Tips Tuesday – WordPress Spring Cleaning, The Future of WordPress, AI Content Writing 

Tips this week include:

• Deep site checks are worth it
• WordPress Spring cleaning
• Email list service DNS checks
• Why emails go to spam
• AI SEO no-no’s
• Write content for AI workshop this week
• The Search pendulum is swinging away from AI
• Video Search gets you clicks
• Lawsuit on embedded video tracking
• Chrome Extension steals Meta 2FA
• WP lawsuit status
• Delay on WP 7.0 beta release
• The future of WP – according to Matt
• AI Agents don’t know best practices either

Happenings

Deep Site Checks Are Worth It

Every annual audit cycle I add a new check to the list. That’s because our sites and businesses have evolved over time and after a while there is a build up of old orphaned stuff, or things that may have gotten overlooked.

Last year we updated our PHP version and checked the 5-6 emails that are used on the site to ensure all matched our SMTP settings. Plus, we checked that those email DNS records were all up to par too.

WordPress Spring Cleaning

This year, we’re doing a super deep clean on the core WordPress files and more database tables.

Boy, has that ever paid off, especially for sites that started between 10-20 years ago, like mine and many of my clients!!!

Besides removing super old core WP files that are no longer in use, and that AI hackers are trying to find a way to exploit, we’ve also gotten rid of some random glitches and hidden conflicts too.

Plus, removing hundreds of auto-loading orphans has improved site loading speed as well.

Email List Service DNS Checks

This year we’re also double checking that everyone has the full DNS authentication records for their newsletter email list service too.

There was a big push about 1.5-2 years ago for everyone to get their extra records added, and many of the list services created wizards to help with doing that. But, in the early days of it, those wizards caused a bunch of issues by duplicating some records or trying to combine others in ways that were not good.

And some folks never did the authentication process at all.

So, we’re making sure that everyone has the correct records to ensure that they have the best email delivery possible, and that none of it goes into the spam folder.

Why Emails Go to Spam

That said, even when you have all of your records correct, emails can still end up in the spam filter or get deleted entirely before the subscriber sees them.

That has everything to do with the subscriber’s email client, like Outlook or Gmail.

There’s nothing you can do about the filters that those email services set, or how the subscriber filters things.

But, having all of your authentication records certainly helps the most.

And when you use subject lines for your emails that don’t look spammy, that helps too.

Plus, having your profile set up properly and fully for your From email is also helpful.

So, be sure you are covering all of your bases to ensure your email has the best chance for being seen and opened by your subscribers.

SEO Tips

AI SEO No-No’s

In the DIY SEO course last week we covered all of the snake oil AI SEO tactics floating around out there.

That includes using the llm.txt file and all the folks saying it’s low-hanging fruit and can’t hurt anything even if none of the AI bot crawlers use it and there is no standard for it.

What I have to say to them is – tell me you don’t know a damn thing about SEO testing without telling me you don’t know a damn thing!!!

I shared with my peeps how black-SEO folks are using all kinds of .txt files to game the system and how both Google and Bing are giving warnings about it. I believe this is just ahead of them rolling out an update to penalize sites doing this stupid stuff.

That low-hanging fruit advice is going to bite a bunch of people down the road!!!

Write Content for AI Workshop

In this week’s workshop we’ll cover how to write and format content for AI bots.

And we’ll see ways not to do it because they could bork your regular SEO with both Google and Bing.

The Search Pendulum is Swinging Away from AI

Frankenstein recipes – that’s what folks are calling the crazy recipe summaries that show up too frequently in AI Search summaries.

AI has no idea that during the depression, folks used vinegar in apple pie recipes, and even chocolate cakes, because they didn’t have all of the normal ingredients.

AI bots picked up that info, plus 10,000 other apple pie recipes, and kluged them together into a dish that would make you barf.

Well, that same thing is happening with lots of topics.

And searchers are getting fed up with it.

They want to find blog posts from real humans that have info they can trust.

That’s us!!!!!!!!

So, hang in there, y’all.

The Search pendulum is swinging back our way.

Video Tips

Video Search Gets You Clicks

If you have ANYTHING that could be show and tell, put it in a video.

That is THE most trustworthy form of content you can deliver.

And that’s exactly why Google has returned to promoting video in Search, even in the AI Overviews section.

Lawsuit on Embedded Video Tracking

One of the perks of doing YouTube videos is that you can also embed them on your site.

The YouTube Player comes with that embed link, and it tracks the watchtime and counts toward your monthly monetization goals the same as if that person watched it on YouTube.

But, an embedded video may come with additional tracking via GA4 and even the Meta Pixel or other tracking tools that you use on your site.

That’s the concern being addressed in a lawsuit that the Supreme Court is now hearing on privacy.

I’ll be keeping my eye on this, as it could have implications beyond these common tracking tools and may even reach deeper into 3rd party tracking via the ads you may be running on your site too.

Social Media Tips

Chrome Extension Steals Meta 2FA

If you use Meta Business Suite, do not use the CL Suite Chrome Extension!!!

It will steal your 2FA code and business analytics data.

If you have a social media manager, contact them to ensure they are not using this thing either.

WordPress Tips

WP Lawsuit Status

You may recall that a little over a year ago we had a WHOLE bunch of WP drama with Matt Mullenweg bringing suits against WP Engine and then scaring the beegeebees out of everyone with the revelation that he personally owned and controlled access to WP itself, plus the plugin and theme repositories.

He blocked access to many plugin devs and threatened them personally too.

That sparked WP Engine and other devs to find a way around plugin access. And a new non-profit was even started to set up mirror sites so that WP.org would not be the one and only source to get plugins or updates.

It also sparked Matt to tell everyone at Automattic, who did not agree with his outbursts, to clean out their desks – and LOTS of them did. Plus, it made all of the volunteers who helped develop and maintain WP back off too. 

That’s the main reason why we only had 2 releases last year, and they were bug fixes for the most part, not new features. They no longer had enough people to do the work.

I’ve been watching for news ever since to see how all this will affect us.

But, besides Matt declaring a win on some points about 6 months ago, that were later stripped on appeal, there hasn’t been any news.

I checked with a couple of my webmasters who are deeply connected into the WP dev community and they are not hearing any rumblings either.

The new mirrored site foundation has gone quite too.

Fine with us!!!!!! 

And let’s hope it stays that way for a long while yet.

But I have a feeling that something is brewing. It’s been too quiet, if you know what I mean.

Delay on WP 7.0 Beta Release

It looks like we’re returning to 3 releases a year now, but each one has one primary feature focus. The 7.0 release will bring in a standardized way for 3rd-party AI stuff to connect to the site.

However, the first beta for 7.0 was supposed to roll out last Thursday. 

It was delayed a day due to serious test fails on the dev site.

There are 4 beta releases planned, a week apart.

And the final release will be in early April.

I’ll keep you posted, but I won’t start my testing until at least the first RC (Release Candidate) rolls out.

Future of wp

The Future of WordPress – According to Matt

In this WP Tonic interview, Jonathan Denwood asked guest, Matt Mullenweg, what he thought the biggest opportunities and threats to WordPress in the next 18 months.

First thing Matt said was about the threat of AI, including AI finding more security bugs. 

He said that all open source code is being deluged with this because the coding part of AI has gotten so good.

Keep in mind that he was referring not just to WP core, but to the 80,000 plugins available for it too.

He also said that all software platforms are being flooded with AI Agentic-driven inputs. So, the challenge for the next year is to find ways to deal with that and incorporate it.

I find all of this scary.

AI Tips

AI Agents Don’t Know Best Practices Either

Here’s an example of the AI Agent nightmare I’ve been sharing with you. And thanks to one of my clients for bringing it to my attention.

Back in December, Amazon’s AI Coding bot decided that the current, live coding for AWS had flaws and then deleted it before writing its own new code.

That caused a 13 hour disruption.

They claim this was minor and only affected a single service in parts of China. So, it didn’t impact our AS3 storage.

But, the bigger issue is that they turned an AI Agent loose in a production environment.

And apparently, they didn’t program that Agent to do version control and ensure there was a backup of the code prior to deletion. Nor did they instruct it not to alter the live environment without authorization.

Folks, these are the types of blunders you would expect from vibe coders who know nothing about development best practices.

But the scariest part of all of this, to me, is that AI Agents are running live on hosts, and within range of live, production environments.

More folks are using AI Agents on sites that may be on shared hosts that are popular with bloggers, like us. 

You better believe I’m keeping close tabs on the types of AI things WordPress is integrating into core. But that’s not the big threat. 

AI Agents running autonomously are far more dangerous.

I don’t want to turn this weekly post into a doom and gloom report about AI.

But, I think it’s super important for you to at least know enough about what’s happening so that you are aware of how it can affect your site – from many angles.

And, I don’t want you to get excited about a shiny new AI thing and think it’s a good idea to incorporate that on your site – or maybe even your computer, especially if it is an Agent.

Stay safe and I’ll do my best to keep you informed about things that matter to us as site owners.