MainWP Blog - Tips & Tricks

WordPress uses transients for storing cached short-term data in a sites database within the options database table. Depending on the set of plugins you are using in your plugin stack those plugins can end up bloating your options database table and those transients might not expire correctly. You can check to see how many transients are being stored in your options database table by using phpMyAdmin and then searching for the following option name from the options database table; _transient_% Continue reading the post...

WordPress has WP-Cron which is a built-in system used for scheduling time-based tasks. WordPress core adds a number of default cron events and those can easily be modified using a plugin such as WP Crontrol. After you have installed and activated the plugin it will add sub-menu items to; Tools > Cron Events To view, all WordPress core events go to the middle section which will show all of those. Two cron events that are worth modifying would be; delete_expired_transients Continue reading the post...

One of the easiest ways to improve your Google Web Vitals site performance is to use the just out beta Jetpack Boost plugin on your site. After you have installed and activated the plugin it will add a new admin menu item called; Jetpack Boost In your order to use Jetpack Boost you will need to connect it to your WordPress.com account for making the Jetpack connection. After you have connected Jetpack Boost you will see what the performance results Continue reading the post...

WooCommerce is one of the most commonly used plugins to add e-commerce features to a site. One of the most regular issues that WooCommerce can cause to a site in terms of performance in the site’s database is related to transients. Transients are temporary data that is stored as options in the options database table. But certain types of WooCommerce transients do not expire and then get deleted as expired transients. If you are using the geolocation feature to work Continue reading the post...

Google is in the process of rolling out Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) in the Chrome browser. FLoC is intended as a replacement for cookies as interest-based marketing solution that can be used in the same way cookies are currently used. Google FLoC raises a number of privacy issues and due to GDPR rules in place in Europe currently, the FLoC trial is not being rolled out there. WordPress may or may not end up having a filter or a setting Continue reading the post...

Social Proofy is a service for providing social proof on your website easily. The WordPress for the Social Proofy integration is really easy to use. In order to use Social Proofy on your site, you will need to signup for an account. Pricing starts at $3 a month for up to 1,000 impressions and goes up to $84 a month for 1,000,000 impressions. After you have installed and activated the plugin on your site look for the admin menu called; Continue reading the post...

Improving default site search on your site is essential to help users find relevant content. In the case of sites running WooCommerce then improved product search is worth changing to. One useful plugin for improving the search on your site is Ivory Search. After you have installed and activated the plugin then you find all of the relevant settings in the Ivory Search admin menu. The first step is to create a new search form, you can create as many Continue reading the post...

WooCommerce is being used on more and more sites for adding e-commerce features to new sites or to existing sites. Knowing of solid plugins which add useful features is worth bookmarking and keeping track of those plugins for when that feature comes up in client request. We are going to cover three really handy plugins for WooCommerce the first is called WPC Fly Cart for WooCommerce. The plugin will add a flyout popup when a customer goes to add a Continue reading the post...

Knowing what newer solid email marketing platforms are out there will help you pick different options than some of the more commonly known ones. Sender.net is one of the newer email marketing platforms which just got a WordPress plugin that also has integration for WooCommerce. Sender.net has a free forever plan which includes up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails per month. After you have installed and activated the Sender.net plugin you will need to have a Sender.net account. Enter Continue reading the post...

Keeping your site size down and fast is easy to do with the new plugin from WPVivid which is called WPVivid Image Optimization. After you have installed and activated the plugin it will add a new admin menu item called; WPVivid Imgoptin In order to be able to use the plugin, you will need a create a free account on the WPVivid site in order to get your API key. After you have created your free account you can find Continue reading the post...