.
Page Speed Insights is simply a checklist for your site to help you achieve better page speeds, it should not be biblically followed. It is possible to get your site to 100 but in the vast majority of cases, checking off those final optimizations usually involves sacrificing site functionality.
Don’t stress about not achieving 100/100. If your site is above 80 then you have nothing to be worrying about. Even so, depending on the size of your website and it’s functionality, achieving a score of 80 might be a far-off pipe dream.
If you have performed as many optimisations as you can on your site and you still haven’t gotten a score of 80 then there’s no need to lose sleep at night over your score, you’ve done all that you can.
<h3>Search Engine Optimisation</h3>
First and foremost, your website&#8217;s Page Speed directly affects your users. Your users will have a poor experience with your website and this will affect your dwell time &#8211; which will impact on your positioning in search results. A higher score will potentially raise your position while a poor score will lower it.
From July 2018, mobile page speed will officially be a ranking factor. Google said so. It&#8217;s already been a factor for quite some time, but it will be official.
For example, let’s say that you and your competitor have identical websites. Your website has a respectable score of 70 but your competitor has put in the extra effort for optimisation and has a score of 85. In this case, it&#8217;s likely that your competitor is going to rank higher in the search results than you.
Of course, you and your competitor won’t have identical sites (hopefully!) and there are many other factors affecting <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEO</a> such as content, technical SEO and strong/relevant links, but improving your Page Speed is something you can work on improving yourself without having to rely on outside influences.
<h3>User Experience</h3>
User Experience is how easy and usable your site is to those who visit it. According to a <a href="https://adsense.googleblog.com/2017/01/the-ultimate-mobile-page-speed-infographic.html">Google Adsense blog on page speed statistics</a>, 50% of users expect a website to load within 2 seconds and 53% of mobile users are likely to leave your site if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds. As Page Speed directly correlates with how fast your website loads and studies show that most users are very impatient, then it is expected that a low Page Speed will deliver a poor user experience to visitors on your site.
<h3>Understanding the Lingo</h3>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="800" height="600" class="size-full wp-image-6815 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud.jpg 800w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud-250x188.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud-768x576.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud-700x525.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud-120x90.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wordcloud-80x60.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
<h3>Page Stats</h3>
This section details some general statistics on the page speed of your site; the round trips needed to load the page render-blocking resources (The resources that stop the pages HTML from loading), how many bytes were needed to load the page, and how it compares to the median of all other sites statistics.
<h3>Optimisation Suggestions</h3>
<a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">Google Page Insights</a> has a plethora of optimisation suggestions. If your site is built reasonably well then you probably haven’t even heard of some of them!
<h4>Avoid Landing Page Redirects</h4>
Every time the page gets redirected, page loading stops and has to start again on a new page.
That’s bad.
As a result, redirects have the potential to add many more seconds to your page load speed. This isn’t so common nowadays as the bog standard for optimisations have increased in recent years but it is an issue that would plague a lot of older sites.
<h4>Optimise Images</h4>
Large image sizes can demolish a page’s load speed. Unoptimised, poorly sized image can add megabytes of data to a page. Generally, if an image’s size is over 1MB then there are optimisations that need to be done. According to the <a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/screen-resolution-stats">Screen Resolution Stats Worldwide</a> (At the time of writing this), only 8% of users are viewing the web on a browser size of 1920 x 1080. If your images are any larger than that, then you should strongly consider cropping or resize the image.
Image files contain lots of unnecessary data that is not needed to display images on the web. You can use an image optimisation tool, such as <a href="http://optimizilla.com/">Optimizilla</a>, to automatically remove the data which can drastically reduce the file size of your image without the loss of quality.
<h4>Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content</h4>
This optimisation is one you will most commonly see. Depending on your site’s functionality requirements, you won’t be able to fix this. JavaScript is all about delivering functionality to your website.
Render-blocking JavaScript is JavaScript that prevents the page from being loaded before it has finished loaded itself. In many cases, JavaScript needs to be loaded before the page loads to function and sometimes there just isn’t a way around that.
In the same vein as JavaScript, “CSS in above-the-fold content” is warning that the page won’t finish loading until the CSS files mentioned have been loaded.
<h4>Minifying HTML, CSS and JavaScript</h4>
Google PageSpeed Insights suggests minifying files when it detects that the size of HTML, CSS or JavaScript files can be reduced. During site development, web developers have one major fault: They need files in a readable format to understand what’s going on.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="984" height="1006" class="size-full wp-image-6816 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified.png" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified.png 984w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified-250x256.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified-768x785.png 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified-700x716.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified-120x123.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-unminified-78x80.png 78w" sizes="(max-width: 984px) 100vw, 984px" />
Even if you aren’t a developer, you can probably hazard a guess as to what this does.
The image above shows un-minified content. It’s easy to read but as you can see on the left of the screenshot, we’re 380 lines deep into the file, with hundreds of more lines to go before we reach the end of the file. This makes the file size quite large in comparison to it’s minified counterpart.
Now let&#8217;s see what happens when the file is minified:
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1808" height="984" class="size-full wp-image-6817 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified.png" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified.png 1808w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified-250x136.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified-768x418.png 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified-700x381.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified-120x65.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/javascript-minified-80x44.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1808px) 100vw, 1808px" />
This is the same file but instead of things like single brackets taking up entire lines, the entirety of the file&#8217;s contents are smushed up together into an incomprehensible mess (for humans anyway). Since the computer doesn’t need to have things all nice and tidy like us humans, it has no problem reading the minified file.
<h4>Leverage Browser Caching</h4>
Caching allows the web browser to remember elements of a web page from previous visits.
For example; let&#8217;s say you visit <a href="https://friday.ie">www.friday.ie</a> on Monday for the first time. The site loads pretty quickly but there’s obvious load in for images and the logo. A few days later, we think to ourselves
“Wow, that Friday site was super cool! I want to visit it again!”. 
Since the site has browser caching enabled, those images that had obvious load issues now load very quickly, almost instantaneously, why? Your browser has remembered those images from your previous visit so it doesn’t need to request the images from the site’s server, it just loads it directly from your browser&#8217;s cache memory.
There is also server cache, which works the same as browser caching but the site elements are remembered by the server the site is hosted on.
<h4>Reduce Server Response Time</h4>
The server response time is how quickly your server can begin loading in the HTML of your site to the user accessing it. Any time your website needs to connect to the server to retrieve or send data is time added on to the server response time.
Google lists off some potential factors; Slow application logic, slow database queries, slow routing, frameworks, libraries, resource CPU starvation or memory starvation. Basically, Google is saying if your site is built poorly, is too bloated with data or is on a cheap server, then your server response time is going to suffer.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">Google PageSpeed Insights</a> is a useful tool for obtaining information about the speed of your website and offers optimisation suggestions to help improve that speed and helps your site fall in line with optimisation best practices. If the optimisations Page Insights suggests are easily achievable, then you should definitely try to apply them to your site.
However, achieving a perfect 100/100 score shouldn’t take priority over your site’s design or functionality. In many cases, getting a score of 100 just is not possible depending on how your site is set up and you should not worry about not being able to reach that score. All you can do is make sure you have performed any realistic optimisations on your site that Page Insights have suggested and don’t stress about it.
Hopefully, this article has shed some light on what Google PageSpeed Insights does and what it’s suggested optimisations mean.
Why not check out some of my other articles <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/author/jonathan/">here</a>?

Understanding Google PageSpeed Insights

It’s time we all took a good long look at our backends. Of course, I’m referring to your website’s backend development here (I can’t help with the other one, although I hear lunges are good).
We all know that fresh content is critical for your website&#8217;s SEO ranking. Google loves frequent content, as long as it&#8217;s informative, useful and relevant. If your website is difficult or clunky to update then the task of keeping content fresh becomes a chore. By applying the basics of UX to your website&#8217;s backend, we can lessen the task.
I’m going to focus on WordPress backends here, although the broad principles below could apply to any CMS system.
I’ve come across some unsightly WordPress backends in my time, where it wasn’t obvious, or was outright difficult to find where or how to update content. With plenty of WordPress experience under my belt, I can only imagine how a client would feel facing a complex backend and trying to manage content on a regular basis on a backend that isn’t intuitive.
Fortunately, there are some simple ways we can make the backend experience a little smoother, and less daunting, especially for the novice WordPress user.
So let’s look at some simple strategies we use at Friday to make sure that our clients&#8217; website backends are in ship shape order, and they can manage their content with ease.
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">1. Make Use of Custom Post Types</h3>
It’s been a long time since I’ve built a site where I didn’t include at least one custom post type. WordPress users will know that by default WordPress has 2 content types &#8211; Posts and Pages.
Keep Pages for your standard page content, and Posts for your Blog. Most sites will have requirements for more than that though. For example, a shop will have a Custom Post Type called “Products”. A site may have a requirement to display team members, testimonials, recipes etc.
Trying to maintain different types of content within the limitation of Posts and Pages alone will get messy — fast. Organising the content into post types in the backend makes it quick and easy for content editors to access content types quickly from the main Dashboard Menu.
Use relevant icons for your Custom Post type menu items, and name them logically.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="208" height="156" class="size-full wp-image-6887 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_cpt.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_cpt.jpg 208w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_cpt-120x90.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_cpt-80x60.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px" />
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">2. Organise the content editor to reflect front-end display.</h3>
Unless your site is quite simple, you’re going to have some custom fields and custom content areas in your content area that expand beyond the default Title and Editor field. By taking a little time in development to organise the content editor to reflect as closely as possible the front end display, it makes it easier for editors to update content on each page/post in a visual manner.
Custom Field labels and instructions should be informative and logical.
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/">Advanced Custom Fields </a>is our go-to plugin for creating custom fields and it makes all of the above a breeze.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="986" height="650" class="size-full wp-image-6889 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend.jpg 986w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend-250x165.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend-768x506.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend-700x461.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend-120x79.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_mirror_backend-80x53.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 986px) 100vw, 986px" />
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">3. Flexible Layouts / Content</h3>
Flexible content layouts are a great solution for sites where content and layout will need to change regularly depending on changing needs. This feature requires extra forward planning in the wireframe stages, and extra time needs to be allowed in the design and development stages — but the payoff is that the content in your posts and pages is much more flexible and not limited to a set defined layout.
Content creators aren’t designers and shouldn’t be expected to do so. If there is a possibility editors will need to add more than the standard text/image content in the WordPress editor, it’s best to accommodate this early in the website project, so that the designer and developer can create a variety of modules that can be used and re-organised on a case by case basis.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="625" height="581" class="size-full wp-image-6892 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_flexible_content.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_flexible_content.jpg 625w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_flexible_content-250x232.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_flexible_content-120x112.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_flexible_content-80x74.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px" />
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">4. Get Rid of unnecessary noise</h3>
WordPress has a set defined range of user roles, with appropriate permissions for each. Each user will see a different version of the WordPress Dashboard based on their role/capabilities.
Beyond the default, user roles can be created or modified to further customise the admin area to suit particular users. There are plugins available to do this, but it is best managed by your developer through code. A big part of reducing backend clutter is to keep the number of third-party plugins in use to an absolute minimum, so we want to avoid adding any extra ones where possible.
Say, for example, you have a content editor that is in charge solely of your blog and events. We can limit the Dashboard so that they only have access to those sections. This reduces clutter for the user and ensures they can’t accidentally modify or break sections that they shouldn’t have access to.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="646" height="301" class="size-full wp-image-6893 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_reduce_noise.png" alt="" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_reduce_noise.png 646w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_reduce_noise-250x116.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_reduce_noise-120x56.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary14_reduce_noise-80x37.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px" />
<h3 class="graf graf--h3">5. Customise the Dashboard</h3>
By default the WordPress Dashboard contains a lot of information, that may not be useful to every client. For example, the “Welcome to WordPress” and “WordPress Events and News” sections can generally be binned.
The customisation that can be done here will depend on the purpose of your site and your own requirements. For example, if you’re running an eCommerce site you’ll want to see your latest sales figures and top-selling products here.
Form entries are handy to see on the Dashboard, to make sure you don’t miss any contact from customers or potential customers. A Google analytics overview is also a handy panel to display.
<a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch</a> if you’d like to see how we can help make updating your website a quicker and more enjoyable experience.

5 Ways To Get a Better Backend

WordPress is currently powering 29% of all websites, making it the most popular Content Management System going. As a result, hackers are constantly looking for new ways to get around WordPress’ security so they can hack as many sites as possible. 
This has generated accusations that WordPress isn’t a secure option for brand and businesses to use to build their sites and has spurred on a phobia of being hacked. Sure, sites do get hacked but typically if a site has been hacked the owner has been lackadaisical with managing the site’s security and software updates. 
In this article, the most common WordPress security vulnerabilities will be detailed as well as ways to prevent your site from getting hacked, which will hopefully clear up that hack-phobia and put your mind at ease. Although the article is primarily focused on keeping WordPress sites safe, most of the security tips mentioned are relevant to websites and online applications of all sorts.
<h3>Why Do Hackers Hack?</h3>
If you’re operating an eCommerce site, the motivation of a hacker is obvious. The hacker was likely after your user’s credit card information. However, the motivation of a hacker is not always so clear. If you own a small personal website or a brochure site that holds no sensitive information, then why would anyone bother hacking your site? What could they possibly get out of it?
Botnet: A hacker may be looking to add your website and server to their botnet. A botnet is a collection of hacked machines/servers, which hackers would use to perform DDOS attacks. Distributed Denial of Server (DDOS) attack is an attempt to bring down a website or online service by overwhelming its traffic from multiple sources. The more hacked machines the hacker has in their botnet, the more capable they become in bringing down larger websites and services.
Email Spam: The hacker may be after your email server, using it to send out spam emails by piggybacking on your server’s good reputation to ensure the spam is successfully received by mailboxes.
Vandalism: A hacker may be looking to alter the site&#8217;s content to spread their own agenda or political message, which would generally be too extreme or controversial to be posted on conventionally. They may also be just looking to deface the website with inappropriate content, purely for their own enjoyment. 
Ransom: Taking a website ransom is a common reason a site may be hacked. The hacker will remove or encrypt the site’s content and replace it with a ransom message, stating they will only restore the website if their demands are met. Money is the prime motivation for the ransom.
E-Commerce: Some may just be trying to piggyback on your website&#8217;s visibility in order to sell their products. If you&#8217;ve ever seen pages on a trusted website that appear to be selling prescription medications or viagra then, guess what, they&#8217;ve been hacked.
Phishing: Phishing involves tricking people into giving out their personal information to what they think is a trusted source. Hackers may look to use your sites good reputation to bait users into giving away personal details by creating dummy forms that send users credentials to their server instead of yours. They may also pepper the site’s content with links to other websites, tricking users away from your site onto their site.
<h3>WordPress Security Vulnerabilities</h3>
Hackers very rarely personally hack a website themselves, as in, they almost certainly haven’t found your website themselves and thought, “I’m going to hack this site! Mwahahaha!”. The vast majority of hacks are performed automatically by bots.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4468" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/blog-robots.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="900" />
These bots crawl the web searching for sites and attempt to execute malicious code on these sites. When your site has been hacked, one of the scripts the bot has executed ran successfully because it found a security vulnerability on the site allowing it access to core file and/or the database.
So preventing these bots from hacking your site is a matter of ensuring there are no conditions in which the scripts it executes can run successfully. There are four primary ways in which a bot will be given the opportunity to hack a WordPress website:
<h3>Insecure Theme</h3>
A Theme is a code that gives a WordPress website it&#8217;s structure, styling, and functionality. Old or unmaintained themes pose a security threat to WordPress sites. Typically, a theme owner will release an update to plug the security vulnerability. However, if a theme has been abandoned by the owner or it hasn’t been kept up to date on your site then you will be more at risk of being hacked.
The best way to prevent this is to ensure your theme comes from a reliable source. Buying a random theme can be risky as you never know when the creator will just stop supporting the theme. 
You can also see when a theme was last updated. If it looks like the theme hasn’t been updated in over a year, then that’s a good sign to avoid it. Additionally, try to avoid themes with poor reviews, low star ratings or that have very few reviews and star ratings.
Better yet, have a custom theme built by an agency! It will ensure that your site is well maintained and built to your exact specifications.
<h3>Out of Date / Abandoned Plugins</h3>
A Plugin is an additional piece of coded functionality that is &#8220;Plugged in&#8221; to a Theme. There are thousands of plugins available to download and it can be tempting to download plugins on a whim. However, this is unwise as the more plugins a site has, the slower the site becomes and more potential security vulnerabilities emerge. It also makes a site more difficult to maintain since each plugin relies on their creator to update, then you become more reliant on these creators to keep the plugin&#8217;s code up to date. If these plugins aren&#8217;t kept up to date, you put your site&#8217;s security and functionality at risk which is why it is important to not rely on plugins too heavily for general site functionality. 
 Plugins come in all shapes and sizes, and the amount of access they have to your site can vary from minimal access to full administrative access. This is why it’s very important to keep plugins updated. 
Updates to plugins typically won’t include new full-blown features, they are usually bug fixes and security updates and changes to ensure the plugin will function correctly with the most up to date WordPress version.
<h3>Out of Date Core WordPress Files</h3>
Same as plugin updates, the core WordPress updates include security updates to protect your site against newly discovered security vulnerabilities. For example, at the time of writing this article, the most recent core update (at the time of writing this article) was version 4.9.2. This update included no new features but plugged an XSS vulnerability (Cross-Site Script, which allows hackers to inject malicious code into a site that is viewable by other users). The update also included 21 other bug fixes.
<h3>Bad Usernames and Weak Passwords</h3>
When a bot finds a login form, it has the ability the make a large number of login attempts in a short amount of time. The bot will typically have a list of the most common usernames and a list of the most common passwords and will attempt to find a valid combination to gain access to your site’s administrative dashboard. This is known as a Dictionary Attack. 
If your site has a firewall with the correct configurations, the bot will be limited in the number of login attempts it can perform but it will still be able to perform a few attempts before being blocked. If you have a bad username and weak password, those attempts may be enough to hack your site.
If you see a password you use on this list for ANYTHING then it is highly recommended to change it immediately. Some of the most common passwords include:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">123456</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Password</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Qwerty</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Football</li>
</ul>
The site <a href="https://www.f-secure.com/en/home/free-tools/password-generator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.f-secure.com/</a> will automatically generate a strong password for you to use, just be sure to keep note of the password in a secure place.
Same as passwords, using a common username will increase the chance of your site being breached by a Dictionary attack. Common usernames to avoid include:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">User</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Business</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Admin</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Support</li>
</ul>
<h3>Vulnerability Statistics</h3>
Statistics from the <a href="https://www.wpwhitesecurity.com/wordpress-security/statistics-highlight-main-source-wordpress-vulnerabilities/">WPScan Vulnerability</a> database show that plugins account for 54% of all WordPress security vulnerabilities, themes account for 14.5% and the core files account for 31.5%. 
This may look like that WordPress is extremely insecure, but preventing these vulnerabilities is simply a matter of keeping your WordPress version, plugins and themes updated. When a hack occurs through these vulnerabilities, it is vastly due to the site’s software not being kept up to date.
<h3>Ways to Keep Your WordPress Site Safe</h3>
<h3>01 Keep Regular Backups of your Site</h3>
Keeping regular backups of your site can ensure that in the event your site is hacked, there is a clean version you can revert back to. Once the site is reverted, it is vital to update all the site’s software and change user’s passwords to ensure the site is not hacked in the same way again.
<h3>02 Keep all your Themes, Plugins and Core WordPress Files Updated</h3>
Keeping your themes, plugins and WordPress version updated will drastically reduce the chance of your site being hacked. For additional security, remove any unused themes and plugins. If they are not being used then they are dead weight as they take up memory and are another unnecessary security vulnerability.
<h3>03 Use Secure Usernames and Strong Passwords</h3>
Avoid using a weak password and common usernames to reduce the chance your site will be hacked by a Dictionary attack. Some firewalls have the ability to instantly block IP addresses that try to login with common usernames, ensuring malicious bots are instantly blocked from performing more login attempts.
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/chained-keyboard.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4532" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/chained-keyboard.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="900" /></a>
<h3>04 Add Two-Factor Authentication</h3>
Two-Factor Authentication adds an additional step to the login process. After the correct username and password combination are used, a code will be sent to your phone via text message. After entering the code sent to your phone into the login screen, only then will you be able to access the site. 
<h3>05 Limit Login Attempts</h3>
You can reduce the number of times users and bots can attempt to login after a certain amount of failed attempts. This can typically be configured in most firewalls configurations or is applied automatically.
<h3>06 Install an SSL Certificate</h3>
An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificate is an online certificate that authenticates a website and allows it to pass sensitive information safely across the Internet. To learn more about SSL certificates, why not check out our article (written by one of the coolest guys I know!) dedicated to teaching you about SSL Certificates <a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/blog/understanding-ssl-certificates/">here</a>.
<h3>07 Changing the Database Prefix</h3>
When a WordPress site is set up, there are default configuration options that prefix database names with ‘wp_’. So the options table would be called ‘wp_options’. Any default options on a site are what bots will target first. Changing the default wp_ database prefix to something unique is a quick and easy way to increase your site’s security.
<h3>08 Removing Inactive Administrative User Accounts</h3>
Not removing an administrative user that is no longer in use is just adding on to the chances of your site being hacked, especially if the user has a weak password and bad username.
<h3>09 Install a Firewall</h3>
Having a reliable firewall installed on your site is key to keeping your site safe from hackers. Firewalls will intercept traffic to your site before it reaches the site’s code. If the traffic looks like it’s up to no good, the firewall will block it.
<h3>10 Use Google Search Console</h3>
By monitoring Google Search Console you will receive alerts if Google detects that your website is hacked. This could negatively impact on your search engine visibility (SEO) in a big way. Without this, you may lose rankings and your website will appear in search results with a ‘<a href="https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/190597?hl=en">This site may be hacked</a>’ warning, discouraging users from even clicking through.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
Any website holds some value to a hacker, even if your site is not managing thousands of user’s credit card details. They may want to add your site to their botnet, hold your site ransom, use your good reputation to trick your users into giving up personal information or deface your site with vulgar or controversial messages. 
Preventing hacker’s bots from exploiting your site is a matter of keeping your site’s software up to date, having a reliable firewall installed and using good usernames and strong passwords. Meeting these requirements will drastically reduce the possibility of your site being hacked.
Here at Friday, we aim to keep our client&#8217;s sites safe by providing a highly secure, comprehensive SLA. The SLA is a monthly audit of the site where we perform updates on the core WordPress version and any plugins that have an update available, a review of the site to ensure the site is functioning correctly after the updates have been executed, the installation of <a href="https://sucuri.net/">Sucuri</a> (a top-notch security system), as well as taking daily backups of the site&#8217;s code and database so should any unforeseen failures occur then the site can be rolled back to a working version without any major loss in data.

Security, Hackers, WordPress, and You

I first wrote a post covering this topic in 2015 but things have changed a lot in terms of technology and our process has evolved accordingly, so I wanted to revisit my article and update it for 2018.
It’s not easy starting a new web development project if it&#8217;s not an industry you already work in, most people who create websites are usually not web designers or developers. It can be a minefield of technical and marketing jargon and there is a long list of things to consider throughout the project as well as after the website goes live.
If you don’t have a lot of experience in creating websites the chances are you haven’t considered everything that needs to be done in order to make sure you get the best possible results and the process to use. It is important to choose the right team to collaborate with and develop the right <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/web-design-process" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">process</a>, not just for design and development of your website but in marketing and support when the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friday.ie%2blog%2Fwordpress-websites-10-things-to-do-before-going-live%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">website is live</a>. Good website development planning is key to successful project delivery.
The aim of this list is to make sure you are informed and have realistic expectations of what’s ahead. These steps form part of what we do for any web development project at The Friday Agency but if you can start considering this stuff it will go a long way in helping you get an informed proposal and quote to help you get the best possible results.
<h4 id="e019" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">1. Research</h4>
No matter how confident you are about what you are creating, you need to back it up with research. First off you need to sense check and find out if there is a market for your product or service. How will users want to engage with it online and when you have planned and designed your website? You will want real users to give you feedback (especially if you are selling directly online), more about this later.
<h4 id="4912" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">2. If you have an idea, then have a plan</h4>
Planning is everything in this business. The more attention given to the detail before design and development are carried out, the faster it can become a reality and it will show in the quality of the execution. We would spend roughly 30–40% of our time on a website project in the planning stages.
Give your website careful thought, create a roadmap and establish your goals and objectives. If you are selling online make sure your offering has a unique selling point.
<h4 id="f279" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">2. Create a sitemap</h4>
Create a sitemap, this can just be a list of the web pages or sections showing a hierarchy of content and functionality, a bit like a family tree with the homepage on the top. Also think about the user journey, how they will navigate through the website and the experience you want them to have.
<h4 id="aaad" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">3. Think about content</h4>
Your sitemap will give you an idea of the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friday.ie%2blog%2Fmixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">content</a> you need to create but when you start to drill down into it you may find gaps or it will spark a great idea for something you didn’t consider before. Content should always be created before any wireframe or design is looked at, see my post about this <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/content-first-approach-creating-website" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. Also, think about who is going to create the content — be it text, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/photography-web-design" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">photography</a> or video, will you do it yourself or will you need your agency to help with this? Also, have you considered <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/seo-if-you-think-best-expensive-wait-hire-bad-one/">SEO</a> as an integral part of your content plan?
<h4 id="5c04" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">4. Listen to your audience</h4>
Too many times we have seen websites or apps created on what the business owner(s) think will work, the reality is that they, and even the web development agency, will be too close to the project to see some of the most obvious issues in terms of the offering, user experience and messaging. Try to avoid making assumptions, in the end it doesn’t really matter what you think, it only matters what the end user thinks. Usability testing on any project is essential. Real users in front of the actual interface will tell you so much and will often surprise the creators, its well worth the time and effort &#8211; I can’t stress this enough. More about usability testing <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/usability-testing-fancy-why-should-we" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.
<h4 id="4531" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">4. Marketing</h4>
&#8220;If you build it they will come&#8221; — unfortunately, it doesn’t always work like this, there is a lot of noise out there and, like anything, you need to shout for attention. Any website launch should be coupled with <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/the-digital-strategy-battlefield" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">marketing activity</a> — social media, SEO, PPC, online display, email marketing, press releases, sponsorship…and that&#8217;s just the off-site activity you should look at. We’d advise you to also have an on-site content creation strategy — it doesn’t have to be a big deal but some activity with regular website updates will help keep the site fresh for your users as well as the search engines (they love active websites). If you don’t tell people about your website it won’t get any traffic and that would ultimately be a waste of time and money. Marketing your website is as important as building it so talk to us about how we can help you drive traffic to your new creation.
<h4 id="4688" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">5. Ongoing website management</h4>
Your website is live, what now? Web development isn’t just for Christmas, its for life! The software will need to be updated, backups made, security scanning and hosting will need to be managed, and that’s just on the technical side. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friday.ie%2blog%2Fmixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Content</a> will need to be freshened up, products updated, QA testing, enquiries responded to and regular activity to promote good SEO is also very important for your website&#8217;s visibility in the long term. Take all of this into account in terms of time, resources and budget.
<h4 id="4234" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">6. Have a timeline</h4>
When does your website need to be live? We can guide you on this based on the brief but it helps if we know your expectations at the start. Try to avoid rushing a project. We would usually split a website project into 4 main stages (with sub-stages within each). Planning, design, development and testing.
<h4 id="4909" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">7. Establish your budget</h4>
Which comes first, budget or brief? Well both, you need a brief in order to get a quote but keep in mind how much you want to spend. If you have a budget, make sure it meets your ambition — for example, a budget of €2,000 for a custom e-commerce website is unrealistic, if you can communicate this within the brief it can help save a lot of time. However, if you have no idea, that&#8217;s ok too &#8211; we can help to guide you.
<h4 id="63cc" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">8. Write a brief</h4>
If you have followed the steps above, well done — you are organised and ready to write or discuss a concise yet detailed brief that any digital agency can read and get a really good insight into your requirements. This will also start the collaboration process, when there is no confusion the ideas will flow and your project can only benefit from this. Showing this level of thinking and organisation may also bring your costs down, often when everything is laid out clearly the task at hand looks easier.
The Friday Agency is here to help if you need any advice or assistance in creating a brief or collaborating on a website project, <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">talk to us</a>, we’d be delighted to add real value to what you have in mind.

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