For example, you can use your footer to share links that don’t fit into your primary navigation menu, link out to your social media profiles, build your newsletter subscriber list, and more. By design, footers can be highly versatile, which means that with the right approach, they can help improve almost any website.

In this article, we’ll talk about the role of footers in modern web design. Then we’ll discuss how WordPress handles footers and go over four tips to customize yours. Let’s get to it!

The Role of Footers in Web Design

Modern web design tends to be highly modular. Most websites have clearly defined sections, which makes them easier to navigate. Usually, you have a primary menu, hero sections, the main content of the page, sidebars, and the footer.

By definition, the footer is the section at the bottom of each page. The way that footers look can vary depending on the website and its purpose, but usually, they tend to be unassuming from a design perspective:

That’s not to say that footers are unimportant. Throughout the last few years, it’s become more and more common for websites to rely on footers for non-critical links and other key elements.

Seasoned web users will know to jump to a site’s footer if they want to find elements such as privacy policies, contact information, and more:

As far as usefulness goes, the more complex your website is, the more likely it is that it can benefit from a well-designed footer. However, before we discuss how you can customize your WordPress website footer, we need to talk about how the platform treats this element.

How WordPress Handles Footers

Each WordPress theme handles footers slightly differently. However, the usual approach is to include multiple ‘widgets’ at the bottom of the page:

The widget approach gives you a high degree of control over the elements that you want to include in your footer and their position. Moreover, it makes the process of designing a ‘universal’ footer for your website much easier.

WordPress footers also play an important role when it comes to adding custom code to your website. If you need to incorporate third-party scripts into WordPress, you usually want to place them within either your child theme’s header or its footer.

Adding that code to your WordPress footer is the preferred method if you don’t need it to load right away. Although you can do so manually by editing your theme’s functions.php file, you can also use plugins such as Header, Footer and Post Injections:

To sum it up, your WordPress footer isn’t there just to provide an additional layout section to add elements to. It can also fulfill a role as a container for non-critical scripts to improve loading times over adding them to your header.

4 Tips to Customize Your WordPress Website Footer

If you’re not sure how to customize your WordPress website footer to make the most of it, don’t worry. We’re about to show you some of the best options at your disposal. While we’re at it, we’ll also show you examples of excellent footer designs from other sites.

1. Use Your Footer to Include an Extended Navigation Menu

One of the most common uses for footers is to act as an extended navigation menu. Ideally, you want to keep your site’s primary navigation menu relatively uncluttered and use it for links to your main pages:

Your footer, however, is fair game for all the links to other pages you want users to find. For example, we use ours to link you to our archives, specific post categories, and our Privacy Policy:

Which links to include within your primary menu and which ones to move to your footer shouldn’t be a difficult decision. If a specific page is critical to your site’s user or customer journey, then it should have a front-row seat on your website.

If your theme supports footer menus, you can create one using WordPress’ default menu builder (Appearance > Menus), then add it to your footer in the Menu Locations settings:

Depending on how many links you want to include, widget columns can come in handy:

If your website doesn’t have as many pages, there are plenty of other ways to use the footer section to your advantage.

2. Include Social Media Links In Your Footer

These days, it’s a necessity for most websites to have a social media presence. Without it, you miss out on engaging with your audience on additional platforms to build brand recognition and court new users.

If you have social media accounts for your website, then it’s best to link between them. So, the question becomes where to place those links on your website so they get the most clicks.

Modern web design conventions favor the use of social media icons as links since most users are familiar with each platform’s logo:

Some themes support social media icons out of the box. If yours doesn’t, you can easily add them by creating your own icons and links and inserting them in your footer as a widget, or with a plugin such as Social Icons Widget & Block by WPZOOM:

Other popular options for adding social media icons include your primary navigation menu or sidebar (if you have one). However, we only recommend adding social media links to your primary menu if they’re major sources of traffic.

For example, if you’re a blogger and you’re trying to build your brand, then you may want to place your social media icons front and center. For business sites, on the other hand, adding social media icons to your footer is often a better solution. Users will still be able to find them, but they won’t distract from other, more valuable internal links.

3. Add a Form or Call To Action (CTA) to Your Footer

In most cases, we create websites with vertical navigation in mind. That means that by the time visitors reach your footer, you want to convince them to take some kind of action. That action can take many forms, including:

• Signing up for your email newsletter
• Getting in touch with you via a contact form
• Clicking on a Call To Action (CTA) to start the conversion process

Although you can include multiple CTAs throughout a page, footers are perfectly positioned for both signup and contact forms:

Sidebars are also great options for placing both elements, but that depends on whether or not you use one in the first place. For signup forms, you can also opt to use popup messages, but in many cases that approach impacts the user experience negatively.

Using WordPress widgets, you should be able to place any of those three elements within your footer in a matter of minutes. For example, you could use the Text widget to create a CTA link, or the Custom HTML widget to code a clickable CTA button.

Most contact form plugins (including WPForms Lite) either provide a widget you can use to add a form to your footer or enable you to do so via a shortcode widget. Similarly, plugins such as MC4WP connect your site to your email marketing platform and include a signup form widget you can place in your footer.

4. Share Your Contact Information In Your Footer

If you run a business website, then there’s no better place to include your contact information or address than within its footer:

Depending on what type of business your site is for, ‘contact information’ can refer to an email, support phone numbers, links to WhatsApp, and more.

Including contact information within a site’s footer is an incredibly popular approach among businesses. Doing helps to establish your brand’s credibility and make visitors feel more at ease on your site, as they have evidence that your business is real.

Other approaches include placing contact information within About Us or Contact Us pages. However, unless you plan to create fleshed-out content for these pages, adding these details to your footer can be a much simpler solution.

To achieve this, all you really need is the default WordPress text widget. Enter your contact information and add it to your site’s footer.

Conclusion

Footers are a fundamental element within modern web design. Designing yours as an afterthought is a wasted opportunity. That goes particularly for WordPress footers since they’re so easy to build and customize thanks to themes and the widget system.

If you want to make the most of your WordPress website footer, here are four approaches you can use:

1. Use your footer to include an extended navigation menu.
2. Include social media links in your footer.
3. Add a contact form or CTA in your footer.
4. Share your contact information in your footer.

Do you have any questions about how to customize your WordPress footer? Let’s go over them in the comments section below!

The post 4 Tips for Customizing Your WordPress Website Footer appeared first on Torque.

Now, Google has announced that Core Web Vitals will become a ranking factor in May 2020. Google is by far the world’s most popular search engine, accounting for more than 88 percent of total desktop search traffic. If you want to attract more visitors to your site, it’s crucial you start optimizing your site accordingly.

In this article, we’ll look at what Core Web Vitals are and where they fit with Google’s other ranking factors, particularly page experience signals. We’ll then share a three-part plan for optimizing your website for these upcoming changes. Let’s get started!

Understanding Google’s Page Experience Signals

Core Web Vitals form part of Google’s page experience signals. These factors are Google’s attempt to determine how users perceive the experience of interacting with a particular web page.

Although Google has confirmed that content is still king, it also plans to take visitor experience into consideration. If your site meets all the page experience guidelines, it should have a positive impact on your rankings.

In particular, User Experience (UX) can become a crucial deciding factor when two pages have similar content. By optimizing for Google’s page experience signals, you may wind up ranking significantly higher than your competitors, even if you’re producing very similar blog posts or products and services.

Google’s page experience signals include mobile-friendliness. To ensure your site is optimized for mobile devices, Google recommends using its Mobile Usability Report and Mobile-Friendly Test. You can then resolve any issues discovered by these tools.

Safe-browsing is another important page experience signal. If Google discovers a security issue with your site, it will notify you via Search Console:

To ensure you receive these security alerts, it’s important to register your site in Search Console, even if you’re not currently experiencing any security or indexing issues.

Google has used Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) as a ranking signal since 2014. If you haven’t already migrated to HTTPS, we strongly recommend making the jump now.

Google will also penalize websites that use intrusive interstitials. These are popup ads that cover most or all of the page. This makes it difficult for users to interact with your website’s content and leads to bad UX.

An Introduction to Google’s Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure how users perceive the speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of a web page. At the time of this writing, the Core Web Vitals are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). The time it takes to render the largest content element on the page. Google identifies an ideal LCP as 2.5 seconds or less.
• First Input Delay (FID). The time from when a user first interacts with your page, to the time when their browser responds to that interaction. Ideally, your FID should be less than 100 milliseconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). The number of unexpected layout shifts during the page loading phase. CLS is rated from 0-1, and an ideal measurement is less than 0.1.

If your website meets the Core Web Vitals criteria, Google should prioritize your content in relevant search results. This is an advantage well worth pursuing.

In fact, a study published by ScreamingFrog suggests that less than 15 percent of websites would pass a Core Web Vitals assessment. By optimizing your site, you could gain a significant advantage over your competitors.

HubSpot’s research shows that 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of Google’s search results. By optimizing your site for Core Web Vitals, you can improve your chances of scoring a spot on Google’s front page.

Presently, Google is debating whether to use visual indicators to highlight content that delivers quality UX. Anything that helps your content stand out in search results is a big win. However, these labels could be particularly valuable, as visitors may perceive them as Google endorsing your content.

It’s worth noting that Google’s ranking criteria are always subject to change. There’s a chance that Core Web Vitals may evolve beyond LCP, FID, and CLS.

However, decreasing these values will always result in a better visitor experience. This will help drive traffic and conversions, even if LCP, FID, and CLS are no longer directly impacting your search engine rankings.

How to Improve Your Website’s Core Web Vitals (3 Key Tips)

By optimizing for Core Web Vitals, you can maximize your chances of climbing Google’s search engine rankings and attracting more traffic. With that in mind, here’s a three-part plan for improving your site’s Core Web Vitals.

1. Perform a Site-Wide UX and Performance Audit

To help prepare your site for Core Web Vitals, Google has created a dedicated reporting tool. It uses historical, real-world data to evaluate your site’s performance for all the key Web Vital metrics, including LCP, FID, and CLS:

The tool applies a Poor, Needs improvement, or Good label to specific URLs. This enables you to pinpoint the exact pages that require optimization. Wherever possible, it’s best to address all issues flagged as Poor or Needs Improvement.

It’s also important to note that the Core Web Vitals report breaks down its data by the device used to view each URL. Since mobile optimization is a key factor in Google’s broader page experience signals project, it’s smart to resolve all issues, even if they’re mobile-specific.

When resolving these problems, it may help to use additional performance monitoring tools. PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse are popular choices and also powered by Google.

2. Analyze Your Site With Chrome UX Report (CrUX)

Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is a dataset of Chrome users’ experiences, released as a Google BigQuery public project. You can use CrUX to measure your site’s performance across Core Web Vital metrics such as FID and LCP.

Theoretical and lab data can be useful for projecting your site’s performance across multiple platforms, and in hundreds of different situations. However, it’s often more effective to analyze the experiences of real-world users.

Unlike some other tools, CrUX focuses on real-world data. When used alongside lab data such as that provided by PageSpeed Insights, CrUX can maximize your chances of identifying and resolving any performance problems that may be impacting your website.

3. Consider Using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

When optimizing your site for Core Web Vitals, Google recommends using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). The AMP framework uses stripped-down HTML files to create a fast, mobile-friendly version of your website.

If you publish an AMP version of your website, Google will evaluate your mobile content based on its performance. 60 percent of AMP domains pass the Core Web Vitals metrics, compared to 12 percent of non-AMP domains.

The AMP project site has detailed instructions on how to create an AMP version of your content. Alternatively, the AMP for WP plugin generates AMP-valid markup based on your existing WordPress content:

If you do create an AMP version of your website, you can put it to the test using the AMP Page Experience Guide. This diagnostic tool evaluates your content using tools such as PageSpeed Insights, Safe Browsing, and the Mobile-Friendliness Test.

The AMP Page Experience will also provide actionable feedback and recommendations on how to further optimize your website. By following this advice, you may be able to further boost your website’s performance and better fulfill all of Google’s criteria.

Conclusion

Popular search engines such as Google are well-known for changing their ranking criteria. For a website owner or developer, this can mean more work, but the rewards are well worth pursuing. By climbing Google’s search results, you can boost your traffic, drive conversions, and increase your revenue.

To optimize your site for the upcoming Core Web Vitals ranking factor, we recommend the following:

1. Perform a site-wide audit using a tool such as the Core Web Vitals report.
2. Analyze your site using Chrome UX Report (CrUX).
3. Consider creating an AMP version of your content.

Do you have any questions about how to optimize your site for Google Core Web Vitals? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

The post Your Guide to Google Core Web Vitals appeared first on Torque.

WordPress 5.6 merged several features of the Gutenberg plugin into WordPress core. With the two versions of the Block Editor now (mostly) in harmony, this is the perfect time to take stock of its latest modifications.

In this post, we’ll share six recent changes to the Block Editor. We’ll also be looking to the future by showing you how to unlock beta features currently only available in the stand-alone Gutenberg plugin. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to the WordPress Block Editor

Gutenberg, or the Block Editor as it’s now commonly called, is WordPress’ built-in page and post editor. It was introduced in WordPress 5.0 to replace the TinyMCE Classic Editor, which you can still access using a plugin.

As the name suggests, this editor takes a block-based approach to creating webpages. Instead of working with one large content area, Gutenberg breaks pages into various content blocks. This includes many commonly-used elements such as paragraphs, headings, lists, and images.

Gutenberg was designed to give WordPress users more flexibility. For new users, the Block Editor can also make content creation more intuitive, particularly for anyone migrating from a platform such as Wix or Squarespace. It also seems to be WordPress’ attempt to compete with these and other visual website builders.

Prior to being incorporated into WordPress core, Gutenberg was developed as a separate plugin. Today, the Gutenberg plugin is still under active development and is usually several steps ahead of the Block Editor in WordPress core. This makes the Gutenberg plugin great for previewing upcoming editor features before they’re added to the platform.

6 Important WordPress Gutenberg Updates to Be Aware Of

Now that we’ve had a refresher about why the Block Editor marked such a huge change for the WordPress community, let’s explore some of the latest features. Here are six important Gutenberg updates to be aware of moving forward.

1. Full Site Editing (FSE)

Design is essential for catching and holding visitors’ interest. Effective web design can also communicate important information about your brand, and help potential customers decide whether to stay on your website or check out your biggest competitor.

To help you design a more consistent, engaging website, Gutenberg has introduced the concept of Full Site Editing (FSE). With FSE, you can use blocks to visually design and build all parts of your website, not just pages and posts.

This includes your header, footer, sidebar, and archive pages. Gutenberg developers have already created a library of site-building blocks, with more planned for the future.

As part of FSE, Gutenberg provides a Global Styling panel that behaves similarly to the traditional WordPress Customizer. This feature does require a compatible WordPress theme, such as the new Twenty Twenty-One default theme.

At this time, FSE capabilities are only available in the Gutenberg plugin. However, this functionality will be integrated into WordPress core in a future release, as Matt Mullenweg expressed in the 2020 State of the Word address.

2. Navigation Block and Builder

Clear, logical navigation is essential for helping visitors discover interesting content. This helps improve the visitor experience, which will have a positive impact on key metrics such as time spent on your site and total number of pages visited.

High-quality navigation can also improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by helping search crawlers index your pages. This increases your contents’ chances of appearing in relevant search results.

To help improve your site’s navigation, Gutenberg has added a new Navigation block. Using it, you can place a menu anywhere, and on any post or page.

Gutenberg 9.0 also added a drag-and-drop menu builder. This tool gives you the flexibility to create exactly the menu your visitors need with minimal effort.

At the time of this writing, this menu builder is still experimental and only available via the Gutenberg plugin. After activating it, you can enable the menu builder by navigating to Gutenberg > Experiments > Enable Navigation Screen:

Select Save Changes. You can then navigate to Gutenberg > Navigation (beta):

To build your menu, select Create, and then click on the plus (+) button. You can then design your menu visually, using drag-and-drop functionality:

Once you’re happy with your menu, click on Save. You can now position this menu anywhere on your site using Gutenberg’s Navigation block.

3. Support for Video Subtitles

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over one billion people have some type of disability. This equates to around 15 percent of the world’s population. Creating accessible content isn’t just the right thing to do, it can also significantly increase your site’s audience.

Subtitles can make your content more accessible to people with hearing impairments. They can also be useful in noisy environments or situations where it’s inappropriate to listen to loud audio, such as in a quiet classroom.

To help promote accessibility, Gutenberg’s video block now supports subtitles. When uploading your videos, you can provide subtitles as a Web Video Text Tracks (WebVTT) file. You can add it to your video block by selecting the Text Tracks button:

You can then choose Upload and select the WebVTT file you want to use. Visitors can enable these WebVTT subtitles by clicking on the three-dot icon in your video’s bottom right corner.

4. Option to Transform Multiple Blocks Into a Single Column

It’s now possible to combine multiple blocks into a single column. This gives you more flexibility in terms of structuring your pages. It also makes it easier to create a consistent design, as you can apply the same formatting to all elements within a column.

To transform multiple blocks into a single column, select the first block that you want to combine. Then, drag to highlight every block that you want to include in your new column.

In the Block Editor toolbar, select the first button and then choose Columns.

Gutenberg will transform these blocks into a column. You can now update all the content inside this group simultaneously.

5. Block Patterns

WordPress block patterns are ready-to-insert, predefined page layouts. These templates can help you create feature-rich, professionally-designed pages and posts with minimal effort.

Originally introduced in WordPress 5.5, Gutenberg has recently added even more block patterns. To access them, click on the plus (+) button in the Gutenberg editor. You can then select the Patterns tab.

The options you see may vary depending on your chosen theme. However, all the default WordPress themes support a variety of block patterns.

The latest release of Gutenberg also introduces a new Patterns category switcher. This makes it easier to find specific templates you’re interested in. It can also help you distinguish between the default patterns and the ones that are available for your specific WordPress theme.

6. No More Facebook and Instagram Embed Blocks

When creating your posts and pages, you may sometimes want to embed content from other websites. This may include posts or even entire feeds from popular social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram.

Traditionally, WordPress users have been able to embed Facebook and Instagram content using the oEmbed API. However, in an effort to improve privacy, Facebook recently revoked its support for tokenless oEmbed. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, this change also impacted this network.

In response to Facebook’s API change, WordPress removed the Facebook and Instagram blocks from Gutenberg 9.0. This change was also recently included in the WordPress core 5.6 release. If you continue using the unsupported oEmbed blocks, your website may experience intermittent HTTP 400 errors.

The good news is that it’s still possible to include Facebook and Instagram content in your posts. However, this process now involves generating Facebook developer credentials. You may also need to use a third-party plugin such as oEmbed Plus.

Conclusion

Gutenberg continues to be a divisive subject. However, since making its way into WordPress core, it has seen many improvements and innovative features. By staying up-to-date with what’s new in WordPress’ Block Editor, you can keep your site at the cutting-edge of WordPress design and stay firmly ahead of your competition.

If you want to get up to speed with recent Gutenberg updates, we recommend trying the following features:

1. Full Site Editing (FSE).
2. The navigation block and builder.
3. Support for video subtitles.
4. The option to combine multiple blocks into a single column.
5. Block patterns.
6. No more Facebook or Instagram embed blocks.

Do you have any questions about these Gutenberg updates? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post 6 Important WordPress Gutenberg Updates to Be Aware Of appeared first on Torque.

JavaScript frameworks such as React provide pre-written code to help you develop front-end user interactions. This leaves you more time to focus on the unique parts of your site or app. As such, building powerful interfaces and themes becomes much simpler than you might have thought.

In this article, we’ll explore what makes React the best solution for creating exceptional WordPress interfaces, and the steps to achieve this on your own. Let’s dive in!

An Introduction to React

If you’ve never used React before, welcome! It’s a JavaScript library developed by Facebook that excels at helping developers create user interfaces. For example, Snap Shot is a gallery app with embedded search functionality:

While the React website outlines a few examples of use cases, a quick browse of GitHub, GitLab, or similar should bring up myriad real-world projects for you to check out. Admittedly, there will far less than the number of similar jQuery and Bootstrap projects, but the community is growing rapidly.

For example, some of the globe’s most prominent medium to large enterprises use React. This includes practically all of Facebook’s companies, Reddit, Uber, CNN, Netflix, and many more.

For developers, there are a number of benefits to using React for creating focused User Experience (UX). For example:

• It’s an easy language to learn, and arguably more productive and efficient to use than other comparable libraries.
• ‘Components’ – essentially React’s modular building blocks – represent a specific part of the interface, and are reusable.
• Debugging is quicker than other libraries and frameworks.

There are plenty more reasons to begin using React as well. However, when using it for WordPress specifically, you may want to look into a few other tools to help yourself out.

Beginning React Development Within the WordPress Ecosystem

It’s been five years since the WordPress community was encouraged to “Learn JavaScript deeply”. One of the first steps in that process is usually to choose a framework. Given that React is a JavaScript library, you’ll need to select one that works with both WordPress and React while enhancing the strengths of each.

Frontity has made a lot of noise recently as a quality JavaScript framework and comes with backing from Automattic, too. WP React Starter is also a solid choice, especially for plugin development.

When showcasing examples in this piece, we’ll use Create React WP Theme, for a few reasons:

• It can be considered a ‘partner’ of sorts to WP React Starter.
• Seeing that it’s based on the official Create React App command line tool, Create React WP Theme has a strong pedigree.
• It’s simple to get this tool up and running.

It’s this last point that we like the most. In fact, we can show you how to get started in just three steps.

How to Create Powerful Interfaces Using React (In 3 Steps)

The three steps below walk you through the basic steps needed to get up and running with create-react-wptheme. We encourage you to check out the GitHub page for a deeper dive into what you can achieve using this framework.

Step 1: Create Your Theme’s Boilerplate

Your first step is to create the core, base code for your theme using the command line. Note that we’ll assume you’re already familiar with using a Terminal or PowerShell interface as a WordPress developer.

You’ll first want to start your WordPress server, and change into your installation’s themes folder, which is usually within the wp-content directory. If you’re using Varying Vagrant Vagrants, your site is likely within a public_html directory.

From here, the next step is to run Create React WP Theme with the following:

npx create-react-wptheme themename

You’ll want to replace the themename placeholder with whatever you want to call your theme. Also, TypeScript users should append --typescript to the command.

Next, jump into the newly created folder with this command:

cd themename/react-src

Then run it using the following:

npm run start

You’ll see an error message here, and the ‘watcher’ will quit. This is because there are some extra PHP requirements that need to be implemented.

To do this, head to your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance > Themes. Next, switch to your new theme, and view your site on the front end.

Finally, run npm run start again through the command line, and you’ll see your browser refresh and display a default create-react-app splash page:

This your WordPress theme. Now it’s time to develop it!

Step 2: Develop Your Theme

Here comes the fun part – taking your vision for a React-based WordPress theme and turning it into a reality. Of course, the scope here is mammoth, and we can’t possibly cover everything you’ll want to consider. However, a solid place to start is with a classic, “Hello, World!” example.

Before we begin, you’ll want a solid understanding of JavaScript, as learning React and JavaScript at the same time is a huge undertaking.

Once your skills are sharp, you can begin to work with React code:

ReactDOM.render(
  <h1>Hello, World!</h1>,
  document.getElementById('root')
);

This simply prints “Hello, World!” on the screen as a H1 header. Of course, you’ll want to do more than this. Fortunately, because Create React WP Theme is based on Create React App, the same tutorials can help you work with the library. The official React tutorial is also a helpful resource.

Ben Broide has a useful overview of how to connect WordPress and Create React App. Alternatively, the JS for WP site documents the wider integration between the language and the platform.

However, we’d suggest taking a look at WP and React. Michael Soriano has also developed a number of long-form posts on how to create themes using this library. Consider this your ‘official’ starting point.

Step 3: Put Your Theme Into ‘Production’

Once you’ve created and developed your theme, you’ll want to make it live. However, it won’t be optimized for production at this point – until you run a few commands, that is.

To start, open the command line and change into the react-src folder of your theme (essentially its root folder). From here, simply run npm run build.

Once the optimization is complete, you’ll find a new folder at wp-content/themes/themename/themename containing your production-ready theme. Of course, you’ll want to substitute the placeholders in our string accordingly.

If you wish to continue working on your theme once you’ve created the production version, change into your source folder using cd react-src, and run npm run start. You can then work on your theme before going through the deployment process again.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, React helps make typically complex processes easier through the use of its declarative code libraries. There’s a reason it has a fantastic reputation among the developer community, and using a tool such as Create React WP Theme is handy for building powerful and modern interfaces for your WordPress site and products.

In this article, we went over:

1. Creating your theme’s boilerplate code.
2. Developing your theme (specifically, where you can find tutorials to help you with this process).
3. Deploying your new React-based theme.

Are you excited about using React and WordPress together? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post How to Create Powerful Interfaces Using React appeared first on Torque.

Prefixes and namespaces help avoid conflicts when two different classes or functions share the same name. Considering how many developers contribute to plugins, themes, and WordPress core, this issue is an important one for which to have a solution on hand.

In this article, we’ll introduce the concepts of namespaces and prefixes and explain why they’re important. Then we’ll provide five tips to help you get the most out of them. Let’s dig in!

An Introduction to Namespaces and Prefixes

Namespacing is a PHP feature designed to prevent conflicts when two classes or functions have the same name. This is known as a ‘naming collision’ and it prevents your code from running.

You can think of namespaces as folders in a file system. You can have two files with the same name, and everything works fine as long as you keep them in separate folders. However, as soon as they’re in the same folder (namespace), issues crop up.

In the WordPress world, ‘namespace’ can actually mean two different things. There’s the version built into PHP natively, which we explained above. However, when WordPress was originally developed, PHP didn’t support the namespace feature, so users had to find another way to achieve the same effect.

What they came up with is called ‘prefixing’. This is a convention in WordPress where developers put a prefix in front of the name of a function or class. For example, you might use torque_user instead of just user. Ideally, every instance of the ‘user’ class would be prefixed this way, so there would be no conflicts when a plugin, theme, or core also incorporates a user class.

Namespaces and prefixes are most useful when your code will be interfacing with code written by other developers (think WordPress plugins or themes). However, it’s a best practice to use them even if that’s not the case because it eliminates the possibility of naming collisions down the road.

5 WordPress Developer Tips for Using Prefixes and Namespaces

If you want to implement namespacing and prefixes in your code (and you should), we’ve got some helpful tips. These five best practices should help you get the most out of this essential feature.

1. Embrace the Future and Use PHP Namespaces Instead of Prefixes

While prefixing technically works just fine, it has its drawbacks. The main issue is that it can make your code more difficult to read, because the first thing you (or other developers) see is the prefix, rather than the actual function or class being used.

Using PHP namespaces enables you to have clear functions and classes in your code, so it’s immediately obvious what they are and what they do. This is especially helpful when others will be working with your code, such as plugin developers.

It makes writing your code a bit easier, too, since you only need to write the function or class name, rather than a prefixed name. Every little bit helps, and using namespaces is a good development habit to get into to help future-proof your code.

2. Come Up With a Standard Naming Convention for Your Namespaces

There’s no official standard for how to create and name your namespaces. However, coming up with your own system will help ensure consistency and clarity across all your projects.

Keeping all your namespaces to the same naming convention makes it easier to recognize and remember which one goes with which project. A simple way to organize your yours is with a company or vendor name, and then with sub-namespaces for each project.

For example, if we were creating a theme here at Torque, we might use Torque as the primary namespace, and Theme as the sub-namespace for that project. Here’s how that would look:

<?php
 
namespace Torque\Theme;

Seeing that namespace quickly tells you where functions and classes will be pulled from.

3. Leverage Aliases to Clean Up Your Code

PHP enables you to call in multiple functions with the same name from different namespaces. This is done simply by typing out the full path to the function, just like you would with an item in a folder (see the example above).

However, if you’re doing that a lot, it can quickly clutter up your code, making it tougher to read and longer than it needs to be. Instead, PHP also lets you create aliases for these functions and classes to make your work easier.

To create an alias, just specify it when importing the class or function, like so:

<?php
 
namespace Torque;
 
use Torque\Theme\User as ThemeUser;
 
class User implements ThemeUser {
    // ...
}

This will import the class User from the Theme namespace and create an alias for it called ThemeUser. This way it won’t conflict with the User class in the current namespace, and you won’t have to type the full path every time you want to call it.

4. Use Prefixes When There’s No Namespace Support

Not every item supports PHP namespacing. It currently works with:

• Classes
• Interfaces
• Functions
• Traits
• Certain constants

For anything else, you’ll need to use old-fashioned WordPress prefixing. This includes items such as script handles, image size names, or database options.

Your prefixes should follow similar naming conventions to your namespaces. In other words, keep them simple, descriptive, and consistent.

5. Employ Autoloading to Streamline Development

Autoloading is a PHP feature that automatically pulls in class files when you call a given class. This can save a ton of time and effort, since you won’t need to write include or require statements every time you want to call a class from another namespace.

In PHP, this is normally done using the PSR-4 standard. This is somewhat advanced functionality, so we won’t get into it too much here. If you want to read up on it and implement autoloading in your code, check out this tutorial.

Conclusion

Whether you’re new to WordPress development or you’re a seasoned pro looking to up your game, utilizing namespaces is vital. They prevent naming collisions and help you better categorize your essential classes and functions.

These five tips will help you smooth out your development process and get the most out of namespaces:

1. Embrace the future and use PHP namespaces instead of prefixes.
2. Come up with a standard naming convention for your namespaces to keep things organized.
3. Leverage aliases to help clean up your code.
4. Use prefixes when there’s no namespace support.
5. Employ autoloading to streamline development.

Do you have any questions about using namespaces and prefixes in WordPress? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post 5 WordPress Developer Tips for Using Prefixes and Namespaces appeared first on Torque.

Luckily, there are multiple ways to do so – some trickier than others – that will put you on track. Google AdSense is likely the most recognizable website monetization platform, but there are several ad manager plugins that take care of the process from end to end, as well as the option to source ads from a variety of other available platforms.

In this article, we’ll give an overview of the pros and cons of displaying ads, and three ways to include them in your WordPress site to start making money online. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Ads in WordPress

Digital ads typically generate revenue based on either impressions or engagement. This could mean that you make money when a visitor clicks an ad (Cost Per Click), or when a certain number of visitors view the ad (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions).

Ads are often seen as one of the easiest ways to monetize a website because they require little effort on the part of the website manager who displays them. However, WordPress websites – especially blogs or other text-heavy content sites – are also well-suited to other strategies such as affiliate marketing, membership subscriptions, or even e-commerce.

The focus of this article will be on visual ads that visitors can see and interact with, such as:

• Banner ads
• Interstitial and pop-up ads
• Rich media

You’ll need to spend some time deciding which type of ads will resonate with your audience if you want the best results (i.e., more money).

Understanding the Pros and Cons of Including Ads in WordPress

If you’re savvy and driven enough to do it right, including ads on your WordPress site will enable you to make money in your sleep. They’re also cost-effective. Basically, you’ll only need to budget the time you spend building a fantastic site that attracts lots of visitors.

There’s also the benefit of engagement and insight into how your target audience behaves. The additional data you’ll access through advertising will help you tailor your efforts to what your visitors want to see and what gets them clicking.

This is the dream, of course, but there are some drawbacks to be wary of as well. Unfortunately, there’s a stigma surrounding advertisements in just about any medium. The problem stems from how ads can be perceived as ‘pushy’ and disrupt the user experience.

If you’ve ever been in a high-stakes sales environment – a car dealership, for example – and been bombarded with offers from over-enthusiastic salespeople, you may know the feeling. You don’t want your site to be off-putting or aggressive, so finding the right balance and being tasteful with which ads you display is key.

Ads can also take time to perform. You can’t expect to get rich overnight.

The income you generate from ads will be proportionate to the volume of loyal visitors you bring to your site, so if you’re still building your following, initial returns may be quite low. Focus on delivering quality and growing a committed audience – and manage your ad revenue expectations accordingly!

3 Ways to Include Ads in WordPress

As mentioned above, Google AdSense is the go-to platform for setting up ads on your site. That’s not to say there aren’t other options. In fact, there are plenty of WordPress plugins and other networks you can source them from. Take a look.

1. Sign Up for and Connect Google AdSense

Google AdSense is an all-in-one platform that has essentially become synonymous with website and digital content monetization today.

It enables website owners to display relevant, flexible ads on their sites that generate income using a Cost Per Click (CPC) model. Google leverages its extensive ad database to make sure the promotions are contextual and complement the users who come to your site.

For example, if you run a fitness blog, the ads will be for athletic apparel, workout supplements, and so on.

The main benefits of Google AdSense are:

• Ease of use
• Multiple ad formats
• One account for several sites
• Monthly payment

Signing up for AdSense is super easy, too. Check out Google’s guide on how to do that first, then follow these steps to connect your WordPress site:

1. Locate and copy the string of code from the Connect your site to AdSense page. Be careful to only copy the snippet right now – do not click on the Done button or close this page.
2. Next, head to your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance > Theme Editor. Choose the Theme Header file from the menu on the right.
3. Now paste the code immediately above the </head> tag, click on Update File, and navigate back to your AdSense account. Then you can select Done.

Google will review your site – which usually takes a few days – and notify you by email when it’s approved. Then you’ll be ready to select an ad unit and embed the actual ad code. Check out WP Engine’s comprehensive tutorial on how to do this once your site has been reviewed.

2. Use a WordPress Ad Management Plugin

WordPress plugins are extensions that add specific features and greater control to the front and back ends of your site. There are dozens of ad manager plugins to choose from, but we’ll just mention a couple of the highest-rated here.

Ad Inserter works alongside Google AdSense to incorporate promotional content just about anywhere on your site:

It’s also compatible with Amazon Native Shopping Ads and other sources. If you’re handy with code, you can use custom CSS and JavaScript to enhance your placement and tracking options.

With Advanced Ads, you can also connect your site to Google AdSense:

It includes WordPress blocks for incorporating ads in your content as well. You can rotate or schedule ads strategically to prevent stale or irrelevant promotions from lingering on your site.

Both of these plugins boast excellent reviews, are regularly updated, and fully supported.

3. Try Alternative Ad Networks

There are also alternatives to the mighty Google AdSense – ad code can be sourced from competing networks. Some reasons you might want to consider these options include if you’re struggling to get your site authorized by Google, prefer less stringent terms of service, or simply want to see if you can obtain a more significant revenue share.

Here are some of the more well-known and reputable advertising sites to leverage:

• Media.net: A contextual ad provider run by Bing and Yahoo and considered the largest competitor to AdSense.
• PropellerAds.com: An up-and-coming monetization platform known for pop-under ads.
• RevContent.com: Specializing in native ads that match the style of your site.
• Bidvertiser.com: Rather than auto-displaying ads, this site sells ad space to the highest bidder – a prime strategy to maximize the value of your ad space.
• RevenueHits.com: A newer monetization platform that focuses on optimizing ad placement on your site.

The integration processes for these platforms vary. Learn more by visiting each site.

Conclusion

There are many factors to considering when deciding whether to feature ads on your WordPress site. This strategy can help you generate passive income, but may be off-putting to some visitors. However, one of the most important choices will be the method you use to display promotional content.

In this article we went over three ways you can include ads in WordPress:

1. Sign up and connect Google AdSense.
2. Use WordPress ad management plugins such as Ad Inserter or Advanced Ads.
3. Try alternative ad networks such as Media.net.

Do you have any questions about displaying ads on your WordPress site? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post 3 Optimal Ways to Include Ads in WordPress appeared first on Torque.

Fortunately, WordPress multisite offers a way to handle all of your projects from a single dashboard. You can use this feature to create a network of multiple sites from one installation. Then you can streamline all of your maintenance and management tasks, in order to create a more efficient workflow.

In this post, we’ll explain what WordPress multisite is and discuss its benefits. Then we’ll explore three best practices to keep in mind when using it for client projects. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to WordPress Multisite and Its Benefits

WordPress multisite is a feature that lets you create a network of sites and manage them all from a single dashboard. Although the sites within the network share a database and file system, each one has its own domain name (or a subversion).

A popular example of this system in action is WordPress.com. Another is the educational blogging platform Edublogs:

There are many benefits of using multisite that make it valuable for different niches. One of its primary advantages is that it makes updating multiple websites easier. Plus, it simplifies performing other maintenance tasks such as backups.

As a developer, you can probably appreciate the opportunity to minimize the time you spend tending to site maintenance for your clients. Plus, there are plenty of additional benefits to be had, including quick and easy access to blogs and the ability to create a centralized set of user-profiles with unique permissions.

When to Use WordPress Multisite for Client Projects

There are certain situations when it makes sense to use multisite, and other times when it’s unnecessary. Some times when it’s appropriate to use multisite for client projects include:

• When the sites share a similar structure, content needs, and framework (such as a business with a site for each branch or location, or similar landing pages for multiple businesses).
• Sites that are relatively low in traffic (for example, a school that has individual sub-sites for departments, courses, or student blogs).
• A group of related sites that share themes and plugins (such as a newspaper or online magazine with different columns and sections).

On the other hand, high-traffic sites might need their own hosting providers, making a traditional single-site installation the more practical option. It also makes less sense to use multisite if the sites you work with are mostly unrelated, and have specific themes, plugins, and customization needs.

How to Set Up a WordPress Multisite Network

If you spend some time learning about WordPress multisite, and decide it’s something you want to try for your next client project, the first step is learning how to set it up.

It’s important to note that if you plan to use multisite, you should have a quality hosting provider that can support the system. In order to use multisite, you’ll also need to ‘activate’ the feature. You can enable it on any existing WordPress site, as well as on a new installation. If you’re using an existing site, just be sure to back

up your files first.

Then, access your site’s files through your hosting control panel or File Transfer Protocol (FTP). From there, locate your wp-config.php file. Once it’s open, paste in the following code at the end (right before the “stop editing!” line):

/* Multisite */
 define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Then save your changes. This will enable the multisite feature. After that, it’s time to actually set it up within WordPress.

You can do this by logging into your WordPress admin dashboard, and going to Tools > Network Setup:

The Network Setup page is where you will configure your multisite settings. For example, you can decide whether to set up your network as subdomains or subdirectories.

Once you make that choice, WordPress will prompt you to follow a few more steps to complete the process, which may involve domain mapping. You will also be asked to add additional code to the .htaccess and wp-config.php files.

When you’re done, you can access the multisite dashboard by going to My Sites > Network Admin > Dashboard. This is also where you’ll be able to add new sites and users, as well as configure what themes and plugins are installed on the network.

Tips for Using WordPress Multisite for Client Projects

Once you’re ready to start using multisite for client projects, there are a few tips and best practices you’ll want to keep in mind. For example, you’ll want to be selective about which plugins and themes are installed. That way, you can keep all the sites on the network cohesive.

Also, when it comes to any WordPress site, security is vital. This is especially true for a multisite network since threats can travel from one site to the others. Therefore, it’s best to put a strong security system in place and to limit the number of admin-level users you create.

You’ll also find that there are tools you can use to make managing your multisite network easier. One example is the User Switching plugin:

Once installed, this plugin will make it easier for you to switch between user accounts quickly and safely. You might also consider using Multisite Enhancements, which adds useful functions to the network admin area.

Conclusion

When you’re serving a steady stream of clients, site maintenance and management can quickly become overwhelming. Establishing an efficient workflow is key, which is where WordPress multisite comes in.

You can enable this feature on any existing or new WordPress installation by editing your site’s wp-config.php file. Then, all you need to do is follow a few steps to set up your multisite network in your admin dashboard.

Do you have any questions about using WordPress multisite for client projects? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post How (and When) to Use WordPress Multisite for Client Projects appeared first on Torque.

Fortunately, WooCommerce makes it easy to sell different versions of the same item using the ‘variable products’ feature. Add-ons for WooCommerce can further extend this functionality, and make your storefront more engaging for customers and profitable for you.

In this article, we’ll introduce variable products in WooCommerce and explain how they work. Then we’ll show you how to take your WooCommerce product pages to the next level. Let’s dig in!

An Introduction to WooCommerce Variable Products

Variable products in WooCommerce are simply items that come in more than one variety or style. Examples include a coffee table that’s offered in several finishes, or a shirt that comes in multiple sizes and colors:

Each product variation can have its own price, stock level, image, and more. When browsing your store, customers can select and view each version from a single product page. 

Variable products enable you to easily highlight different variations of an item without cluttering up your digital storefront. For example, instead of listing each shirt color separately, you can condense them so they all display on one page. This makes it easier for customers to locate and sort through the variations, which could make the difference in closing a sale. 

However, while WooCommerce lets you create variable products by default, it doesn’t offer much in the way of customization. Below is an example of the simple drop-down box you would see on a product page with only the base plugin installed: 

It’s not terribly exciting, and certainly doesn’t entice potential customers to buy. The good news is that you can fix this by using a WooCommerce add-on.

How to Optimize Your WooCommerce Variable Products and Improve Conversions (In 3 Steps)

WooCommerce is somewhat lacking in options for displaying variable products. However, the Woo Variation Swatches plugin can help:

This WooCommerce extension provides a fantastic way to spice up your product page and boost conversions. To follow along with the rest of the tutorial, you’ll need to purchase and install the plugin. Then you can get started by creating your first product swatches.

Step 1: Add or Edit Global Attributes for Your Products

By default, WooCommerce doesn’t give you a lot of options when it comes to adding and customizing your products’ attributes. By using Woo Variation Swatches, you get more control over the attributes you can add and how users interact with them.

To get started, go to Products > Attributes. You’ll notice that thanks to the plugin, attributes now include a lot more details:

If you want to include new global attributes, you can now select what type of swatch you want to use for them. There are options for colors, images, and labels:

Once you add an attribute, you can select the Configure terms option within its row to indicate the specific variations you want to include. For each type of swatch, you’ll get customized options for adding new terms:

Thanks to this plugin, you get more control over attributes on a global level. However, you can also override swatch settings for specific products if needed

Step 2: Configure Swatch Styles at the Product Level

When you edit a specific product, you’ll see a new tab under the Product data section that’s labeled Swatches. In this tab, you can customize the variable swatches for that specific item.

Let’s say, for example, that you have a gold ring with several possible variations in size and color:

By default, the plugin will create a swatch based on the attributes that you choose and the variations you set for each product. However, you have full control over that swatch.

If you select the Inherit Global list next to the Images attribute, for example, you get the option to customize its colors, images, and labels:

This is where you can change the images that appear on your swatch if you want to override the global settings. These options can be valuable for products with unique variations.

Step 3: Use the Customizer to Tweak Swatch and Display Settings

If you want to customize swatch styles, either globally or for individual product settings, you can also do so using the WordPress customizer. There, you can access settings for individual product pages and the entire shop page:

As you can see, this plugin replaces the standard WooCommerce drop-down menu with ‘swatches’ for each product variation:

By default, these swatches will import the product images for each variation. However, you can use the customizer to change the swatches display type that you use under General Swatch Settings:

The default swatch style will show you all available variations under each product. However, there are also options for swatches that only show up as modals, or upon hovering over a Select options button:

Regardless of what swatch display style you choose, product images will still update when users select the options they want.

Conclusion

No matter what type of online shop you run, chances are you have some products that can benefit from the ‘variable products’ features in WooCommerce. The next step is to maximize those product listings, in order to get more conversions and provide a better customer experience.

To make the most out of your variable product pages, you can pick up the Woo Variation Swatches plugin and follow these three steps:

1. Add or edit global attributes for your products.
2. Configure swatch styles at the product level.
3. Use the customizer to tweak swatch and display settings.

Do you have any questions about WooCommerce variable products? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post How to Optimize Your WooCommerce Variable Products and Improve Conversions (In 3 Steps) appeared first on Torque.

If you want to be ahead of the curve for the coming year, you’re in luck. We’ve checked out the field and rounded up some of the most prominent and impactful directions the design and development world is moving in.

In this article, we’ll explore six of the most exciting trends in web design and development that we expect to see take off in 2021. Let’s dig in!

1. Progressive Web Apps

The first trend we’ll look at is Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). These are web-based applications that aim to combine the best of both web apps and mobile apps using the latest technologies.

Typically, the strength of web apps that they’re available on any platform. On the other hand, native mobile apps generally offer better performance and a more natural feel, as well as advanced features such as push notifications.

PWAs are websites built using web technologies that enable them to behave and feel like native apps. This also makes them available in any browser.

The big advantage here for developers is that PWAs are much easier to deploy and maintain. You only need to work with the one web app, rather than dealing with a separate one for each mobile platform (Android, iOS, maybe a tablet-optimized app, etc.).

PWAs have actually been around for a couple of years now. However, their usage has been growing, and we think it will continue to be one of the top design and development trends in 2021.

2. Neumorphism

Neumorphism is a fairly new style that combines modern, ‘flat’ design with some elements of old-school skeuomorphism (think the old iOS design language from around 2010). It caused quite a stir when it first appeared on the scene. Since then, many examples have popped up on Dribbble, such as this design by Filip Legierski:

Neumorphism aims to blend the clean look of flat design with the 3D feel of skeuomorphism. It typically utilizes flat icons, gradients, and raised User Interface (UI) elements such as buttons. The result is an interface that gives the illusion of elements being embossed on or pushing up through the surface.

Neumorphism provides a clean, modern, and attractive style that’s a little more functional and much easier to navigate than the standard flat design that’s been so prevalent in the last few years. This is definitely a trend to watch in the coming year.

3. Thumb-Friendly Mobile Design

These days, big smartphones are the norm. Even the compact, ‘mini’ versions of devices dwarf their counterparts from just a few years ago.

These large screens are fantastic for media consumption and fitting a lot of content in a single view in general, but they come at the cost of ergonomics. It’s tough to use a modern smartphone with one hand.

To compensate, some developers have taken to moving key UI elements lower on the page. For example, many apps have menus along the bottom of the screen rather than the top. Others make use of large headers and copious white space to push elements down so they’re within reach of users’ thumbs.

This has the ultimate effect of making items easier to reach when holding a smartphone in the most common way – cradled in one hand while using your thumb to interact with content. Samsung has been one of the most visible proponents of this philosophy with the One UI interface on its Galaxy phones:

Thanks to that large header, the items in the top row can be easily reached with a thumb. When the user scrolls, the header disappears and the content takes up the full screen. It’s smart, and it makes one-handed use much more feasible and pleasant.

Considering the mobile-first push we’ve seen in recent years, you can likely expect to see a lot more thumb-friendly mobile sites when looking into design and development trends for 2021.

4. Gradients

Color gradients made a big comeback this year around the web. Expect this to be among the design and development trends to continue into 2021.

Gradients are fantastic. They’re pleasing to look at, they can be eye-catching, and they help your web content stand out.

In particular, bold text against a gradient background can be highly effective at drawing the eye without being overwhelming:

While it’s certainly possible to overuse gradients, we think they’re much more interesting than the solid backgrounds that have been in use for a while. A little variety goes a long way.

5. Single-Page Apps

A Single-Page Application (SPA) is exactly what it sounds like – a web app that consists of only one page. New data loads as users click on different elements, but the page never has to refresh because it doesn’t need to navigate to a new URL.

With SPAs, dynamic elements on the page give a sense of flow and continuity between different areas of the app. The advantages of this approach are a simpler deployment process and a smooth and pleasing User Experience (UX).

In the past, SPAs have had issues with being indexed properly by search engines. However, new web technologies such as Angular Universal are starting to remedy these problems. As a result, many developers are deploying SPAs for admin consoles and similar UIs within web apps.

One of the most widely-used examples of an SPA is the WordPress.com admin console:

Each section of the console loads quickly, and the interface has a smooth, continuous flow because it’s all located on one page.

6. Motion UI

Animations on web pages, from subtle icon movements to full-screen parallax effects, have really started to take off. We think this will likely be one of the strongest web design and development trends in 2021.

This is due in large part to new technologies and libraries that enable smoother motion effects with lower resource usage. In other words, users on older or lower-powered devices won’t have their browsing experience slowed to a crawl, so the effects can be implemented more widely. Additionally, libraries such as Motion UI make it easier than ever to build and implement these effects.

When done tastefully, animations create a more engaging user experience. You can also use them to draw attention (and hopefully, clicks) to a particular spot on the page, such as a key Call to Action (CTA).

Some fantastic examples of animations in web design include GRIDSPACE, SEEK, and Handwrytten.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to build your first site this year, or take your existing business in a new direction, there’s a lot to consider in the world of WordPress and web development. Sifting through the constantly changing landscape to find the trends with staying power can be tough.

However, trends that aim to increase development efficiency, make maintenance easier, and improve UX are sure to stick around, including these six:

1. Progressive web apps: These apps aim to combine the best of mobile and web apps for a more fluid feel.
2. Neumorphism: A design trend that combines the modern look of flat design with the 3D feel of skeuomorphism.
3. Thumb-friendly mobile design: A mobile design trend that places interactive elements in easily-reachable areas.
4. Gradients: Subtle color gradients can be more eye-catching and interesting than solid colors.
5. Single-page apps: Web apps that are built on a single page to reduce loading times and provide a more fluid UX.
6. Motion UI: Motion effects and animations on web pages provide more engaging UX.

Do you have any questions about these web design or development trends? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post 6 Web Design and Development Trends for 2021 appeared first on Torque.

As a developer, it’s smart to use hosting solutions that provide you and your clients with the tools needed for your projects. One example is staging functionality, which lets you approach updates and deployments more safely.

In this article, we’ll discuss five features that you should look out for in your WordPress hosting provider, and explain why they’re important. Let’s get to it!

1. One-Click Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates

Getting a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for your website has never been easier. You can obtain a free certificate that works for most sites in a matter of minutes, through authorities such as Let’s Encrypt:

There’s no excuse not to install an SSL certificate on your website and enforce HTTPS traffic. Moreover, it will come with a host of benefits, including heightened security.

As far as installation goes, you can set up your SSL certificate through the command line or your web host. Ideally, however, you want to use a WordPress web host that enables you to set up certificates through your control panel. In some cases, your host can even take care of generating the certificate and installing it for you (hence the ‘one-click’ feature).

Since you’ll want to set up SSL certificates for every single website that you work on, it makes sense to choose a web host that makes this process as easy and fast as possible. Doing so will save you both time and effort.

2. Staging Functionality

For almost every WordPress project you work on, there will come a time when you make a mistake. It might be a small issue, or the kind of error that breaks the entire website. The point is that it happens to all of us.

Considering the high stakes, we almost always recommend implementing changes or updates to your site through a staging environment. Staging environments are copies of your website where you can test changes in a safe space.

That means you can implement updates and test them before users see them. This approach also enables you to see if the changes you make cause any errors in an isolated environment.

In theory, you can use a local WordPress testing environment for staging purposes. However, having access to staging functionality through your host offers a much more streamlined approach.

Some web hosts enable you to launch staging environments with a few clicks, and then deploy them to production as needed. As a developer, that functionality is worth its weight in gold.

3. Secure Shell (SSH) Gateway Access

The Secure Shell (SSH) protocol refers to a type of connection that you can establish from your computer to the server where your website is hosted. With an SSH connection, you can execute commands on your site’s server, transfer files, and more.

If you use WP-CLI for WordPress development or are familiar with server management, you’ll want SSH access to your server. Most web hosting providers don’t enable SSH access for shared plans, though.

Before you sign up with a web host, we recommend checking to see whether they offer this option. If they do, it will typically appear within each plan’s list of features:

If you’re using Windows, you can connect to your server via SSH using a client such as PuTTy. On UNIX-based operating systems, you can establish SSH connections directly via the command line.

4. Automatic Content Delivery Network (CDN) Integration

Integrating a CDN with your website is one of the best things you can do to improve its performance. A CDN can take your website and cache it in data centers around the world. When someone tries to visit your site, your CDN will determine what data center to serve a copy from, which often results in much faster loading times.

As you may know, most of the best CDNs are premium services, which is only logical. However, thanks to strategic partnerships, some WordPress web hosts offer automatic integration with CDNs.

If you use such a WordPress hosting provider, your website’s performance should be blazing fast right from launch. That’s one fewer optimization task you need to take care of, which frees you up for more productive work.

5. Advanced Security Features

A big part of developing client-ready WordPress websites involves security. In 2019 alone, over 4.1 billion records were stolen from websites and online platforms, and that’s just one type of attack.

At some point, most WordPress websites experience some type of malicious activity. This means that, as a developer, you want to be proactive when it comes to security.

There are a lot of ways to protect WordPress websites, from application firewalls to security plugins. However, if possible, we recommend implementing security features at the server level rather than using plugins.

Some WordPress web hosts offer advanced security features to all of their users. Those features may include:

• Custom login URLs for your website
• Custom database prefixes for WordPress
• Web Application Firewalls (WAP)
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack prevention

Choosing the right web host can drastically mitigate the impact of potential attacks on the websites you work on. That’s not to say you shouldn’t look into other ways to improve security as well, but your web host can provide you with a solid foundation.

Conclusion

As a developer, you want to use web hosting providers that make your work easier. For example, there’s no reason to waste time manually setting up SSL certificates when your WordPress web host can do it for you.

If you look for a hosting provider that provides the features you need upfront, you’ll be able to dedicate more time to actual development work. Five developer-friendly solutions to look for in a hosting provider include:

1. One-click SSL certificates
2. Staging functionality
3. SSH gateway access
4. Automatic CDN integration
5. Advanced security features

As a developer, what are the features you look for when choosing a WordPress hosting provider? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

The post 5 Developer Tools to Look for in a WordPress Hosting Provider appeared first on Torque.