The Progress Planner WordPress plugin has announced a new integration with Yoast SEO, enabling users to take full advantage of Yoast’s features to maximize website search performance.
Progress Planner Plugin
Progress Planner is developed by the same people who created Yoast SEO, ensuring that both plugins work perfectly together. The main functionality of the plugin is to help WordPress users maintain their website so that it performs at its best. The new functionalities extends the usefulness of Progress Planner as it now encompasses SEO.
The new functionality offers personalized suggestions of how to set Yoast SEO plugin for maximum performance.
According to the Progress Planner announcement:
“Progress Planner’s assistant, Ravi, will provide smart recommendations, guiding users to their next best task. Progress Planner will check whether Yoast SEO users have properly configured the settings of their plugins and will help and motivate users to make corrections.”
This is a brand new functionality and many others are planned.
Read more about the Progress Planner’s Yoast integration:
WordPress project leaders recently discussed how to proceed due to concern that organizations have dramatically cut back on the number of hours donated to contributing to WordPress. They decided that WordPress 6.8 would be the final major release of 2025 and that minor core releases will continue as needed.
While no formal commitment was made to future major releases after 2025, it kind of implies that future major releases are limited to one per year as long as the current contributor levels remain at this low level.
However that’s not for certain and it went unstated and prompted one of the contributors to ask the question in one of the comments:
“Is the new release cadence one major release a year now, or is that just for this year?
If getting users to wait a year for major updates, can I suggest some work towards an open road map so people can at least see what they are waiting for and in an ideal world, where resources are limited, vote on said features to help prioritise what the community wants from WordPress.”
Gutenberg & Core Trac Tickets Remain Flat
Gutenberg and Core Trac ticket volumes remained flat for the past six months, which means that the total number of tickets (number of unresolved issues) remains essentially the same, signalling stagnation in development as opposed to forward momentum.
New feature development in Gutenberg has declined sharply since January, which means that the creation of new blocks, capabilities, and user experience improvements has also slowed. This is cause for concern because a drop in new feature development indicates that the editor is not gaining new capabilities as quickly as it was in previous months, resulting in fewer enhancements, fewer innovations, and potentially less progress toward the long-term goals of the block editor project.
Work On Release Automation
One of the benefits discussed for slowing down the pace of development is that it frees up time to work on release automation, which means automating parts of the development. What exactly that means is not documented.
This is what the documentation says about it in the context of a benefit of slowing down the pace of development:
“Allows for work to further automate release processes, making future releases quicker and less manual.”
Focus On Canonical WordPress Plugins
It was decided that focusing on WordPress.org developed plugins, called canonical plugins, offered a path forward to improving core and adding features to it outside of contributions to the core itself. The canonical plugins discussed are Preferred Languages, 2FA (two-factor authentication), and Performance tools.
A long-running issue about the canonical plugins discussed at the meeting is the lack of user feedback about their canonical plugins, noting that the main source of feedback is when something breaks. The only other user feedback metric they have to work with is active installations, which doesn’t tell them anything about how users interact with a canonical plugin feature or how they feel about its usefulness and usability.
The documentation notes:
“First is the need for better means to collect user feedback. Active installs is currently the only metric available, but doesn’t provide enough value. Does a user actually interact with the feature? In what ways? Do they feel it’s valuable? Feedback is mainly received from users when something breaks. There was agreement to explore telemetry and ways to establish meaningful feedback loops within canonical plugins.”
Another issue with canonical plugins is that they’re not widely promoted and apparently many people don’t even know about them, partly because there’s no clear way for users to discover and access them.
They wrote:
“The second improvement needed is promotion. It’s often not widely known that canonical plugins exist or that they are officially maintained. Different ways to raise awareness about canonical plugins will be explored, including posts on the WordPress.org News blog, mentioning them in presentations such as State of the Word, and possibly the currently barren Tools page in the WordPress admin.”
That issue was echoed in the comments section by core contributors:
“Can you post a link so I can view all the canonical plugins please?
Is it the random selection under the dotorg user account? https://profiles.wordpress.org/wordpressdotorg/#content-plugins
Or is it the six plugins listed as ‘beta’?
https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/beta/”
“Also agree with the other commenters and the post that canonical plugins are woefully under promoted. As a developer and WordPress professional they are rarely on my radar until I stumble upon them. Is there even a link to them in the repository where we can view them all?”
Backlog Management
Contributors were encouraged to continue to work on clearing the backlog of around 13,000 tickets (open issues or feature requests) in both the Core Track and Gutenberg repository. Minor releases can continue with bugfixes.
Final Decisions
The final decisions made are that WordPress 6.8 will be the final major release of 2025. Gutenberg plugin releases will continue every two weeks and minor core releases will continue throughout the year, as needed, with a more relaxed pace for including enhancements. However, the rule of “no new files in minor releases” will still be followed. The project will begin quarterly contributor strategy calls to keep discussions going and adapt as needed.
Do you need to create a 301 redirect in your WordPress site? You’ve come to the right place! We’ll show you how to set up 301 redirects using three methods. Do you know if you need to use a redirect or whether a 301 redirect is right? No worries, we’ll explain that, too.
Redirects in a nutshell
The name ‘redirect’ says it all: It sends visitors traveling from a specific page to an alternative one instead. Or, if there’s no alternative, an HTTP header (similar to redirects) can make that clear to users and search engines. It’s like registering a change of address when you move house. What if an old friend visits your old home to visit you? A redirect is like a front door note telling your visitors where you live now. Any time you change a URL or delete a page, you should think about redirects.
Different redirects serve different purposes. Since this post is all about 301 redirects, let’s look at some situations where you might need to use one.
When should you use a 301 redirect?
A 301 redirect should be used when:
You’ve permanently deleted a page on your site, but you have another similar page you want to send users to instead
You’ve changed the URL of a page that was already published
You’re moving your site to a new domain
You’re changing your URL structure, e.g. changing from HTTP to HTTPS, or removing ‘www’ from the start of your URL
These are some of the more common reasons for using a 301 redirect, but other situations require redirecting, too. And besides that, there are other redirects and HTTP headers you can use in other situations. For instance, if you permanently delete a page and there is no suitable replacement or substitute you can send users to, then a 410 redirect is what you need to use. We have another post where you can read more about which redirects to use in which situations.
Option 1: Create a 301 redirect on the server
To set up a 301 redirect using .htaccess for the given example URLs, you need to add a specific line to your site’s .htaccess file, which is located in the root directory of your WordPress installation. Here’s how you can do it:
Locate the .htaccess file: The .htaccess file is usually in the root directory of your WordPress installation.
Edit the .htaccess file: Open the .htaccess file with a text editor.
Add the redirect rule: Insert the following line at the end of the file to create the redirect. This rule indicates that requests to /page-1 should be permanently redirected to /page-2.
Redirect 301 /page-1 /page-2
Save changes: If you use an FTP client, save your changes to the .htaccess file and upload them back to your server.
Using this rule, any request to https://example.com/page-1 will be permanently redirected to https://example.com/page-2. The 301 status code indicates to search engines and browsers that the redirect is permanent. Note that this approach assumes the URLs follow the format /page-1 and /page-2 without additional subdirectories. You can adjust the path if your URLs are different.
These configurations can become unmaintainable over time, especially if you’re an avid blogger trying to improve your posts’ SEO. You must also log in to your server over FTP, edit the files, and re-upload them whenever you add a new redirect. That’s why, generally speaking, this method is not considered the way to go.
Option 2: Create a 301 redirect with Cloudflare
Most of us already use Cloudflare in one form or another, so you know that it offers a wide array of tools to help our websites perform. For instance, it comes with a Rules feature where you can set various options related to your website cache. You can also find various redirect options here; this will help you guide up redirects for everything from HTTP to HTTPS to single redirects for individual pages.
It’s easy to set up redirects through Cloudflare. Here’s how that works:
Log into your Cloudflare account: Go to the Cloudflare dashboard and select your account and domain. Then, select Rules and Overview.
Create a redirect rule: Select Create rule and then choose Redirect Rule. In the Rule name field, you might name it something like Redirect Page 1 to Page 2.
Define the matching criteria: Set a wildcard pattern and set the Request URL to https://example.com/page-1. This means any traffic to example.com/page-1 will be matched for redirection
Set the redirect parameters:
Target URL: Enter https://example.com/page-2 as the redirect destination.
Status code: Select 301 to indicate a permanent redirect.
Preserve query string: Decide based on your preference; enable this option if the original URL’s query string should be retained. When you choose to preserve the query string in a redirect, you keep any additional parameters that may be included in the original URL when redirecting to the new URL. Preserving the query string is often useful for tracking purposes, like retaining analytics or advertising parameters, ensuring that useful data isn’t lost during redirection.
Deploy the rule: Click Deploy to save and activate the redirect.
Now, whenever someone visits https://example.com/page-1, they will be redirected to https://example.com/page-2 with a 301 status code, indicating a permanent move.
You can efficiently manage traffic without touching your server configuration by setting up redirects via Cloudflare. It provides flexibility for using simple patterns or more complex URL structures.
Cloudflare offers essential tools to manage the performance of your website
Option 3: Create a 301 redirect the easy way with Yoast SEO
Our Yoast SEO Premium plugin offers you a helping hand when it comes to creating these redirects. Our built-in redirect manager assists you whenever you change the URL of a post, page, or any taxonomies that may result in a possible 404 if you don’t properly redirect visitors. In addition, we also offer you an interface to edit or remove these redirects at a later point in time. The plugin also tells you when you’re about to create a redirect that will result in a redirect loop. This looping is something you want to avoid at all costs.
Here’s how you can set up a 301 redirect using Yoast SEO Premium in WordPress:
Access the Yoast SEO settings: Log into your WordPress admin area and navigate to the Yoast SEO section.
Open the Redirect Manager: Go to the Redirects feature in Yoast SEO Premium.
Add a new redirect: Follow the steps below to create a new rule.
In the Old URL field, enter /page-1 as the source path.
In the New URL field, enter the destination /page-2 as the complete new URL.
Choose a 301 (Moved Permanently) from the list of redirect types.
Save the Redirect: Click Add redirect, and Yoast SEO will handle the redirection.
Yoast SEO Premium also offers an option to automatically redirect deleted content. When you delete a page or post, Yoast SEO prompts you to set up a redirect to avoid broken links. This ensures visitors and search engines won’t encounter 404 errors and are smoothly directed to a relevant page.
These features are part of Yoast SEO Premium, designed to make managing redirects straightforward without manually altering code or server settings. They keep your site user-friendly and help maintain SEO performance by preventing dead links.
Adding a redirect with Yoast SEO Premium is very easy
Conclusion
Understanding how to set up 301 redirects is essential for maintaining your website’s integrity and user experience. Whether you choose Cloudflare, Yoast SEO Premium, or the .htaccess method, each approach offers a simple solution to guide visitors to the right place, preventing 404 errors and keeping your SEO rankings intact. Smoothly transitioning traffic from old links to new ones enhances usability and search visibility. Choose the best method that suits your needs and keeps your website running smoothly.
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.
WordPress hosting provider Kinsta announced an automated plugin updater that detects and recovers from bad updates by rolling back the plugin to its previous state and preventing downtime from affecting website performance. Failed plugin updates are prevented from going live and publishers are immediately notified.
Kinsta shared that a scan of users indicated that the average WordPress installation has 21 active WordPress plugins, suggesting that the average WordPress site is becoming increasingly complex.
That kind of plugin usage means that time spent updating and troubleshooting issues can take up a greater amount of time. Plugins don’t always function well with each other which can lead to updating issues. Kinsta’s new Automatic Updates solves that issue by completely automating plugin updates which will assure that all plugins are up to date.
Keeping WordPress Plugins Updated Is A Security Issue
Outdated plugins can quickly escalate into a nightmare scenario due to vulnerabilities which in turn can have a profound negative effect on search performance. An effective plan for updating plugin is essential for every WordPress-powered website.
According to Kinsta:
“Nothing confirms the need for automatic updates like finding plugins and themes that are not just out of date but also dangerously vulnerable to security breaches”
Advanced Configuration Options
The new plugin updater enables users to choose update days and time windows and can choose custom URLs for testing. False positives can be reduced by hiding dynamic elements. Sensitivity settings allow users to be able to set how strictly visual differences are flagged, further decreasing false positives.
All plugin updates are logged and can be reviewed by users, including before and after screenshots. Users can be emailed for both successful and unsuccessful updates.
The new service costs $3/month for each environment where the service is active, with zero limits to the amount of managed plugins and themes that are monitored.
Elementor Editor is the world’s most popular WordPress page builder plugin. It currently has a market share of 17% and is used by 12% of all websites.
It simplifies website creation using four core components: templates for the overall layout, blocks for page sections, widgets for individual elements, and custom code.
Users can create attractive websites with no coding knowledge, while developers have the flexibility to add custom JavaScript and CSS.
What Is Elementor Editor?
Commonly referred to as Elementor, the company name is Elementor, and the Editor is one of its products.
Elementor Editor is a user-friendly drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress that enables anyone to create beautiful websites without knowing any code.
Its intuitive interface enables users to design webpages by dragging widgets – such as images, buttons, or text – into sections of a page where needed.
For developers, Elementor Editor supports custom CSS to create even more unique designs.
However, coding knowledge isn’t required, as Elementor provides extensive customization options, enabling users to build truly unique website layouts.
How Website Design Works In Elementor Editor
Creating a website with Elementor Editor revolves around four basic elements:
1. Templates
Templates speed up the creation of webpages and websites, serving as a starting point for designing pages with predefined layouts.
Templates define the overall structure of a page or site-wide elements like headers and footers that appear across the website.
2. Blocks
Blocks are pre-designed sections of a webpage that can be dragged and dropped into the layout.
They represent different areas of a page, such as a hero section or testimonial area, and are identified by their layout or design purpose.
3. Widgets
Widgets are individual design elements that provide specific content or functionality, such as images, text, or forms.
Widgets are combined to create blocks, which fit into the overall layout defined by a template.
4. Custom Code
The Custom Code feature enables advanced users to add styling changes like custom fonts, animations, and spacing adjustments using CSS and JavaScript to modify page structure, trigger events, and create dynamic behaviors beyond Elementor Editor’s built-in options.
Screenshot of Elementor Custom Code, March 2025
How Elementor Page Design Elements Work Together
The three elements for building a website with Elementor follow a clear hierarchy: Templates > Blocks > Widgets.
Templates: Templates define the overall layout of a page or site-wide elements like headers and footers that appear across the website. Templates are made up of blocks, which are the pre-designed sections within the layout.
Blocks: Blocks are pre-designed sections of a webpage, such as a hero section or testimonial area. They are identified by their layout or design purpose and are composed of widgets, which can be combined in various ways to create specific types of blocks.
Widgets: Widgets are individual elements that provide specific content or functionality, such as images, buttons, or forms. These widgets are used within blocks, which in turn fit into the layout defined by a template.
Screenshot of Elementor Theme Builder, March 2025
1. Templates
Templates are the most general level of design in Elementor, providing pre-designed full-page layouts or site-wide page elements like headers and footers.
They control the overall design of webpages and can be customized using blocks and widgets to fit specific needs.
Templates represent the overall layout of a page, while blocks are pre-designed sections of content (like testimonials or pricing tables) that can be added to the layout.
When you start with a template, it often includes multiple blocks as part of its design. Users can drag and drop additional blocks into a template to customize the layout and enhance its functionality.
How Templates Fit Into The Elementor Editor Workflow
Templates fit into the workflow of designing a website in Elementor by providing a starting point for building pages.
Users can select a pre-designed template that matches their needs, then customize it by rearranging, replacing, or editing the blocks it contains.
Templates allow users to save time while ensuring consistency across the website, as they define the structure and design of individual pages or site-wide elements like headers and footers.
Screenshot of Landing Page Template Library, March 2025
2. Blocks
A block is a pre-designed combination of widgets, such as a pairing of a Media Widget with a Text Widget.
The block’s layout determines how the widgets are positioned, including how they line up with each other, how much space each takes up, and the gaps between them.
These details ensure that the block’s design is both functional and visually appealing.
Blocks are a part of the workflow of designing a webpage. For example, if you need a contact form in a specific section of a template, you can drag a predesigned contact form block and insert it.
The contact form block itself is made of widgets. A custom template is created by replacing similar blocks, modifying them, or adding entirely new blocks to add new functionality to a webpage.
Elementor offers a wide variety of pre-designed blocks to fit different design needs, such as:
Blocks fit into the workflow of designing a webpage in Elementor by acting as ready-to-use sections that structure specific parts of a page.
Each block is composed of widgets that define its content and functionality.
Users can customize a template by replacing similar blocks, modifying their content, or adding entirely new blocks to improve a web page’s functionality.
3. Widgets Page Building System
In Elementor, templates consist of blocks, and blocks are built from widgets.
Widgets are the smallest design elements in Elementor Editor, providing specific functions (like buttons and forms) or types of content (such as images, headings, and text).
Widgets correspond to individual components of a webpage, defining the page’s structure and functionality.
For example, a contact section might include a heading widget, a text widget, and a contact form widget.
How Widgets Fit Into The Elementor Workflow
Widgets fit into the workflow as the smallest parts of pre-designed or custom blocks.
Users can modify widgets within a block or combine them to create entirely new custom blocks. These custom blocks, in turn, can be assembled to form a custom template.
Animation of Single Post Design Editor
4. Custom Code
Custom code enables users to apply styling and interactive elements beyond Elementor Editor’s built-in tools.
Unlike templates, blocks, and widgets, which offer predefined structures, custom code provides direct control over design and functionality.
CSS allows for fine-tuning layouts, typography, and animations. JavaScript adds dynamic effects, such as scrolling animations or hover-based interactions. HTML integrates third-party tools, like external forms or tracking scripts, into the page.
Custom code is useful when Elementor Editor’s built-in settings aren’t enough, offering additional flexibility for refining designs to achieve greater specificity, complexity, and control over design and functionalities.
Users can also add code to the head section of a website to load style sheets, scripts, or tracking codes site-wide.
How Custom Code Fits Into The Elementor Editor Workflow
Custom code fits into the Elementor Editor workflow by enabling users to refine styling, add interactivity, and add complexity that’s not available through standard templates, blocks, and widgets.
Users can apply CSS through Elementor Editor’s Custom Code feature to make site-wide styling adjustments without modifying individual elements.
JavaScript can add dynamic behaviors, such as sticky navigation or hover-triggered animations. HTML embeds external content, such as custom forms or tracking scripts.
For site-wide modifications, Elementor Pro enables global custom code application, ensuring changes remain consistent across multiple pages.
Users can also add code to the head section to load style sheets and scripts before page content.
Custom code provides flexibility where blocks and widgets do not, allowing users to fine-tune their designs while keeping the workflow structured.
Elementor Editor AI
Elementor Editor’s AI enables users to generate and refine text directly within the text widget.
Users can access the AI text writer by clicking a pink “Write with AI” link.
AI-generated content is suggested based on context and can be adjusted by simplifying, expanding, shortening, or fixing grammar.
Users can also modify the tone or translate text into multiple languages.
Elementor Editor’s AI generating a heading.
Adding Custom Code With Elementor AI
Elementor Editor’s custom code feature also offers AI to enable users to generate and apply custom code without manually writing CSS, JavaScript, or HTML.
For element-specific styling, Elementor AI can generate custom CSS for effects like hover animations, sticky headers, or text transformations. The AI-generated code includes an explanation of its function, helping users understand its impact before applying it.
While Elementor Editor’s AI streamlines coding, users are responsible for checking the generated code to ensure it works as intended.
How Much It Costs
Elementor Editor is available in a free version that’s useful on its own, but upgrading to the premium paid levels unlocks a wider range of design options.
The Editor is surprisingly affordable, considering the value it provides and its extensive capabilities.
The descriptively named Essential tier costs under $60/year. The next step up, called Advanced Solo, costs less than $80/year. Both tiers offer licenses for the use of one website.
The main difference between the two tiers is that the advanced version offers ecommerce features, the ability to add custom code, and can be used in a collaborative manner with the Collaborative Notes feature.
The upper tiers offer the same capabilities but with licenses that allow deployment on more websites.
Elementor Editor Democratizes Professional Website Design
Elementor Editor is a versatile WordPress page builder that helps users design websites using three easy-to-understand elements: templates, blocks, and widgets.
Templates control the overall layout of a page, blocks are pre-designed sections of a template layout, and widgets are granular design elements that fit into blocks, corresponding to specific content types (like text and images) and functionality (like forms and buttons).
Together, these elements form the basis of an intuitive workflow that democratizes web design, enabling users to create attractive websites like a pro.
A high-severity vulnerability was discovered and patched in the All-in-One WP Migration and Backup plugin, which has over five million installations. The vulnerability requires no user authentication, making it easier for an attacker to compromise a website, but this is mitigated by a restricted attack method.
The vulnerability was assigned a severity rating of 7.5 (High), which is below the highest severity level, labeled Critical.
Unauthenticated PHP Object Injection
The vulnerability is called an unauthenticated PHP object injection. But it’s less severe than a typical Unauthenticated PHP Object Injection where an attacker could directly exploit the vulnerability. This specific vulnerability requires that a user with administrator level credentials export and restore a backup with the plugin in order to trigger the exploit.
The way this kind of vulnerability works is that the WordPress plugin processes potentially malicious data during backup restoration without properly verifying it. But because there’s a narrow attack opportunity, it makes exploiting it less straightforward.
Nevertheless, if the right conditions are met, an attacker can delete files, access sensitive information, and run malicious code.
According to a report by Wordfence:
“The All-in-One WP Migration and Backup plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 7.89 via deserialization of untrusted input in the ‘replace_serialized_values’ function.
This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it could allow the attacker to delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code. An administrator must export and restore a backup in order to trigger the exploit.”
The vulnerability affects versions up to and including 7.89. Users of the plugin are recommended to update it to the latest version which at the time of writing is 7.90.
Themes and plugin choices are more important than ever as some can hamper the site’s performance.
You can do many things to improve any WordPress site, and this post will cover just some of these optimizations that you can (hopefully) take action on immediately.
Choose A Reputable Web Hosting Company
Choosing a bad host can be harmful to a site’s performance.
While hosting on a shared server may seem the most cost-effective solution, it definitely comes with its issues. Sharing that server with other (potentially) troublesome sites can monopolize shared resources to the detriment of your own.
Hosting doesn’t cost the earth. I would always advise that you choose a web host that not only has great hardware specifications (on a dedicated server if budgets allow) but also understands both WordPress and has strong technical support. And look for hosts with server-level caching.
Whether your site resides on a managed WordPress hosting platform, a LiteSpeed server, or scalable cloud hosting, it’s always worth doing your own research and comparing a few companies before deciding.
Also, consider how SEO-friendly that host is. WordPress has a hosting page with a handful of recommended companies.
Optimize Server Settings And Use CDNs
Once the site is hosted on the server, there are further optimizations you can apply at the server level.
Newer protocols like HTTP/3 and QUIC reduce latency, especially on mobile devices.
Cloudflare and LiteSpeed support this out of the box, but it is still worth checking with your server settings as well.
There are several CDNs available, but my recommendation has always been to use Cloudflare.
Their free plan offers many optimizations, including image polishing, caching and compression (enable tiered caching to further optimize those requests).
Within Cloudflare, I recommend caching everything except wp-admin and dynamic content, serving stale content while revalidating cache in the background and using their Web Application Firewall (WAF) services that help block attacks and limit crawlers.
Disable XML-RPC
There are several optimizations to remove and limit resources that are enabled by default in WordPress core.
One good recommendations here would be to disable XML-RPC if it is not required:
Disable XML-RPC
add_filter('xmlrpc_enabled', '__return_false');
Implement Caching & Compression Techniques
In addition to server optimizations, you can implement further performance enhancements by adding caching and compression elements directly.
Using object caching such as Varnish or Redis can provide great results, as well as setting proper cache-control headers within.htaccess (Apache) or nginx.conf:
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public"
Optimize Asset Loading
When caching and compression are in place, you can then take further steps to defer JavaScript.
For example:
Also, try to have any scripts load asynchronously so that they don’t degrade initial page load times.
When it comes to CSS, it’s always good to remove any unused styles where possible, although I wouldn’t say this is the biggest priority compared to other recommendations in this post.
Also, try to preload and pre-connect fonts for text that appears above the fold (custom fonts for the text in the footer doesn’t need to be preloaded) and other external resources where possible.
Here is an example of how this can be done:
Close Other Performance Gaps
If you’re a perfectionist like me, there’s always room for more optimizations.
Enable lazy loading for images where possible and replace YouTube embeds with static image previews.
Use Screaming Frog to detect unnecessary redirects.
Close redirect loops and chains, which are reported within Semrush site audits. Update internal links to point directly to the final destination URL.
Reduce third-party requests where possible. For example, load Google Analytics or Google Fonts locally instead of via external scripts.
Disable unused social media widgets and embeds.
Choose The Right Themes & Plugins
So, you have your hosting account set up and your WordPress site installed.
However, the abundance of choices you have when it comes to themes and plugins makes it hard to decide and choose trusted developers. This is a challenge that has always been present, and I have been writing about it since 2013 at least.
When choosing both themes and plugins, consider the following when doing so:
Is the theme compatible with the most recent versions of WordPress?
Does it adhere to WordPress best practices for theme and plugin development? You can check this using the Theme Check plugin for themes and the Plugin Check for plugins.
Does the author of the theme have developer E-E-A-T? Can you trust them?
Ensure there isn’t too much code bloat. The more a theme is generalized to the masses (e.g., “all-in-one themes for any business”), the more it will have to be developed to accommodate the widest of audiences. The more bespoke the theme, (presumably) the less of a chance of code bloat.
Read reviews and investigate support offerings. For themes and plugins offered within WordPress’s own repo, some reviews and ratings are always helpful to inform your decisions.
With so many plugins available today, it seems daunting to know which ones are the best and most trusted.
Of course, “it depends” comes into play again, but generally, I advise using as few plugins as possible.
If you can solve some issues away from a plugin (e.g., server-level), then do that first.
Depending on what optimizations you may have set up elsewhere, some of these plugins may be unnecessary to install, but if not, it’s always good to know preferable options.
Preloading:instant.page is a great recommendation here. Uses one line of code that you can implement or they offer a WordPress plugin that does the same.
Script deferring: Some plugins above offer this, but I personally use WP Meteor.
Image optimization:TinyPNG or Smush for image compression, WebP express for serving WebP images over PNG/JPG/EPS. For further optimization, use Edge Images for utilizing edge transformation services to markup.
SEO: While not directly connected to improving speed, Yoast SEO optimizes a site’s visibility performance [disclosure, I work for Yoast]. Most of these features provided in the free version help with this, but things such as IndexNow are included within Premium. However, if you want to enable IndexNow without Premium, Bing offers its own plugin.
When installing any plugin, it’s always good to look at all settings properly and disable anything that is unnecessary to save more processing time and reduce code bloat.
To take this to the next level, you may also want to install Plugin Organizer, which allows you to set conditions for plugins to load only within relevant pages/areas of the site.
Monitor Your Server
Lastly, it’s always good to have a good monitoring system, such as New Relic, on the server.
This system allows you to diagnose and fix any issues that may be hampering the site or server’s performance, as well as reduce further unnecessary server load by disabling non-essential PHP modules.
You can also set up logging for slow queries in MySQL:
SET GLOBAL slow_query_log = 'ON';
SET GLOBAL long_query_time = 1;
I also recommend the Query Monitor plugin. Or, installing Blackfire to pick up inefficient code snippets which cause slow server response time. It is a paid too, but highly recommended for enterprise level.
Error logs are always your friend, too, when diagnosing other issues.
WordPress also offers debug mode, which is extremely useful for diagnosing potential problems by adding the following in wp-config.php:
Note, this should never be enabled on a live production site as it may expose sensitive information. Use on staging only.
// Enable WP_DEBUG mode
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
// Enable Debug logging to the /wp-content/debug.log file
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
Conclusion: Enhance WordPress Performance While Preserving Functionality
As you can see, there is a lot one can do to improve a WordPress site, and it’s important to do so from multiple angles.
Do as much as you can above, ensuring the site functions as it should.
Test everything first to ensure everything you need is correctly implemented and doesn’t hamper other things on the site (e.g., sometimes caching or compressing JavaScript can create irregularities or stop some site elements from working) or make other conflicts. And then deploy!
A leaked WordPress Slack chat shows that Matt Mullenweg is considering limiting future WordPress releases to just one per year from now through 2027 and insists that the only way to get Automattic to contribute more is to pressure WP Engine to drop their lawsuit. One WordPress developer who read that message characterized it as blackmail.
WordPress Core Development
Mullenweg’s Automattic already reduced their contributions to core, prompting a WordPress developer attending WordCamp Asia 2025 to plead with Matt Mullenweg to increase Automattic’s contributions to WordPress because his and so many other businesses depend on WordPress. Mullenweg smiled and said no without actually saying the word no.
Automattic’s January 2025 statement about reducing contributions:
“…Automattic will reduce its sponsored contributions to the WordPress project. This is not a step we take lightly. It is a moment to regroup, rethink, and strategically plan how Automatticians can continue contributing in ways that secure the future of WordPress for generations to come. Automatticians who contributed to core will instead focus on for-profit projects within Automattic, such as WordPress.com, Pressable, WPVIP, Jetpack, and WooCommerce. Members of the “community” have said that working on these sorts of things should count as a contribution to WordPress.
As part of this reset, Automattic will match its volunteering pledge with those made by WP Engine and other players in the ecosystem, or about 45 hours a week that qualify under the Five For the Future program as benefitting the entire community and not just a single company. These hours will likely go towards security and critical updates.
We’ve made the decision to reallocate resources due to the lawsuits from WP Engine. This legal action diverts significant time and energy that could otherwise be directed toward supporting WordPress’s growth and health. We remain hopeful that WP Engine will reconsider this legal attack, allowing us to refocus our efforts on contributions that benefit the broader WordPress ecosystem.
WP Engine’s historically slim contributions underscore the imbalance that must be addressed for the health of WordPress. We believe in fairness and shared responsibility, and we hope this move encourages greater participation across all organizations that benefit from WordPress.”
Leaked Slack Post
The post on Slack blamed WP Engine for the slowdown and encourages others to put pressure on WP Engine to drop the suit.
The following is a leaked quote of Mullenweg’s post on the WordPress Slack channel, as posted in the Dynamic WordPress Facebook Group (must join the Facebook group to read the post) by a reliable source:
“Would like to put together a Zoom for core committers to discuss future release schedule, hopefully bringing together some of the conversations happening the past 6 weeks: 6.8 includes a lot of “overhang” contributions from Automatticians, including 890+ enhancements and bug fixes in Gutenberg.
I’d like to make sure we get extra testing on 6.8 from web hosts, especially if they can upgrade perhaps their company blogs or something, employee sites, etc to make sure upgrades and everything work well in all environments and with the most popular plugins without regressions. The Chromecast update issues today (https://x.com/james_dunthorne/status/1898871402049999126 )remind us how easily this can happen.
I’m willing to commit people to early roll-out to WP .com to provide widespread testing with hundreds of thousands of users. This is very resource-intensive, but has contributed a lot to making sure releases are stable before they deploy to the wider array of non-engaged web hosts in the past.
We should consider modifying the release schedule:Other corporate sponsors are protesting WPE’s actions by pulling back contributions, which I think will effect some of the other largest contributors after Automattic.
The court schedule in the WP Engine lawsuit against Automattic, me, and WordPress .org ( https://cloudup.com/c33IWQHdNMj ) goes to jury trial in 2027. WPE appears to be unresponsive to public pressure to resolve things earlier. (As I said at WC Asia, I’m ready to end it yesterday.)
We are approaching 7.0 in two releases, which has an emotional valence and I’d rather not be purely maintenance. (Nor do I want to break our naming structure and do 6.10.) One approach would be delaying 6.8 and making it the only release this year, 6.9 in 2026, and then aim for a 7.0 in late 2027 assuming a positive outcome of the jury trial.
FWIW I would estimate WPE is spending the equivalent of 60 engineers full-time salary at 250k/yr as plaintiffs / attackers, and Automattic a similar amount on defense. Imagine the project could do for democratizing publishing and competing against proprietary alternatives if that were going into core and community development. Drop any other thoughts or agenda items you may have in this thread.”
Response to Mullenweg’s leaked post:
One Facebook user accused Mullenweg of trying to “blackmail” the WordPress community to pressure WP Engine (WPE). They wrote that the community is largely sympathetic to WPE than to Mullenweg. But in general Mullenweg’s statement was met with a shrug because they feel that this will give core contributors the chance to catch up on maintaining the core which to them is a greater priority than adding more features to Gutenberg which many of the developers in this group apparently don’t use.
One lone commenter in the Facebook discussion asked if anyone in the discussion had made a positive contribution to WordPress. At the time of writing, nobody had cared to respond.
In a recent podcast interview, Matt Mullenweg shared his informal plans for ensuring the future of WordPress. He outlined several areas where WordPress is taking advantage of technological changes, including security, AI integration, and reducing technical debt. He also addressed the long-term future of WordPress leadership, emphasizing the importance of decisive vision.
Mullenweg outlined four ways WordPress is improving in the near future:
Plugins and themes will become more secure.
The suitability of AI integration with WordPress ensures its continued relevance.
WordPress is addressing technical debt.
Governance and succession planning will help maintain WordPress’s strength.
WordPress Will Become More Secure
One of WordPress’s strengths is the third-party themes and plugins that enable publishers to create exactly the kind of website they need. It’s also a shortcoming because the vast majority of vulnerabilities discovered in WordPress stem from coding flaws in plugins and themes, as well as user failure to keep third-party software updated.
Mullenweg mentions current security measures like bug bounties, which are payments made to individuals who discover and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities. The implication of his answer is that relying on humans to find vulnerabilities isn’t enough because the scale of the problem exceeds human capabilities.
He anticipates plugin and theme vulnerabilities becoming less problematic due to new AI code-scanning capabilities that can analyze millions of lines of code to identify patterns consistent with common flaws that lead to vulnerabilities.
Mullenweg shared his thoughts:
“… many of these plugins and themes don’t have the same sort of robust security and review process that core has. So that’s where when you hear about security issues with WordPress, it’s very rarely in core, anymore. We haven’t had a remote exploit in like… I think five years, six years something.
But in the plugins it can be somewhat more frequent. And so one thing I’m very, very excited about, the next year or two, is actually more automated scanning. Because obviously that code base is so many tens of millions, maybe over a hundred million lines of code at this point. It’s impossible for humans to review that.
So we kind of rely on developers to to review that and manage. And of course we have like bug bounties and everything so that when things are reported we fix it quickly.
But I can’t wait for more automated scanning there, and I think that could vastly upgrade the security of open source.”
AI-Powered Website Building
Another development Matt sees for WordPress is further integration of AI into WordPress so that it becomes an engine that an AI uses to develop websites for users. Matt acknowledges that this is already happening and he’s right. Some web hosts are already leveraging AI to assist users in building websites through a chatbot interface.
He explains that writing the code is a strength of AI but that maintaining the code base is a problem that WordPress solves. Software like WordPress currently rely on PHP and other technologies to power those websites and make them interactive but they are constantly improving which means that the software that runs on those technologies must also be maintained. Mullenweg explains that AI can build on top of those technologies as engines that power what they create, building on top of them without having to worry about maintaining the underlying technology that makes them work.
He said that this scenario of building on top of open source is more powerful than leveraging a closed source system. What’s implied in what he said, and went unspoken, is that open source projects like WordPress are not threatened by AI but rather they stand to benefit greatly from it. Thus, Matt foresees that WordPress has a strong future as AI technology progresses.
Matt explained:
“The other thing that’s really exciting is that right now, you see people building apps and stuff and it’s custom generated code. But I think the next generation of these models… as everyone knows, just writing the code is one part of it. It’s maintaining it that really becomes the life cycle of it.
And I think that if, and they’re starting to do that, is when the open source model, you say, build me a website, it actually installs WordPress and builds on top of that and customizes on top of that. Then you get for free, that core engine that’s always being edited and updated and getting passkey support, whatever the new things are, sort of continuously, and the new custom stuff can be on top of that. Which I think is a lot more powerful than sort of building something proprietary or custom from the ground up.”
Technical Debt Needs To Be Addressed
At this point, Lenny observes how everything you acquire carries the burden of having to maintain it, saying that they all have that hidden cost. Mullenweg agreed, saying that WordPress has a similar thing called technical debt which is an issue that WordPress is addressing in order to improve it. Technical debt is a reference to the accumulated burden of outdated code, complexity and development decisions that make future changes more difficult.
Mullenweg said:
“Well, that’s why I think technical debt is one of the most interesting concepts. You know, there’s so many companies …that maybe have like big market caps. But I feel like they might have billions or tens of billions of dollars of technical debt. …how their products interface with themselves.
And I think about that a lot in our own company. We definitely have some products, …we have some variable quality around some of our things right now. …There are parts of WordPress and WordPress.com that we’re a little embarrassed and ashamed of… we kind of have to…. we have a really large surface area that we cover with relatively few people. So there are some parts that we haven’t looked at in a little while that we need to get around to.
And it’s our big focus for us this year, is actually going back to basics, back to core. And improving all of those nooks and crannies… and also ruthlessly editing and and cutting as much as possible. Because we’ve just launched a lot of stuff over the past 21 years that isn’t as relevant today or doesn’t need to be there.”
Governance and Leadership
Mullenweg also debunked the idea of WordPress as an entity that’s led by a single person and shared his vision for how WordPress will be governed in the future. He said that WordPress is a true community where most of the decisions are made by committees formed by core contributors. He also affirmed that he believes that for WordPress to succeed it must have a strong leader who serves as the final decision-maker and that this doesn’t make it weaker, it makes it stronger.
On the points of project leadership and succession he shared:
“If you look at the daily commits and activity and everything, it is run by the community. So it’s hundreds of volunteers everyday that are actually doing the day-to-day work and making the data decisions, everything happens.
…There has been a radical delegation. However, there’s ultimately a hierarchy, and I’m kind of… I’m like a final, final decision-maker.
And you know, I definitely think about succession planning, everything like that, but if for when I’m gone, I don’t want to pass it to a committee, I want to pass it to someone else who could have a role somewhere to mine and really sort of try to be a steward.”
Takeaways
WordPress Security
Matt Mullenweg discussed three plans for improving WordPress in the near future, acknowledging that plugins and themes remain the biggest security risks for WordPress but that advancements in AI technology will enable greater mitigation of those issues.
WordPress Set To Remain The Market Leader
He also said that WordPress is ideally suited for becoming the engine that powers website development in the future, an advantage over closed source systems in that companies will be able to develop layers of AI-powered functionality and conveniences on top of the free WordPress open source CMS.
Addressing Technical Debt
Mullenweg acknowledged that WordPress has many years of technical debt to address and that WordPress is prioritizing the reduction of outdated code and complexity this year.
His statements confirm that WordPress’s long-term stability and viability are assured by technological advancements, adaptability and greater focus on code efficiency.
WordPress Leadership
Lastly, he addressed WordPress governance, insisting that it is led by the community because the overwhelming majority of decisions are made by individual contributors, and that his role is more along the lines of a final decision-maker. He argued that the best software is created through a combination of committees and strong leadership that oversees the long-term direction of the project. Interestingly, he also said that the community serves as a system of checks and balances because contributors are always free to leave and fork their own version of the project.
Watch the interview here:
Matt Mullenweg on the future of open source and why he’s taking a stand
Featured image is a screenshot from the interview.
With the rise in ecommerce, we live in a borderless world. Someone sitting on one side of the world could be shopping with a business on the other.
This is cool until businesses encounter language barriers that stunt their growth in global markets.
Very few people in China can speak English. So, if your business only sells online in English, it may struggle with reaching its customers in China.
A WordPress multilingual website can help you break these barriers, tap into new markets, and reach new audiences for maximized sales.
What Is A Multilingual Website?
A multilingual website is a collection of webpages presenting information in multiple languages.
The content on such websites is translated into different languages so the website and the entity behind it can communicate with a wider audience.
Steps To Creating A Multilingual Website On WordPress
WordPress holds the largest market share among content management systems (CMS), powering 43.7% of all websites. That’s huge. And it makes sense.
WordPress is simple, accessible, and has thousands of plugins that can add unimaginable functionality to your website.
From allowing secure payment gateways to building multilingual versions of your website, there is a WordPress plugin for almost everything.
Building a multilingual website on WordPress is not just possible, it is relatively simple as well.
There are three different methods for creating a multilingual site using WordPress. I’ll share a step-by-step approach for all these methods in this guide.
1. Choose Your Languages
You don’t want to build a multilingual website just for the sake of having it.
You want it to be meaningful and add real, tangible value to your business. The first step towards doing that is choosing the right language.
When choosing the languages to translate your website, you should consider factors like your business type, targeted location, budget, resources, etc.
For example, if you want to expand your business, then you should find your biggest markets and target languages that are widely used by those regions (markets).
English is the internet’s most popular language, accounting for 49.2% of all web content. But, simply targeting the most popular languages is not necessarily the right approach.
Canada is a good example. Suppose you’re an ecommerce business and want to launch or expand in Canada. Then, should you translate your website into French, Mandarin, and Punjabi?
French is the second language of Canada and the main language in some areas. After this, Punjabi is spoken by more than half a million people, ranking alongside Mandarin as one of the most widely spoken languages in the country.
But, are Punjabi or Mandarin speakers your target market in Canada?
It is good to start with a few high-priority languages in the beginning and for businesses working with a limited budget and resources.
2. Decide On A Domain Strategy
The next step is to decide how you want to store the translated versions of your website.
Do you want them to live on their own separate domains or stay under the main domain?
If you want the translated version of your website to have its own domain, you would want to go with a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) like:
abc.us (for USA).
abc.ca (for Canada).
abc.fr (for French).
Going with a ccTLD means creating a separate website for each language.
It means multiple websites to manage, requires proper domain mapping and SEO from scratch for each site, and requires more budget and resources to successfully manage it.
So, I don’t recommend going the ccTLD route unless using geo servers is a priority or you have enough resources, team, and budget.
You can check this guide to choose the domain strategy for your multilingual website.
The next option is using subdomains.
The subdomain is the secondary domain of your main domain. It helps to organize a website and enhance user navigation.
Here is how a subdomain URL looks like:
us.abc.com.
ca.abc.com.
fr.abc.com.
Subdomains may seem better than using separate ccTLD domains for each language, but Google views a subdomain as a separate website.
So, the authority you build with backlinks on the main website may not extend to the subdomains, and therefore, they may struggle to rank.
In my opinion, the best option is to use subdirectories when building a multilingual website.
Subdirectories are the subparts of your website, stored under the same domain as folders.
Subdirectories are more helpful for SEO because Google views them as part of the primary website. So, the existing authority of the website helps subdirectories rank higher in a short time period. For example:
abc.com/us/
abc.com/ca/
abc.com/fr/
Subdirectories are the simplest way to create a multilingual website. That’s why leading brands, like Notion and Apple, are using it.
It is an open-source platform that gives you full control and freedom to customize your website as much as you want.
WordPress has a strong community of users who can help build and manage a WordPress website. Also, thousands of plugins allow you to add any required functionality to your website.
If you don’t have a WordPress website, you can create one by installing WordPress on your web hosting (you can ask the hosting support team to do it for you).
Once you have a primary WordPress site, you can easily convert it into a multilingual website using one of these two options:
1. WordPress Multisite
WordPress Multisite is a WordPress feature that allows you to create multiple sites within one installation.
With a multisite setup, you can create multilingual websites using any domain strategy: ccTLDs, subdomains, or subfolders.
You need to set up domain mapping for it. You can follow this guide to properly set up domain mapping for your multisite.
When using a multisite setup for a multilingual website, you have a separate site for each language. It makes things easier to manage and optimize.
You check this guide to learn more about multisite and how to create one.
2. WordPress Plugins
Another simple option is to use a multilingual plugin. WordPress has many plugins to help you add multilingual versions to your primary site.
Polylang, WPML, and TranslatePress are popular plugins developers use to convert a WordPress website into a multilingual one.
These plugins provide all the tools you need to translate your website’s content and allow users to seamlessly switch between different versions of your website.
To use a plugin, you need to:
Install a plugin on your website.
Configure it according to your requirements.
Select the languages to translate your website.
It will automatically add multilingual functionality for those languages.
4. Translate
Once your website is ready, it’s time to upload content.
Remember, while translating your existing web content using machine translators like ChatGPT or Google Translate may sound like a great idea, but they will not be able to account for the linguistic nuances and cultural context.
As a result, you may end up with a substandard translation that does little to improve your website’s user experience.
So, it’s always better to hire professional translators who can keep the nuances of the language and cultural context in mind when translating your content.
5. Improve SEO
Your new, user-friendly multilingual website is of little value to your business if it cannot get to the people it is intended for.
You must invest in multilingual SEO to ensure your website can rank for a relevant audience, attract traffic, and take your business to new markets.
Multilingual SEO requires independent, language-specific keyword research. Find relevant keywords in the target language and see how your competitors use them.
For example, if you want to sell high-neck sweaters for men in Canada, you would want to translate your content into French and target relevant keywords.
A quick search for [pull à col montant homme] (high-neck sweater men) results in a list of ecommerce websites selling high-neck sweaters for men.
Screenshot for search for [pull à col montant homme], Google, February 2025
Now you know this could be a potential keyword you want to target in your translated website.
Besides using the right keywords, you will also have to use hreflang tags. These tags appear in the source code of your website and tell Google which language your website is in. This helps your site appear for searches in the relevant countries for the language.
Ensure the translated website is easy to navigate and offers a good user experience to maximize your SEO results.
Benefits Of Having A Multilingual Website
Building a multilingual website can be resource-intensive. You may have to hire developers and translators to help with the process. You might also have to work with locals for quality content production.
But these efforts can pay off really well if you play all your cards right.
Here are some of the benefits a multilingual website can offer:
Reach More Customers
Customers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language.
Translating your website into different languages makes it more accessible to a broader audience, expanding your reach, driving brand awareness, and bringing more customers into the sales funnel.
Improve User Experience
All digital-savvy business owners understand the importance of personalization. But we often overlook language when building a personalization strategy.
Nothing personalizes a user’s experience more than language. When you offer your customers content in their own language, you enhance their experience.
If someone has a good experience on your website, not only are they more likely to shop, but they are also more likely to return for repeat purchases.
Better Conversion Rates
People are more likely to convert if you offer content in their language, with 76% of shoppers preferring to make purchases from a store in their native language. This is because when you speak their language, they feel more connected and understood.
Consumers who experience an emotional connection with a brand are likely to spend twice as much when shopping with them.
Competitive Advantage
Nowadays, businesses pull all sorts of levers in an effort to get ahead of their competitors. Nothing gives you a competitive edge more than having an engaged, international customer base.
With a multilingual website, your business reaches, interacts with, and sells to international consumers helping you get ahead of the local competitors.
Building A Multilingual Website: Next Step In Your Business Growth Plan
Selling to more people across the globe is becoming increasingly simple and more doable with growing ecommerce and modern technology.
But as accessible as it may become, you can never really tap into a global market unless your website speaks the local language.
This is why a multilingual website can be your gateway to becoming a multinational business.
Fortunately, WordPress makes building a multilingual website simple.
But before you get started building your multilingual website, make sure to choose the right language relevant to the most opportunity-rich market.
Always work with human translators to ensure your content is contextually relevant and culturally and linguistically accurate.
Remember, your business will only benefit from a multilingual website if it offers a good experience, accuracy, ease of navigation, and accessibility, which are all part of your user experience.
