Tips Tuesday – eCreators Hub is Live, Swapping Themes, Malware in Ads  

Tips this week include:

• The new eCreators Hub is live!
• EZ Metrix webinar next week
• Smooth theme swap recap
• Not so smooth theme swap
• Reusing themes
• Google removes infinite scroll and how it affects your position/clicks
• Social Warfare suffered a malware injection
• Why to only use recommended plugins and themes
• Malware coming through ads
• Why ad agencies can’t keep your site secure
• Yoast dropping support for super old PHP versions
• How to keep up with site-related changes the easy way
• Easier Amazon affiliate links

BlogAid Happenings

It’s a holiday week in the U.S. and I’ve got some fireworks for you.

eCreators Hub is Live!

Go to eCreatorsHub.com to find the new agency I’ve been telling you about for the past few weeks.

Right now it has the EZ Metrix course as well as a few done-for-you services for:

• Trip wire setup with Gumroad
• Membership/Course setup with MemberPress
• Multiple digital download setup with either Gumroad, Shopify, or MemberPress

(All of these done-for-you services plus more are available via BlogAid too.)

I’ve got LOTS more courses and digital downloads coming in the eCreators Hub for you. 

EZ Metrix Webinar Next Week

I was hoping to do the live webinar for EZ Metrix this Thursday.

But I’ve had my head down working on the site so much every day that I didn’t look forward on my calendar to realize that it would be July 4.

I figured a lot of my U.S. peeps would be taking a long weekend, so we’re going to delay the webinar by 1 week.

I’ll be sending invitations to you, hopefully by the end of the weekend so you can register.

But go ahead and mark your calendar now for Thursday, July 11 at 12pm ET.

However, you can go ahead and get EZ Metrix right now and get the grand opening discount price.

Smooth Theme Swap Recap

We finished swapping the 3 BlogAid related sites from Genesis to Kadence without much fuss at all.

In fact, I was stunned at how fast Michelle Phillips of Codefetti had the new themes done on the clones and any issues with minor layout changes documented.

Most of those layout issues were from an older way of doing things and she helped me quickly upgrade to a modern layout for them.

And we were able to use native WP blocks for everything except some special layouts on the home page and product/course/services landing pages.

Not So Smooth Theme Swap

The theme swap on Heartwood Art was a whole different story.

Michelle got the clone changed over in just one day.

But there was one huge issue.

Most, but not all of the native WP blocks that had a background lost that styling.

Michelle immediately opened a support ticket with Kadence, and they are very responsive with replies on those.

Unfortunately, this is a caveat of WP itself.

This is entirely unacceptable.

In digging around a bit, it seems that the places where I used native WP blocks to begin with kept their styling.

But, all of the blocks I recreated with native WP blocks when I was switching out of Spectra blocks are the ones that lost their styling.

At least that is what my initial, and very shallow investigation seems to indicate.

Keep in mind that I started using Gutenberg on this site over 4 years ago.

And the WP core has changed a LOT since then, as have what is supported in Gutenberg blocks.

I have to wonder if there is some missing backwards compatibility here – something that WP is famous for being considerate of, even to the point that it delays future development, and something that Astra/Spectra doesn’t respect most of the time when they come out with something new, which was the whole point of me switching the blocks.

Needless to say, I don’t have time in my schedule right now to fix all of those blocks. And I can’t let them go because those background colors define sections that make it easy to consume the content, especially when trying to find the areas a woodworker needs to reference, like the tools and materials lists. So, we decided to take a backup of the clone and table the theme swap for another time.

The fact is, Michelle has been doing theme swaps for years and not run into this issue at this level. And we’re not hearing too many folks scream about it.

But it is a known fact.

And Michelle is following up with Kadence support in hopes that they will bring this to the attention of the WP devs.

There is NO way someone with a 1000 page site can afford to swap themes if they run into a similar issue.

So, maybe this issue will be addressed by the time we circle back to swapping out the theme on Heartwood Art, hopefully before the end of the year.

Reusing Themes

If the theme on eCreatorsHub looks somewhat familiar, that’s because we reused the theme from AI Discover Hub.

Michelle had created such a deliciously simple theme for AIDH that it was a no brainer to reuse it for ECH with just a few minor tweaks.

But, there is a special process to reusing a theme with Kadence, which is why I’m so glad Michelle had a little time leftover from our June project to do this other site for me and still keep her current schedule, which is packed.

So, if you’re thinking about a theme change before the end of this year or into the beginning of next, you need to visit Codefetti now and get on her schedule.

Site Services Update

If you have a site audit checkup due in July, now is the time to get in that request.

If you’re ready to get your site speedy and secure before the summer is out, or move to better hosting and perhaps combine an audit with it, now is a great time to get started.

SEO Tips

Google Removes Infinite Scroll

As of yesterday, Google has started the rollout to remove infinite scroll from search. They are starting with desktop and then will move on to mobile.

Google said it was to speed up the load of search.

What folks will see at the bottom of page 1 may include the People Also Ask accordion.

That means that if your post is in that, your Position may still be 1-10, but your Impressions will not rise unless the searcher opens that accordion. And your Clicks will not be plentiful if they don’t open it either.

This where EZ Metrix can quickly help you identify posts that are falling into this scenario.

Plugin Tips

Social Warfare Suffered Malware Injection 

According to the investigation by WordFence, it appears the developer account for the Social Warfare plugin was compromised, along with at least 3 other dev accounts.

And the attacker injected malware into all of the plugins.

Anyone who updated to that hacked version had malware on their sites.

The WordPress team took action on those accounts quickly and removed the malware. And the devs patched the plugins.

Folks, even though this issue was not caused by faulty plugin code, I strongly suggest that you get off this plugin. 

I’ve been warning about their poor coding for 6 years. And after the 4th time it burnt sites to the ground, most bloggers finally dropped it.

While you’re at it, seriously consider dropping share buttons altogether. None of them are accurate anymore, and they don’t lead to more sharing anymore either.

Because they are not accurate, they don’t serve as real social proof anymore either.

Plus, they load at the top of the request list and are a speed drag.

You don’t need a social follow plugin anymore either. WP has a native Social block that you can use anywhere on your site.

Use Recommended Plugins and Themes

My job is to help you have a fast and secure site.

That’s why I jump up and down about only using plugins that are vetted and well maintained.

In fact, I’ve beefed up the plugin checks that I do in site audits to ensure that even premium plugins are still being maintained, especially if I don’t recognize the vendor.

In some cases we’ve found that the site owner let their subscription expire or their credentials changed and they haven’t been getting updates.

Same goes with themes, especially if you are using a child theme, like most of us are.

The underlying framework theme is being updated, but your child theme is not.

That’s why it is so important to use a modern theme and keep it up to date every 2-3 years, even if you keep the same layout and look.

I have had the BlogAid sites on Genesis since their inception. And I had the child themes updated every couple of years to keep pace with changes to SEO and WP core, like when Gutenberg became available.

Some of my clients also had to get new themes when we did the PHP update from 7.x to 8.x.

Stay Ahead of the Curves

Things with WP code and with cybersecurity are changing fast now.

It’s important to get your expectations in line with that reality and plan to do what you need to do to keep up.

That’s also why my site audit Hub clients stick with me for years.

I keep them up to date with changes, and help them plan for bigger changes that are coming, like PHP updates, Gutenberg, and GA4. 

When other site owners are screaming that their site is broken, we are calmly going about our lives because we addressed that in a planned way months prior.

Are you ready to get in-the-know and have a fast, secure site and the kind of support that makes it easy for you to keep your site that way?

Get an audit and let’s get it done for you.

Got blogger buddies who are struggling with their sites? Tell them about BlogAid.

Security Tips

Malware Coming Through Ads

This is scary, y’all. 

According to an investigation by cybersecurity company, Malwarebytes, some Google ads are serving up malware.

It could be happening on your site and you may never know about it.

If a new visitor encounters such an ad, they are not going to contact you to let you know.

The only way you may hear about it is if you happen to see it, or if one of your loyal, repeat visitors runs into it and contacts you.

And no site tech or host will be able to help you find it because ads rotate, and the odds are they will not see it when they go to check the site.

Ad Agencies Can’t Keep Your Site Secure

Keep in mind that ad agencies serve ads from many different streams, including Google ads, which is why you have to be in good standing with a Google ads account to participate with their agency.

They don’t scan the ads for security or even https delivery before placing them on your site.

At least that is my understanding of how things work.

If you feel so inclined, send this Malwarebytes article to your ad agency and then let us know what they say about it.

Yoast Dropping Support for Super Old PHP Versions

I’m glad to see this.

Yoast is dropping support for any PHP version below 7.6.

And even 7.6 hasn’t been a supported version for 2 years now.

The latest stable version is 8.1. And we will likely go up to 8.2 before year’s end.

Keeping Up The Easy Way

But there is a reason why WP, plugins, and themes have been so slow to require the latest PHP version.

There was a BIG function change between 7.6 and 8.0.

I took my site audit Hub clients through those tests 6 months prior to support being dropped on 7.6.

And sure enough, several folks had older plugins that were not being kept up to date. And a few clients had themes that broke.

But they had time to either bug the plugin dev silly to get on the ball or find a better plugin or get a newer theme.

We started hearing the screams when good hosts auto updated everyone to 8.0 so that their servers would not be compromised.

Too many site owners forget that sites are technical things and that they run on code that is ever evolving. And it’s changing faster now than ever.

And good plugin devs are keeping current with WP recommendations too.

So are we, and that’s why the majority of us haven’t already jumped up to PHP 8.2. It’s not stable yet.

Money Tips

Easier Amazon Affiliate Links

Tips Tuesday Plus subscribers got the rest of this tip.