Welcome to Notes on the Internet, a blog where I share my thoughts on a range of issues related to Wordpress in particular, and to the internet in general. My goal is to introduce topics that may be of interest to you, without going into too many technical details or using jargon. My hope is to begin a dialog that we can continue as we work together.

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Here’s a screenshot of an email I recently received: However, contrary to all appearances, this email isn’t from Amazon. There are several things that make it appear legitimate at first: It closely follows the format of an Amazon email, complete with logo and small print. The order numbers look like actual orders I might have… Read on…

You probably have several accounts related to your online presence: your domain name registrar your website hosting company the website itself (e.g. your WordPress login) Perhaps you have more than one of each type of account, and you may have other accounts related to your website as well. Are all these accounts registered in your… Read on…

Note: This post follows a new format. The information below is general and doesn’t require technical knowledge. The companion post provides instructions so you can try these things yourself: Try It: Edit Your URLs. Whenever you write something to present to others — for example, a post on your website or a PDF document —… Read on…

When a WordPress website is created, some parts if it are stored as files on your server. For example, any images you upload are stored as files, as are plugins and themes. If you were to log in to your server, you would see these files in a folder. However, there are many parts of… Read on…

Despite the title of this note, I’m not an alarmist when it comes to malicious hacking. However, should your email or website become compromised, it’s a problem which can be time-consuming and costly to fix. At the bottom of this note are some basic recommendations for protecting your content, but first I want to provide… Read on…

WordPress 5 changes the way images are added to your content. Images now have their own image block. To add an image block to a post or page, first create a new block. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to put your cursor at the end of a paragraph block… Read on…

If you have recently upgraded WordPress to 5, also known as Gutenberg, you’ll see that creating and editing pages and posts is a new experience. Instead of the WordPress visual editor you’re used to, you are now working with WordPress blocks. It is a completely different interface, and a completely different paradigm. For a real-world… Read on…

One of the goals of website development is to ensure that a website loads as quickly as possible. The speed is dependent on many variables, some of which have to do with the website itself, and some of which have to do with the server that the website lives on. This article addresses two of… Read on…

Back in July, I published a note discussing how Google indexes and ranks your website. Here’s an important addition to that information. When I develop a new website for a client, I also set up a (free) Google Search Console account linked to the new website. This alerts Google that there is a new website… Read on…

Does working in WordPress ever make you feel like Alice from Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll? Here‘s Alice, after the White Knight offers to sing her a song: “The name of the song is called ‘Haddocks’ Eyes’.” “Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?” Alice said, trying to feel interested. “No,… Read on…

If you have a website or send out an email newsletter, how many times have you viewed it on a phone or tablet? Is it easy to read and navigate? To find the information you’re looking for? To browse? Does it take a long time to load? Those of us who started businesses before the… Read on…

If you want your website to appear high in Google search results, here are some things that may be helpful to know, that you might not be aware of: Google displays different results for different people. It monitors your searches over time and shows you personalized results. So if you and I both search for… Read on…

Coming later in 2018, you’ll be able to forget everything I said in How’s your website’s back-end? Part 1. WordPress is about to undergo a change in the way the visual editor works. The new system is called Gutenberg. Here’s a preview of what the WordPress editor will look like when Gutenberg arrives: For one… Read on…

When you edit your content in WordPress, you are primarily working with the WordPress visual editor. The visual editor looks much what you would find in Microsoft Word or another word processing program. There’s a large area where you can type and edit your content, and a row of icons above that for formatting. Here’s… Read on…