Category Archives: Consigli e Guide WordPress

Using a microsite can be an effective way to update your online identity. However, this does not necessarily mean that it is a widely known concept. If you are asking yourself, “What is a microsite?” you are not alone.

Fortunately, the answer may be simpler than you think. By familiarizing yourself with microsites and how they can benefit your brand, you can begin to take advantage of these useful tools.

In this article we will explain what a microsite is and cover some reasons why you might want to use one. We will also cover some key features of a successful microsite and show you how to create one in WordPress in five easy steps.

Let’s get started.

Table of contents view
What is a microsite?
Let’s start with the basics: what is a microsite? To put it simply, it is an independent extension of your site. It does not share the same URL and may not even share the same brand.

However, although microsites exist separately from the main domain, they are not completely disconnected. They usually support the main nrand in various ways.

Some examples of microsites include:

• New marketing campaign promotions
• Hubs for testing new site technology
• Platforms for similar but distinct content

Also, it is worth noting that microsites are not the same thing as landing pages. Landing pages usually focus on a single purpose and are always on the main domain.

Why you might want to create a WordPress microsite
There are a few reasons why you might consider launching a WordPress microsite. First, it can help you focus on achieving a specific goal.

For example, imagine you want to promote a single product line. A microsite can track its success independently of the rest of your content.

Alternatively, you may not always want to link a site back to your brand. If you plan to test new stand-alone content before integrating it, a microsite helps you do so in an isolated environment.

Finally, microsites can also boost ‘search engine optimization (SEO) . This is because having a microsite increases your opportunity to include relevant keywords in the URL. This means that you can leverage these search terms to increase the visibility of your brand.

Fortunately, a microsite is also fairly easy to create. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about spending too much time or resources on it: taking advantage of this tool can be as simple as it is beneficial.

The main features of an effective microsite
We have seen some reasons why you might want a microsite. However, not all microsites are equally effective. You will probably want to be sure that certain elements are in place before you start your version.

Let’s use a couple of microsite examples to illustrate what you might want to target. We can start with Open , a New York Times microsite, which explores the design and creation of digital site projects:

First, branding is a crucial element of this microsite. Open mimics the classic black-and-white palette of the New York Times. However, the lack of any color allows it to stand out from its parent site.

Moreover, this difference also helps with targeting. People who target the New York Times for news may not want to see digital marketing information. Therefore, the Open microsite can serve as a home for this distinct content. In this way, it can focus on attracting a specific target audience.

So, let’s switch examples and look at The data found below . This is a microsite presented by Lucidworks :

This microsite takes a different approach: it brings to life a single infographic instead of serving as a hub for different content. Besides the interactive explanation, there is no other substance on this page.

Lucid highlights this focus with a long page. You don’t have to click on anything-you just have to scroll. This simple navigation tool makes using the site as easy as possible.

Another element you might want to imitate from this example is the in-depth focus on a single topic. Stand-alone content can then serve two types of visitors: those looking for specific information and those who find the microsite through the main site.

How to create a WordPress microsite in five easy steps
Now that you know what a microsite is, let’s talk about how you can easily create your own microsites with WordPress .

With the WP Landing Kit plugin , you can use a single WordPress installation to power an unlimited number of microsites.

If you already have a WordPress site , you can install the WP Landing Kit plugin to use your existing WordPress installation to create a microsite with its own separate URL/domain name.

Or, if you do not yet have a WordPress site, you can create a new WordPress installation to serve as the home of all your microsites. Remember, with WP Landing Kit, you will still be able to assign each microsite its own unique domain name.

Here’s how it works…

Step 1: Aregister a domain or subdomain.
First, you have two options for the URL of your microsite: a new domain or a subdomain. In either case, your choice will need a separate address.

A new domain name allows you to create a unique site. Visitors may not even know it is related to your brand. If it sounds interesting to you, it might be worth buying.

There are dozens of providers where you can register a domain name . We recommend using the same service as your original domain to simplify the process, but it is not necessary.

The other option is to acquire a subdomain. Subdomains are spin-offs of your current one. They share part of your domain but have a separate start.

We recommend a subdomain if you want to establish a clear connection to your main site. This way, visitors can recognize your brand regardless of how they found your microsite.

Once you have chosen what you want to name your microsite, go ahead and register your domain name. If you plan to add a subdomain, you will need to do so through your main site.

Step 2: Plan the content and design of your microsite.
Before we go any further, let’s talk about your content. The most effective microsites are created with clear intentions in mind. This means you will likely need to spend some time developing your content before launch.

Consider starting with a question: why do you want a microsite in the first place? Do you want to promote a single project or explore a new design before using it on the main site? By understanding your main goal, you can more effectively decide what steps to take.

After that, consider how much you want to connect the microsite to your brand. Consistent design can help visitors quickly understand the relationship. In any case, if you want an independent project, you might focus on a completely new approach.

So, we recommend that you consider the history of this microsite. If you want to create a long-term project, you might plan a content calendar in advance. This tool can help you populate the page from the beginning and maintain consistency in the future.

However, you might aim for a single-function microsite. In that case, we strongly recommend finding ways to promote it while it is most relevant. Consider some strategies such as:

• Collaborate with other websites
• Writing a companion article on your main site
• Optimizing your microsite for SEO

Check that you are ready to go. Then, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Create your microsite content.
To create the content of your actual microsite, you can create a new WordPress page on your site ( Pages → Add New ).

To design the content of the page, you can use the native WordPress block editor or your favorite page builder plugin . It’s totally up to you.

If you want your microsite to have multiple pages, you can repeat the process to create multiple pages and link them together.

For now, your microsite pages will appear under the domain name of your WordPress site. Don’t worry because you will fix this in the next step by mapping the domain or subdomain you chose in the first step to your new microsite content.

Step 4: Map your domain
Next, we will look at the more technical aspects of creating your microsite. You can start by adding your new domain to your WordPress account using WP Landing Kit .

After adding your microsite content as one or more pages, go to Domains → Add New to start the domain mapping process:

From here, type in the domain you wish to add. Next, expand the Mapping section and click Map to Resource .

Then, select Single Page and type in the title of the page you wish to use as a microsite:

You can repeat the process under the first section to add more pages to the new website. When you are done, click Publish and go to the final step.

Step 5: Update your DNS records.
Finally, you will need to update your DNS records with your hosting provider. DNS records allow browsers to find your site.

You will need to update your DNS records with the provider where you registered your domain name. This could be your hosting provider if you registered your domain name through your host. Or it could be a dedicated domain registrar such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains OVH and other popular options .

The exact process will depend on where you registered your domain name, so we recommend consulting your host/registrar’s support documents if you need help.

However, there are some basic steps you can reasonably expect in most services.

Create your first microsite in 2022.
From better SEO to more targeted content, microsites can offer you a wide variety of benefits. Fortunately, setting one up is not complicated. By carefully preparing your design, you can start reaping the benefits of your new microsite.

In this article, we showed you how to create a microsite with WordPress in just five steps:

1.Acquire the desired domain or subdomain.
2.Carefully plan the content for your microsite.
3.Add your content as WordPress pages.
4.Map your domain using WP Landing Kit .
5.Update your DNS records with your hosting provider.

There are countless ways to make your WordPress site more pleasing in the eyes of your users . One of them is adding custom fonts.

However, the choice of WordPress fonts can be limited and theme-dependent. In this article you will learn how to add custom fonts to WordPress either manually or using plugins.

Table of Contents hide
Where to download fonts for WordPress?
Converting fonts to a web-compatible format
How to add custom fonts to WordPress?
How to manually add fonts to WordPress
How to add fonts in WordPress using plugins
WP Google Fonts
Easy Google Fonts
Use Any Font
Conclusion
Where to download fonts for WordPress?
There are many sites where you can find free web fonts and Font Squirrel is one of them. You can easily find free fonts licensed for commercial work. In addition to that, Google Fonts has over 900 font families and Edge web Fonts, provided by Adobe, offers a large collection of web fonts.

If you are looking for something more suitable for personal use, check out sites such as Fonts.com , Dafont and 1001 free fonts .

Converting fonts to a web-compatible format
It is worth mentioning that not all web browsers support custom fonts. However, even if your chosen font is not supported, you can still convert it to a compatible format.

Before converting sources from one format to another, let’s take a quick look at the different font formats:

• Open Type Fonts (OTF): the most commonly used web fonts and are a registered trademark of Microsoft. This format works well with almost all major browsers.
• True Type Fonts (TTF) – developed by Microsoft and Apple in 1980. Widely used for both Windows and macOS.
• Web Open Font Format (WOFF) – widely used format for web pages and recommended by the World Wide web Consortium (W3C).
• WOFF 2.0 – considered a better option than WOFF 1.0 due to better compression capabilities. This format is not supported by Safari and Internet Explorer, but works well with Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera.
• Embedded OpenType fonts (EOF): more compact fontOTFs used as embedded fonts in web pages. All major browsers support EOF.

If you are not sure if your font is compatible with your default browser, use the Web Font Generator . This tool allows you to easily convert almost any font into a web friendly format:

1.Go to webfont Generator .
2.Click the Upload Fonts button and choose a font you want to convert,
Check the box in the Agreement section to indicate that your fonts are legally eligible for web embedding.
3.Press the Download your kit button and save the .zipper archive to your computer.
4.Inside the archive, you will find fonts in WOFF and WOFF 2.0 format along with CSS files and demo HTML page .

How to add custom fonts to WordPress?
Here’s how you can add custom fonts to WordPress, either manually or using plugins.

How to manually add fonts to WordPress
If you don’t want to overload your WordPress with too many plugins, you can manually add fonts to your website. You need to upload your font to your hosting account and edit your theme’s CSS file.

You need to download the font you want to use to your computer and extract the .zipper archive .

Upload your font file to the wp-content/themes/your-theme/fonts directory . Create a separate fonts folder if you don’t have one yet. You can use an FTP client such as FileZilla or cPanel’s File Manager for this task. In our example, we uploaded the font AguafinaScript-Regular.ttf using the File Manager in cPanel.

Go to the WordPress administration area. Then, go to Appearance -> Theme Editor . You will be presented with the style.css file . Scroll down and add the following code:

@font-face {
font-family: aguafina Script-Regular;
src: url(http://test-site.com/wp-content/themes/twentynineteen/fonts/AguafinaScript-Regular.ttf);
font-weight: normal;
}
Don’t forget to change the font family and URL values to match your font.

Press the Update File button to save your changes.

Remember, the font-face cidice loads the font every time a visitor visits your website. However, the font is not yet applied to any element.

To assign the font for a specific element, you must edit the same style.css file . For example, the following code would apply the Aguafina Script font to our website title :

.site-title {
font-family: “Aguafina Script-Regular”, Arial, sans-serif;
}
How to add fonts in WordPress using plugins
Using plugins is probably the easiest way for this activity. Here are some of the most well-known and widely used options:

WP Google Fonts gives you the freedom to use custom fonts and apply them to particular CSS elements.

Install the WP Google Fonts plugin from the WordPress plugins directory and open the Google Fonts control panel via the WordPress dashboard. Here you can select fonts and change various settings such as font style, assigned elements, etc.

Easy Google Fonts

With Easy Google Fonts, you can use any theme and preview any font in real time. It is also easy to use since no coding knowledge is required.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you can edit and manage your font settings by going to Settings -> Google Fonts . If you want to change the typography of your theme right away, access the WordPress customizer by clicking Appearance -> Customize . Next, you can start customizing in the Typography section from where you can manage the fonts for any part of your site.

Use Any Font

Use Any Font is another excellent plugin that can help you add different fonts to your WordPress website. Once installed, create a free API key and press the Verify button .

After verification is complete, you will be able to upload fonts in TTF , OTF and WOFF formats . Using another font allows you to assign fonts to custom elements as well.

Conclusion
In this post you learned how to download and convert fonts to a web friendly format. You also discovered two ways to add custom fonts to WordPress. Whichever font you choose, make sure it fits the theme and style of your site.

Are you looking for ways to improve the performance of your website? One of the keys to reducing your site’s page load time is to optimize images. That’s why in this article we’ll show you some of the best WordPress plugins for compressing images.

Table of Contents hide
Why use plugins to compress images?
The best 7 WordPress image compression plugins.
1) ShortPixel
Features
Pricing
2) reSmush.com
Features
Pricing
3) EWWW Image Optimizer
Features
Pricing
4) Optimole
Features
Prices
5) Imagify
Features
Pricing
6) TinyPNG
Features
Pricing
7) Kraken.io
Features
Pricing
How to compress images without a WordPress plugin

1. Select the image compression approach
2. Download the compressed images
   Conclusion
   Why use image compression plugins?
   Image compress plugins are tools that help you reduce image size and improve page load time we .

Google considers website speed as a search engine ranking factor, so loading speed is the key to outperforming your competitors and attracting more traffic to your site. There are several ways to optimize the speed of your site. You can use a premium hosting service such as Siteground, a lightweight WordPress theme, reduce the number of active plugins, and optimize your images.

Images make a post more attractive, but they can also slow down your site if they are not optimized. in any case, by reducing the size of your images, you can achieve better page loading speed, which will help you rank better in search engines. This is where photo compress plugins come in.

Overall, image compress plugins are great tools for reducing the size of images on your site without compromising image quality. This results in better loading times, which help you rank higher in search engines and get more traffic to your site.

Now that we have a better understanding of the benefits of these tools, let’s take a look at some of the best plugins for compressing images .

The best 7 WordPress image compression plugins
The best WordPress image compression plugins are:

1.ShortPixel (free and premium)
2.reSmush.it (free)
3.EWWW Image Optimizer (free and premium)
4.Optimole (free and premium)
5.Imagify (free and premium)
6.TinyPNG (free and premium)
7.Kraken.io (free and premium)
Without further ado, let’s see what each of these plugins has to offer.

1) ShortPixel

If you are looking for an all-in-one plugin to compress your media files and convert them, ShortPixel is one of the best options. Whenever you upload new images to your site, this tool automatically resizes and optimizes them and can even replace the original images with optimized ones to improve the speed of your site.

In addition to compressing JPG, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, PNG and GIF images, ShortPixel also works with PDFs. Plus, you can convert all your existing image formats to WebP and get a boost in search engine results. And the best part is that there is no upper limit for file size, so you can compress any image.

Another cool feature is the ability to bulk optimize images in your media library. You can scan all existing media files and optimize them in just a few clicks. Finally, you can run ShortPixel on multiple websites with a single license key, making it a great option for those who want to optimize their images on multiple sites.

• Features
• Automatically resizes and optimizes images
• Compatible with JPG, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, PNG, GIF and PDF files
• Preserves or removes EXIF data
• Optimizes images in bulk
• No restrictions on file limits
• Optimized for WooCommerce
• WebP conversion
• Compatible with WPML plugin

Pricing
ShortPixel is a freemium tool. The free version is available in the WordPress repository and allows you to compress up to 150 images per month. If you wish to increase the quota, you must subscribe to one of the premium plans that start at $3.99 USD per month. In addition, there are one-time purchase plans at 9.99 USD that allow you to compress up to 15000 images.

2) reSmush.com

If you need a solution with compatibility with multiple CMSs for image compression, you can also use reSmush.it . The plugin is completely free and has minimal configuration and customization options. However, it uses several advanced algorithms to find the best optimization for you. Thus, it is also one of the popular WordPRess plugins for compressing images among bloggers and small business owners.

With resmush.it you can optimize file types including PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP and TIF. They can be optimized automatically when the file is uploaded and manually from the dashboard. In addition, you can save up to 80% in image size by using after they are optimized. In addition, the plugin also removes EXIF data from all images but can still be saved within the compressed images if necessary.

You can also exclude image files that you do not need to compress from the plugin settings. But when it comes to the plugin’s limitation, you can compress images down to a size of only 5 MB.

• Features
• Multi CMS support
• Compatible with multiple file types
• EXIF data handling
• Several algorithms to choose from
• Easy to configure
• Minimal customization options

Pricing
reSmush.co.uk is a free tool.

3) EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer can be a good solution if you need a WordPress plugin to compress images without a maximum file upload size limit. It offers you great features like pixel-perfect optimizations, smart conversion options and so on. With this plugin you can even compress all JS and CSS files available within your WordPress theme with static file optimization.

In addition, website speed audit is also another interesting feature offered by the EWW image optimizer. After enabling it, you can see the website speed and performance improvements. In addition, it has an integration with GTmetrix premium, so any speed test and its results will be crystal clear.

With this plugin, you can enable lazy loading to publish images when the user scrolls down to that specific part. To improve the image service, it also has a global CDN. In addition, you can also mention your custom domain for the global CDN.

• Features
• Automatic compression
• Lazy Load
• Image resizing
• JS/CSS Optimization
• US and EU CDN
• Site Speed Audit
• Unlimited image compression

Pricing
The main version is free and you can download it from the repository . If you need more unique features, you need to invest in a premium subscription . The monthly subscription will cost you 7 USD and the annual plan will cost you 70 USD.

4) Optimole

If you need a cloud-based tool to optimize your image files, you should check out the Optimole image compression plugin . With this plugin, you can automatically compress your images, serve images through a faster CDN, and display an image on the front-end based on the visitor’s device type. All images will be served automatically and instantly in the front-end.

The customized CDN service has more than 200 different locations in data centers around the world, so image publishing will always be faster. In addition, when your user has an unstable Internet connection, Optimole will also automatically reduce the image quality so that the page will load faster. You can view all the detailed insights from Optimole’s dashboard.

Because it uses cloud-based technology, Optimole will not consume your server resources or add additional load. Therefore, by using this plugin you can get the maximum performance boost on your website. In addition, the plugin is also compatible with most page builder plugins such as Elementor , Beaver Builder and so on to reduce plugin conflicts.

• Features
• Lazy loading
• Automatic image optimization
• Custom CDN servers
• Image tracking feature
• Multiple compression methods
• Faster processing
• Compatible with multiple devices

Pricing
Optimole is a freemium WordPress plugin. With the basic version, you can optimize unlimited images and serve them for 5K monthly visits. The premium version will unlock more meaty features and cost EUR 18.08 per month.

5) Imagify

If you’re looking for a plugin with a one-click image compression option and an intuitive dashboard , check out Imagify . Created by WP Media (the same company behind the WP Rocket caching plugin), Imagify is one of the WordPress plugins for image compression. With this plugin you will have an easy-to-use dashboard from where you can optimize images with just one click. The plugin also supports automatic image compression which can save you a lot of time.

You can also convert your existing or new images to the webP format. Just enable the function from the plugin settings page and all photos will be converted to webP. Imagify is also fully compatible with major e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and gallery plugins like NextGen gallery.

Image files such as JPG, PNG, GIF and media files such as PDF . can also be compressed with Imagify. Once the plugin has completed the compression process, the original image can be removed from the server or stored within a backup location if necessary.

• Features
• Lightweight
• Image resizing
• WebP image generation
• Detailed dashboard
• Image backup option
• Multiple levels of optimization

Pricing
Imagify is a freemium WordPress plugin. From the repository you can get the free version of the plugin. The free version has a monthly compression limit of 200 images or 20 MB. In contrast, the ‘premium subscription starts from 3.49 USD per month. The 3.49 USD per month plan will allow you to compress 5000 images per month (or 500 MB).

6) TinyPNG

If you are looking for a plugin with multisite support, you should check out TinyPNG since a single plugin API key can be used on multiple sites. TinyPNG is one of the best WordPress plugins for image compression with minimal configuration options. It also includes useful optimization features such as bulk compression, animated PNG compression, image resizing, and so on.

To continue working with your current tasks, the plugin also includes a background optimization function. Once enabled, it will scan all images in the library and optimize them in the background.

TinyPNG is also compatible with WPML and WooCommerce. So if you are running a multilingual blog with any translation plugin or an online shop with WooCommerce, there will be no conflict. Once image compression is completed using the plugin, you can see all the statistics in the dashboard such as optimized images, space saved, etc.

• Features
• Compatible with WP Retina 2X
• No maximum file size limit
• Detailed insights within the dashboard
• Mass optimization
• WooCommerce ready
• WPML compatible

Pricing
TinyPNG is a freemium solution. The free version of the plugin is available within the WordPress repository and you can download it from there. In contrast, a subscription to the premium version can be purchased here .

7) Kraken.io

If you need a high-end tool to compress your images and optimize them, you can also take a look at Kraken.io . It is one of the advanced WordPress plugins for image compression that can also be used with Magento. The plugin has a smart lossy optimization technique to maximize the results of image compression.

Another interesting feature of Kraken.io is its ZIP upload tool. If you have many images to optimize, you can add them to a ZIP file and upload them to the Kraken.io tool. Within a few minutes or seconds (depending on the file size), the tool will generate compressed versions of the uploaded images.

In addition, you can also use their custom cloud storage to store your optimized images if you need them. You can also see how many images have been optimized in a given day from the web interface. In addition, you also have the ability to resize images to suit your needs with this plugin.

• Features
• High availability
• Image resizing
• Freedom to choose your CDN partner
• Cloud storage
• The best support team
• Optimization for generated thumbnails

Pricing
Kraken.io is a freemium plugin and you can download the free version from the WordPress repository. The lite version plugin has several limitations such as compressing 50 MB per month, and if you need to upgrade the limit, you need to subscribe. Premium plans start at 9 USD per month and that particular plan will allow you to optimize 2 GB of images per month.

How to compress images without a WordPress plugin.
Sometimes, you don’t even need to use WordPress image compression plugins within your site. It can be done directly from some of the official image optimization tool websites. And here, we will show you how to compress images without using a WordPress plugin.

Of course, we will use a web tool to complete the task. For this demonstration, we will choose ShortPixel’s online image compressor (many tools are available). ShortPixel’s online image compressor tool has multiple choices for selecting compression and a clean user interface.

Let’s see how to complete the task.

1. Select the image compression approach.
   The first thing you need to do is to go to this website .

You can release up to 50 images at once and optimize them with a single click. The compression levels available within the tool are:

• Lossy (Lossy)
• Glossy Glossy
• Lossless (Lossy)

The most effective image optimization is performed at the Lossy level, where the image size is drastically reduced without affecting the image quality. The image quality is at its best at the Lossless level, but the image size is reduced by a very small margin. As a result, the Glossy layer fits in the middle of both.

After selecting a compression layer, release the images within the wizard. Within a few seconds, the tool will begin compressing them automatically.

2. Download the compressed images
   After the compression process is complete you will be able to download the compressed files.

As you can see, we achieved a huge reduction of over 48% in size which is very impressive considering the quality of the image in the Lossy layer. You can compare both the original and the compressed image at the same time by clicking on the images as well. This way, you can compress the images and upload the optimized ones to your WordPress installation.

Now, click the Download icon to download the compressed images.

The disadvantage of this method is that you have to compress all the images manually . Also, there is no autopilot mode.

That’s it!

In this way, you can compress images without a WordPress plugin.

Conclusion
Image compression is no longer optional. Since Google and other search engines consider website speed as a ranking factor, you need to make sure that performance is not compromised. These are the best WordPress plugins you can use to reduce image size:

1.ShortPixel
2.reSmush.com
3.EWWW image optimizer
4.Optimole
5.Imagify
6.TinyPNG
In addition, all these plugins come with an automatic compression feature. So, you can always focus on your work instead of wasting time compressing files manually. ShortPixel, EWWW Image Optimizer, Optimole and Imagify, Kraken.io are advanced plugins for image compression in WordPress. They have more features and optimization opportunities.

Enabling comments and contact form messages on your pages and posts is a good way to improve your visitors’ engagement rate. Unfortunately, they are prone to spam messages, usually consisting of random advertisements and suspicious links that direct to irrelevant Web sites.

If left unchecked, spam can adversely affect user experience and harm ‘search engine optimization (SEO) . Web crawlers see spam comments as red flags, and Google may even remove the content from its search results.

An effective way to block spammers from your WordPress site is to install an anti-spam plugin, such as Automattic’s Akismet AntiSpam .This article will discuss everything about the plugin, including its use, key features, and the installation process.

Table of Contents view
What is Akismet Anti-Spam plugin?

Akismet Anti-Spam plugin is a cloud-based application that filters out spammers on your WordPress website. Developed by the same company behind WordPress.com , this plugin has more than 5 million downloads .

Akismet has several important features, such as:

• Scanning your blog, comments and contact forms.
• Displaying URLs in the body of comments to identify misleading links.
• Setting up a status history for each comment to help identify whether it was deleted by Akismet or a moderator.
• Allow moderators to configure spam parameters such as keywords and links.
• Deletion feature to block significant spam messages, saving disk space and speeding up your WordPress site.

Akismet identifies WordPress spam comments using anti-spam algorithms. Whenever a user posts a comment, Akismet examines it against its database. If the algorithms identify a comment as spam, it will be removed from your website.

The algorithms also learn from actions taken by users to identify spam e-mail addresses. For example, when many users flag a specific comment as spam, Akismet will automatically mark it.

Akismet also allows users to filter comments manually: the algorithms will then record this action and use it to filter real user comments from spam comments.

However, there are cases when algorithms accidentally identify legitimate users as spammers. This problem occurs when a user’s comment is marked as spam on other sites, resulting in false positives. To prevent this from happening, check the moderation queue regularly.

Why use Akismet anti-spam WordPress?
If you do not wish to activate an anti-spam plugin, you can perform manual comment moderation to prevent comment spam on your WordPress website . Having said that, however, remember that it is a time-consuming process and is prone to human error.

For this reason, installing a plugin is a better alternative. The tool can quickly identify hundreds of comments, forms and posts and then eliminate those that include spam.

Akismet Anti-Spam is our best recommendation among other spam-blocking plugins. Here’s why:

• Reliable : The plugin has blocked over 500 million spam comments to date. With such a large database, it is getting better at distinguishing spam comments.
• Integration with Contact Form 7 : by combining these two platforms, the Akismet service can further improve the security of your site and block contact form spam.
• Statistics monitoring : This feature provides data on your site’s spam activity. It displays monthly and annual spam graphs.
• Easy to use : the plugin comes by default on WordPress installations. This allows you to easily configure and activate it.

With its wide variety of features that reduce manual comment moderation, Akismet allows you to focus on creating content and managing the rest of your website.

Akismet Anti-Spam also offers a freemium pricing model, so you can purchase premium features and increase its performance. There are dedicated plans for both personal and commercial use, starting at $8.33/month .

How to configure Akismet plugin
Akismet Anti-Spam comes as a default application with a WordPress installation. However, the plugin requires an API key upon activation. The following sections will guide you through an easy way to configure Akismet and get it working on your site.

1. Install and activate the Akismet plugin.
   If the plugin is not already installed on your WordPress site, go ahead and locate it in the plugins directory.

1.Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to the Plugins menu .
2.Select the Add New option and type “Akismet Spam Protection” in the search bar.
3.Click the Install Now button to start installing the plugin . Once the process is complete, press Activate .
4.Upon activation, the software will prompt you to enter an API key in the field provided.

5.Keep this window open and follow the steps below to obtain an API key for the Akismet Anti-Spam plugin.

2. Get the Akismet anti spam API key.
   An API key functions as a password for your Akismet account and helps the server recognize you as an authorized user.

With this in mind, it is essential to keep your API key secure to prevent any misbehavior.

Users can use the same API key for more than one WordPress site, depending on the subscription plan. To get yours go to the Akismet website .

1.Click on the Configure Your Akismet Account button to start setting up your account.

2.Choose a subscription plan. There are paid subscriptions for larger projects or companies and a free version for personal use.

3.If you have a personal website that does not show ads, sell products, or engage in sales promotions, you can choose the free option. To do so, click on the Get personal button and drag the price bar to $0 .
4.Fill in your information in the fields provided. Then, check all the boxes. When finished, click Continue with personal subscription.

5.Akismet will send a verification code to your registered email address. Check your email and return to your account page.
6.Enter the confirmation code in the field provided, then press Continue.

3. Add the Akismet anti spam WordPress API key.
   Once the email has been verified, Akismet will send a message containing your API key. Follow these next steps to connect your WordPress site with Akismet Anti-Spam.

1.Go back to the activation page on the akismet WordPress dashboard. You can also go to the Plugins menu then to Installed Plugins , locate the Akismet plugin and press Settings .

2.Enter your API key and click the Link with API key button .

3.Configure your preferences and save all changes.

Akismet Anti-Spam has been successfully added to your site. The plugin will automatically start scanning for spam comments and forms on your site as soon as it is activated.

Tracking spam with Akismet
Akismet Anti-Spam also allows you to monitor spam activity on your WordPress site. With the free version, you will view basic statistics, such as the total number of spam, lost spam, and false positives.

In contrast, subscribing to Akismet Plus and later versions gives users access to Advanced Statistics , a comprehensive report on your account data and diagnostics to identify problematic aspects of your site.

To view your Akismet statistics, go to your account page and scroll to the bottom to find the Recent Active Sites menu .

Clicking the highlighted button will take you to the Akismet statistics page . You can choose to view monthly or annual data depending on your subscription plan.

In addition to helping users analyze plugin performance, these statistics are useful for monitoring multiple active websites. The data allows you to monitor your spam levels and take immediate action whenever suspicious activity occurs.

Conclusion
Spam comments or messages are unsolicited responses from both automated bots and human spammers. This problem will become inevitable as your website traffic increases and attracts unwanted attention.

These comments can damage your site’s credibility, reputation, and security. A spammer can also leave malicious links in the comments section and damage your site’s SEO. Fortunately, WordPress provides several anti-spam plugins.

One of the most reliable plugins for blocking WordPress spam is Akismet Anti-Spam . It has a large global database and uses advanced anti-spam algorithms.

To recap, let’s go through each step required to activate Akismet:

1.Install Akismet Anti-Spam on your WordPress site.
2.Sign up for one of the subscription plans to get an API key.
3.Connect Akismet to WordPress using the API key.
4.Monitor your site statistics from your Akismet account page.
We hope this article helps answer any questions you may have about the Akismet Anti-Spam plugin.

Although the aesthetics of a website are important, its content and loading speed keep people coming back. WordPress provides users with a sophisticated toolbox of plugins and themes to quickly create their own customized websites.

However, these themes and plugins require JavaScript (JS) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to work. WordPress automatically creates them as script files. They are often poorly optimized. As such, they can slow down your website considerably.

This can be frustrating for your readers. Therefore, in this guide, we will explore how to find and remove these rendering-blocking scripts and show you how to increase the loading speed of your WordPress website.

What are JS and CSS rendering-blocking scripts and why are they harmful?
Most web pages on the Internet are composed of three key components: JavaScript, CSS and Hypertext Markup Language. HTML serves as the base , while JavaScript and CSS are embedded in it. However, these days, it is more conventional to embed calls to external scripts in the HTML document.

These scripts are kept in a queue that your web browser uses to render the web page. The easiest way to see what scripts a web page uses without reading the source code is to download them from the web browser (Ctrl + S). The web browser will download the HTML document along with a folder with all (or most) of the scripts, images, and other files used by the web page.

The more complex scripts your web page has to call from the queue, the longer it will take to render. Web browsers often download web page resources such as scripts and images into a local cache to load web pages faster. Although client-side users can speed up web page rendering times by disabling JavaScript , increasing cache sizes, and using AdBlockers, this is not an ideal solution. The responsibility should lie with the web developer.

If you receive complaints or have noticed that your website is having problems displaying its content, it is not too late to fix it.

How to optimize your website by finding and fixing rendering-blocking scripts
Before deciding which scripts to terminate or optimize, you need to evaluate the speed of your website or web page. You can use an online platform such as GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights. All you will be asked to do is enter the URL of the website or web page you wish to test, and the tool will evaluate it and provide other insights.

These tools will also suggest audits that you can use to make your website faster. They will suggest, for example, that you use fewer elements in your web page or reduce unused CSS and JavaScript. GTmetrix will show you which scripts need to be optimized.

Alternatively, you can use the Coverage tab of Chrome DevTools to view your script usage data. Once you have identified which scripts are suboptimal, you can do several things to fix them. However, these steps will require some code knowledge to implement them successfully. You will at least need a basic knowledge of functional JavaScript programming.

Taking a coding course (or bootcamp) is a good idea to further develop your skills. On average, a programming bootcamp can take up to fifteen weeks to complete, and although it may seem like a lot , it is worth it when you consider how basic code literacy is an important skill to have in the modern world. However, here are five ways to fix rendering-blocking scripts and increase the speed of your web page.

1. Optimize the loading order
   The head section ( ) of the web page is used for preloading elements. The base of your web page should go here, so a blank screen does not greet the user when loading your web page. Although embedding CSS here is fine, you should avoid embedding JavaScript.

Once you have optimized the head section, you need to optimize the body of the page. Most web browsers render web pages from top to bottom. You need to sort calls to scripts according to their importance and complexity. You should make calls to scripts that are notfundamental to rendering the web page last along with complex scripts that take time.

2. Minimize code
   Code minimization involves rewriting and eliminating unnecessary characters such as whitespace, comments, commas, line breaks, etc. This makes the code more concise and compact, which ultimately reduces the size of the script and increases the loading time of your web page.

Plugins and tools such as WP Rocket have modules that minimize JavaScript and CSS in your themes. Alternatively, you can manually minimize your script code with a free online tool such as JavaScript Minifier.

3. Use deferred and asynchronous loading of JavaScript.
   Web browsers read code from the top down. When they encounter a script tag, they stop loading the web page and read the script file. This slows down the rendering of the page.

You can use the ‘async attribute to load the script in parallel with the web page and execute it as soon as it is available. Alternatively, you can use the defer attribute to defer script parsing. This means that it will also load the script in parallel with the web page, but will only execute it when the browser parses the web page.

It is recommended not to use the async or defer attributes on scripts used for rendering and displaying visual elements. The JavaScript keywords equivalent to these attributes are the keywords async and await . You can use them to load your JavaScript asynchronously without changing the HTML tags on your web page.

4. Replace JavaScript visual elements with CSS3.
   In the past, CSS was not as versatile as it is today.CSS 1.0 and 2.0, for example, lacked UI tools such as basic controls and sliders.

Then CSS3 came along. It introduced new colors, box shadows, opacity, etc. JavaScript is great for adding complex controls to the user interface but is heavier than CSS.

Therefore, using an excessive amount of JavaScript slows down your website considerably. If you notice that your web page is using JavaScript to do the job where previous versions of CSS have failed, you should modify it and replace all unnecessary JavaScript with CSS where you can. This will allow web pages to load faster.

5. Eliminate all unnecessary scripts
   The purpose of JS and CSS is to expand functionality to web pages and add logic where HTML cannot. However, HTML 5.3 came with new tags that would make some CSS and JS operations unnecessary. Using HTML instead of scripts speeds up the loading of your web pages.

So the best way to optimize the speed of your website is to eliminate all underutilized scripts. You will have to analyze which scripts are completely unnecessary and remove them. Again, you can use the Coverage tab of Chrome DevTools or GTmetrix to find the most underutilized scripts on your web page and then remove them.

After removing all unnecessary functions or tags, you can combine scripts whose functions are similar. If you already know how to mannipulate the source code of your web page, this should not be a difficult task for you. However, users who are not so experienced or knowledgeable in web design should not worry. WordPress makes it easier for you to identify scripts on your website and modify them using various optimization plugins that we will see in a moment.

6. Use plugins to optimize your WordPress website.
   Once again, you do not need a working knowledge of programming to optimize your WordPress website. although some experience would help. However, there is a range of plugins geared toward script optimization. Some of them use artificial intelligence to minimize code, change the loading order and replace underutilized scripts with more efficient code and scripts.

Some of the best script optimization plugins include:

• WP Rocket : This is one of the most popular plugins for web optimization. It can automatically detect which scripts create problems and fix them for you. You can use it for quick caching, compression and minimization.
• Autooptimize : can defer and delete non-essential scripts, integrate inline CSS and minimize scripts, HTML and images. Autoptimize is highly customizable via an open API and advanced options.
• W3 Total Cache : This plugin requires some work to use. You will have to manually track and identify scripts before removing or modifying them. In most cases, this plugin is already available with your WordPress package.
• Async JavaScript : an open source plugin presented by WordPress. It allows you to detect JavaScript that blocks rendering and then resend or load it asynchronously.

So why didn’t we simply recommend plugins right away? Because, some of these plugins require an investment. For example, Autoptimize costs $49 per year. While this is a reasonable rate, it may not be ideal for those who are already investing a large sum of money for hosting, other applications, and plugins.

However, regardless of whether you are using plugins or found the scripts manually, you need to understand concepts such as minimization, asynchronous loading, and loading order. It will make it easier for you to troubleshoot any loading problems if one of your scripts fails.

One of the best ways to improve the front-end functionality of your website is to add custom JavaScript to WordPress. However, figuring out how to do this can be tricky, especially if you are used to working with the Customizer to insert custom CSS.

Fortunately, you can use different strategies depending on your level of experience and what you are trying to achieve. After learning what your options are, you will be able to choose the solution for adding custom JavaScript to WordPress that makes the most sense for you.

In this post, we’ll walk you through three methods you can use to add custom JavaScript to your WordPress site, as well as discuss the pros and cons of each option.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents hide

1. Install a plugin like Head & Footer Code.
   Pros and cons of using a plugin
2. Use your functions.php file
   Pros and cons of editing your functions.php file
3. Add JavaScript to your header
   Add JavaScript to your header using the wp_enqueue_script function.
   Add custom JavaScript using the wp_head hook
   Pros and cons of adding JavaScript to the header
   Conclusion
4. Install a plugin like Head & Footer Code.
   Using a plugin is one of the easiest ways to add JavaScript to WordPress. Head & Footer Code, for example, is a great tool:

This free plugin allows you to insert code in various ways. You can use it for Facebook Pixel , Google Analytics , custom CSS and more.

To get started, add the plugin to your site by navigating to Plugins → Add New from the admin dashboard, then search for “Head & Footer code.”

After clicking the Install Now and Activate buttons , you can locate the plugin settings by going to Tools → Head & Footer code . On this screen there are three boxes for the header, footer and body sections:

You can enter your custom WordPress JavaScript in one of these boxes. When finished, select the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen. The code will then be loaded on every page of your site.

Pros and cons of using a plugin
The main advantage of using a plugin is that it is a beginner-friendly option. You don’t have to worry about editing your theme files . The Head & Footer Code plugin might also come in handy if you are looking for an easy way to add other types of code and custom CSS.

However, the disadvantage of this method is that it involves installing a third-party plugin, a solution that some site owners want to avoid. If you want to keep your plugins to a minimum, you might do better by using one of the other methods. Also, the plugin is designed for site-wide JavaScript changes rather than specific pages or posts.

2. Use your own functions.php file.
   Another method for adding custom WordPress JavaScript to your website is to take advantage of the built-in functions and hooks to modify the functions.php file . This approach involves manually uploading scripts to the server.

Before you begin, we recommend that you create a child theme . This step ensures that you will still be able to update the main theme safely. You should also make a backup of your site in case something goes wrong.

This method involves using the IS_PAGE function . You can add conditional logic to apply your custom JavaScript code to a single article or page.

To begin, locate and open your functions.php file , then copy and paste the following code snippet:

This code will add the JavaScript code to your header. To apply it to a single post, you can use the following:

Keep in mind that you will need to replace the number 3 in the example above with the ID number of the post to which you want to add the code. To locate that number, access the post from the admin dashboard, then click Edit . In the URL in the browser bar, the ID number is the number next to “post=”:

Save your file once you have replaced the ID number and add your custom JavaScript to the designated area. You can also repeat the same process for a single WordPress page.

Pros and cons of editing the functions.php file.
One advantage of editing the functions.php file is that you do not need to install another plugin. You can also use this technique to add features and functionality to both your theme and WordPress itself. This method can insert JavaScript into a single article or page or into all pages.

The only downside to this method is that it involves working with code and modifying files on your site. Therefore, it may not be the best option if you do not have experience in this department.

3.Add JavaScript to your header

Next, locate and open your functions.php file , then copy and paste the following code snippert:

Be sure to replace the template URL with your own. Finally, save your file.

Add custom JavaScript using the wp_head hook
You can also use the wp_head action hook to add custom JavaScript to your header via inline scripts. Again, this method is not preferable because it can create too many scripts. In any case, it is better than directly inserting scripts into the header.php file .

This method, which you can also use for the footer, uses action hooks to add inline scripts to your site. While wp_enqueue_script queues custom scripts, the wp_head approach prints scripts in the header template (and footer, if you use the wp_footer hook ).

To get started, go to the functions.php file , then copy and paste the following:

Note that the wp_head hook only activates on the front-end of your Web site. This means that any custom JavaScript you add using this method will not appear in the admin or login areas. However, if you want to add JavaScript to those areas, you can use the admin_head and login_head action hooks, respectively.

Pros and cons of adding JavaScript to the header
The wp_enqueue_script function is preferred by developers because it prevents conflicts that can arise with other options, such as directly adding scripts to the header.php . Also, using this method does not create dependent scripts.

The main problem with adding custom WordPress JavaScript to your site’s header is that it can cause problems with other plugins loading their own scripts. This configuration can also cause multiple scripts to load more than once, which can hinder the speed and overall performance of your website

Conclusion
By default, WordPress does not allow you to insert JavaScript code fsnippets into your pages and posts. Fortunately, with a few tricks you can add your own custom JavaScript without harming your WordPress website. The best method depends on your level of knowledge with editing your site’s files and where you want to apply the scripts.

As we have seen in this post, there are three ways to add custom JavaScript to your WordPress site:

1.Install a plugin like Head & Footer Code.
2.Use your functions.php file to add custom JavaScript to a single page or post.Add JavaScript for the header using the wp_enqueue_script function the wp_head hook.
3.Now that you know how to add custom JavaScript to WordPress, you may also be interested in our other guide on how to add custom CSS to WordPress.

Your WordPress database stores all the important information on your website. However, without maintenance, this storage center can fill up and start slowing down your site . Therefore, optimizing your WordPress database is essential to improve the performance of your website .

Fortunately, there are various methods you can use to optimize your WordPress database. For example, you can manually delete unnecessary and obsolete information using phpMyAdmin. Alternatively, you can use a WordPress database optimization plugin such as WP-Optimize.

In this article, we will provide you with seven tips for optimizing and cleaning up the WordPress database to improve the overall performance of your website. Let’s get started!

Table of contents hide

1. Use a plugin to optimize your WordPress database
2. Manually optimize database tables
3. Eliminate the junk
4. Remove post revisions
5. Remove spam comments
6. Remove unused tags
7. Eliminate pingbacks and trackbacks
   Optimize your WordPress database today
8. Use a plugin to optimize your WordPress database
   Using a plugin to clean up your WordPress database can drastically reduce your workload. Instead of manually searching through your tables with phpMyAdmin , you can let a reliable tool take the lead. As such, this method is one of the best options if you are a beginner.

We recommend the WP-Optimize plugin, which we will be working with for this tutorial. This tool is an all-in-one solution that you can use to cache, compress images, and optimize your database:

WP-Optimize cleans the WordPress database in several ways, including:

• Deleting unnecessary data such as spam comments and transient options
• Compacting and defragmenting database tables
• Cleaning the database on a scheduled or automated basis
• Creating backups of pre-optimization data
• Viewing database cleanup statistics

To use WP-Optimize, you must first install and activate it in the WordPress dashboard. Then, go to WP-Optimize > Databases .

You should get to the Optimizations page , where you can select specific items from your database. Then, you can click Run Optimization next to any category of your choice:

If you click on the Tables tab , you can select specific database tables and remove them. The tool will also inform you which of your plugins use these elements. This way, you will know if any of your website functions will be adversely affected by the change:

Finally, the Settings tab allows you to schedule database cleanups. You can choose the frequency of these optimizations and select which data will be deleted:

When you are satisfied with your selections, click Save Settings . The WP-Optimize plugin will now perform regular database cleanups for your WordPress website.

2. Manually optimize database tables
   If you want to manually optimize your database, you can do so with the phpMyAdmin tool that gives you access to your WordPress database so you can view, edit and delete tables.

You may prefer this method if you want more control over the WordPress database cleanup process. It might also be attractive if you want to minimize the number of WordPress plugins on your site, for whatever reason.

In any case, we recommend that you back up your database before using this method. Since you will be editing the files manually, there is considerable room for error. Therefore, be careful when proceeding with this option.

With most hosting providers, you can access phpMyAdmin via cPanel :

The exact process will vary depending on your hosting provider. Therefore, you may need to refer to your provider’s official documentation when using this method.

First, open the cPanel dashboard then, scroll down to the DATABASE section and select phpMyAdmin :

You will then be taken to your WordPress website database. Keep in mind that you may need to click on the name of your site to view its contents. The database should look something like this:

Fortunately, it should now be easy to optimize the database tables. At the bottom of the list, check the Select All box . Then, click Optimize Table from the menu that appears:

Finally, select Run. phpMyAdmin will optimize all your tables. When the process is complete, you will receive a confirmation message.

3. Eliminate the junk
   You have probably deleted many elements from your WordPress website. For example, you may have removed images, comments, or outdated content.

However, these deleted items do not immediately disappear from the database. They will remain in your website’s trash folder for 30 days. If you regularly delete many items, you might consider emptying the database trash more frequently.

You can easily reduce the duration of deleted items in your database, you just need to edit your wp-config.php file .

Keep in mind that this is a main file for your WordPress website. Therefore, we recommend that you save a backup before making any changes. Next, access your site via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and open the wp-config.php file with your text editor and add this code snippet to the file:

define( ‘EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS’, X )
Instead of “X,” you will write the number of days before the deleted items are permanently removed from the WordPress database. For example, you might enter “10” for ten days. Then, save the changes and re-upload the modified file to your website.

4. Remove post revisions.
   Your WordPress database stores the revisions of all your articles and pages . This collection is useful when you want to restore previous versions of your content or keep track of changes you have made.

However, these revisions can also take up a lot of space in the database. In addition, many posts and pages will contain hundreds of them.

Therefore, you might consider limiting the number of post revisions that WordPress saves. This way, you can make sure that any future posts or pages do not fill up your database.

You will first need to open your wp-config.php file via FTP, then, enter the following code snippet:

define( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, X );
Instead of “X,” enter the number of post revisions you wish to save. For example, you can select “4,” then, save the file and re-upload it to your Web site via FTP.

You can also disable post revisions completely with the following code snippet:

define( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, false );
However, we do not recommend using the second method. If you make mistakes in the future, you won’t have revisions to rely on.

If you want to delete those that are already in your database, we recommend using a plugin such as Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions:

This intuitive tool allows you to delete all your revisions or keep a specified number in your database. The plugin can also perform additional WordPress database cleanup, such as deleting spam comments and unused tags.

5. Eliminate spam comments
   Spam comments are very common when you run a website. Spam comments are messages left on your blog posts with links that lead to suspicious or spam websites.

If WordPress or one of your plugins suspects that a comment is spam, it will mark the item for your approval. The post will also be filed under Comments > Spam in the WordPress dashboard.

WordPress will delete these comments automatically after 30 days. In the meantime, they will take up space in your valuable database.

You can easily delete spam comments by selecting them and clicking the Empty Spam button. Alternatively, you can open phpMyAdmin and run the following command:

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved = ‘spam’
This method might be preferable if you are already using phpMyAdmin for another reason and prefer not to access the WordPress dashboard. Otherwise, it may be unnecessarily complicated.

In addition, some WordPress anti-spam plugins can permanently delete spam comments on your behalf. For example, the Akismet plugin can automatically filter and remove objectionable content from the database without requiring an approval process.

6. Eliminate unused tags
   Tags can help organize your website content. When users visit your site, they may click on post tags to find related articles. Therefore, using them can improve your website navigation and overall user experience (UX) .

However, you may have tags that you do not use. For example, you may have changed these tags over time while refining your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy .

In this scenario, unused tags may take up unnecessary space in the WordPress database. If you do not intend to use some tags, it may make sense to delete them.

First, you will need to connect to your database with phpMyAdmin. Then, run this command to see all unused tags in your WordPress database:

SELECT *
FROM wp_terms wterms INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy wttax ON wterms.term_id = wttax.term_id
WHERE wttax.taxonomy = ‘post_tag’ AND wttax.count =0;
You will need to change “wp_” to the corresponding prefix in your database. You should then see a list of redundant tags on your website.

Then, run the following command to delete all unused tags:

DELETE FROM wp_terms WHERE term_id IN (SELECT term_id FROM wp_term_taxonomy WHERE count = 0 );
DELETE FROM wp_term_relationships WHERE term_taxonomy_id not IN (SELECT term_taxonomy_id FROM wp_term_taxonomy);
Once again, remember that you will need to change the “wp_” prefix to the one used in your database. Your unused tags should now be removed.

7. Eliminate pingbacks and trackbacks
   When your website includes a URL to another website, it sends an automatic notification to the server called pingback . This message notifies the other website that you have linked to its content. Similarly, you can manually send trackbacks to convey the same message.

Pingbacks and trackbacks are controversial because some users use them to spam their content on multiple websites. In addition, pingbacks and trackbacks take up unnecessary database space. You may have thousands of sites linking to your website and bloating your database.

To remedy this problem, we recommend that you disable WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks. You can do this by going to Settings> Discussion in WordPress and disabling the first two settings:

Next, you can delete existing trackbacks and pingbacks. To do this, access your database through phpMyAdmin and run this command :

UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status= “closed”;
As always, you will need to swap the “wp_” prefix with the one in your database. Finally, hit Execute to get rid of those pesky pingbacks and trackbacks.

Optimize your WordPress database today.
An unoptimized database can slow down your site. This can be frustrating for both you and your users. Therefore, strategies to optimize your WordPress database are essential to increase the performance of your website.

To recap, there are many ways to optimize and clean the WordPress database by manually removing data via phpMyAdmin. However, we recommend using the WP-Optimize plugin instead. This tool can work behind the scenes to keep your website running at its full potential.

If you are a perceptive user, you may have noticed a setting in your dashboard related to WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks. In any case, chances are good that you have no idea what these techniques are or why they are controversial.

Simply put, pingbacks and trackbacks are technologies that notify other websites when content has been posted that their users might find interesting. While that sounds pretty good in theory, there are also a number of downsides to using both strategies, which is why we recommend that you disable them. In this article, we will start by explaining what WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks are and address their pros and cons. Then, we’ll show you how you can disable both on your website.

Let’s take a look!

Table of Contents displays
Introduction to WordPress trackbacks and pingbacks.
The first thing we need to do is to clearly define the terms “pingback” and “trackback.” Although they are similar in many ways, the two are still distinct techniques.

What are WordPress trackbacks?
A trackback is a notification that WordPress sends to an external site when you link to it in your content. Let’s say you just published a new blog post about tips for buying a laptop, which includes a link to another website that contains some great tips for your readers.

In this scenario, you might send a trackback “ping” to that site to get the owner’s attention. That person might then choose to approve the trackback. This would show an excerpt of your post and a link to your site in their comments section.

What are WordPress pingbacks?
Pingbacks in WordPress have a very similar purpose, but they work slightly differently. In fact, they were actually created to be a better version of trackbacks in order to solve some of the problems with the technique (which we will see in a moment).

The key thing to understand is that while trackbacks are sent manually, pingbacks are automatic. To illustrate this, we will go back to our previous example. Suppose you set up pingbacks on your blog and just posted that article on laptop buying tips (linking to the same external website as before).

In this case, a pingback would immediately be sent to the site you linked to, provided that pingbacks are also enabled. That site would then automatically check to see that the pingback came from your post (and was not a type of spam), before displaying it as a simple link in the comments section. In most cases, pingbacks will not include an excerpt from the post in question, although this depends on the theme a website uses.

As you may have guessed, trackbacks and pingbacks work very similarly. The most important differences are ‘under the hood’: the communication technologies used are different. However, it is not necessary to understand all the technical details to get an idea of the pros and cons of using these techniques.

Pros and cons of using WordPress trackbacks and pingbacks on your site
To understand why we recommend that you disable pingbacks and trackbacks, let’s address their pros and cons.

Pros
It is easy to see why so many people have used both pingbacks and trackbacks in the past. Potential benefits of these technologies include:

• Increasing backlinks to your site, driving traffic to you and improving search engine optimization (SEO) .
• Building links to related sites and encouraging them to share your content by showing your willingness to promote theirs.
• Offer more value to your readers by introducing them to other content they may find useful .

Against
The biggest problem with trackbacks is that they were soon used to send huge amounts of spam. Since trackbacks can be manually sent to any site, spammers use them to post their links on as much content as possible.

Keeping these spam trackbacks away from your site requires checking them manually since there is no other way to verify that they are not fake. Of course, the time spent moderating these trackbacks could be better used for other activities. It also makes them much less valuable than they could be in a theoretical sense.

As mentioned earlier, pingbacks were designed primarily to solve this spam problem. That is why they work automatically and require verification before they can be posted. Also, they will not even be posted unless both blogs have pingbacks enabled.

However, pingbacks soon fell victim to the same downsides as trackbacks. Many spammers were able to easily overcome the protections put in place. This resulted in false and malicious pingbacks. Again, this means that sites with this feature enabled generally have to spend a lot of time moderating the resulting comments .

In addition, you can end up with something called “auto-ping.” If you link to another post or page on your site, the pingback feature will send a notification (as if you were linking to an external source). This is not very useful and can quickly become a nuisance, although you can eliminate this problem with a free plugin like No Self Pings.

Most sites should disable WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks (here’s how)
There has been much controversy over the years about whether the use of pingbacks and trackbacks have several disadvantages. Nowadays, however, it is widely recommended to avoid both techniques .

After all, the use of WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks tends to generate spam and wasted time. While they may provide some benefits, there are better ways to drive traffic to your site .

Moreover, very few people actually use these technologies legitimately. This means that, more than in the past, you are likely to receive many more fake pingbacks and trackbacks than legitimate ones.

Fortunately, disabling both on your site is a simple procedure. In the WordPress dashboard, you can go to Settings > Discussion :

Here, we recommend that you uncheck the first two options:

• Attempt to notify all blogs that have a link in the article
• Allow notification links from other blogs (pingback and trackback) for new articles

This will prevent your site from creating and receiving pingbacks and trackbacks. As a result, it should be easier to keep track of the comments section . In addition, you will free up time that can be devoted to more effective strategies.

Block pingbacks and trackbacks!
Pingbacks and trackbacks have advantages in theory, but there are many reasons why they are rarely used nowadays. Ultimately, the downsides of both outweigh the potential for a slight increase in traffic and visibility.

Keeping WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks active on your site is likely to cause spam from people who just want to get a link of any kind posted to your content. The good news is that you can quickly disable both options in the WordPress settings screen .

Comment spam is a fact of life on the Internet. If you enable comments on your website, you will have to deal with spammers. To prevent your site from making a bad impression, you will have to find a way to stop comment spam.

Although you may not be able to eliminate spam completely, you can do a lot to decrease it. For WordPress users, there are simple changes you can make to block or hide these comments before your visitors see them. You can even use an effective anti-spam plugin to strengthen your defenses.

In this post we’ll talk a little bit about what comment spam is and why it happens. Then we’ll show you six simple ways to stop comment spam on your WordPress site.

Let’s take a look!

What comment spam is (and why it’s a problem)

Spam comments are often easily recognized by their generic content.

If you allow comments on your site, you are bound to receive comment spam. As your site becomes more popular, spam is likely to become an even bigger problem. There are many types of comment spam these days, but most of it is automated, posted by spam bots that use short, generic posts as cover to include links.

Whatever form it takes, comment spam is a real problem because:

• When comment sections are full of spam posts, it is harder for legitimate visitors to have conversations.
• Leaving spam comments on your content makes your site look unprofessional.
• Many of these comments include malicious links designed to induce visitors to provide personal information.

Clearly, it is critical to do everything you can to prevent comment spam from appearing on your WordPress site. Fortunately, this is not difficult to do once you know the right techniques.

How to stop comment spam on your WordPress website (6 simple solutions)
The following six solutions are all smart ways to stop comment spam on your website. You can try all of these methods or choose the ones most relevant to your needs.

1. Reduce the number of links allowed per post
   As mentioned earlier, most comment spam is designed to add links in the comments section and get people to click on them. Therefore, one way to combat spam is to allow fewer links in comments. Legitimate visitors will also be prevented from posting many links, but slowing down spammers may be worth this potential inconvenience.

From the WordPress dashboard, you can go to Settings → Discussion to make this change. Look for the Comment Moderation section :

Here you can decide how many links will be allowed in a comment before it is marked for moderation. You can also reduce the number to zero if you want to request moderation for any comment with links.

2. Create a list of blacklisted words.
   Many spam comments contain recognizable keywords. This makes it easier to detect them and prevent them from being displayed on your website. You can simply create a “blacklist” of words and your site will mark any comment that contains one.

To do this, go back to Settings → Discussion in the WordPress dashboard and find the section Words Not Allowed in Comments :

Here you can enter your list of words. When a comment is posted that contains one of these words, it will be sent directly to the trash. Of course, it is important to choose the words on your blacklist carefully so that you do not delete legitimate comments. For suggestions, you can check the recommended comment blacklist for WordPress on GitHub.

3. Limit commenting privileges to registered users
   The goal of most spammers is to post on as many pages and sites as possible. This means that if you can make it harder for them to add their comments to your site, they may simply move on to the next goal.

You can achieve this by limiting commenting privileges only to users who have registered on your site . This puts an additional barrier between spammers and the comments section. As a side benefit, it encourages visitors to register for an account or subscription.

This option is also available in the Settings → Discussion section in WordPress. You will find it in More comment settings :

Just check the box labeled Users must be registered and logged in to comment and save changes.

4. Set up a comment moderation system
   Simply put, comment moderation is when you require that some or all comments be approved by someone before they can be posted on your site. If you have time and resources to spare, this can be a smart strategy.

In WordPress, you can enable a comment moderation system very easily. Simply go back to Settings → Discussion and check the section Before a comment appears :

By selecting The comment must be approved manually , all comments left on your site will be kept as Pending until they are reviewed. You can then review them all and decide whether to let them pass or delete them. You can find more tips on setting up a comment moderation system on the WordPress site.

5. Use an anti-spam plugin
   Finally, it would be remiss not to mention anti-spam plugins. These tools can be an effective way to stop comment spam and can take care of separating positive from negative comments.

Many WordPress installations come bundled with Akismet, and for good reason:

This anti-spam plugin connects to a constantly updated database, so it is very useful in recognizing which comments create problems and filtering them out. It also allows you to see which comments have been flagged.

Akismet is a great option for most users, but there are also other excellent alternatives. ,Antispam Bee, For example, is a well-reviewed plugin that has several customizable settings and features.

Whichever plugin you choose , you will take an important step in stopping comment spam on your website.

6. Switch to a new commenting system (such as Disqus).
   This method doesn’t work for all sites, but with some third-party comment systems, such as Disqus, they can help you eliminate most of the spam for you. Another solution is to use Facebook comments on your site.

Conclusion
Spam comments can quickly ruin your site, making it look unprofessional and driving away real visitors. Cleaning up all that spam after the fact is challenging. That means you should consider spending some time up front to develop a robust anti-spam strategy.

To stop comment spam on your WordPress site, you can:

1.Reduce the number of links allowed per post
2.Create a list of words on the “blacklist’
3.Set up a comment moderation system
4.Restrict commenting privileges to registered users
5.Use an anti-spam plugin, such as Akismet .
6.Switch to a third-party comment plugin.

The overall performance of your site can significantly affect your search engine rankings. Google uses several metrics to measure the quality of your site, including the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Therefore, improving your LCP score can help your website perform better and rank higher in SERPs.

Fortunately, you don’t need a lot of technical skills to get started. By identifying the heaviest element on your page, you can take the necessary steps to optimize your content and speed up your site.

In this post, we will look at how to measure LCP. We will then share five strategies that can help you improve the Largest Contentful Paint score in WordPress.

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents hide
How to measure Largest Contentful Paint
Five ways to improve the largest contentful paint in WordPress.

1. Optimize your images
2. Eliminate resources that block rendering
3. Use a content delivery network (CDN)
4. Remove unused plugins
5. Reduce the response time of your server
   Improve your LCP in WordPress today
   How to measure the largest contentful paint
   In 2020 Google introduced the Core web Vitals project . The popular search engine uses this set of metrics to measure the performance and quality of your site.

One of these metrics is called Largest Contentful Paint and measures the time it takes for a page to fully load the largest element on the screen. In most cases, this content is a prominent visual element such as a slider or hero.

You can measure your LCP score using Google’s PageSpeed Insights . This tool collects dreal performance data from different users and provides a breakdown of each score:

In addition to giving you the times, it will also identify the actual element on your site that Google uses to determine the largest content in the Diagnostics section further down the page

Most other speed testing tools can now also test the largest contentful paint, and this can give you a little more flexibility for testing from different locations, devices and connection speeds.

According to Google, a good LCP score should be 2.5 seconds or less. If the largest element of your pages takes longer to load, it can cause a poor user experience (UX) . This can, in turn, lead to a higher bounce rate. Therefore, it is essential to optimize your site to achieve a better LCP score.

Five ways to improve the largest contentful paint in WordPress
As we have seen, your LCP score plays a key role in the overall performance of your site. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five effective ways to improve this score and speed up the loading of your website!

1.Optimize your images
2.Eliminate resources that block rendering
3.Use a content delivery network (CDN)
4.Remove unused plugins
5.Reduce your server’s response time

1. Optimize your images.
   As mentioned earlier, LCP measures the time it takes for a website to render the largest element on the page. Media files such as images and videos tend to be the heaviest files.

To solve this problem, it is essential to optimize your images . In fact, this method is recommended in your PageSpeed Insights report

To resize your images and optimize them with tactics such as compression and webP format , you can use an image optimization tool such as Optimole :

This plugin optimizes your WordPress images in real time and makes sure each graphic element is resized correctly for different devices. It also compresses your photos without compromising their quality.

In addition, Optimole will serve your images through a content delivery network (CDN). This way, when someone visits your website, the optimized graphics will be loaded from the nearest network location instead of from your WordPress site’s server, reducing download speed.

By resizing and compressing your images, you can greatly increase the speed of your site. Smaller files will load faster, which, in turn, will improve your LCP score.

2. Eliminate resources that block rendering
   Resources that block rendering are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that force browsers to delay rendering content on your site. Therefore, these elements increase page load times, which results in a poor LCP score.

You can solve this loading problem by removing the elements that block rendering or by forcing their execution after everything else has loaded. Fortunately, this process is simpler than it sounds.

In fact, you can use a plugin such as WP Rocket , which will do all the work for you:

This tool will automatically remove all CSS and JavaScript that blocks the display on your website. As such, the plugin will help minimize any lag in content rendering, resulting in faster loading times for users of your site.

If you are using WP Rocket, the most useful settings to enable are in the File Optimization tab .

Under CSS Files , enable the following:

• Optimize CSS Publishing > Remove Unused CSS.
  Under JavaScript Files , enable the following:
• Load deferred JS
  Delay the execution of JavaScript

3. Use a content delivery network (CDN).
   Another effective way to improve the Largest Contentful Paint score in WordPress is to use a content delivery network (CDN), a network of servers distributed in different locations.

When you use a CDN, your visitors will be provided with cached copies of your content from the server geographically closest to them. In this way, your site will load faster for your users.

In addition, a CDN minimizes the load on your hosting server further increasing the speed of your site.

If you are using Optimole, you are already benefiting from a CDN to upload your images. But you may also want to use a CDN for your other static files and to further improve your Largest Contentful Paint score.

If you want to set up a hassle-free CDN, you can take a look at RocketCDN. It is directly integrated into WP Rocket:

This tool automatically applies optimal configuration settings to improve the performance of your site. The CDN is powered by StackPath , which has over 45 edge locations around the world.

A CDN can be a good investment if your site targets an international audience. It makes sure that your content loads quickly for all users, regardless of their location. This configuration can significantly improve your LCP score.

4. Remove unused plugins.
   Your LCP score can also be affected by the plugins you use on your WordPress site. Heavy software can slow down your site, especially if these tools use a lot of CSS or JavaScript.

PageSpeed Insights recommends removing all plugins that add volume to your pages:

More specifically, you will need to eliminate all tools that load unused CSS and JavaScript. Having many unused scripts on your site adds unnecessary data transfer. Thus, these processes slow down content rendering.

The PageSpeed Insight report provides you with the URLs of problematic scripts to help you identify those heavy plugins. However, if you have a large number of tools on your site, removing them can still take a long time.

Therefore, you might start by removing any unused or unnecessary plugins from your site. You can then try to find lighter alternatives.

5. Reduce your server’s response time.
   Server response time, also known as time to first byte (TTFB), is the time it takes for a user’s browser to receive the first byte of content from your page. Slow server response times will result in delays in page loading, which will affect your LCP score.

As noted in PageSpeed Insights, plugins, themes, and hosting service can affect server response times:

If you have removed unused plugins and scripts from your site and are still getting a poor LCP score, the problem may be your server. Therefore, it may be time to upgrade to a better hosting plan.

Shared hosting is often the best solution for new websites because it is affordable. However, with this package, you share a server with many other website owners. Therefore, if the server receives a large number of requests at once, it can slow down response times.

As your site grows and you begin to receive more traffic, it is worth considering upgrading to a more advanced plan. We recommend opting for managed WordPress hosting . With this solution, your web host will handle all the optimization tasks necessary to keep your website running smoothly.

You might also consider a virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated hosting . Although these services can be a bit expensive, you will get more server resources. In addition, the provider will configure the server according to your specific needs and requirements. Therefore, it will be better equipped to handle large amounts of traffic and efficiently deliver your content.

Enhance your LCP in WordPress today
The user experience (UX) and loading time of your site can affect your visibility in search results. Therefore, it is critical to improve the overall performance of your site, including your LCP score.

In this post, we reviewed five effective ways to improve the largest contentful paint score in WordPress:

1.Optimize your images, using a compression tool.
2.Eliminate resources that block rendering with a plugin
3.Use a content delivery network (CDN)
4.Remove unused plugins from your site.
5.Reduce your server’s response time by upgrading to a more powerful hosting plan.