MainWP Blog - Sebastian Moran

Sebastian Moran is a WordPress performance expert and technical liaison for MainWP.

Shielding Your WordPress Database: Tips for Enhanced Security

Published on February 28, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Shielding Your WordPress Database: Tips for Enhanced Security
Protecting your WordPress database is essential for safeguarding your website’s integrity and security. Since the database stores critical information such as posts, pages, user details, and site settings, it becomes a primary target for cyber threats. By implementing strong security measures, you can minimize the risk of unauthorized access and prevent potential data breaches. 1. Modify the Default Administrator Username WordPress assigns ‘admin’ as the default administrator username, which is widely known and often targeted by attackers. Changing this default Continue reading the post...

Updating WordPress Thumbnails: Quick and Easy Solutions

Published on February 26, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Updating WordPress Thumbnails: Quick and Easy Solutions
Forcing WordPress to regenerate thumbnails is essential when you update your site’s image dimensions or switch to a new theme with different thumbnail sizes. WordPress creates multiple thumbnail sizes upon image upload based on your site’s settings and theme requirements. However, existing images don’t automatically change to these changes. Regenerating thumbnails ensures consistency, preventing stretched or improperly cropped images that can negatively impact your site’s aesthetics and user experience. It also provides compatibility with features like responsive design and custom Continue reading the post...

Freshen Up Your WordPress Media Library: Decluttering Made Easy

Published on February 25, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Freshen Up Your WordPress Media Library: Decluttering Made Easy
Spring cleaning isn’t just for your home; your WordPress website deserves a refresh too. Over time, your Media Library can become cluttered with unused images, duplicate files, and outdated assets. Cleaning it up can enhance site performance, save storage space, and simplify content management. Here’s a step-by-step guide to declutter your WordPress Media Library effectively. 1. Audit Your Media Library Begin by assessing your Media Library. Navigate to the WordPress dashboard and click on “Media.” Look for unused or outdated Continue reading the post...

Is Your WordPress Database Bloated? How to Analyze Autoload Size

Published on February 21, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Is Your WordPress Database Bloated? How to Analyze Autoload Size
The autoload column in WordPress’s wp_options table determines if an option is automatically loaded during site initialization. Options with autoload set to yes are preloaded into memory, which is ideal for frequently used data like site settings or theme configurations, reducing database queries. Conversely, options with autoload set to no are retrieved only when explicitly requested. While autoloading essential data improves performance, excessive or large autoloaded options can increase memory usage and slow down page loads. To optimize performance, limit Continue reading the post...

Prevent WordPress from Self-Pinging: Step-by-Step Guide

Published on February 19, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Prevent WordPress from Self-Pinging: Step-by-Step Guide
Self-pings, or self-trackbacks, are notifications generated when you link to your posts within your WordPress site. While these can be helpful to navigation tools, they can clutter the comments section and create unnecessary distractions. Disabling self-pings is simple using one of the existing plugins there; disabling them can enhance your WordPress site. To prevent your WordPress site from self-pinging, install the No Self Ping plugin on all connected child sites in your MainWP dashboard. The plugin has a limited set Continue reading the post...

How to Stop Card Testing Attacks on Your WooCommerce Store

Published on February 7, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
How to Stop Card Testing Attacks on Your WooCommerce Store
If you are running the WooCommerce plugin for ecommerce functionality on your WordPress site but have noticed an uptick in origin-unknown failed orders. These fraud orders can be a pain to deal with, and you have to manually review and clear out 60 to 80 orders per week or even more frequently, depending on how much of an issue it ends up being on the site. A card testing attack in WooCommerce occurs when fraudsters use an online store’s payment Continue reading the post...

Lock Down Your WooCommerce Store: Proven Security Tips

Published on February 3, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Lock Down Your WooCommerce Store: Proven Security Tips
Running a WooCommerce store offers vast growth potential, but with that comes significant security risks. As cyberattacks evolve, store owners must prioritize protecting customer data and transactions to prevent financial loss and reputational damage.     The following security measures are essential for keeping your WooCommerce store safe.   Keep Software Up-to-Date   Outdated software is one of the leading causes of security breaches. WooCommerce, WordPress, and all associated plugins should be kept up to date to ensure they are Continue reading the post...

Managing WP Rocket Cache: How to Prevent Automatic Clearing

Published on January 31, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Managing WP Rocket Cache: How to Prevent Automatic Clearing
WP Rocket is a popular caching plugin for WordPress that enhances website speed and performance by reducing load times and optimizing resources. It simplifies the complex caching process by automatically generating static page versions, reducing server processing, and improving user experience. WP Rocket offers page caching, browser caching, and GZIP compression to minimize bandwidth usage and accelerate page delivery. If you use the WP Rocket plugin on a site that also runs WooCommerce for e-commerce functions, you may notice that Continue reading the post...

Disable WooCommerce Brands with These Easy Steps

Published on January 17, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
Disable WooCommerce Brands with These Easy Steps
Previously, there was a premium plugin brands to be able to add that feature to your WooCommerce store. Recently, the brands plugin was merged into WooCommerce core as part of the effort to bring more features into WooCommerce core; this was in a beta version. WooCommerce brands feature in WooCommerce core is being enabled for all users in the WooCommerce 9.6 release, which is scheduled for release on the 20th of January. Suppose you already have a custom taxonomy on Continue reading the post...

How to Manage and Update Logging Retention in WooCommerce

Published on January 17, 2025 by Sebastian Moran under Tips & Tricks
How to Manage and Update Logging Retention in WooCommerce
WooCommerce has its own logging system, which was improved in the WooCommerce 8.6.0 release. WooCommerce logging is not the same as logging that WordPress generates when debugging is enabled on a site. The default method used for log storage is the file system, where the log files are stored on the server in the following directory; /uploads/wc-logs WooCommerce logging supports logs stored in the site’s database, but this is not recommended for performance reasons on a production site. The default Continue reading the post...

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