Tag: Wordpress

Hosting Improvements and Migrations for 2026: A Clean, Low-Risk Website Refresh Plan

If your website feels slow, unreliable, or harder to maintain than it should be, a new year is a smart time to fix the foundation. Even small hosting and performance improvements can make a noticeable difference—faster load times, fewer “mystery issues,” and less time spent troubleshooting when you’d rather be creating or selling.

This guide gives you a practical approach to upgrading your website setup in 2026, including when it makes sense to migrate, what to plan before you move, and how tools like Pressable and Jetpack fit into a more stable long-term workflow.

Why improve hosting and infrastructure in the first place?

A website is a living system. Over time, it accumulates:

  • old content and unused pages
  • messy media libraries
  • outdated settings
  • performance slowdowns
  • security risks (especially as your site becomes more important)

If your site matters to your work or business, stability becomes part of your strategy—not a “nice to have.”

A hosting refresh can help you:

  • Improve speed and performance
  • Reduce downtime risk
  • Make maintenance more predictable
  • Support growth (more traffic, more content, more sales)
  • Feel confident updating your site

Signs it’s time to consider a hosting upgrade or migration

You don’t need to migrate just because it’s January. But it may be time if you notice:

  • Your site is slow even after optimizing images and content
  • You’ve had security scares or repeated suspicious activity
  • Updates feel risky because you don’t have a reliable backup/restore flow
  • You’re seeing random downtime or support that can’t resolve root causes
  • You’re building for higher stakes: leads, sales, bookings, memberships, or client work
  • You want a setup that better fits agencies, developers, or technical needs

If any of those are true, start by clarifying what you want your hosting to do for you in 2026.

Step 1: Define your 2026 “non-negotiables”

Before you touch anything technical, list your non-negotiables. Examples:

  • “My site should load fast on mobile.”
  • “I need backups I can restore quickly.”
  • “Security should be proactive, not reactive.”
  • “Updates shouldn’t feel like gambling.”
  • “I need an environment that supports professional workflows.”

This prevents you from “migrating for the sake of migrating” and keeps your improvements focused.

Step 2: Clean up before you optimize (quick wins)

Many speed and stability issues are amplified by clutter. Do a 30–60 minute cleanup first:

Content & pages

  • Unpublish or redirect outdated pages
  • Fix broken links (especially in your top pages)
  • Ensure your navigation is simple and current

Media

  • Remove obviously unused large uploads
  • Replace huge images with properly sized versions

Site basics

  • Confirm your contact form works
  • Confirm key CTAs point to the right pages
  • Make sure your most important pages are easy to find

These steps don’t require deep technical work, but they make your next improvements more effective.

Step 3: Add a safety net: backups, security scanning, and performance

Whether you migrate or not, your first “infrastructure” upgrade should be protection and recoverability.

Jetpack supports:

  • Real-time backups (so you can restore quickly if something breaks)
  • Security scanning (to help detect threats early)
  • Performance optimization (to help keep your site fast)

This matters because the true cost of website issues is usually time: time lost troubleshooting, time lost selling, and time lost rebuilding momentum. A solid backup and security foundation reduces that risk.

Step 4: When Pressable makes sense

If your priorities for 2026 include higher performance, professional workflows, or supporting client sites, Pressable is worth considering. It’s positioned as high-performance managed WordPress hosting, and it’s often a strong fit for:

  • Agencies managing multiple sites
  • Developers and technical teams
  • Site owners who want a more professional managed environment
  • Projects where reliability and performance are core requirements

If your site is moving from “personal project” to “business-critical asset,” managed hosting can be a strategic upgrade.

Step 5: Plan a low-risk migration (the checklist that prevents regret)

Migrations go wrong when they’re rushed. Plan your move like a release.

Pre-migration checklist

  • Inventory what matters most:
  • top pages and conversion paths
  • products and checkout flow (if you sell)
  • forms, email capture, and automations
  • custom features you rely on
  • Confirm you can restore:
  • verify your backup system works (test restore if possible)
  • Document your setup:
  • theme, key settings, and critical integrations
  • Choose a quiet window:
  • avoid launching during a big promotion or campaign week

If you run a store

If you sell online using WooCommerce (remember: WooCommerce stores run on WordPress.com), treat migration planning as mission-critical:

  • Test the entire checkout process after the move
  • Confirm order emails are being delivered
  • Validate tax/shipping/payment settings
  • Confirm account/login flows work correctly (if applicable)

Step 6: Use a staging mindset (even if you’re not technical)

“Staging” means testing changes before they go live. You don’t have to be a developer to benefit from staging principles:

  • Make one change at a time
  • Test after every major change (forms, checkout, key pages)
  • Keep notes on what you changed and when
  • Have a rollback plan (backups + restore)

This reduces the most common migration failure mode: too many changes at once, no clear cause when something breaks.

Step 7: Post-migration verification (don’t skip this)

After migrating or upgrading hosting, run a structured verification:

Must-test items

  • Home page and top landing pages load correctly
  • Navigation links work
  • Contact forms submit and deliver emails
  • Search works (if your site uses it)
  • Analytics tracking is still active
  • Mobile layout looks correct

If you sell

  • Product pages load correctly
  • Cart and checkout work end-to-end
  • Confirmation page displays correctly
  • Order confirmation emails deliver properly

SEO basics

  • Check that important pages still return a 200 status (not 404)
  • Confirm your main URLs didn’t unintentionally change
  • Ensure your site isn’t accidentally blocked from indexing

Treat this like a launch checklist—because it is.

Step 8: Make performance improvements that actually matter

Speed is partly hosting—but also content and layout choices. These are high-leverage improvements:

  • Use fewer heavy elements on the home page
  • Compress images and avoid uploading giant files
  • Keep fonts and animations minimal
  • Keep your page layouts consistent
  • Remove features you don’t use

A “lean” site tends to feel faster, look more modern, and convert better.

Step 9: The 2026 website stability plan (simple ongoing routine)

Once your foundation is stable, the goal is to keep it that way with minimal effort.

Weekly (10 minutes)

  • Check that forms and key pages work
  • Scan for anything obviously broken

Monthly (30–60 minutes)

  • Review site speed and key pages
  • Update content that’s outdated
  • Check your top traffic pages and improve clarity

Quarterly (1–2 hours)

  • Review your site structure and goals
  • Refresh your homepage and offer pages
  • Audit your backup/security approach

With Jetpack handling real-time backups, security scanning, and performance optimization, the routine becomes much easier to maintain over time.

Upgrade your foundation now so you can build faster later

A hosting upgrade or migration isn’t just “tech work”—it’s a strategic decision that affects how confidently you can build in 2026.

If your site is growing, if it supports your business, or if you’re tired of putting out fires, focus on:

  • a clean, simple site structure
  • reliable protection and recoverability with Jetpack
  • a managed hosting environment like Pressable when performance and professional workflows matter

Do the foundational work now, and you’ll spend the rest of the year creating, publishing, and selling—without worrying that your site will wobble underneath you.

WordPress New Editor Review

WordPress has released a new editor called “Gutenberg”. While WordPress should definitely be applauded for its new innovation, personally I find it more convenient to just use the Classic editor instead. Perhaps it is just a matter of habit. Basically, I find the learning curve not justified for basic blog posts. I would need to see a truly impressive application of the “blocks” in order to switch over to the new editor.

WordPress New Editor Disable

If you search on Google, one of the most popular search terms is actually “wordpress new editor disable”! This shows that many people are actually trying to disable the new WordPress editor completely! Personally, what I do is I first create a new post (by default it is the new editor), save post, and then edit it using the Classic Editor.

Do vote in the poll above and it would be interesting to see the results!

WordPress Twenty Ten Theme Replacement

WordPress Twenty Ten Theme Retired

The WordPress Twenty Ten Theme was my favorite for a long time. However, it is now retired, meaning that it is no longer updated or supported by WordPress. Hence, it is recommended to switch to a newer theme.

WordPress Theme similar to Twenty Ten

I find that the Twenty Sixteen theme is quite similar to Twenty Ten in terms of layout. It has the signature top header as well as right sidebar classic layout. After much consideration and testing out other themes, I decided to switch to the Twenty Sixteen theme!

It does take some time to get used to the theme. The theme has a very clean and minimalistic look. In fact, the only downside I would say is that the 2016 WordPress theme is a bit too minimalistic, there is not enough colors other than white.

Updated LaTeX to WordPress Converter

WordPress is notorious for not accepting \begin{align} … \end{align} as it is not in math mode.

I have updated the LaTeX to WordPress Converter to change \begin{align} … \end{align} to $l atex\begin{aligned} … \end{aligned}$ which works in WordPress.

Test Input:

Let $h=\chi_{[0,1]}$, the characteristic function of $[0,1]$. We have $\|\chi_{[0,1]}\|_\infty=1$, so $\chi_{[0,1]}\in L^\infty$. Then,
\begin{align*}
(Hh)(x)&=\frac{1}{\pi}\int_0^1\frac{1}{x-t}\ dt\\
&=\frac{1}{\pi}[-\ln|x-t|]_0^1\\
&=\frac{1}{\pi}\ln\frac{|x|}{|x-1|}.
\end{align*}
As $x\to 1$, $(Hh)(x)\to\infty$. Thus, $Hh$ is an unbounded function, so $H$ is not bounded as a map: $L^\infty\to L^\infty$.
\[\frac{a}{b}=c\]

Test Output:

Let h=\chi_{[0,1]}, the characteristic function of [0,1]. We have \|\chi_{[0,1]}\|_\infty=1, so \chi_{[0,1]}\in L^\infty. Then,
\begin{aligned} (Hh)(x)&=\frac{1}{\pi}\int_0^1\frac{1}{x-t}\ dt\\ &=\frac{1}{\pi}[-\ln|x-t|]_0^1\\ &=\frac{1}{\pi}\ln\frac{|x|}{|x-1|}. \end{aligned}
As x\to 1, (Hh)(x)\to\infty. Thus, Hh is an unbounded function, so H is not bounded as a map: L^\infty\to L^\infty.
\displaystyle \frac{a}{b}=c

 

Updated LaTex Javascript Converter

I have updated the LaTeX to WordPress Converter to change \[ \] to $l atex\displaystyle and $ respectively.

Note that \[ … \] is preferable over $$ … $$.

Test code:

Input:

If $(X,\Sigma,\mu)$ is a measure space, $f$ is a non-negative measurable extended real-valued function, and $\epsilon>0$, then \[\mu(\{x\in X: f(x)\geq\epsilon\})\leq\frac{1}{\epsilon}\int_X f\,d\mu.\]

Define \[s(x)=\begin{cases}
\epsilon, &\text{if}\ f(x)\geq\epsilon\\
0, &\text{if}\ f(x)<\epsilon.
\end{cases}\]
Then $0\leq s(x)\leq f(x)$. Thus $\int_X f(x)\,d\mu\geq\int_X s(x)\,d\mu=\epsilon\mu(\{x\in X: f(x)\geq\epsilon\})$. Dividing both sides by $\epsilon>0$ gives the result.

Output:

If (X,\Sigma,\mu) is a measure space, f is a non-negative measurable extended real-valued function, and \epsilon>0, then \displaystyle \mu(\{x\in X: f(x)\geq\epsilon\})\leq\frac{1}{\epsilon}\int_X f\,d\mu.

Define \displaystyle s(x)=\begin{cases} \epsilon, &\text{if}\ f(x)\geq\epsilon\\ 0, &\text{if}\ f(x)<\epsilon. \end{cases}
Then 0\leq s(x)\leq f(x). Thus \int_X f(x)\,d\mu\geq\int_X s(x)\,d\mu=\epsilon\mu(\{x\in X: f(x)\geq\epsilon\}). Dividing both sides by \epsilon>0 gives the result.

WordPress to Sina Weibo 微博 Automatic Posting

I recently discovered a way to post (automatically) from WordPress to Sina Weibo 微博(China’s version of twitter, which has more than half a billion users!)

The trick is to use IFTTT.com (If this then that).

Steps:

1) Setup up publicize for WordPress to Twitter. (WordPress.com can do this automatically).

2) Go to IFTTT.com, and set up a recipe from Twitter to Weibo. (There is a premade template for that, takes less than 5 minutes to sign up)

Done!

There may be a way for WordPress –> Weibo direct posting, I am still researching on that. (Update: Yes, there is a recipe for direct WordPress –> Weibo too!) It depends on whether you want a short summary, in which case WordPress –> Twitter –> Weibo may suit you better. If you want a full text, then WordPress –> Weibo is great. Or, you can use both!

Hope it is helpful!

weibo

无微不至:微博营销实战指南

《无微不至:微博营销实战指南》内容简介：企业如何利用微博进行营销？如何了解消费者的购买心理？如何把握微博的传播机制，发现用户的行为模式，找到有价 值的客户？如何挖掘数据价值，制定营销方案，实现营销的最佳效果？《无微不至:微博营销实战指南》从如何搭建企业微博营销平台、构建微博体系、塑造企业微 形象、选择微博营销模式，以及微博营销的技能、微博写作技巧等方面详尽地讲述微博营销的方法、技巧，具有实操性强，案例经典，拿来就能用的特点。在《无微 不至:微博营销实战指南》中，读者还会学到以下经典内容：微博营销已不是简单开个账户，发发帖子。微博传播永远是内容为王，无论是重口味，还是小清新，一 定要与草根文化血脉相通。写微博和说相声是一样的，要善于抖包袱，要在140字中写出跌宕起伏。10%的人影响了90%的人的购买行为，微博是影响他人购 买决策的一个有效工具。社交广告即将或者已经成为最主流的社会化营销解决方案。高质量的内容和互动永远是提高粉丝转发率、留住粉丝的不二法宝。中国移动、 中国电信应该如何做微博营销？《独唱团》爆单，快书包如何转危机为商机？如何打造企业官微？1000个真实的粉丝意味着什么？如何用微博编织人脉？微博内 容写作十大技巧是什么……

Wordads Review

How to make money online using WordPress

There are currently only three options for advertising on WordPress.com:

1) No Ads Option

2) The default free option

3) Wordads

(Source: http://wordads.co/faq/)

For those who have a custom WordPress.com domain, you can apply to Wordads, and Wordpress can run ads on all of your pages and you share in the income. (http://wordads.co/signup/)

Review: Wordads vs Adsense

AdSense isn’t an option on WordPress.com, so currently bloggers on WordPress.com have to use Wordads.

Some review online regarding the payment option of Wordads and Wordads earnings include:

One thing good (or bad) about Wordads is that it is impression based, clicking on ads is not required. This may be good since usually not many people click on ads. On the other hand, impression based ads tend to have lower pay rates.

Wordads Tips

Be sure to select a Wordads-friendly theme. (I am using the Coraline Theme) This enables you to select the option “Show additional ad units” which would show additional ad units on your blog. This could potentially triple your ad impressions.

Any comments about Wordads? Feel free to drop a comment below!