Speed Up Your WordPress Website in 2022 With a Few Easy Changes
Many bloggers and website owners decide to host their content on WordPress because of its ease of use and flexibility. However, once you have your blog set up, you will likely discover that it is lacking in some areas.
While there is nothing wrong with WordPress itself, the platform is essentially just a content management system (CMS). As such, it lacks many features that modern web applications provide, including user authentication, security, and speed.
To address this issue, you can integrate certain applications and services to take advantage of their full functionality and enhance your WordPress website’s performance.
Integrate a VPN with Your WordPress Site
A virtual private network (VPN) is a type of network that allows you to securely access private and public networks, such as the Internet, a corporate network, or Facebook, by setting up a secure connection between your computer and a remote server.
VPNs offer several benefits to users, including increased security, privacy, and performance. As soon as you have setup a VPN connection on your computer, you can connect to the Internet through a secure and encrypted connection that will not jeopardize your privacy.
The main benefit of connecting to the Internet through a VPN is enhanced performance. Since your connection is encrypted, it will load web pages more quickly than your typical Internet connection.
Use Cloudflare’s Free SSL Certificate
Cloudflare is a U.S. company that provides free SSL certificates, which are short for secure sockets layer certificates.
An SSL certificate is a tool that helps websites achieve a higher ranking in web searches, as well as make their content more easily accessible to users. When people click on an SSL-certified link or image on a website, they are instantly connected to the website owner’s private network, which is protected by a secure SSL connection. As a result, the traffic is encrypted and cannot be inspected by third parties, such as hackers or government agencies.
To obtain an SSL certificate, you need to submit your website to a company such as Cloudflare, which will then assign you a certificate that you can use for free. Alternatively, you can purchase one from a certificate provider for about $15 per month.
Use One Search Bar to Search All Your Blog’s Content
If you are using the popular WordPress content management system to host your blog and you have more than a few articles posted, it is time to replace the many separate search bars that you currently have on your site with a single search bar that can search all your content, including your archives.
The benefits of a single search bar are numerous. Since it can search all your content, you do not need to keep reloading your search bar whenever you want to search for a new topic. Instead, you can simply click on the search bar and type in your search query. A single search bar also makes it much easier for users to navigate your blog, because they do not have to hunt down the article or blog post they are looking for. Instead, they can simply enter their search query and click on the first result displayed in the search engine.
To implement a single search bar, you will need to switch from a simple WordPress search function to a more advanced search engine like Haystack, which can perform text transformations and semantic analysis to produce better search results.
Make Your Blog More Than Just A Place To Post Content
While a blog can be a useful tool for journalists, bloggers, and content creators, it can also be a place for people to post a variety of content, including photos, videos, and live tweets. The main purpose of a blog is to provide content for readers, which you can achieve by focusing on improving the user experience rather than just creating new content.
Since a blog is essentially a brand or entity’s online living room, it is important that you decorate and furnish it with the same feeling that you would put in your own living room. Similarly, you need to give the blog a friendly voice — one that is easy to understand and relatable.
For instance, if you own a flower shop and you have a blog about gardening, you may decide to put up a few pictures of your flowers and write some content about the benefits of gardening.
However, if your blog is mostly about fashion, you may want to feature some of the popular fashion blogs out there and draw inspiration from their style.
Get Instagram Discover
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms and it is a great place to find inspiration for your blog. In addition to featuring stunning content from all over the world, the photo-sharing platform also provides amazing tools and features that bloggers can use to enhance their content.
While you do not need to have an Instagram account to get the Instagram Discover feature, you will need to have over 100 photos that you have uploaded to your Instagram account in order to make your blog visible to users in the Discover section.
With Instagram Discover, users can discover interesting content that they may have otherwise missed and they can also see the best content from the creators they follow. As a result, the audience is more engaged and the content is more likely to be enjoyed by the users.
Use Storytelling To Enhance User Experience
In addition to displaying your content in an easily accessible format, you can use certain tools to enhance your blog’s user experience. One of the most effective tools is the story format, which is when you use an image, video, or text to tell a story.
The story format provides users with both the basic content as well as the metadata, such as the time and place the content was created, to create a more immersive experience. The story format is one of the most effective ways to add more value to your content and to engage your audience, whether you have 100 readers or 100,000.
Get The Most From Your Mobile Phone Photography With These Tips
While traditional photography was always performed with either a film camera or a digital camera, today’s photographers utilize their mobile phones to take incredible photographs that would not have been possible just a few years ago. The benefit of mobile photography is that it is easy to practice and has virtually no limits on the type of shots you can take.
However, being a photographer on a mobile phone does have its disadvantages. First, because your camera is on the small side, you will need to keep touching the screen to manually focus and take the picture. Second, since most mobile phones have a fixed-focus camera, the quality of the photographs will be lacking. Finally, since your camera is on the move, you will have to be careful not to drop it or have it damaged while taking the picture.
To get the most out of your mobile phone photography, you need to consider using one of the following applications or tools.
Choose An Aesthetically Pleasing Background For Your Pictures
While mobile phones come in all different shapes and sizes, they all have one thing in common — they are all white. As a result, whenever you take a picture with your mobile phone, the background will be almost completely washed out, making it difficult to tell what is going on in the picture.
To avoid this issue, you can use a tool like Lightroom to find the right background for your picture. With the right background, your picture will pop and you will be able to see every detail.
Take Macro Photos With Your Mobile Phone
Since your camera is on the move and the resolution is low, you will not be able to see much detail in your pictures. However, one area where you can get a lot of detail is in close-up macro photography. To take a macro picture, you will need to get really close to your subject and depress the shutter button rapidly.
The downside to this method is that it is really difficult to get close to your subject without stepping on it or knocking it over, especially if you are taking a photo of something as small as a flower or a bug.
Use An Inflatable Beach Ball To Take Stunning Portrait Photography
Another way to get exceptional detail in your pictures is to use a large inflatable beach ball to stand in for a miniature or large mirror.
When using this technique, you will not need to be close to your subject to have it appear large in your picture. Instead, you will need to adjust your position and angle so that the entire beach ball is in your frame when you take the shot.
The advantage of this technique is that you can take a picture of almost anything without worrying about getting your subject slightly off-center or having it appear too small.