Blog
Insights on WordPress management, WordPress tutorials, WooCommerce tips, and articles focused on accessibility,
sustainability, performance, and development.
2025 brought a busy year in the digital world, spanning AI, SEO, sustainability and the WordPress project. In this post, I look back at what happened in 2025, share what I worked on, and hope for a more humane 2026. Volunteering at WordCamp Europe in Basel, Switzerland In June, I attended WordCamp Europe in Basel. […]
Read more about WordPress 2025 roundup and looking forward to a more humane 2026 Norwich is located in the UK and is just a short train journey from London, making it well connected for businesses. Did you know, Norwich has two cathedrals? The Norwich Cathedral, founded in 1096 and the Cathedral of St John the Baptist. Not only that, but there is also the Castle, which dates back to […]
Read more about WordPress Still Widely Used in Norwich, UK The Cloudflare 2025 Year in Review provides an informative snapshot of how the web is used today. It highlights how widespread WordPress remains, how PHP underpins a large portion of websites, and other trends in website traffic. For business owners, these insights show the environment their websites operate in and why ongoing maintenance matters. WordPress […]
Read more about What the Cloudflare 2025 Year in Review Tells Us About WordPress Websites WordPress 6.9 launched this month with practical improvements rather than flashy new features. It delivers better WordPress performance, reduced resource usage, and meaningful accessibility updates. It also changes email handling, which requires attention from website owners. Although in most cases updating will be painless, without WordPress support some websites may face disruption after updating. WordPress […]
Read more about WordPress 6.9: What Businesses Should Know About Performance, Sustainability and Support The busy season grows each year and shoppers search for strong deals across Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. Many shops chase higher sales and unfortunately ignore wider impact. I understand the need for as much sales as possible, however, I support growth that still respects the planet. Good preparation helps your WooCommerce store perform […]
Read more about Optimise your WooCommerce store for a busy and sustainable festive season We are in a climate emergency and human rights stand at the centre of this crisis. COP30 in Brazil in November 2025 brings this connection into sharp focus. Leaders will meet in Belém within the United Nations climate process and push for stronger global action. The planet now warms beyond 1.5 degrees above pre industrial […]
Read more about Website Sustainability: COP30 highlights the urgency WordPress powers a huge share of the web because it is flexible, stable, and well supported. To protect the WP Admin area from bad actors and automated bots, tools like Cloudflare’s Turnstile provide an extra layer of security. Strengthening your WP Admin login with Turnstile improves reliability, performance, and safeguarding of data. As mentioned in […]
Read more about Turnstile and Cloudflare Security Rules for extra WP Admin protection Running a website comes with responsibility. Keeping your WP Admin safe from attacks must be at the top of your priorities. Bad actors target WordPress Admin areas every day. They use stolen passwords, brute-force attacks, and phishing tactics to gain access. Once they break in, they can steal potential sensitive information, destroy data, or take […]
Read more about Two Factor Authentication: Strengthen Your WordPress Admin Security From over a decade of offering WordPress support in both the UK and globally, I have seen Gravity Forms data retention overlooked far too often. Gravity Forms is a trusted plugin for collecting enquiries, bookings, and feedback. However, many site owners forget to plan how long form data should stay stored. By default, Gravity Forms […]
Read more about Gravity Forms Data Retention: Why Every WordPress Site Needs a Policy AI bots now scan the web faster and more aggressively than ever. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude rely on these crawlers to fetch new content. They scan millions of web pages to improve their models. Often, they do this without clear limits or permissions. That might sound harmless. However, for business owners, these bots […]
Read more about How to Stop AI Bots Slowing a WordPress Website, with Cloudflare SJ Gravity Forms Blocklist is a lightweight WordPress plugin built to extend Gravity Forms with simple but powerful spam-blocking features. Designed with freelancers, developers, and digital agencies in mind, this plugin helps protect your WordPress site from unwanted form submissions by blocking specific website URLs, email addresses, and email domain extensions. If you’re tired of […]
Read more about SJ Gravity Forms Blocklist: A Gravity Forms Plugin to Block Website URLs, Email and Domains Extensions. Choosing the right plugin can make or break a WordPress project, especially when dealing with WooCommerce spam, performance issues, client expectations, and compliance. I’m a WordPress freelancer based in Norwich, UK, and I previously faced a decision that’s worth sharing. A client running an E-commerce website had a serious issue: WooCommerce spam orders. These fake […]
Read more about Stop WooCommerce spam orders by using the Six Thinking Hats to choose the right WordPress Plugin for your business. WooCommerce spam orders cause serious problems for many UK-based online retailers and disrupt normal store operations daily. Bots and bad actors flood checkout pages with fake orders that overwhelm stock levels and confuse fulfilment teams. Store owners waste valuable time sorting these orders and dealing with fake payment attempts and refund requests. Fake orders inflate […]
Read more about How to stop WooCommerce spam orders The newest version of WordPress, WordPress 6.8, has been named “Cecil”, after the jazz pioneer, Cecil Taylor. This is an overview of what’s going on beneath the surface that developers and performance focused site owners should be paying attention to. Performance Improvements WordPress 6.8 introduces a load of performance boosts aimed at both front end […]
Read more about WordPress 6.8 “Cecil”, has been released SJ News is a WordPress plugin that adds a new widget directly to the WP Admin Dashboard with your custom news feed and a call to action button. I developed this WordPress plugin with freelancers and digital agencies in mind, specifically useful for those providing ongoing maintenance and support, offering a simple way to keep […]
Read more about SJ News: A WordPress Plugin for WP Admin Dashboard Custom News Feed It’s great to switch off from the online world, but I prefer doing that while supporting sustainability. This weekend, I joined the amazing Norfolk Beach Cleans group. It wasn’t my first beach clean, but my first with them. Norfolk Beach Cleans is a volunteer-led group promoting local action for a sustainable environment. We removed 21kg […]
Read more about Supporting Sea Sustainability with Norfolk Beach Cleans This article about mastering WordPress Development is archived and may not be up to date. Please note: This article is aimed at developers of all levels who want to move into WordPress development. This is not intended for learning how to use your WordPress Admin Area or your bespoke website. If you are an agency, […]
Read more about Master WordPress Development: Resources for Beginners to Experts This article is from a previous WordPress Norwich Meetup giving live WordPress Support, this is archived and may not be up to date. For the February WordPress Norwich meetup we held a “WordPress Website Clinic” where people could come with any issues they have with their WordPress website. The turnout was fantastic, the room filled […]
Read more about WordPress Norwich Meetup – WP Website Clinic This article about alternative Website Analytics is archived and may not be up to date. There are some amazing new website analytics tools, especially when speed and privacy are important. You don’t need to just rely on the bloated Google Analytics anymore, but even if you have to then you can still make the usage […]
Read more about Website Analytics: Privacy, Performance, Google alternatives. This article is from a previous WordPress Norwich Meetup giving live WordPress Support, this is archived and may not be up to date. The WordPress Norwich Meetup had one of its best turnouts so far. This year, the Norwich meetup is still growing organically. In 2020, we plan to add structure with speakers and better promotion. We’ll […]
Read more about WordPress Norwich Meetup – “Happy Content Management: The Importance of the Admin User Experience” This article is from a previous WordPress Norwich Meetup giving live WordPress Support, this is archived and may not be up to date. This month at the WordPress Norwich Meetup we discussed media management in WordPress. The key areas included: Optimising WordPress images with a plugin We discussed how optimising images is very important for Website Performance […]
Read more about WordPress Norwich Meetup – “Manage Your Media” This article is archived and may not be up to date. This month at WordPress Norwich Meetup, we discussed how most of us have some kind of form on our websites – everything from a simple contact form to a complicated application with multiple conditional statements. We will also discussed: WordPress Form Plugins (free and […]
Read more about WordPress Norwich Meetup – “All about WordPress Forms” This article is from a previous WordPress Norwich Meetup giving live WordPress Support, this is archived and may not be up to date. The first Norwich WordPress Meetup of 2019 was centred around a very broad topic of WordPress Plugins. The key areas we discussed included: Must-install WordPress Plugins In addition, several attendees shared their “must-install” plugins. Among […]
Read more about WordPress Norwich Meetup – “Plugins Unplugged”