The Valet Blog
Bringing together tips, news, and everything you need to know about your WordPress site.
Why Choose WordPress in 2024
In 2020, we published a post titled '3 Simple Reasons to Use WordPress', highlighting scalability, flexibility, and ownership as the key factors that make WordPress an excellent choice for site owners. These reasons remain as valid as ever in 2024 and we would like to take those core reasons and expand a bit on the…
The Benefits of Expert WordPress Support
Imagine this: You've just had that lightbulb moment for a business idea, so you set out to develop a website to showcase your vision to the world. You hire a developer or do it yourself, purchase web hosting, and select premium WordPress plugins and themes. After lots of hard work and dedication, the project is…
6 Unconventional Sources of Web Design Inspiration
As web designers, we’re often on the hunt for inspiration to fuel our creativity and take our projects to new heights. Sometimes, we can find ourselves scouring through endless online sources, hoping to find something that sparks our imagination. But occasionally - despite our best efforts, there are times when we face that dreaded designer’s…
Does Logging Into Your WordPress Dashboard from a Public Wi-Fi Pose a Website Security Risk? Unlikely, Says Wired
Website security ranks high up on the list of things that make for a healthy online property. Accordingly, Valet devotes much effort to helping you keep your site as secure as possible. Mostly, that involves looking for weaknesses that hackers could potentially use to carry out their evil plans. But it also involves reminding you…
Marketing & Content, Tech Talk
Australia’s New Cyber-Snooping Law May Create Website Security Issues Affecting Health of Your Online Property
Australia’s new cyber-snooping law may create website security issues for online properties everywhere—not just in Oz. Specifically, the website security issues analysts at Valet believe your WordPress site’s health could be affected. Here’s how. The new law requires internet providers serving Australia to remove privacy protections currently preventing police from monitoring encrypted online activity. Additionally,…
Building Customer Trust and Confidence with Your Website Security
Open Chrome. Or Firefox. Or Opera, Safari, Brave, or whatever browser you normally use. Type in the address of your own website and hit the return key. If yours is a secure website, a little green padlock icon appears next to the address bar. If yours is an unsecure website, you get a red padlock.…
Things That Can Cause You to Have Website Performance Problems
Website performance problems bedevil you. You realized this after it became obvious to you that people visiting your site never really do what you hoped. Few ventured from page to page, meaning few discovered all that you offered. Few read your content and absorbed your ideas or embraced your suggestions. Few clicked the links…
Accessibility as the User Experiences It—Or Not
Your Goal: Accessibility for All Accessibility means what it implies—unfettered web use. Wanna know what it feels like to use a fettered web site? Just go online and try navigating your own website for an hour without the benefit of a mouse or trackpad. Frustrating, much? Absolutely. But this is what people with impairments encounter…
Marketing & Content, Tech Talk
Not to Be Outdone, California Comes Up with Its Own Version of GDPR—the California Consumer Privacy Act
Made your peace yet with GDPR? If so, laid-back California’s got some news that will definitely harsh your mellow. Starting in 2020, the Golden State will have a GDPR law of its own. It’s called the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCP). So now you need to do more than comply with Europe’s tough new data…
Web Accessibility is a Problem Only If You Allow It to Be One
You may be surprised to learn that there is a potentially sizable return on investment awaiting you after making your website more accessible to the disabled. Indeed, accessibility and SEO are intertwined—improve the former, and the latter naturally follows right along. And who doesn’t want better SEO?
Marketing & Content, Tech Talk
Some Influential U.S. Companies Say No to GDPR Compliance
Well, THAT escalated quickly. Europe’s new GDPR law took effect on May 25. That same day, a number of influential companies in the U.S. announced their rejection of GDPR compliance. Many earlier assumed those companies would go all-in to achieve GDPR compliance. But no. They instead moved to block access to their online properties by…
Marketing & Content, Tech Talk
Why your WordPress website needs a GDPR audit fast
GDPR audit. You likely need one if you operate a blog. Or a website, a newsletter, an e-commerce store, or anything online that harvests user data. And you’ll need that GDPR audit soon, like yesterday—because Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (that’s what GDPR stands for) went into effect May 25. So you better find out…
Marketing & Content, Tech Talk
Heed Google Analytics’ Warning About Data Retention—Or Risk Losing Years of Stored Info
Guess what type of email we love getting here at Valet? Anything that isn’t a notification. It’s not that notifications upset us. We know they’re necessary. It’s just that we receive so many of them. The reason we get so many notifications is that we support and love so many websites. Each of those websites…