SiteCare

PHP is the powerhouse behind every WordPress site, and keeping it updated is essential for security and performance. Yet, it’s astonishing how many sites still use outdated versions. A staggering 40.2% of WordPress sites are stuck on PHP 7.4, which reached its end of life in November 2022. That’s a significant number of sites that haven’t updated their PHP version in over a year and a half. We understand—updating PHP can be daunting, and the fear of breaking your site is real. Plus, with many hosts still supporting older versions, the urgency can seem low. But here’s the truth: keeping your PHP up-to-date enhances your site’s performance and security. So, we have to ask: what version of PHP is your site running? Aren't sure how to find your PHP version? Hit us up in the comments.

Achieving optimal health for your website is our ultimate goal. But what exactly does “site health” mean? It’s straightforward. We’ve pinpointed 15 crucial aspects of a WordPress site that, when properly maintained, ensure smooth and secure operation. These aspects, integrated into our SiteCare Score Plugin, cover everything from themes and plugins to PHP versions and beyond. For us, good health means a site that’s up-to-date, safeguarded against vulnerabilities, and accessible to all users and search engines. You’d be amazed at how many sites come to us plagued with abandoned plugins, outdated themes, and unsupported PHP versions. The secret to a thriving site lies in proactive care. Schedule regular scans, maintain consistently, fine-tune settings, and replace obsolete technology. Uncertain about your site’s health or where to begin? Take our SiteCare Score plugin for a test drive and take the first step towards a healthier site! https://hubs.ly/Q02F1YLP0

This June, we proudly introduced the SiteCare Score plugin—a game-changer for WordPress site health 🎉 This powerful tool evaluates the technology behind your WordPress site, assigning it a score from 1 to 100. Not only does it ensure your site is secure and adheres to best practices, but it also tracks your progress over time. Join our Chief of Staff, Ryan Sullivan, as he showcases the SiteCare Score plugin in action. Discover why this plugin is indispensable for maintaining a top-notch WordPress site! #SiteCare #WordPress #SiteHealth #WordPressPlugin #WordPressHealth

Google has made it known that a seamless and fast user experience is a ranking factor. Getting Good scores on Core Web Vitals is essential for improving your SERP rankings and shouldn't be ignored! How do you get started with optimizing your #WordPress site? First, you should figure out where your scoring poorly. Run a scan on https://hubs.li/Q02ClnNx0 or, better yet, pull up your Google Search Console dashboard and check out the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) data for your site. Where you're scoring poorly will give you insights on figuring out the right solution for your site. Is your Interaction to Next Paint more than 200ms? Try installing a code optimization plugin like PerfMatters to improve the time it takes for user's interactions to register in the browser. Cumulative Layout Shift causing users grief by content and interactive elements jumping around on the page? Double-check your image settings. Do they have size attributes defined? A plugin like WP Rocket can help by adding missing image dimensions. Finally, does your Largest Contentful Paint take longer than 2.5 seconds? If so, a caching plugin WP Super Cache will help cache your site's pages so that they can be delivered quickly. Looking for more optimization plugins than the ones mentioned here? Check out our post about performance plugins: https://hubs.li/Q02Cl4720 If you're struggling to get your site scoring Good for Core Web Vitals, then drop us a line in the comments! #CoreWebVitals #SiteOptimization #usability #userexperience

A lot of people's first stop for checking the performance of their site is Google's PageSpeed Insights. However, the way the data is presented in this tool can be misleading or confusing at times. It's important to know that PageSpeed Insights throttles the connection at which they test your site, some might say excessively. With that said, this tool can be extremely useful and provide a lot of insight on where your site could improve performance-wise. So lets dive into how to use it properly. When you first run a scan, you'll see the Core Web Vitals Assessment pop up instantly. It's important to note that the Core Web Vitals section is using data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), which is a 30 day average of your site's performance. Take this section with a grain of salt because it's likely not an accurate representation of your current Core Web Vitals, especially if you've been working on optimizations already. Below the Core Web Vitals Assessment, you'll see the Diagnose Performance Issues section. It can take several minutes for this section to populate due to it scanning and testing the page in real time, so be patient! Once it does load, the information it provides invaluable insights and tips for improving in the areas you may be scoring poorly in. Once everything has loaded, start reviewing the diagnostics. Each section provides key information like how long it took to load, potential savings, and the elements on the page that are causing performance bottlenecks. Some diagnostics, like "serve images in next-gen formats", will even provide information about tools you can use to improve what was measured. Do not be dismayed if your performance score never reaches 100. Due to the throttling PageSpeed Insights performs on its scans, it can be near-impossible for sites to score 100, especially on mobile. The goal is to get your Core Web Vitals in the Good range so if you start to see positive trends for Core Web Vitals, then the optimization work you've done was not in vain. These were just some quick insights on Google's PageSpeed Insights but we put together a whole post detailing how to use this tool and what to look out for: https://hubs.li/Q02CRJ8h0 If you find yourself stuck and no configuration or change you made seems to be improving your Core Web Vitals, then leave us a comment, and we'll schedule a time to discuss how SiteCare can help you achieve your performance dreams. #CoreWebVitals #WordPress #PageSpeedInsights #webperformance

🔎 When was the last time you took a look at where your site stands against Core Web Vitals? Yesterday? A month ago? A year ago? Never?! You don't have to watch your metrics like a hawk, but several tools and services can help you stay informed and monitor your site's performance. Here are our top 3 favorite tools for staying on top of Core Web Vitals: Google Search Console - Nothing is better than the source of truth, Google Search Console and it's free to use! While reporting can be delayed (it can take up to a month to see changes!), Google Search Console does send out alerts when pages have dipped into the Needs Improvement or Poor ranges. Keep an eye out for these emails and check your dashboard every once in a while to stay in the know on your site. DebugBear - we use this tool for real-time tracking of Core Web Vitals. For metrics like Interaction to Next Paint, that require a users interaction, you can install a simple line of code on your WordPress site to enable Real User Monitoring (RUM). DebugBear also allows you to track specific pages and get alerts whenever significant changes to your Core Web Vitals scores exist. Many features of DebugBear, like RUM tracking, are only available for paid accounts GTMetrix - this tool has a monitor feature that, when enabled, will scan your site on a regular basis and email you alerts when your performance dips below certain conditions. You can set these scans to test a page on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and see how your site is trending for Core Web Vitals, Performance, Structure and more. In addition to being able to set up regular scans, GTMetrix offers a plethora of options to test your site against, like throttling and ad-blocking tests. Like DebugBear, many of GTMetrix's features are only available for paid accounts. These three tools can help you find out where your site may be failing at achieving good Core Web Vitals and optimal performance. We at SiteCare use these tools daily to help achieve Good Core Web Vitals for our clients and monitor their sites to ensure they never dip below Good again. If you're having trouble achieving Good Core Web Vitals and improving your WordPress site's performance, then leave us a comment below and we'd be happy to tell you about our Core Web Vitals Guarantee along with the other incredible features of our plans.

We’ve been talking about the three main Core Web Vitals this month: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics can be affected by various issues, but we’ve found three common mistakes that can harm your site’s performance. Fortunately, these mistakes are easy to fix! ⏰ Your site has a slow Time to First Byte (TTFB): You might think TTFB isn’t a Core Web Vital, but a slow TTFB can impact all three of them. TTFB measures how long it takes for a browser to get the first byte of data from your server. Improving TTFB speeds up your site and improves LCP, INP, and CLS. You can enhance TTFB by using an optimization plugin to minimize code, reduce unused CSS, and cache pages. 🌅 Unoptimized images slow down LCP: Large, unoptimized images are a major cause of slow LCP scores. Fixing this is simple. Reduce image file sizes to under 200KB before uploading them. Use a plugin like Imagify to compress images further and convert them to modern formats like WebP or AVIF. These steps will make your pages load faster and improve LCP. 🖼️ Missing size attributes or placeholders: If your images or dynamic content shift the layout as they load, you have a CLS problem. Make sure all images have size attributes and reserve space for dynamic content. This will prevent layout shifts and provide a smoother experience for your users. Achieving good Core Web Vitals might seem challenging, but addressing these three mistakes will put you on the right track. If you’ve tried these fixes and still need help, leave a comment below. Our support plans guarantee good Core Web Vitals, and we can help your site succeed! #WordPress #largestcontentfulpaint #interactiontonextpaint #cumulativelayoutshift #uxmistakes

💪 Just released! The SiteCare Score Plugin from SiteCare. Do you have a personal trainer for your WordPress website? It might sound strange but our SiteCare Score plugin is exactly that, and it's free to download and install right now. We know this is going to become your go-to tool for checking and tracking your WordPress Site Health. With the SiteCare Score plugin, you can easily find hidden technical issues, potential security risks, abandoned plugins, and so much more. It will meticulously check your website's critical technical aspects and provide actionable tips to improve your site's score and get it to 100! Download it today and get started with improving your WordPress site's health! https://hubs.li/Q02BWJH40 #WordPress #SiteHealth #WordPressPlugin #WordPressHealth #WordPressSecurity #wordpresswebsite

Since we launched our new SiteCare plans back in March, we've been deep in the weeds of optimizing sites for Core Web Vitals. We know which ones have been the trickiest for us to overcome, but we're curious to know which Core Web Vital has been giving you the biggest grief. #CoreWebVitals #WordPress #uxui

There’s nothing more maddening than trying to click on a button only to find it’s moved, causing you to accidentally click on something else! If you’ve ever experienced this while browsing the web, then you’ve had the dubious pleasure of encountering a Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS. CLS is one of Google’s Core Web Vitals (yep, those important metrics again) and can really mess with the user experience. Imagine accidentally placing an order, clicking on the wrong button or link, or having the content you’re reading suddenly jump around, making you lose your spot. Frustrating, right? This constant annoyance is why Google made CLS a key part of their Core Web Vitals. So, how do you find and fix CLS issues? In our experience, the biggest culprits for CLS are ads and media loading. Here are two essential tips to combat these annoying shifts: 1️⃣ Set size attributes for images, videos, iframes, and other media on your site. By setting these size attributes, the browser will know exactly how much space to reserve for the media before it loads. This is especially helpful if you use lazy loading to improve performance. Instead of the image loading in and pushing content around, there will be a reserved space for it. 2️⃣ Make sure your ads have placeholders, especially dynamic ones. Even if your ad takes a while to load, the placeholder will be there, preventing any shifts when the ad finally shows up. But wait, there’s more! CLS can also be caused by things like font loading delays or cookie/informational banners that pop into your content instead of sitting nicely on top. If you’re dealing with these issues and don’t know where to start, drop us a comment. We’re so confident we can fix your CLS issues that we guarantee it in our plans. #CoreWebVitals #WordPress #UserExperience