The document provides tips for maximizing WordPress performance and functionality. It recommends laying a strong foundation by choosing a hosting provider and theme carefully. It also suggests keeping WordPress clean by removing unused plugins, prioritizing responsive design and speed optimizations, carefully managing JavaScript, and monitoring performance. Regular updates, security practices, and testing site migrations are also advised.

1. Maximizing WordPress
Get more out of this great publishing platform
Brian LaFrance
Marketing Director – AuthorityLabs
brian.lafrance@authoritylabs.com
Twitter - @blafrance

2. Lay Your Foundation
• Stock WordPress installs won’t cut it
• Self vs. Managed Hosting
• Apache vs. NGINX
• Use WP_DEBUG

3. Keep it Clean
• Delete any plugins you are not using
• Plugin for cleanup and preferred settings

4. Choosing a Theme
• Avoid bloated themes
• Frameworks vs. Themes
• Genesis - Framework
• Bones – Theme
• _s (Underscores) - Theme

5. Mobile Considerations
• Responsive design – mobile first
• Don’t go overboard – Logical breakpoints
• Prioritize for better user experience
• Minimize resources sent to devices

6. Speed it Up
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Caching Plugins
Smaller images and sprites
CDN & S3
Redis

7. Managing Javascripts
• Plugin developers are lazy
• Use Google Hosted Libraries
• Use wp_enqueue_script()
• Monitor for errors
• Combine when possible (Segment.io)

8. Monitoring
• Chartbeat – load times & traffic trends
• Pingdom – load times & uptime
• New Relic – application monitoring
• Binary Canary – uptime & custom strings

9. Plugins
• More plugins = less security
• Choose wisely
• Plugins vs. Theme Functionality
• Not always one size fits all

10. Updates & Security
• Keep everything updated regularly
• Multiple installs? Centralize tracking
• Use Sucuri
• Back everything up regularly

11. Migrating Non WP Sites
• Plan your URL structure for redirects
• Scrape & create import files if needed
• Test , fix, test, fix
• site: search
• Screaming Frog
• Make sure all page types look good

12. Launching New/Migrated Sites
• Check rendering in all browsers
• Check titles & descriptions
• Double check ALL important redirects
• Don’t rely on WP for www vs. non-www
• Test all forms

13. Random Tips
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Site searches = content ideas
Don’t be afraid of custom post types
Use multisite & domain mapping
Learn to use hooks
Never, ever edit core files. Ever. Don’t do it.

14. Maximizing WordPress
Get more out of this great publishing platform
Brian LaFrance
Marketing Director – AuthorityLabs
brian.lafrance@authoritylabs.com
Twitter - @blafrance
More information, links, and resources – bit.ly/pubconwp