">9. <a href=\"https://smashballoon.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Smash Balloon\">Smash Balloon</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://smashballoon.com/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"427\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-smashballoon.png\" alt=\"Smash Ballon is the best blogging tool for adding social media feeds.\" class=\"wp-image-163410\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-smashballoon.png 700w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-smashballoon-300x183.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-smashballoon-600x366.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-smashballoon-98x60.png 98w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-smashballoon-148x90.png 148w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://smashballoon.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Smash Balloon\">Smash Balloon</a> is a powerful plugin featuring a set of social media feed plugins that let you easily bring your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube updates onto your website. It’s a great tool to boost engagement and social media following.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smash Balloon’s suite of social media plugins lets you embed your social media posts on your site, enabling users to interact with them. And if you sell products on Instagram, you can even create shoppable feeds to boost your sales.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pricing</strong>: $49/year for a single social media feed plugin. The all-access bundle costs $239.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-10-ahrefs\">10. <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/ahrefs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Ahrefs\">Ahrefs</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/ahrefs/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"345\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-diy-seo-software-tools-ahrefs.png\" alt=\"Ahrefs is a powerful all-in-one marketing tool.\" class=\"wp-image-163411\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-diy-seo-software-tools-ahrefs.png 700w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-diy-seo-software-tools-ahrefs-300x148.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-diy-seo-software-tools-ahrefs-600x296.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-diy-seo-software-tools-ahrefs-122x60.png 122w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-diy-seo-software-tools-ahrefs-183x90.png 183w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/ahrefs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Ahrefs\">Ahrefs</a> is a comprehensive marketing and SEO toolkit to help you DIY your SEO as a blogger. It also has powerful keyword research and competitor analysis tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use Ahrefs for keyword discovery, uncovering backlink opportunities, rank tracking, and more. You can use this data to develop impactful SEO strategies to help you outperform your competitors.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another noteworthy feature you’ll love in Ahrefs is the Content Explorer. This tool shows you the most popular content ranking for a particular keyword. You can use it to reverse engineer the SEO strategy behind the winning articles.&nbsp;<strong>Pricing</strong>: Paid plans start at $99.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-10-semrush\">11. <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/semrush/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Semrush\">Semrush</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/semrush/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"425\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-semrush.png\" alt=\"Semrush is the best all-in-one marketing tool.\" class=\"wp-image-163413\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-semrush.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-semrush-300x182.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-semrush-600x363.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-semrush-99x60.png 99w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-semrush-149x90.png 149w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/semrush/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Semrush\">Semrush</a> is an all-in-one SEO and content marketing tool that helps you find competitive search data so your blog can rank high for the right keywords. It also gives you insights into your competitors’ strategies in display advertising, organic and paid search, and link building.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Semrush really shines when it comes to keyword research. One reason for this is that besides showing you search volumes and keyword difficulty, it also shows you the search intent behind your keywords. This helps ensure you use the right keywords and create content your readers will find helpful. And when writing your blog posts, you can use <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/semrush-seo-writing-assistant/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Semrush Writing Assistant\">Semrush’s Writing Assistant</a> to help optimize your content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pricing</strong>: Paid plans start at $119.95. A free plan is available, but it’s very limited.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Best Semrush alternatives: <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/ahrefs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Ahrefs\">Ahrefs</a> and <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/mangools/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Mangools\">Mangools</a> suite of SEO tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-11-better-click-to-tweet\">12. <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-click-to-tweet/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Better Click to Tweet\">Better Click to Tweet</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-click-to-tweet/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"310\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-better-click-to-tweet.png\" alt=\"Better Click to Tweet lets you add &quot;click to tweet&quot; buttons in your blog posts.\" class=\"wp-image-163414\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-better-click-to-tweet.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-better-click-to-tweet-300x132.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-better-click-to-tweet-600x265.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-better-click-to-tweet-136x60.png 136w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/best-blogging-tools-better-click-to-tweet-204x90.png 204w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-click-to-tweet/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Better Click to Tweet\">Better Click to Tweet</a> is a free WordPress plugin that lets you insert ‘click to tweet’ buttons into your blog posts or other pages on your site. It makes it easy for your readers to quickly and easily tweet a quote from your content. This helps turn your readers into brand ambassadors, thereby increasing your reach.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin has a special Gutenberg block, making it easy to use. Alternatively, you can use a shortcode to insert the ‘click to tweet’ button into your posts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pricing</strong>: Free.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-the-best-blogging-tools-to-help-you-grow-your-wordpress-blog-our-top-picks\">The Best Blogging Tools to Help You Grow Your WordPress Blog: Our Top Picks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our top pick for the best blogging tool to help you grow your WordPress blog is <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\" title=\"Pricing\">AIOSEO</a>. It’s a powerful plugin that can help you improve your visibility on search engines. It also helps boost clickthrough rates and ensure your content is optimized for search engines and users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want a plugin to help you build a fast-loading website, then <a href=\"https://www.seedprod.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"SeedProd\">SeedProd</a> is it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope this post helped you find the best WordPress eCommerce plugin for your business. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-start-a-small-business-blog/\" title=\"How to Start a Small Business Blog in 2023\">how to start a small business blog</a> or our tutorial on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-create-jump-links-in-wordpress/\" title=\"How to Create Jump Links in WordPress (and Increase Your Visibility On SERPs)\">creating jump links in WordPress</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/AIOSEO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">YouTube Channel</a>. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aioseopack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Twitter</a>, <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/aioseo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">LinkedIn</a>, or <a href=\"https://facebook.com/aioseopack/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Facebook</a> to stay in the loop.&nbsp;</p>The post <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/best-blogging-tools/\">12 Blogging Tools to Help You Grow Your WordPress Blog</a> first appeared on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com\">AIOSEO</a>.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:36:\"http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/\";a:1:{s:10:\"commentRss\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:44:\"https://aioseo.com/best-blogging-tools/feed/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:38:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/\";a:1:{s:8:\"comments\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1:\"0\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:97:\"\n		\n		\n					\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n					\n			\n		\n		\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:5:{s:0:\"\";a:7:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:54:\"What are Google Local Services Ads for Small Business?\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:118:\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-local-services-ads/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-are-local-services-ads\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"comments\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:55:\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-local-services-ads/#respond\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:46:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:9:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Blog\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"SEO Tips\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"Google Business Profile\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:3;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17:\"Google Guaranteed\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:4;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:25:\"Google Local Services Ads\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:5;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Google Screened\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:6;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"local seo\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:7;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Local Services Ads\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:8;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:16:\"Pay-per-Lead ads\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:28:\"https://aioseo.com/?p=162319\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:446:\"<p>Are you wondering what Local Services Ads are and how they can benefit small businesses? What are the requirements for using these ads? Should you take other marketing steps first? In this article, we&#8217;ll provide an overview of Local Services&#8230;</p>\nThe post <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-local-services-ads/\">What are Google Local Services Ads for Small Business?</a> first appeared on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com\">AIOSEO</a>.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Sherrie Gossett\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31094:\"<p>Are you wondering what Local Services Ads are and how they can benefit small businesses?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are the requirements for using these ads? Should you take other marketing steps first?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll provide an overview of Local Services Ads and their benefits, and we&#8217;ll share some practical tips small business owners can take to boost their visibility in search engine results.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-group aioseo-table-of-contents has-theme-info-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>In This Article</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-aioseo-table-of-contents\"><ul><li><a href=\"#aioseo-google-local-services-ads-what-are-they\">Google Local Services Ads: What Are They?</a><ul></ul></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-googles-screening-and-verification-process\">Google&#8217;s Screening and Verification Process</a><ul></ul></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-set-up-your-local-seo\">Set Up Your Local SEO</a><ul></ul></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-get-started-with-google-local-services-ads\">Get Started With Local Services Ads</a><ul></ul></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-list-of-service-businesses-eligible-for-local-services-ads\">Businesses Eligible for Local Services Ads</a><ul></ul></li></ul></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-google-local-services-ads-what-are-they\">Google Local Services Ads: What Are They?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Local Services Ads (LSA) are a Google ad product designed to generate leads for service-based businesses.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ads feature the business name, a short description, and the average review rating plus total number of customer reviews.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google&#8217;s goal is to deliver new leads that contact you directly through the ad, either by phone or by messaging you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can opt to receive messages by email and to respond by email or SMS/text message. (The lead chooses the response method.)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google also runs background checks on its advertisers in order to provide consumers with confidence to engage with the business.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-be-seen-at-the-top-of-google\">Be Seen at the Top of Google</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ve probably seen Local Services Ads. They appear in local search results for service providers, like plumbers, electricians, and real estate agents.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"669\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-1024x669.jpg\" alt=\"local services ads example\" class=\"wp-image-162322\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-1024x669.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-300x196.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-768x502.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-1536x1004.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-2048x1338.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-600x392.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-92x60.jpg 92w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-serices-ads-electrician-138x90.jpg 138w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When you hover over an ad with your cursor, it expands in size.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One benefit of the ads is you can be seen at the top of Google search results for related search queries. These Local Services Ads appear <em>above</em> the Local Pack.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do note that ad ranking is related to the bidding process.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ads are prominent and an effective way to connect with potential customers.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-pay-per-lead-pricing\">Pay-Per-Lead Pricing</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The pricing is unique: these are &#8220;pay-per-lead&#8221; search ads not pay-per-click (PPC) ads.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pricing is based per lead and is a function of Google&#8217;s bidding process. You can opt to let Google automatically set your bid with a goal of getting the most leads per your budget. Or you can manually set the maximum you want to pay per lead.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you wind up with leads that you think are irrelevant, you can <a href=\"https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/7435486?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">dispute the charge</a> and Google will review it within a week.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get optimal results, Google recommends that you set a <strong>minimum budget</strong> of <strong>10 leads per week</strong>. You can use the <a href=\"https://ads.google.com/local-services-ads/cost/#!/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">cost estimate calculator</a> here to get a rough idea of the weekly budget.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-googles-screening-and-verification-process\">Google&#8217;s Screening and Verification Process</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>All businesses that participate in Local Services Ads are required to pass a background check. This includes a criminal background check for all owners and &#8220;field workers&#8221; (anyone who, on behalf of the business, will do on site work).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For some types of businesses, anyone who interacts directly (including off-site) with customers will need to be screened.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Depending on local regulations, checks may also be done on business registration, license, and insurance. So if you are a roofer, financial planner, real estate agent, or other professional service provider whose state or province requires a license, you&#8217;ll need to obtain that before setting up a Local Ads account.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-what-is-the-google-screened-badge\">What is the Google Screened Badge?</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Some professional services providers, such as real estate agents, are required to have their licenses checked. Their ads will appear with a green checkmark next to the phrase &#8220;Google Screened&#8221; to indicate they have passed this check.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"385\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-1024x385.jpg\" alt=\"local services ads google screened display\" class=\"wp-image-162325\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-1024x385.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-300x113.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-768x289.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-1536x578.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-2048x771.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-600x226.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-159x60.jpg 159w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-screened-local-services-ads-239x90.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-what-is-the-google-guarantee-badge\">What is the Google Guaranteed Badge?</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As you do your own searches for local services, you&#8217;ll notice that many of the ads have a green checkmark next to the phrase &#8220;<a href=\"https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/7549288?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Google Guaranteed</a>.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-1024x612.png\" alt=\"local services ads google guaranteed \" class=\"wp-image-162326\" width=\"518\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-1024x612.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-300x179.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-768x459.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-1536x918.png 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-2048x1224.png 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-600x358.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-100x60.png 100w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-local-services-ads-google-guaranteed-1-151x90.png 151w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This badge indicates the provider has passed the screening and verification process <em>and</em> their services are backed by Google. This means if consumers are unsatisfied with the service they can receive reimbursement directly from Google. There&#8217;s a lifetime cap on reimbursement. This amount varies from country to country. For example, in the U.S. the cap is $2,000.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To receive the Google Guarantee badge, just fill out the Local Services Ads form and begin the background screening process.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-set-up-your-local-seo\">Set Up Your Local SEO</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t done so yet, be sure to set up local SEO on your websites. This is a low-cost process and it&#8217;s key for getting leads and sales.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also a good time to start soliciting Google reviews, as these will show up on your ads.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how do you get started?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress users can use a plugin to get started with local SEO.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-1-download-the-all-in-one-seo-aioseo-plugin\">Step 1: Download the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Plugin</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We recommend that you download the <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\">All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin</a>. This plugin has thousands of 5-star ratings on WordPress.org and it&#8217;s currently used by over 3 million people.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"485\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-1024x485.png\" alt=\"aioseo homepage\" class=\"wp-image-140989\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-1024x485.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-300x142.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-768x364.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-600x284.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-127x60.png 127w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-190x90.png 190w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage.png 1260w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve<a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\"> downloaded</a> and<a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/installing-all-in-one-seo-pro/\"> installed the plugin</a>, you&#8217;re ready to get started.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-2-set-up-local-seo-basics\">Step 2: Set Up Local SEO Basics</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the top admin bar of your WordPress editor go to <strong>AIOSEO » Local SEO</strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"454\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-1024x454.jpg\" alt=\"aioseo local seo\" class=\"wp-image-154766\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-1024x454.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-300x133.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-768x340.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-1536x680.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-2048x907.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-600x266.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-135x60.jpg 135w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-menu-203x90.jpg 203w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Fill out the locations, opening hours, and maps info, and you&#8217;re done.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"478\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-1024x478.png\" alt=\"aioseo local seo settings\" class=\"wp-image-154770\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-1024x478.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-300x140.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-768x359.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-600x280.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-128x60.png 128w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings-193x90.png 193w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-local-seo-settings.png 1353w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-aioseo-theme-notice-box\" role=\"alert\">\n<p>You&#8217;ll need to generate a Google API Key in order to get your business to show up in Google Maps. Don&#8217;t worry, it&#8217;s very easy. Just follow <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/setting-up-google-maps/\">these instructions</a>.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>This local SEO process adds code called &#8220;schema markup&#8221; to your website. This helps Google match your business to relevant search queries.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And your business details will be added to its <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-is-google-knowledge-graph/\">Knowledge Graph</a>, a giant database of facts.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-3-create-a-google-my-business-account\">Step 3: Create a Google Business Profile</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Be sure to set up a Google Business Profile. This is a free business profile that displays your contact information and can include images, videos, and announcements.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When people search for your business name, they&#8217;ll see this prominent display to the right of search engine results.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"588\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-1024x588.jpg\" alt=\"google business profile brasserie blanc\" class=\"wp-image-162331\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-1024x588.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-300x172.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-768x441.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-600x344.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-105x60.jpg 105w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc-157x90.jpg 157w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-google-business-profile-brasserie-blanc.jpg 1371w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Your profile information will also appear in Google Maps searches and in the Local Pack.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have some reviews, continue to <strong>solicit more reviews</strong> as you gain new customers. Your overall number of reviews will display in Local Services Ads.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-aioseo-theme-notice-box\" role=\"alert\">\n<p>Google Business Profile was formerly called Google My Business.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-4-get-local-seo-citations\">Step 4: Get Local SEO Citations</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow our <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-get-local-seo-citations/\">easy instructions</a> for getting listings in business directories and data aggregators.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This step will improve your visibility in search engine results, and may boost your rankings.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-get-started-with-google-local-services-ads\">Get Started With Google Local Services Ads</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting started with Google&#8217;s Local Service Ads is very easy. It only takes minutes. You have 2 options.</p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Fill out their online form.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Call their number. (They boast a wait time of less than 30 seconds.)</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<p>For this tutorial, we&#8217;ll walk you through the form. It should only take you a few minutes to fill out.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-check-eligibility\">Check Eligibility</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first step, you&#8217;ll be asked to fill in your location and choose your service from a drop-down menu.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wondering what services are eligible? Check out our complete <a href=\"http://aioseo.com/what-are-local-services-ads#aioseo-list-of-service-businesses-eligible-for-local-services-ads\" title=\"\">list below</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"658\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-1024x658.png\" alt=\"local services ads eligibility list\" class=\"wp-image-162332\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-1024x658.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-300x193.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-768x494.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-1536x987.png 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-2048x1316.png 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-600x386.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-93x60.png 93w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-eligibility-140x90.png 140w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-create-an-account\">Create an Account</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If your service is eligible, the form will ask you to create a Gmail address (or choose one you already use) to associate with your Local Services Ads account.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-add-business-details\">Add Business Details</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 3rd step you&#8217;ll fill out a form with your business details, such as:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Name of business owner(s)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Phone number</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Number of field workers</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether or not you have a physical location customers can visit.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"658\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-1024x658.jpg\" alt=\"local services ads business details form\" class=\"wp-image-162333\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-1024x658.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-300x193.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-768x493.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-1536x987.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-2048x1315.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-600x385.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-93x60.jpg 93w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-details-140x90.jpg 140w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-set-up-your-service-area\">Set Up Your Service Area</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In this step you&#8217;ll set up your service area, by typing in the names of towns you service. Searchers in these areas will see your ads.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"658\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-1024x658.jpg\" alt=\"local services ads service area setup\" class=\"wp-image-162334\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-1024x658.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-300x193.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-768x494.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-1536x987.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-2048x1316.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-600x386.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-93x60.jpg 93w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-service-ads-service-area-140x90.jpg 140w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s also an optional &#8220;Exclude these service areas&#8221; form field. Here you can type in the names of nearby towns that you don&#8217;t service.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-select-specific-services-you-offer\">Select Specific Services You Offer</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In this step you&#8217;ll tick boxes for relevant services you offer. For example, if you chose &#8220;snow removal&#8221; as your service, in this particular step you&#8217;ll have the option to tick:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Salt sand and de-icing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commercial snow removal</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Snow relocation</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Residential shoveling blowing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Residential plowing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"671\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-1024x671.jpg\" alt=\"local services ads services details form\" class=\"wp-image-162335\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-1024x671.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-300x197.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-768x504.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-1536x1007.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-2048x1343.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-600x393.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-92x60.jpg 92w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-service-types-137x90.jpg 137w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-set-your-business-hours\">Set Your Business Hours</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, you&#8217;ll set your business hours.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"626\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-1024x626.jpg\" alt=\"local services ads business hours form\" class=\"wp-image-162336\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-1024x626.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-300x183.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-768x469.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-1536x938.jpg 1536w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-2048x1251.jpg 2048w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-600x367.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-98x60.jpg 98w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-hours-147x90.jpg 147w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-preview-your-ad\">Preview Your Ad</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the final step you&#8217;ll preview your ad and agree to Google&#8217;s &#8220;onboarding terms.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-whats-next\">What Happens Next?</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google will verify your business and licenses (if relevant).</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"531\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-1024x531.png\" alt=\"local services ads business verification progress bar\" class=\"wp-image-162337\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-1024x531.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-300x156.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-768x398.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-600x311.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-116x60.png 116w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification-174x90.png 174w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-services-ads-business-verification.png 1288w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Once Google contacts you to let you know the verification is complete, you&#8217;ll set your ad budget.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out their <a href=\"blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">cost calculator here</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-list-of-service-businesses-eligible-for-local-services-ads\">List of Service Businesses Eligible for Local Services Ads</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The following services are eligible for Google Local Services Ads. You&#8217;ll notice that many of them are home services, but there are exceptions, as with beauty school, acupuncture, and financial planning.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Acupuncture</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Animal rescue services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Appliance repair</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Beauty school</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carpentry</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carpet cleaner</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Child care services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Countertop services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dance instruction</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dentistry</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Driving instruction</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Electrical</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fencing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial planning</li>\n\n\n\n<li>First aid training</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Flooring</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Foundations</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Funeral services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Garage door</li>\n\n\n\n<li>General contracting</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Handyman</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Home inspection</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Home security services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Home theater services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>House cleaning</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hvac</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Junk removal</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Landscaping</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Language instruction</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Law</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lawn Care</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Locksmith</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Massage school</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Moving</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Personal training</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pest control</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pet adoption services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pet boarding</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pet grooming</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pet training</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plumbing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pool cleaning</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pool contractor</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Preschool</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Real estate</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Roofing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sewage system services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Siding</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Snow removal services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tax services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tree services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tutoring</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Veterinary services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Water damage services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Weight loss services</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Window cleaning</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-local-services-ads-faqs\">Local Services Ads Q&amp;A</h2>\n\n\n\n<div data-schema-only=\"false\" class=\"wp-block-aioseo-faq\" id=\"aioseo-do-you-need-a-website-to-use-local-services-ads\"><h3 class=\"aioseo-faq-block-question\">Do you need a website to use Local Services Ads?</h3><div class=\"aioseo-faq-block-answer\">\n<p>No, you do not need a website to start running Local Services Ads. For those starting a simple business quickly, such as house cleaners or snow plowers, being able to get leads quickly can help you earn revenue while you&#8217;re setting up other aspects of your business.</p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div data-schema-only=\"false\" class=\"wp-block-aioseo-faq\" id=\"aioseo-what-was-the-garage-door-ads-scam-about\"><h3 class=\"aioseo-faq-block-question\">What was the garage door ads scam about?</h3><div class=\"aioseo-faq-block-answer\">\n<p>After Local Services Ads launched, some garage door repair businesses started manipulating the system by appearing to exist as more than one company. In this scheme, the business would buy dozens of other domains, all purporting to be garage door repair services, buy fake reviews, and buy ads. The goal was to completely dominate Local Services Ads by competing against themselves.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the <em>Dallas Morning News</em> <a href=\"https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2017/10/19/google-kills-hundreds-of-ads-by-worst-garage-door-company-in-the-nation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">reported</a>, one outfit allegedly engaged in this scheme &#8220;poached&#8221; the names of real businesses. Google removed the ads and advertiser accounts. According to industry reports, instances of abuse of the ad platform <a href=\"https://searchengineland.com/google-local-services-ads-arbitrage-387645\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">still occur</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google says they take &#8220;swift action&#8221; against ad manipulation. Use <a href=\"https://support.google.com/localservices/answer/9008912?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">this form</a> to report ad platform abuse.</p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-summing-it-up\">Local Service Ads: Wrap Up</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Local Ads Services are a unique lead generation tool for small businesses. Success in digital marketing often requires experimentation, so you won&#8217;t know how well this works for you until you try it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some tips for success:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be prepared to respond quickly to leads, whether they come in via phone calls or through email.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have a sales process. This can be as simple as some talking points about your service and for overcoming objections.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tap Google&#8217;s ad staff if you need assistance.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don&#8217;t neglect the optimization of your own website.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-whats-next\">What’s Next?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope this post helped you learn what Local Services Ads are and how they might benefit your local business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also check out our article <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-is-nap-in-seo/\">What is NAP in SEO?</a> and <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-serps/\">What are SERPs (and Why are They Important For SEO)?</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/AIOSEO\">YouTube Channel</a>. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aioseopack\">Twitter</a>, <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/aioseo/\">LinkedIn</a>, or <a href=\"https://facebook.com/aioseopack/\">Facebook</a> to stay in the loop.</p>The post <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-local-services-ads/\">What are Google Local Services Ads for Small Business?</a> first appeared on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com\">AIOSEO</a>.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:36:\"http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/\";a:1:{s:10:\"commentRss\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:52:\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-local-services-ads/feed/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:38:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/\";a:1:{s:8:\"comments\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1:\"0\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:85:\"\n		\n		\n					\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n					\n			\n		\n		\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:5:{s:0:\"\";a:7:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:44:\"How to Easily Embed Google Maps in WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:138:\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"comments\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:65:\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress/#respond\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 20 Feb 2023 13:17:01 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:5:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Blog\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"SEO Tips\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"embed Google Maps in WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:3;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"local business schema\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:4;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"local seo\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:28:\"https://aioseo.com/?p=152854\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:421:\"<p>Would you like to know how to embed Google maps in WordPress? Embedding a map with your business location makes it easy for your customers to identify where your business is situated. It also helps boost your local SEO. As&#8230;</p>\nThe post <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress/\">How to Easily Embed Google Maps in WordPress</a> first appeared on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com\">AIOSEO</a>.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Kato Nkhoma\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:19733:\"<p>Would you like to know how to embed Google maps in WordPress?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Embedding a map with your business location makes it easy for your customers to identify where your business is situated. It also helps boost your local SEO. As a result, you can drive more foot traffic from the web.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we’ll show you how to embed Google Maps in WordPress easily.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-group aioseo-table-of-contents has-theme-info-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>In This Article</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-aioseo-table-of-contents\"><ul><li><a href=\"#aioseo-why-should-you-add-google-maps-to-wordpress\">Why Should You Add Google Maps to WordPress?</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress\">How to Embed Google Maps in WordPress</a><ul><li><a href=\"#aioseo-step-1-install-all-in-one-seo-aioseo\">Step 1. Install All In One SEO (AIOSEO)</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-step-2-add-your-locations\">Step 2: Add Your Location(s)</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-step-3-generate-and-add-a-google-maps-api-key\">Step 3: Generate and Add a Google Maps API Key</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-step-4-configure-your-google-maps-settings\">Step 4: Configure Your Google Maps Settings</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-step-5-display-google-maps-in-wordpress\">Step 5: Display Google Maps in WordPress</a><ul></ul></li></ul></li></ul></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-why-should-you-add-google-maps-to-wordpress\">Why Should You Add Google Maps to WordPress?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Google Maps is the most popular navigation app on all platforms. This means if you run a brick-and-mortar business, then adding Google Maps to your WordPress website makes it easy for users to locate your business quickly. This helps you attract more customers, leading to increased sales.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That’s not all! Embedding Google Maps into your WordPress site can also help improve your local SEO. According to research, <a href=\"https://optinmonster.com/seo-statistics/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">46% of all searches</a> are local, and embedding Google Maps into your WordPress site helps boost your online and physical visibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress\">How to Embed Google Maps in WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to embed Google Maps to your WordPress site and drive more online and offline traffic to your business?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let’s dive right in!</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-1-install-all-in-one-seo-aioseo\">Step 1. Install All In One SEO (AIOSEO)</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The first step to embedding Google Maps in WordPress is to install a powerful SEO plugin like <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\" title=\"Pricing\">AIOSEO</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"311\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo.png\" alt=\"aioseo homepae\" class=\"wp-image-151544\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo.png 700w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-300x133.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/aioseo-600x267.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\" title=\"Pricing\">AIOSEO</a> is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It is trusted by over 3 million savvy website owners and marketers to help them dominate <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-are-serps/\" title=\"What Are SERPs (And Why Are they Important to SEO)?\">search engine results pages</a> (SERPs) and drive relevant traffic to their sites. This is because the plugin has many <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/features/\">powerful SEO features and modules</a> to help you optimize your website for search engines and users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the features many users rave about is the Local SEO module.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This powerful module is designed to help you rank high for local searches. It helps you do that by making it easy to embed Google Maps into your site. And you don’t need technical or coding knowledge to do so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check out our <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/installing-all-in-one-seo-pro/\">installation guide</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-2-add-your-locations\">Step 2: Add Your Location(s)</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you’ve installed and activated AIOSEO, the next step to embedding Google maps is to add your location data. Again, this is super easy, whether you run a single or multiple-location business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do that, go to the <strong>AIOSEO menu » Local SEO</strong>. This will open a page where you can input your location and business information.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"182\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-1.png\" alt=\"The Locations tab enables you to embed Google Maps in WordPress.\" class=\"wp-image-161578\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-1.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-1-300x78.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-1-600x156.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-1-190x49.png 190w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-1-347x90.png 347w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the first things you’ll have to add is to indicate whether your business is a single or multiple-location business.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"456\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-multiple-locations.png\" alt=\"You can add multiple locations by switching a toggle.\" class=\"wp-image-161579\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-multiple-locations.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-multiple-locations-300x195.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-multiple-locations-600x390.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-multiple-locations-92x60.png 92w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-multiple-locations-139x90.png 139w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If yours is a single-location business, leave the <strong>Multiple Locations</strong> toggle set to <strong>No</strong>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also choose whether you want your location information to be displayed as a:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Gutenberg Block</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shortcode</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Widget</li>\n\n\n\n<li>PHP code</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-add-local-business-schema-in-wordpress/\" title=\"How to Add Local Business Schema in WordPress\">Check out this guide</a> for detailed instructions on adding your locations to your site’s schema.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-3-generate-and-add-a-google-maps-api-key\">Step 3: Generate and Add a Google Maps API Key</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With your locations set, you can embed Google Maps into your WordPress site. You must first <a href=\"https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/manage-billing-account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">set up a Cloud Billing account</a>, and then generate a Google Maps API key. <strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you already have a Cloud Billing account, you can create your Google Maps API key by logging into the Google Maps platform using your Google account. Next, click the <strong>Get Started</strong> button. You will then see a popup with your API key.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"699\" height=\"446\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-goole-maps-api-key.png\" alt=\"To embed Google Maps in WordPress, you need to get an API key from Google.\" class=\"wp-image-161580\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-goole-maps-api-key.png 699w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-goole-maps-api-key-300x191.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-goole-maps-api-key-600x383.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-goole-maps-api-key-94x60.png 94w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-goole-maps-api-key-141x90.png 141w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Copy this key, paste it into a text file, and keep it safe. Next, click on <strong>Go To Google Maps Platform</strong>. You’ll then be asked whether you <a href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/google-maps-platform-best-practices-restricting-api-keys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">want to protect your API key</a> by restricting it. Click on <strong>Maybe Later,</strong> then come back and configure your restriction settings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that’s it! You’ve successfully created a Google Maps API key.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-4-configure-your-google-maps-settings\">Step 4: Configure Your Google Maps Settings</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you can embed your Google Maps location in WordPress with your Google Maps API key. To do so, go back to <strong>AIOSEO » Local SEO</strong> and click on the <strong>Maps</strong> tab.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"349\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-google-api.png\" alt=\"Enter the API key in the Maps section of the Local SEO menu.\" class=\"wp-image-161581\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-google-api.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-google-api-300x149.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-google-api-600x298.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-google-api-121x60.png 121w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/local-business-schema-google-api-181x90.png 181w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Paste in the API key you generated from Google Maps. You’ll immediately see a preview of the map once you do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"541\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-map-preview.png\" alt=\"Once you paste the API key, you’ll immediately see a preview of the map.\" class=\"wp-image-161582\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-map-preview.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-map-preview-300x231.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-map-preview-600x462.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-map-preview-78x60.png 78w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-map-preview-117x90.png 117w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, you can scroll down to edit the map setting. Here you can configure your map settings and how you want your map to be displayed. With AIOSEO, you can embed Google Maps using a Gutenberg block, shortcode, widget, or PHP code.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"582\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-map-settings.png\" alt=\"You can embed Google Maps using a Gutenberg block, shortcode, widget, or PHP code.\" class=\"wp-image-161583\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-map-settings.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-map-settings-300x249.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-map-settings-600x497.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-map-settings-72x60.png 72w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-map-settings-109x90.png 109w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also choose from different map styles and even add a custom marker to your map.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once done, click the <strong>Save Changes</strong> button.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-step-5-display-google-maps-in-wordpress\">Step 5: Display Google Maps in WordPress</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We’ve now reached the step you’ve been waiting for, displaying Google Maps on your site. You can do so on any <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/posts-vs-pages-in-wordpress/\">page or post</a> by simply editing it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"aioseo-displaying-google-maps-using-a-gutenberg-block\">Displaying Google Maps Using a Gutenberg Block</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you’ve opened your page in editor mode, click the <strong>+</strong> button to add a block and select the <strong>AIOSEO Local – Map</strong> block.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"440\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-block.png\" alt=\"You can display Google Maps as a block by adding an AIOSEO Local - Map.\" class=\"wp-image-161586\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-block.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-block-300x188.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-block-600x376.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-block-96x60.png 96w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-block-144x90.png 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>AIOSEO will then automatically add Google Maps to the page.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"561\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-in-post.png\" alt=\"Preview of Google Maps embedded in a post.\" class=\"wp-image-161587\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-in-post.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-in-post-300x240.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-in-post-600x479.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-in-post-75x60.png 75w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-local-map-in-post-113x90.png 113w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can edit your map settings in the right sidebar of your page.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"456\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-edit-map-settings.png\" alt=\"You can edit your map settings in the right sidebar of your page.\" class=\"wp-image-161588\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-edit-map-settings.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-edit-map-settings-300x195.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-edit-map-settings-600x390.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-edit-map-settings-92x60.png 92w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-edit-map-settings-139x90.png 139w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, you can show labels and icons, add a custom marker, and edit the map’s width and height.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"aioseo-displaying-google-maps-using-a-widget\">Displaying Google Maps Using a Widget</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also add Google Maps to your site’s widget section, like the sidebar or footer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do that, head to your <strong>WordPress admin panel » Appearance » Widgets</strong>. Next, click the <strong>&#8220;+</strong>&#8221; button and add the <strong>AIOSEO Local – Map</strong> widget block where you’d like to display your location (main sidebar, header, footer, etc.).</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"495\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-widget-2.png\" alt=\"You can also embed Google Maps in WordPress by using a widget.\" class=\"wp-image-161592\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-widget-2.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-widget-2-300x212.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-widget-2-600x423.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-widget-2-85x60.png 85w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-widget-2-128x90.png 128w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you publish or update your page, your Google Maps location will be added to your chosen widget area.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"367\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-final.png\" alt=\"Your Google Maps location will be embedded in your selected widget area when you publish your post.\" class=\"wp-image-161593\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-final.png 702w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-final-300x157.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-final-600x314.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-final-115x60.png 115w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/embed-google-maps-in-wordpress-final-172x90.png 172w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And that’s it!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You’ve embedded Google Maps into your WordPress site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope this post helped you learn how to embed Google Maps into your WordPress site. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-start-a-small-business-blog/\" title=\"How to Start a Small Business Blog in 2023\">how to start a small business blog</a> or our tutorial on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-create-jump-links-in-wordpress/\" title=\"How to Create Jump Links in WordPress (and Increase Your Visibility On SERPs)\">creating jump links in WordPress</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/AIOSEO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">YouTube Channel</a>. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aioseopack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Twitter</a>, <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/aioseo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">LinkedIn</a>, or <a href=\"https://facebook.com/aioseopack/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Facebook</a> to stay in the loop.&nbsp;</p>The post <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress/\">How to Easily Embed Google Maps in WordPress</a> first appeared on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com\">AIOSEO</a>.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:36:\"http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/\";a:1:{s:10:\"commentRss\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:62:\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-embed-google-maps-in-wordpress/feed/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:38:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/\";a:1:{s:8:\"comments\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1:\"0\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:88:\"\n		\n		\n					\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n					\n			\n		\n		\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:5:{s:0:\"\";a:7:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"Small Business SEO Scams: How to Detect and Avoid Them \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:170:\"https://aioseo.com/small-business-seo-scams-how-to-detect-and-avoid-them/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=small-business-seo-scams-how-to-detect-and-avoid-them\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"comments\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:82:\"https://aioseo.com/small-business-seo-scams-how-to-detect-and-avoid-them/#comments\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:17:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:6:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Blog\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"Digital marketing scams\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"SEO scam\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:3;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:12:\"SEO scammers\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:4;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"SEO scams\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:5;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"Small business scams\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:28:\"https://aioseo.com/?p=158326\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:468:\"<p>Would you like to know how to detect and avoid SEO scams? As a small business owner, you&#8217;ve probably already received unsolicited email pitching SEO services. And you may be wondering whether some of these offers are worth pursuing. In&#8230;</p>\nThe post <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/small-business-seo-scams-how-to-detect-and-avoid-them/\">Small Business SEO Scams: How to Detect and Avoid Them </a> first appeared on <a href=\"https://aioseo.com\">AIOSEO</a>.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Sherrie Gossett\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:29998:\"<p>Would you like to know how to detect and avoid SEO scams? As a small business owner, you&#8217;ve probably already received unsolicited email pitching SEO services.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you may be wondering whether some of these offers are worth pursuing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll describe common SEO scams making the rounds and we&#8217;ll provide ways to detect and avoid them.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-group aioseo-table-of-contents has-theme-info-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>In This Article</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-aioseo-table-of-contents\"><ul><li><a href=\"#aioseo-what-is-seo\">What is SEO?</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-counterfeit-seo\">Counterfeit SEO</a></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-common-features-of-seo-scams\">Common Features of SEO Scams</a><ul><li><a href=\"#aioseo-big-brands-do-it-too\">Big Brands Do it Too</a></li></ul></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-types-of-seo-scams\">Types of SEO Scams</a><ul></ul></li><li><a href=\"#aioseo-protect-yourself-from-seo-scams\">How to Protect Yourself From SEO Scams</a><ul></ul></li></ul></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-what-is-seo\">What is SEO?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO, or search engine optimization, is the art and science of creating quality online content and experiences that rank well, satisfy searchers, and meet website goals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Improving SEO may include</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Boosting site loading speed</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Producing high-quality content</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Soliciting positive reviews.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO, done well, is the foundation for acquiring readers, leads, conversions, and sales.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-counterfeit-seo\">Counterfeit SEO</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO scammers, like money counterfeiters, can destabilize and undermine their targets.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically, currency counterfeiters were saboteurs, parlaying the fake for the real and leaving a trail of damage in their wake.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, SEO scammers can destroy your rankings, causing you to lose leads and sales.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is, with some training, you can detect SEO scams. One of the best ways to do this is to understand how &#8220;real&#8221; SEO works.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But first, let&#8217;s dive in and look at common features of SEO scams.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-common-features-of-seo-scams\">Common Features of SEO Scams</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Of all digital marketing scams, it seems SEO scams are the most prevalent.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many SEO scams bear these hallmarks.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-they-arrive-via-cold-emails\">They Arrive via Cold Emails</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>SEO scams typically arrive as cold (i.e., unsolicited) emails offering SEO services.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These emails often come from <strong>@gmail</strong> addresses, marking it hard to link the email to an actual business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a business is listed, the website is generic and lists no owners, no staff, and often, no address.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-detail-masquerading-as-thoroughness\">Detail Masquerading as Thoroughness</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Often filled with technical details, these emails give the impression that the scammer has spent time carefully analyzing your site.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"954\" height=\"157\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-158966\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email.png 954w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email-300x49.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email-768x126.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email-600x99.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email-190x31.png 190w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-email-547x90.png 547w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Excerpt of an SEO scam email sent to a small business owner.</em></figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s certainly possible that a marketer may take time to analyze a site and send a cold email pitching their services.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But more commonly, a copy/paste email is sent to everyone on a list and the sender has never looked at your website.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-scary-reports\">Scary Reports</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The cold email pitches often list numerous problems with your website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or they may use images of legitimate reporting tools, taken out of context. Typically these will show:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>A scary-looking &#8220;score.&#8221;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lots of red X&#8217;s or similar negative marks.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-recurring-monthly-fees\">Recurring Monthly Fees, Unnecessary Work</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Most cold emailers want to charge recurring fees for their services. While that&#8217;s a completely legitimate practice for professional SEO specialists, scammers want to do work for you that&#8217;s <em>unnecessary</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Francisco Villalobos, owner of Inner Strength Fitness in Manhattan, was pitched on specific SEO work that had recently been <em>completed</em> by a legitimate vendor. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-1024x610.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-160563\" width=\"706\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-1024x610.jpg 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-300x179.jpg 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-768x458.jpg 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-600x358.jpg 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-101x60.jpg 101w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc-151x90.jpg 151w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/francisco-villalobos-inner-strength-fitness-nyc.jpg 1428w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 100vw, 706px\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Francisco Villalobos (at left), owner of Inner Strength Fitness, with a client.</em></figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Within days, Villalobos received a similar pitch, from another emailer. This pitch made the same false claim about unnecessary work that urgently needed to be done.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-big-brands-do-it-too\">Big Brands Do it Too</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, big brands are not beneath sending out scammy emails too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we&#8217;ll see below, a famous web hosting brand sent a ridiculous SEO email to their customers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, are you ready for a quick tour of the most common SEO scams?</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-types-of-seo-scams\">Types of SEO Scams</h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-guaranteed-rankings\">SEO Scam #1: Guaranteed Rankings</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pitch</strong>: Get your site ranking on the first page of Google search results.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Often this pitch also provides a time frame. Here&#8217;s an actual example from an email.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"142\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-1024x142.png\" alt=\"seo scams example\" class=\"wp-image-158959\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-1024x142.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-300x42.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-768x106.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-600x83.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-190x26.png 190w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1-649x90.png 649w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-example-1.png 1082w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s wrong with it?</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>No one can guarantee Page 1 results.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Even Google can&#8217;t predict what will wind up on page 1 or <em>when</em>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Web pages rank <em>in relation to</em> a keyword (search query). Not all search queries are worth ranking for. For example, we found a local electrician&#8217;s site ranked high for &#8220;halloween pumpkin LED lights.&#8221; We&#8217;re pretty sure that people searching for that keyword have no intent to hire an electrician.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-fake-google-lighthouse-report\">SEO Scam #2: Fake Google Lighthouse Report</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Background:</strong> Google Lighthouse is a web performance measurement tool, used by professionals, to gauge site loading speed, along with other metrics.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Site loading speed <em>is</em> an SEO ranking factor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pitch</strong>: We ran a Google Lighthouse report for you and your site loading speed is poor. That&#8217;s bad for rankings. Call us for help!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Special feature</strong>: The email includes an image of your very low speed score. The style of the image looks like it&#8217;s from the Google report, but it&#8217;s not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s wrong with it:</strong> They never ran a report on your website. The speed score is made up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Example</strong>: Our first encounter with this scam was an email from one of the world&#8217;s most famous web hosting companies. The email, (excerpted below), was sent to one of our colleagues. It states that the hosting company tested a website belonging to our colleague, and it scored a 7.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Since Google Lighthouse scores are out of 100, this means our site allegedly scored<strong> 7/100</strong>.)</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"943\" height=\"565\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report.png\" alt=\"seo scam google lighthouse report\" class=\"wp-image-158951\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report.png 943w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report-300x180.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report-768x460.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report-600x359.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report-100x60.png 100w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/seo-scams-google-lighthouse-report-150x90.png 150w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In reality, the website has always scored a 100/100. Here&#8217;s the true website score, from Google Lighthouse.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"603\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-1024x603.png\" alt=\"google lighthouse report\" class=\"wp-image-158952\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-1024x603.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-300x177.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-768x452.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-600x353.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-102x60.png 102w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance-153x90.png 153w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/google-lighthouse-performance.png 1092w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use the <a href=\"https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lighthouse/blipmdconlkpinefehnmjammfjpmpbjk?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Google Lighthouse Chrome extension</a> to see your score. But the speed (performance) score is the same as the one you can get from <a href=\"https://pagespeed.web.dev/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Google PageSpeed Insights</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-backlinks-from-high-da-sites\">SEO Scam #3: Get Backlinks from High-DA Sites</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Link-building is a legitimate marketing tactic, but when &#8220;black hat&#8221; SEO techniques are used, it can destroy your rankings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Background</strong>: Backlinks (links from other sites to yours) are a <strong>SEO ranking factor</strong>. Links from reputable websites can have a positive impact on your SEO. But backlinks from low-quality sites (such as financial scam sites) can ruin your SEO.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>DA stands for &#8220;Domain Authority.&#8221; While Google&#8217;s algorithms do not use domain authority scores, some professional marketing tools, like Moz, <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/semrush\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Semrush</a>, and <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/recommends/ahrefs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">ahrefs</a> do. These scores, measured out of 100, on a logarithmic scale, are a proxy for measuring the quality of a website.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"241\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-1024x241.png\" alt=\"ahrefs domain rating example\" class=\"wp-image-158954\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-1024x241.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-300x71.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-768x181.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-600x141.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-190x45.png 190w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs-383x90.png 383w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/domain-rating-ahrefs.png 1187w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Ahrefs.com displays a Domain Rating (DR) of 91 for the University of Cambridge website. (“Domain Rating” is ahrefs’ version of a domain authority score.)</em></figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pitch</strong>: See my price list of high-DA sites I can get you backlinks from. You can pay for a link to be placed on existing content or create a guest post to be published on one of these sites, and include a backlink to your own site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problems:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Paying for links</strong>, in order to boost rankings, is against Google&#8217;s guidelines. Google has gotten very good at detecting unnatural link patterns. Participating in these <a href=\"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">link schemes</a> can ruin your SEO.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>High-DA doesn&#8217;t always mean high-quality links</strong>. Some of these &#8216;marketers&#8217; buy domains that have expired, and already have a high DA score. Then, they turn it into a spam blog (also called a “splog”).</li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <strong>spam blog</strong> is a site that only exists to sell links. The quality of the content is usually terrible, and covers a weird mix of topics.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Often these &#8220;splogs&#8221; are part of <strong>PBNs</strong> &#8211; private blog networks. These are multiple spam blogs operated by the same people engaged in link schemes.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Money anchors: </strong>The choice of anchor text can also damage your SEO. Scammers and inexperienced marketers will often use <em>transactional keywords</em> (like &#8220;buy discounted wedding ring&#8221; ) when getting backlinks for you on other sites. When they do this repeatedly, it doesn&#8217;t help your SEO, it sends Google a red flag.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-guest-posts-free-content\">SEO Scam #4: Get Free Content</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This scam is related to link-building. But in this case, the party contacting you is building links for <em>someone else&#8217;s site</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Exception</strong>: Guest posting to build links is a legitimate marketing technique. Let&#8217;s see how the scammy version of this differs from the beneficial version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pitch</strong>: I&#8217;d like to provide a guest post for your website on topic X. Would you be interested?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The problem</strong>: No one is giving you free content without wanting something in return. The guest poster wants to include a link in the article to benefit their (or someone else&#8217;s) SEO.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If that link goes to a PBN then your site may be seen as related to link schemes and be penalized by Google.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Avoid any offers that request links to questionable websites including online casinos or drug sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When it&#8217;s legitimate: </strong>You may receive legitimate offers from individuals or companies for guest posts. Individuals may be wanting to establish their expertise by writing for other sites in their niche. They will likely want to include a link back to their website. Companies, particularly software companies, often budget for guest posts to be created for other sites in return for a link back to their site.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"392\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-1024x392.png\" alt=\"legitimate guest post email\" class=\"wp-image-158955\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-1024x392.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-300x115.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-768x294.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-600x230.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-157x60.png 157w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch-235x90.png 235w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/guest-blogging-pitch.png 1296w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Thi</em>s<em> is an example of a legitimate guest blogging pitch. This one was from a software company. The email was signed with the full name of the marketer and the URL of the company.</em></figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Things to keep in mind</strong> with legitimate guest posts: Allow 1 link, and no links to spurious websites. Only consider offers that may be of genuine use for your readers.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-fake-traffic\">SEO Scam #5: Fake Traffic</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Some marketers will try to sell you on boosting traffic. While some of these efforts may be legitimate, unscrupulous individuals may use bots to create an illusion of increased traffic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Background</strong>: Not all bots are bad. For example, search engines and marketing tools rely on bots for data and analysis.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The problem</strong>: Bots don&#8217;t sign up for newsletters, read articles, or buy things. So there&#8217;s no benefit to acquiring fake traffic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Things to keep in mind</strong>: Traffic is not a key performance indicator (KPI), it&#8217;s a means to an end. While businesses may measure web traffic, it&#8217;s meaningful only when traffic increases are linked to increased sales. So while freelance or in-house marketers may measure traffic, businesses see revenue and sales as KPIs.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-calls-from-fake-google-employees\">SEO Scam #6: Calls from Fake Google Employees</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pitch</strong>: I work for Google and noticed that you have some problems with your business listings. Your NAP is not consistent. I can fix that for you for X dollars.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The problem:</strong> No one from Google is going to call you about your <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/what-is-nap-in-seo/\">NAP or &#8220;business listings</a>.&#8221; As the call progresses, the person also mentions they work for a business. (One can&#8217;t be an employee of Google <em>and</em> an employee of a marketing business.)</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Keep in mind</strong>: Many top marketing agencies are &#8220;<strong>Google Partners</strong>.&#8221; This is different from being a Google employee. Google Partners are certified Google Ads specialists who’ve been vetted by Google and meet their <a href=\"https://www.google.com/partners/resourceshub/#requirements_overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">requirements</a>. To find out of a business really is a Google Partner search for the name in <a href=\"https://partnersdirectory.withgoogle.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">this directory</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that you&#8217;ve learned the most common types of scams, let&#8217;s look at a simple way you can become immune to SEO nonsense.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-protect-yourself-from-seo-scams\">Protect Yourself From SEO Scams</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the main ways authorities teach others to detect counterfeit currency is to get them to study the real thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes it much easier to detect counterfeits.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, teaching yourself <strong>SEO basics</strong> will help make you scam-proof and prevent you from over-paying for legitimate services.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are easy ways you can quickly pick up SEO fundamentals.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-start-using-the-all-in-one-seo-aioseo-plugin\">Start Using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re a WordPress user, you&#8217;re in luck. SEO plugins provide a fast on-ramp to learning the basics, and you&#8217;ll learn by doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a beginner-friendly option, it&#8217;s hard to beat the <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\">All-in-One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin</a>. The plugin is designed to be intuitive to use and requires no prior knowledge of SEO or code.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It includes prompts and instructions so you can follow along right in the WordPress editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"485\" src=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-1024x485.png\" alt=\"aioseo homepage\" class=\"wp-image-140989\" srcset=\"https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-1024x485.png 1024w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-300x142.png 300w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-768x364.png 768w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-600x284.png 600w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-127x60.png 127w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage-190x90.png 190w, https://aioseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/aioseo-homepage.png 1260w\" sizes=\"100vw\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/pricing/\">download the plugin here</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/installing-all-in-one-seo-pro/\">installation guide here</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All-in-One SEO (AIOSEO) is currently used on over 3 million sites and it has thousands of 5-star reviews on WordPress.org. Users include bloggers, small businesses, as well as large enterprises.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"aioseo-quick-start-guide-for-diy-seo\">Quick Start Guide for DIY SEO</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses should start with these easy tasks:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Learn what <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/local-business-seo-for-a-single-location/\">Local SEO</a> is and how to set it up in the AIOSEO plugin</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learn what local SEO citations are and <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-get-local-seo-citations/\" title=\"\">how to get them</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All users can follow this sequence:</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>Week 1:</td><td>Learn what a title tag is and <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/seo-title-tags/\">how to optimize it</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>Week 2:</td><td>Learn what a meta description is and <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-write-meta-descriptions-for-seo/\">how to optimize it</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>Week 3:</td><td>Learn what alt tags are and how to <a href=\"https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/image-alt-text-vs-image-title-in-wordpress-whats-the-difference/\">add them to </a><a href=\"https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/image-alt-text-vs-image-title-in-wordpress-whats-the-difference/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">images</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>Week 4:</td><td>Learn what a target keyword (<a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/using-the-focus-keyphrase-to-analyze-your-content/\">focus keyphrase</a>) is and how to use it.</td></tr><tr><td>Week 5: </td><td>Learn what <a href=\"https://www.blogtyrant.com/how-to-easily-find-the-best-keywords/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">keyword research</a> is and how it can help your articles rank.</td></tr><tr><td>Week 6:</td><td>Learn what <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-add-rich-snippets-to-wordpress/\" title=\"\">rich snippets</a> are and how to add them to pages.</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-follow-a-beginner-friendly-seo-blog-or-youtube-channel\">Follow a Beginner-Friendly SEO Blog or YouTube Channel</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Some SEO blogs are written for marketing professionals. Others, like the <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/blog/\">AIOSEO blog</a>, provide how-tos for beginners as well as content for those at intermediate levels.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The All-in-One SEO YouTube channel is another great source of easy-to-understand SEO content.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"How To Get Your Business To Show Up in Google Maps\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/MUB316M3-7E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen></iframe> \n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-what-seo-services-are-legitimate\">What SEO Services are Available?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Common SEO services offered by freelancers, marketing agencies, or SEO companies include:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Submitting sitemaps to <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/submitting-a-sitemap-to-google/https://aioseo.com/docs/submitting-a-sitemap-to-google/\">Google</a>, <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/submitting-a-sitemap-to-bing/\">Bing</a>, <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/submitting-a-sitemap-to-yandex/\">Yandex</a>, or Baidu.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/using-the-seo-analysis-tool/\">Site audits</a>: These reports detect what can be improved.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Creating a SEO strategy with measurable goals.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.blogtyrant.com/how-to-easily-find-the-best-keywords/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Keyword research</a> and content creation.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Digital PR, which includes social media marketing, creation of high-quality content, and brand mentions in news media or industry association sites. (This is part of what&#8217;s called &#8220;off-page SEO.&#8221;)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conversion optimization which includes SEO elements.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Local SEO: this is SEO for local businesses with a <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/local-business-seo-for-a-single-location/\">single location</a> or <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/docs/local-business-seo-for-multiple-locations/\">multiple locations</a>.\n<ul>\n<li>It includes setting up a free Google Business Profile for you, getting local SEO citations and brand mentions, and encouraging customers to leave reviews.</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Measuring your progress using tools like Semrush, ahrefs, Google Analytics, or Google Search Console.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"aioseo-whats-an-seo-campaign\">What&#8217;s an SEO campaign?</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>An SEO campaign is simply a name for a planned set of SEO actions designed to accomplish specific goals.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-bonus-tips\">Bonus Tips</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SEO Industry</strong>: While a good SEO professional is worth every penny, there are novices with no experience passing themselves off as SEO experts. We consider pitches from incompetent individuals to be SEO scams too.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>SEO Agencies</strong>: Wondering what these are? They&#8217;re marketing agencies that specialize in SEO.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conversions</strong>: Conversions (people who sign up for events, services, or products) go hand-in-hand with SEO. A good way to learn how to boost conversions on a WordPress site is to use the <a href=\"https://optinmonster.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">OptinMonster</a> plugin and grab some <a href=\"http://optinmonster.com/9-lead-magnets-to-increase-subscribers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">lead magnet ideas</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"aioseo-conclusion\">Conclusion</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope this article gave you an easy-to-understand survey of the most common SEO scams.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may also want to check out our article on the <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/best-wordpress-product-review-plugins/\">best product review plugins</a> and how to use <a href=\"https://aioseo.com/how-to-use-a-wordpress-faq-block-to-boost-seo-and-get-more-traffic/\">WordPress FAQ blocks</a> to snatch market share from your competitors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/AIOSEO\">YouTube Channel</a>. 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It allows users to create custom groups in the sidebar of the Local dashboard page for better organization of their sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local users have been <a href=\"https://community.localwp.com/t/group-sites-in-folder-in-sidebar/454/25\">asking for this feature</a> since 2017, as many are managing dozens of WordPress sites. In June 2022, the Local development team began designing and then building the feature a couple months later, incorporating feedback from user interviews and usability testing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p> In the new Site Grouping feature, sites can be easily dragged between groups and groups can be reordered up or down, as illustrated in the release notes.</p>\n\n\n\n<img /><a href=\"https://localwp.com/releases/6.7.0/\">Local 6.7.0 release notes</a>\n\n\n\n<p>Another handy feature released with Site Grouping is the ability to start, stop, restart, or delete all the sites in a group from the context menu (the three dots to the right of the group name). Sites can also be sorted by how recently they were used via the clock icon at the top of the groups sidebar. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get users started, all their Starred sites have been placed in a new Starred group at the top of the sidebar. Full <a href=\"https://localwp.com/help-docs/local-features/site-grouping-feature/\">documentation for using the new Site Grouping feature</a> is available in Local&#8217;s help resources.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://deliciousbrains.com/wp-migrate-db-pro/\">WP Migrate</a>, formerly known as WP Migrate DB and recently <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-acquires-5-plugins-from-delicious-brains\">acquired by WP Engine</a>, introduced <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wp-migrate-2-6-introduces-full-site-exports-and-import-to-local\">full-site exports and imports to Local</a> in January 2023. Local version 6.7.0 improves imports from WP Migrate so that they auto-select the PHP, web server, and database version closest to the production environment if Local offers the same major/minor version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This release also includes several bug fixes with Local importing or pulling to an existing site, where the site&#8217;s existing settings or environment were not applied. If you experienced this bug, make sure to update to the latest 6.7.0 release before attempting more imports.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 16 Mar 2023 17:27:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:87:\"Post Status: WordPress 6.2 RC2 • Plugin Review Team Retirement News • WP20 Giveaway\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=148272\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:41:\"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-6-2-rc2/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:22005:\"<h2 id=\"h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-march-13-2023\">This Week at WordPress.org (March 13, 2023)</h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt\">Discover WordPress 6.2\'s new features, accessibility enhancements, and developer updates. Contribute to the community by joining the Contributor Working Group. Explore new block theme template. Engage in discussions on mentorship programs. Celebrate WP20 and participate in the Wapuu Coloring Giveaway. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-infobox kt-info-box_94d1bd-77\"><div class=\"kt-blocks-info-box-link-wrap kt-blocks-info-box-media-align-left kt-info-halign-left\"><div class=\"kt-blocks-info-box-media-container\"><div class=\"kt-blocks-info-box-media kt-info-media-animate-none\"><div class=\"kadence-info-box-icon-container kt-info-icon-animate-none\"><div class=\"kadence-info-box-icon-inner-container\"><span class=\"kb-svg-icon-wrap kb-svg-icon-fas_hand-holding-heart kt-info-svg-icon\"></span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"kt-infobox-textcontent\"><h2 class=\"kt-blocks-info-box-title\">WP 6.2 RC2 • Plugin Review Team Announces Mika\'s Retirement • WP20 Giveaway</h2><p class=\"kt-blocks-info-box-text\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f9ea.png\" alt=\"🧪\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> <a 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href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2023/03/10/advance-notice-of-retirement/\">Advance Notice of Mika\'s Plugin Review Retirement</a></p></div></div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_b57166-6e\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\" /></div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-news\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news\">News</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-2/\">WordPress 6.2 Release Candidate 2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/episode-51-is-routine-a-rut/\">WP Briefing: Episode 51: Is Routine a Rut?</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/your-wordpress-6-2-preview/\">Your WordPress 6.2 Preview</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wp20.wordpress.net/wapuu-coloring-giveaway-style-your-own-party-wapuu/\">Wapuu Coloring Giveaway: Style Your Own Party 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href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/13/combining-roles-to-create-a-new-contributor-ladder/\">Combining Roles to Create a New Contributor Ladder</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/13/proposal-updates-to-the-mentor-program/\">Proposal: Updates to the Mentor Program</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/10/launching-the-contributor-working-group-call-for-volunteers/\">Launching the Contributor Working Group: Call for Volunteers</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/08/recap-of-the-diverse-speaker-training-group-wpdiversity-amer-emea-on-march-8-2023/\">Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on March 8, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/03/08/announcing-new-handbook-pages-on/\">Running Funds Outside of WPCS</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-core\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core\">Core</a> </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/13/a-week-in-core-march-13-2023/\">A Week in Core – March 13, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/13/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-3-13-march/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 15.3? (13 March)</a> </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-wordpress-6-2\">WordPress 6.2</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/14/fyi-navigation-section-of-new-site-editor-experienced-removed-for-6-2-rc-2/\">FYI: Navigation section of new Site Editor experienced removed for 6.2 RC 2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-1/\">WordPress 6.2 Release Candidate 1</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/03/14/wordpress-6-2-translation-status-march-14-2023/\">WordPress 6.2 Translation Status (March 14, 2023)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/03/04/wordpress-6-2-ready-to-be-translated/\">WordPress 6.2 ready to be translated</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/09/wordpress-6-2-field-guide/\">WordPress 6.2 Field Guide</a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/08/requests-library-upgraded-to-2-0-5-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Requests library upgraded to 2.0.5 in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/patterns-api-expanded-to-include-template_types-property/\">Patterns API expanded to include template_types property</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introduction-of-block-inspector-tabs/\">Introduction of Block Inspector Tabs</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/shadows-in-global-styles-with-wordpress-6-2/\">Shadows in Global Styles with WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introducing-the-html-api-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Introducing the HTML API in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/miscellaneous-editor-changes-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introducing-move_dir-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Introducing move_dir() in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/sticky-position-block-support/\">Sticky position block support</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/upgrading-to-react-18-and-common-pitfalls-of-concurrent-mode/\">Upgrading to React 18 and common pitfalls of concurrent mode</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/add-new-prop-to-serversiderender-component/\">Add new prop to ServerSideRender component</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/google-fonts-are-included-locally-in-bundled-themes/\">Google Fonts are included locally in bundled themes</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/custom-css-for-global-styles-and-per-block/\">Custom CSS for global styles and per block</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/minimum-height-dimensions-block-support/\">Minimum height dimensions block support</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/03/editor-components-updates-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Editor Components updates in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/03/i18n-improvements-in-6-2/\">I18N Improvements in 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/28/custom-settings-wordpress-6-2/\">Customize settings for any block in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/19/style-book-preview-of-blocks-in-global-styles/\">Style Book preview of blocks in global styles</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/09/update-to-content-only-editing-filter-namespace/\">Update to content only editing filter namespace</a></li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/02/wordpress-6-2-accessibility-improvements/\">WordPress 6.2 Accessibility Improvements</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/28/wordpress-6-2-beta-4-postponed/\">WordPress 6.2 Beta 4 Postponed</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/21/wordpress-6-2-beta-3/\">WordPress 6.2 Beta 3</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/21/6-2-live-product-demo/\">6.2 Live Product Demo</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/04/phase-2-finale/\">Phase 2, Finale</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/03/hallway-hangout-performance-improvements-for-wordpress-6-2/\">Hallway Hangout: Performance Improvements for WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/06/roadmap-to-6-2/\">Roadmap to 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/18/bug-scrub-schedule-for-6-2/\">Bug Scrub Schedule for 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/11/early-bug-scrub-schedule-for-wp-6-2/\">Early bug scrub schedule for WP&nbsp;6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/17/wordpress-6-2-planning-roundup/\">WordPress 6.2 Planning Roundup</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-meetings\">Meetings</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/14/dev-chat-agenda-wednesday-march-15-2023/\">Dev Chat Agenda, Wednesday March 15, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/14/editor-chat-agenda-march-15-2023/\">Editor Chat Agenda: March 15, 2023</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-developer-blog\">Developer Blog</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/block-theme-templates-the-easy-way-to-build-an-elegant-grid-of-posts/\">Block theme templates: the easy way to build an elegant grid of posts</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/whats-new-for-developers-march-2023/\">What’s new for developers? (March 2023)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/block-deprecation-a-tutorial/\">Block deprecation – a tutorial</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-design\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design\">Design</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/03/13/design-share-feb-13-mar-10/\">Design Share: Feb 13–Mar 10</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-do-action\"><a href=\"https://doaction.org/\">do_action</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://doaction.org/event/ruralhackers/\">Rural Hackers Do_Action 2023 in Anceu Spain</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-docs\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/docs\">Docs</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/03/16/agenda-for-docs-team-bi-weekly-meeting-march-21-2023/\">Agenda for Docs Team bi-weekly meeting March 21, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/03/16/summary-for-docs-team-meeting-march-7-2023/\">Summary for Docs Team meeting, March 7, 2023</a></li>\n</ul>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\">\n<h2 id=\"h-hosting\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/hosting\">Hosting</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2023/03/14/hosting-team-meeting-agenda-2023-03-15/\">Hosting Team meeting agenda 2023-03-15</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-marketing\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/marketing\">Marketing</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/03/14/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-5-march-2023/\">Notes: Global Marketing Team meeting, 5 March 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/03/13/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-28-february-2023/\">Notes: Global Marketing Team meeting, 28 February 2023</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-openverse\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/openverse\">Openverse</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/03/15/community-meeting-recap-14-march-2023/\">Community Meeting Recap (14 March 2023)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/03/14/last-week-openverse-2023-03-06-2023-03-13/\">A week in Openverse: 2023-03-06 – 2023-03-13</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-performance\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/performance/\">Performance</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/14/performance-chat-summary-14-march-2023/\">Performance Chat Summary: 14 March 2023</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-plugins\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins\">Plugins</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2023/03/10/advance-notice-of-retirement/\">Advance Notice of Retirement</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-polyglots\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots\">Polyglots</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/03/15/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-march-2023/\">Polyglots Monthly Newsletter: March 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/03/14/wordpress-6-2-translation-status-march-14-2023/\">WordPress 6.2 Translation Status (March 14, 2023)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/03/14/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-march-15-2023-1300-utc/\">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat – March 15, 2023 (13:00 UTC)</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-plugins-1\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins\">Plugins</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2023/03/10/advance-notice-of-retirement/\">Advance Notice of Retirement</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-project\">Project</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/02/06/proposal-creating-a-wordpress-contributor-mentorship-program/\">Proposal: Creating a WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/01/27/discussion-ending-the-eternal-september/\">Discussion: Ending the Eternal September</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-support\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/support\">Support</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/03/agenda-for-march-16th-support-meeting-2/\">Agenda for March 16th Support Meeting</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/03/summary-for-march-9th-support-meeting/\">Summary for March 9th Support Meeting</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/03/support-ticket-triage-session-march-22th-2023-at-1600-utc/\">Support ticket triage session – March 22th 2023 at 16:00 UTC</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-test\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test\">Test</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/03/14/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-all-things-layout/\">Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about All Things Layout</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/03/14/test-chat-summary-14-march-2023/\">Test Chat Summary: 14 March 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/02/07/help-test-wordpress-6-2/\">Help Test WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-theme\">Theme</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/03/15/themes-team-meeting-notes-march-14-2023/\">Themes Team Meeting Notes –&nbsp;March 14, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/03/03/hallway-hangout-community-themes-initiative/\">Hallway Hangout: Community Themes Initiative</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-training\"><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training\">Training</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/13/meeting-agenda-for-march-14-2023/\">Meeting Agenda for March 14, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/10/dev-squad-update-triage-sessions-planning/\">Dev-squad update: Triage sessions planning</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/10/training-team-meeting-recap-for-march-7-2023/\">Training Team Meeting Recap for March 7, 2023</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/03/08/introduction-to-wordpress-development-a-proposed-learning-path/\">Introduction to WordPress&nbsp;Development: A proposed learning path</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-online-workshops\">Online Workshops</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=lets-code-developing-user-roles-and-capabilities\">Let’s code: developing user roles and capabilities</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wp-dev-livestream-developing-wordpress-user-roles-and-capabilities-2\">WP dev livestream: Developing WordPress user roles and capabilities</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=updating-a-blogs-design-informal-live-stream-part-3\">Updating a blog’s design (Informal live stream) – Part 3</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B7%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E3%83%96%E3%83%AD%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%81%AB\">クラシックエディターからブロックエディターに移行するノウハウ</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-lesson-plans\">Lesson Plans</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plan/pagine-vs-articoli/\">Pagine vs. articoli</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plan/cosa-fare-quando-non-ti-ricordi-la-password/\">Cosa fare quando non ti ricordi la password</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plan/ta-dashboard-overview/\">டாஷ்போர்டு மேலோட்டம்</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-wptv\">WPTV</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2022/\">Latest WordPress TV videos</a></li>\n</ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-related-news\">Related News:</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-02-14-2\">PHP 8.2.3 Released!</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-02-14-3\">PHP 8.1.16 Released!</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://262.ecma-international.org/13.0/\">TC39</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/composer/composer/releases/tag/2.5.4\">Composer 2.5.4</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background\">Thanks for reading our WP dot .org roundup! Each week we are highlighting the news and discussions coming from the good folks making WordPress possible. If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, you need to be engaged with them and their work. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers. <br /><br /><strong>Are you interested in giving back and contributing your time and skills to WordPress.org?</strong> <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png\" alt=\"🙏\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/article/contributing-to-wordpress/\">Start Here ›</a><br /><br /><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status\' <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/news/week-in-review/\">Week in Review</a> — covering the WP/Woo news plus significant writing and podcasts. It\'s also available in <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/newsletter\">our newsletter</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f48c.png\" alt=\"💌\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background\"><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/\"><img src=\"https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/vertical-post-status-logo-250.png\" alt=\"Post Status\" class=\"wp-image-85823 size-full\" /></a><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size\" id=\"h-get-ready-for-remote-work\">You — and <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/#Agency\">your whole team</a> can <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/#choose-membership\">Join Post Status</a> too!</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-small-font-size\"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job — or your next hire.</strong> Read the <strong>Post Status</strong> <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/newsletter/\">newsletter</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2709.png\" alt=\"✉\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Listen to <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcasts/\">podcasts</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png\" alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Follow <a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status/\">@Post_Status</a> <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png\" alt=\"🐦\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> and <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/post-status-llc/\">LinkedIn</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4bc.png\" alt=\"💼\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 16 Mar 2023 17:01:19 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Courtney Robertson\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:80:\"Post Status: Post Status Live – The Right Approach to WordPress Accessibility\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=148252\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:86:\"https://poststatus.com/post-status-live-the-right-approach-to-wordpress-accessibility/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:100856:\"<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt\">If you’re a leader, a developer, or a designer about to start a major website project, this webinar will help you navigate the important topic of accessibility. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Cory Miller</a> is joined by the team at <a href=\"https://tri.be/\">Modern Tribe</a> &#8211; <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChrisMKindred\">Chris Kindred</a>, Director of Backend Development, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sarahgless\">Sarah Gless</a>, Creative Director, and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mjklanac\">Mike Klanac</a>, Director of Business Development, to discuss why accessibility is imperative and how to integrate it into each aspect of development and implementation. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"yoast-reading-time__wrapper\"><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__icon\"></span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__spacer\"></span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text\">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__reading-time\">73</span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__time-unit\"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#h-transcript\">Transcript</a> ↓</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">The talented team from <a href=\"https://tri.be/\">Modern Tribe</a>  joined <a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Cory Miller</a> for this critical discussion about accessibility in WordPress. They highlight accessibility as a non-negotiable aspect of web development and provide guidance for leaders, developers, and designers to ensure your websites are accessible to all people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><strong>Top Takeaways:</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<ul type=\"video\" class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<li><strong>Why Value Accessibility? </strong>Accessibility ensures all people have access to the things we create. It can’t be an afterthought or something for the web dev team to figure out. It must drive the entire creative process and serve as an anchor to ground our teams and our work.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Requirement vs. Challenge.</strong> Most creative projects work within a set of requirements. These don’t prohibit the creative process. Instead, they challenge us to enhance the things we build and make them better than we might have without thinking through and within these constraints.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>It’s All Around Us.</strong> We think of accessibility as a new idea, but in so many spaces, it’s the norm. We have curb cutouts and braille signage. We see this every day, so tech is catching up.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Improving Usability. Developing through the lens of accessibility means delivering experiences that solve people’s problems and help them with tasks.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>It Takes Tools.</strong> The creative and engineering are just rails. Utilizing tools to ensure accessibility when publishing and setting up processes and guidelines will equip you to flex as requirements change. It’s necessary for your organization to resource accessibility for it to be done effectively.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"eplus-wrapper\" id=\"h-mentioned-in-the-show\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f517.png\" alt=\"🔗\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Mentioned in the show<strong>:</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://tri.be/\">Modern Tribe</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://vimeo.com/148927676\">Eric Meyer</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://myspace.com/\">MySpace</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"eplus-wrapper\" id=\"h-you-can-follow-post-status-and-our-guests-on-twitter\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png\" alt=\"🐦\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"eplus-wrapper\">\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/brandondove\"></a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChrisMKindred\">Chris Kindred</a> (Director of Backend Development, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pixel_jar\"></a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ModernTribeAgcy\">Modern Tribe</a>)</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/sarahgless\">Sarah Gless</a> (Creative Director, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pixel_jar\"></a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ModernTribeAgcy\">Modern Tribe</a>)</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/mjklanac\">Mike Klanac</a> (Director of Business Development, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pixel_jar\"></a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ModernTribeAgcy\">Modern Tribe</a>)</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Cory Miller</a> (CEO, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status\">Post Status</a>)</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/lemonadecode\">Olivia Bisset</a> (Intern, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status\">Post Status</a>)</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"eplus-wrapper has-background\">The <strong>Post Status Draft</strong> podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png\" alt=\"📝\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><br /><br /><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Browse our archives</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe via <a href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes</a>, <a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube</a>, <a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Simplecast</a>, or <a href=\"https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P\">RSS</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a7.png\" alt=\"🎧\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"eplus-wrapper\" id=\"h-transcript\">Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Cory Miller: [00:00:00] Everybody welcome back to another Post Status Live. This is where we<br />do, uh, webinars and interviews with our awesome members at Post Status. And today we\'ve<br />got a great talented team from Modern Tribe.<br />I\'m gonna let them unpack a little bit more about what Modern Tribe does and what they do at<br />Modern Tribe. But today, our topic is gonna be the right approach to WordPress accessibility.<br />This kinda, this really came to the forefront for us and why I sought these experts out because<br />accessibility is a non-negotiable for the web.<br />Um, and they\'re gonna talk more about their passion, their experiences, their expertise around<br />that. But I will just say this is a topic that we need to be talking about more, and we\'re<br />specifically doing this webinar, and I\'ve asked them to come on and share. Particular areas and<br />work inaccessibility with WordPress.<br />But if you\'re a leader, you\'re a developer, you\'re a designer, um, starting to embark on a, on a<br />website project and want rightly so, to [00:01:00] make sure your website is accessible to all<br />people. This is, this is the extended webinar for you. We\'re gonna talk, we\'re gonna talk about a<br />lot. We\'re gonna talk about how does a c-suite or leadership team properly resource and lead,<br />uh, in the accessibility projects for your organization, all the way down to the developers,<br />designers, the people that use the website every single day to make sure you\'re doing your best<br />for those, trying to access your website.<br />So, I wanna introduce these te these, uh, this team today, but I\'m gonna let you do that. So,<br />Mike, could you start us off and share, um, a little bit about what you do with, with, uh, uh, your<br />work at Modern Tribe and, uh, your interest in this whole topic of accessibility?<br />Mike Klanac: Yeah, thanks Corey. Um, my name is Mike Klan.<br />I am the Director of Business Development at Modern Tribe. Um, that\'s essentially a sales role<br />here. [00:02:00] Um, and, uh, I\'m really excited to talk more about accessibility. Um, I, you know,<br />to be transparent, I was actually a little nervous at first, uh, because of my role as essentially a<br />sales role. And, um, this is such an important topic and, and Corey in like preparing for this, you<br />said something that, that resonated with me, which is, , you know, if this is important, um, don\'t<br />feel bad about being an advocate for it and talking about it.<br />Um, so, uh, that helped build my confidence. So I\'m excited to be here to talk more especially<br />about, uh, accessibility as it relates to leadership and as it relates to a core value that stretches<br />across all components of your business. Uh, so, um, yeah, I think continue on with introductions<br />and maybe I could circle back and, and tell you a little bit more about, uh, tribe and how long<br />we\'ve been around.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah. We\'ll, we\'ll come back to you, but I think you, you know, one compelling<br />reason you\'re here too is because you do talk to people that are making decisions, [00:03:00]<br />but not necessarily always the people doing the work too. And it\'s a collaborative approach. And<br />I know your heart, you\'re super, super humble, but very experienced.<br />Mm-hmm. , um, professional. So I\'m really glad to have you on here and you\'re gonna talk first<br />as we, after we do introductions about the whole leadership angle for all of this. Um, Chris and<br />Sarah. Yeah,<br />Chris Kindred: thanks. Um, my name\'s Chris Kendrick. I am, uh, director of backend, um,<br />engineering here at Modern Tribe. Um, I, accessibility\'s always been a passion of mine, um, and<br />it\'s been, uh, really great to come on board at somewhere like Modern Tribe, where they take<br />flexibility so seriously.<br />So, uh, that\'s always been a, a great thing for, for me, um, moving forward. So,<br />yeah.<br />Sarah Gless: Hi, I\'m Sarah Glass. Oh, sorry.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Go ahead Sarah. Yeah, thanks Chris.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah, thank you for having us. Um, I\'m Sarah Glass. I\'m the creative Director at<br />Modern [00:04:00] Tribe. Ultimately, that means I\'m in service to both our clients, making sure<br />that we\'re shipping incredibly beautiful and, and and engaging work, um, as well as our design</p>\n\n\n\n<p>team, ensuring that, you know, they\'re fulfilled in and the work that they\'re doing, and we\'re<br />continuously developing and pushing the work forward.<br />Um, I\'m super passionate about accessibility too. You know, I think that, as you know, coming<br />from a design background, um, ultimately I wanna communicate effectively with, with, with<br />people. And, um, if, if you cut off people in those lanes of communication, um, how good is that<br />design? So I, I truly believe that good design is accessible design.<br />Um, super excited to, to be here and, and chat more about.<br />Cory Miller: I can\'t wait to dig in with all three of you because what you just said, Sarah, is good<br />access, good accessibility is good design. And I think there\'s probably a lot of designers out<br />there that just kind of like, oh, okay, we can do this. So I\'m looking forward to talking more about<br />that, particularly, um, I\'m gonna hype \'em up,<br />[00:05:00] Yeah, absolutely. This can be, you know, that\'s another message in all this, this can<br />be done. There is an approach, a good approach to it, and it is possible, and I think that\'s a<br />really great message. Um, so Mike, before we kind of get into the actual topics, could you tell us<br />a little bit more about Modern Tribe as an agency?<br />Mike Klanac: Sure, sure. I\'ll give you the short version. So, um, Modern Tribe, we like to call<br />ourselves a full service digital design and development agency. Um, we\'ve been around for<br />about 15 years now, uh, and recently joined the liquid web family of brands. Um, I think like one<br />of the way, another way we describe ourselves is we say we connect to the touchpoints of your<br />digital ecosystem.<br />Um, and when I say that, I think what\'s important to note is kind of that WordPress is often. the<br />center, it\'s the hub, the WordPress TMS is the hub of that ecosystem. So we lean on, on<br />WordPress heavily. [00:06:00] Um, and our, our business, I mean, it sort of breaks down into<br />four key categories. There\'s strategy, there\'s content, there\'s design, there\'s engineering, um,<br />and that\'s sort of who we are.<br />Um, accessibility of the topic at hand today, uh, as you\'ll see it, it sort of permeates all of those<br />areas and it\'s sort of core to who we are, um, as an organization. So, um, yeah, we\'re, we\'re<br />press agency.<br />Cory Miller: And I know you all work with some name brand organizations. Maybe you can\'t all<br />talk about it, but I\'m aware enough to know that you all have worked with some of the biggest<br />brands that are household names, helping them specifically, not just with their web, but also that<br />this important part, accessibility.<br />And some of these, uh, organizations, Mike, particularly I know from talking with you all<br />background about this, is if you take federal funding in any way, particularly in the United States,<br />it, it\'s not even a conversation about is it, is [00:07:00] it a thing we should do? It\'s like, no, you<br />do it. And I think that amps us up even more.<br />Um, thankfully, government non-profits have led the way with accessibility, but this is something<br />we\'ll talk more about. Everybody should be doing this. Um, this is this, we\'re in 2023 now today.<br />And it, this is just a part and I\'m, that\'s why, another reason I\'m glad, but you all work with these<br />organizations where you\'re like, there\'s a lot of scrutiny on these organizations you work with.<br />That means that that\'s a good thing in a way because they have to make sure, like Sarah was<br />saying, that this website is successful for anyone that wants to, to access it. So, uh, I think that\'s<br />pretty critical and also demonstrates why I asked Modern Tribe and U three to come on to talk<br />about this today.<br />So, okay, here\'s the layout. We\'re gonna talk about leadership. Now for those of you watching<br />and listening, um, we\'re gonna each, each of the experts, I\'ve asked to talk about a specific area<br />related to their expertise, but you\'re gonna hear from them. I\'ve told them, I said, [00:08:00] I<br />don\'t want you to stay silent.<br />Mike\'s part part, I want you to contribute too, because. As we\'ve talked and prepared for this, it\'s<br />helped me understand this is a holistic process that everybody in the organization needs to<br />embrace. And so, again, I\'ll, I\'ll just say to y\'all, please, if Mike\'s talking, share something from<br />your perspective about this, uh, please do that.<br />Cause I think this is gonna help people. Our intention here is you\'re trying to do right and good<br />by this for your website project. So I want you all to like, help them really understand these are<br />the things we work with clients about. These are the problems we see, these are the challenges<br />we see and here\'s our thoughts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because you, you are experts in this and you see things that I think could make those trying to<br />cross this threshold, um, truly be prepared for and make really good decisions that helps<br />everybody involved, even if they don\'t choose modern tribe as the agency. So again, I think<br />that\'s right on important.<br />Okay, so let\'s just start right here, because [00:09:00] oftentimes, as I understand this, both<br />leading my own organizations, listening to you all and other agency members that post status, I<br />go, um, this type of decision needs to start at the, you know, the top of the hierarchy here. If the<br />leaders aren\'t on board or don\'t fully understand it, this is gonna be a problem.<br />So, I hope those leaders listening, this is your time to take notes because Mike, I, I want you to<br />kind of, what do you think of when you\'re saying, okay, I am, let\'s say a c e O of an organization<br />or in the C-suite or leadership team. I need to start helping think through this, you know,<br />accessibility for what we do on the web.<br />What stands out to you when we talked about leadership and WordPress accessibility.<br />Mike Klanac: Yeah, I\'m, I\'m so glad we get to talk about it from this perspective, because so<br />often accessibility can get pretty dense and technical right away. Um, but in today\'s modern<br />world, uh, it it\'s more than that. And it\'s something that permeates all aspects of your business if<br />you [00:10:00] want it to be successful.<br />And therefore, it often has to start with leadership, um, realizing why it\'s, IM important. Um, it\'s,<br />it\'s gotta be built as a core consideration, um, to all of those various layers. Uh, and the best<br />organizations, the really effective organizations that care and are considerate of their users<br />make this a, a core value.<br />It\'s, it literally becomes, um, part of the culture. Top to bottom. Um, so I think one of the ways to<br />build that understanding is to really think about like, why you\'re doing this. And we hit on the<br />legal implications initially, and I think that\'s where a lot of people first start thinking about this for<br />some reason.<br />But you kind of need to back up and really remember that one of the first reasons this is<br />important is, is just morally, it\'s, it\'s morally important. It\'s a part of digital inclusivity. We are<br />creating tools that serve [00:11:00] users, that serve people, and therefore we need to care for<br />them. We need to think about how they use it.<br />And that applies to all of the users. It\'s an increasingly competitive world. We don\'t have the<br />luxury of, um, excluding people because it\'s not convenient to, um, build tools that serve them<br />effectively. So I think like we really need to ground ourselves in the moral component of this first,<br />which is it\'s the right thing to do.<br />It\'s just the right thing to do, therefore needs to be a leadership initiative. It needs to be brought<br />in, carried through to all components, all layers of your business. Okay. So that\'s like the first<br />thing that I would probably tell a leader in this space is that make it a part of all of your thinking.<br />Cory Miller: I mean, you know, I, we were talking about a client used to consult with before we<br />started recording and I was like, you could tell there the client one did the traditional thing, print<br />off your core values, put it on all the doors, and you\'re like, cool. Yeah. But what are your real<br />core values? [00:12:00] And it seems to me, as you talk about one, there is a business reason<br />to do this, very legitimate that it\'s gonna get a lot of people\'s attention.<br />But I think what you were, you\'re saying is like it should reflect a value that you might not have<br />on the door, but like we care. Yes, we care about the whole population and being able to get to<br />the things that we offer. And if we don\'t, it it, I mean that rings really true when you say that<br />business, there\'s a legitimate business reason and that should hopefully check most boxes.<br />But I think the other thing is that you should actually just care. Yeah. We\'ve all probably been<br />touched in some way with someone that has, uh, uh, uh, something that doesn\'t allow them to<br />see, read, hear, whatever that is, um, that we need to be thinking about that. Just because we<br />don\'t have that particular issue doesn\'t mean there\'s a pretty significant one is a significant<br />enough to me.<br />But I mean this, we\'re talking about in this accessibility [00:13:00] conversation quite a bit of the<br />population that most organizations have flatly not even thought about till today.<br />Mike Klanac: Exactly. Yeah, I think it just sends the right message. You know, when you\'re the<br />type of organization that takes the time to be deliberate and considerate of all of your users,<br />there\'s probably an understanding that that carries through to your product.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\'re selling something, um, you, your service, your, your organization as a whole. So, um,<br />it\'s just the right thing to do. And I think, I think we should just start there as it\'s, it\'s morally right.<br />And as you hit on, um, and to segue a little bit, there are legitimate business reasons. So, um,<br />making sure that your, your site is fully accessible, has this effect of improving the quality, the<br />experience for your users.<br />And that sort of in some ways overlays these other topics that we often talk about as like key<br />performance indicators for businesses. [00:14:00] Things like search engine optimization, um,<br />core web vitals. Um, these are adjacent to each other. So it it\'s about creating an experience<br />that is a user experience that\'s quality for everyone, and therefore your, your business will feel<br />that it\'ll have an impact.<br />Um, so not only is it the right thing to do, morally a highly accessible site that\'s gonna benefit<br />your, your clicks, your conversions, and all those things that we\'ve spent so much time thinking<br />about, um, and that we\'re starting to, to kind of like land a couple of really important reasons. It\'s<br />like, you know, it\'s what\'s good as a person, it\'s what\'s good for business.<br />Um, it th those alone are, are enough reason, right, to really think long and hard about this. Um,<br />But there\'s this final one too, which is the one we kind of backed into this from, which was,<br />there\'s some legal requirements here. I I, I pulled a stat, and I think everyone\'s aware of this,<br />but, [00:15:00] um, 2,800 accessibility lawsuits in 2021.<br />Um, that\'s, that\'s like, it\'s a big deal. And those lawsuits, um, are meaningful and there\'s a place<br />for them. Um, but more important than the litigation itself is you just have an opportunity to get<br />ahead of this if you do things right, and that can get confusing. Um, I, sorry, you\'re gonna jump<br />in. I\'ll take a beat.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah, no, I, I think, um, I\'m curious to hear what Chris and Sarah think too,<br />because it\'s like, you know, we\'ve all been to those situations, uh, where you\'re like, the<br />organization talks a really good talk. Yeah. You know, and we\'ve got plenty of those in our<br />society globally today. But you know, the ones that talk.<br />And you know that ones that just act on that value. And I think this shines pretty clearly whether<br />you go to a website, you see the accessibility blue circle or whatever this is. And I think<br />[00:16:00] this is an opportunity. I\'m curious what Chris and Sarah think too from just an<br />organization standpoint of like when you see someone taking it to this degree, not because they<br />necessarily have to, a lot of these have to, but, and there\'s a probably legitimate reason why<br />there\'s regulations and laws and different things in these lawsuits is because like, okay, if you\'re<br />not gonna do the right thing, the, the world society will kind of push you in that regard.<br />But I think, I\'m curious what you think Chris and Sarah is like, this is a way to get out front and<br />lead act on those values. You can\'t just say you care, but if you care enough to make sure your<br />website is A to B, everybody can can access that and and consume the information and<br />whatever you\'re trying to offer in the world, that\'s an opportunity for leadership to me.<br />So Sarah, Chris, what do you think? . I, yeah,<br />Chris Kindred: I, uh, okay. Uh, I, I think there\'s a huge opportunity there. One of the things we<br />tend to hear is, well, that\'s not the kind of person we\'re marketing to. And [00:17:00] you know,<br />there\'s, there\'s so much more than that going on with accessibility. It\'s, you know, you may not<br />be marketing to \'em right now, but who knows what\'s going to happen in the future.<br />They, they, uh, or, or, um, friends that they have that, that kind of thing, they can help, um, push<br />along whatever product you\'re pushing. And in those cases, so, you know, you\'ve got, um,<br />you\'ve got companies that come at it from that angle and, and there\'s a little bit of education that<br />we have to do to help kind of get \'em over that hump of this.<br />This is, this is a moral thing as well, . It\'s, it\'s not who you\'re marketing to. It is that you are<br />marketing to everybody. Everyone\'s going to see it, and it\'s important that everybody be able to<br />see it.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah, and I think that, like, going back to Mike\'s original point, like it takes the<br />organization to do that.<br />It cannot be on the shoulders of like your web team. Um, yes, they are like [00:18:00] hands-on<br />producing and shipping that thing. Um, but that thing should be symbolic of like a much larger,<br />um, um, effort around accessibility. Um, and, and your kind of example around, you know,<br />posting your, your core values as a, as a company on the wall, um, and accessibility or<br />inclusivity being on that, um, kind of made me start to think like, what\'s like a real example of, of<br />this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, you know, like I, I. And transferring that responsibility, not transferring, but sharing that<br />responsibility across the organization means you have to figure out, like, how can each<br />department take part in that? Um, how can we better collaborate on that mission? Um, I think,<br />you know, I\'ve spent a lot of times on and, and working with like brand and marketing teams,<br />great opportunity for, for, for people to get involved in accessibility that may not be, um, on the<br />line to like ship that, that website necessarily.<br />Um, for example, we mentioned, you know, calling out your brand [00:19:00] values. Maybe<br />you\'ve got, you know, being inclusive as, as, as a brand value. Well back that up with like, you<br />know, shipping accessible designs on the marketing side. So like, if you\'re working on a brand<br />book, um, A big part of that is establishing a color palette.<br />Um, and that color palette has implications across so much of your collateral across the<br />organization, including that website. Now, oftentimes what happens on like design, um, is that<br />we\'re handed a brand book with colors we can\'t use, and now we\'re having to rework that<br />because accessibility was never consideration going into that.<br />Um, so that\'s like a, a various, you know, tech like tactile example of, of how one little shift, you<br />know, like, and if your team doesn\'t have the specialties to do that, that\'s okay. Like lean on a<br />team of experts to help and collaborate on that. So bring in the web team into, you know, that<br />brand conversation and when you\'re developing that color palette or, or whatever the thing is,<br />um, to get their [00:20:00] expertise and, and, and make sure that we\'re living up to that kind of,<br />you know, core tenant of being inclusive and accessible.<br />And also, um, Beyond just being like the right thing to do. Like, you know, if you do work ahead,<br />the more you work ahead on accessibility, the more money you\'ll save down the road, um,<br />because you don\'t have to rework as much. So, um, definitely another, you know, kind of<br />business, um, opportunity.<br />Cory Miller: And I, I think, thanks for that.<br />Oh, Chris, go ahead.<br />Chris Kindred: Well, that, that just made me start thinking, um, one of the things is accessibility<br />doesn\'t just stop with your digital things. Um, I, there\'s, there\'s a billboard I drive past or used to<br />drive past all the time, and I could barely read it because it was blue on blue and it just didn\'t,<br />didn\'t work well for, for me as I was driving a car 60 miles an hour past it.<br />I, I, if you\'re going. Put that your, uh, that accessibility and, [00:21:00] and being inclusive as<br />part of your core values that trickles into your billboard, that trickles into the entryway to your<br />business, that that trickles into so many other things in order to prove it.<br />Sarah Gless: It\'s a mind shift, isn\'t it? Like when you, when you Yeah, when and, but it, but<br />once you start doing and getting the practice of that and resource for it, that\'s a critical part of<br />this, right?<br />Um, you, it will become a habit. And, and that\'s a good habit to have.<br />Cory Miller: And I keep shaping this mike in my mind as it\'s a, it\'s a problem, but if we can do it,<br />you just said Sarah and shift her mind, we go, this is an opportunity to show people we care. We<br />don\'t have to put the word on there. If we do certain things like this, just like we\'ve mentioned,<br />diversity, equity, inclusion, huge topic and rightly.<br />This is going, if we truly want to act on that, we need to think about that person who might be<br />blind and trying to ex, like you were talking about, you know, the color palettes and things. It\'s to<br />that thought. [00:22:00] But Mike, it seems like too, I think Chris and Boer helped me today.<br />Like, let\'s add another reason here.<br />This is a team Mork, Hey, we care. So we\'re doing this accessibility project and, and other<br />initiatives in the business side of things that they can do to say, we\'re not just gonna say it, we\'re<br />gonna do it. I mean, this seems like when you go to your team, like Sarah was saying, and<br />you\'re like, Hey, leadership has bought in on this and understands it.<br />Now we go to the team, we want, hey, we want everyone as best we can to do, to, to be able to<br />access things.<br />Mike Klanac: It\'s a, it\'s a foundational, um, shift in how you think about it. So a small example<br />would be we used to, um, ask, do you need your site to be accessible? And now we just<br />assume we\'re gonna build accessible sites.<br />And we used to take a pass at estimating a project and then sort of like do some additional math<br />to calculate accessibility. Now we assume accessibility is a part of every estimate that [00:23:00]</p>\n\n\n\n<p>you\'re doing. Every line item of the feature level estimate incorporates accessibility thinking.<br />Um, and that\'s, and that\'s, that changes the approach.<br />It, it\'s, it starts at the beginning. It carries through all the way to the end. And I, I think I would be<br />remiss not to mention one other topic on leadership that this conversation is sort of remind me<br />of, which is that these standards we\'re talking accessibility is sort of this like, like just just this<br />open-ended term, but it, it means probably slightly different things.<br />And from a leadership standpoint, I think one other thing you need to really consider is what<br />standard are you, in some cases mandated to hit? And just understanding that is part of the<br />leadership obligation because you are the person that may often understand where you\'re doing<br />business, what your jurisdictions are, um, what, what laws you\'re bound to.<br />And if you\'re as an international organization, we, we work with groups in Europe, we work with<br />groups [00:24:00] in California. We, we work with groups that have different sets of<br />requirements and different guidelines. So I think an important note for anyone who\'s, who\'s<br />gonna try to build this philosophy into their organization as they should, uh, is to, to like really<br />fundamentally set some clear guidelines to your team and say that based on where we do<br />business and where we\'re approaching it, the way we\'re approaching it, we\'re gonna try to hit,<br />you know, stay tuned to section 5 0 8.<br />Um, And, and the, the outlines set in WIC AG two one, aa. Like we, there needs to be some<br />basis for what you\'re aiming towards. Uh, it doesn\'t, doesn\'t mean that, um, you can\'t go past<br />that. Um, but uh, you probably need to have that guiding light.<br />Cory Miller: Uh, and I think there\'s a relief for me talking to you all on this too, because when I<br />know for instance, this is a value, right?<br />That we want to, that I love you, you said, uh, just it\'s assumed. You know, [00:25:00] we\'re in<br />2023 having this conversation. It doesn\'t matter what\'s been in the past today, this is just an<br />assumption that mind shift shift, um, but that it occurs to me, you know, as a leader and then<br />we\'ve all kind of talked this and know this, we can\'t know every single thing.<br />Like you\'re talking about these specific legislation, policies, regulations out there. You can\'t<br />possibly. So, but I wanna say there\'s hope. That\'s why we\'re having this conversation. That\'s<br />why there\'s great experts in WordPress overall. Try being one of them that, um, can help<br />navigate some of those. Like it doesn\'t need to be the, the thing that you keep up with at the<br />absolute.<br />That\'s why you hire people like you all to even mention some of these things. Like I\'ve been in<br />tech a long time and I learned something when I\'m talking about when to you all about these<br />things that I hadn\'t considered. And I think that\'s a maybe a sense. Is like, there\'s a little bit of<br />relief you can say like you want to do the right thing.<br />That\'s why you go seek out experts that do. That\'s why I\'ve enjoyed preparation about this. I\'ve<br />learned [00:26:00] a ton that I wouldn\'t even considered . Like Sarah, you were talking about the<br />brand and I go more design Chris than tech sometimes, cuz I don\'t know what I\'m talking about<br />with tech all the time. But I go take this thought and go to your brand values.<br />We have oranges ours, but I have no idea how that expresses itself necessarily. Right. Uh, on<br />the web for someone that\'s hurt and that\'s a holistic thinking. We\'re thinking like we, we\'ve hit<br />this do do good and it\'s got a pretty dang good benefit because it\'s like absolutely. You can<br />actually reflect and show what you\'re doing.<br />So.<br />Sarah Gless: Absolutely. Um, yeah. And you mentioned like. Kind of like leaning on on experts.<br />And that ki kind of got me thinking, like, I think there\'s this expectation. Um, I know design<br />designers put this expectation on them to, to, um, sometimes to, to be able to like have<br />expertise in this. And like we absolutely have to have, you know, baseline knowledge and, and<br />skills that apply to [00:27:00] our work to meet accessibility.<br />But, um, you know, as an organization, if you\'re in a marketing team, um, for example, and<br />you\'re like, do I, do I need to know everything about accessibility? No. And there\'s no, I mean,<br />accessibility is a, you know, a full team of effort. Um, yeah. Um, at Modern Tribe, we\'ve got a full<br />dedicated QA team that is testing rigorously everything we design and build.<br />Um, so, so no. But can you get to a place where you\'ve got like a good baseline knowledge of<br />accessibility and or also like resources that you know you can turn to, whether it be, um, your<br />own team internally that\'s focused on accessibility, your leadership has resource for awesome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, um, if you can work with consultants or agencies like us or, or what whoever, um, get that,<br />that resource embedded in your team so you can turn to them, um, for their expertise.<br />Because [00:28:00] accessibility is like this ever-changing thing that will continue to grow. Um,<br />and, and I just wanna, like, I think that\'s something like in my own past, I put that pressure on<br />myself and, um mm-hmm. , it\'s a lot of pressure and it can, can kind of, um, um, get you away<br />from other, you know, priorities within your role.<br />So acknowledge that you do not have to, um, necessarily be experts, inaccessibility, but you do<br />have like a moral and business responsibility. To care about it and get help when you need it.<br />Um, um, so yeah,<br />Cory Miller: I think, I think that\'s, that, that\'s a great point. Um, in, in all this. Um, and now we\'re<br />gonna shift to you in just a moment to talk specifically about design, Sarah.<br />But Mike, before we do that, I just wanna make sure, I think we\'ve hit really big pillars here. Um,<br />moral business requirements, , it can be, there\'s an opportunity here to lead and show that you<br />truly care. Um, anything else you think about when you\'re, when you\'re thinking about leaders<br />[00:29:00] making these decisions, wanting to give those resources to design and team and<br />things like that, anything else that we missed that you wanna share?<br />Mike Klanac: Just to like summarize, it\'s a tremendous opportunity. It went from being, uh, a<br />challenge, a problem to No, this is just an opportunity to better serve our, our audience. Um, and<br />that\'s how I would be thinking about it.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah, what a great mind shift and what a great takeaway we have more. So if<br />you\'re a leader in an, an organization making these decisions, stay on because there\'s more,<br />because this is a, we\'re we\'re evolving and growing this concept, like we\'ve been saying as a<br />mind shift, shift change over.<br />What a great, great way to sum up that, Mike. Thank you. Okay, so Sarah, now let\'s just talk<br />creative and design, because a part of this, I\'ll just say this, I was like, okay, I can get the<br />decision. Like I can really embody that and go, it\'s, it\'ll take time, it will take effort, it will take<br />money. But as we\'re talking, I go, [00:30:00] gosh, I\'ve been in the seat too, where you\'re a<br />marketing person or you\'re trying to ship the work into, through the website and there\'s<br />decisions and things that you need to be thinking about that.<br />So as we talk about in this role, creative and design, what, what things stick out to you as we<br />approach the accessibility topic?<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah, absolutely. Well, um, I think just acknowledging that it is a requirement. Um,<br />I think that there\'s this kind of stigma that accessible design, um, pro, you know, prohibits<br />creativity, um, in a way that, you know, accessibly designed websites.<br />Are ugly , for lack of a better term. Um, and I think that that stems from, you know, a history of,<br />of hearing about lawsuits and, and, and building requirements around certain sectors. Um,<br />particularly like the government. Um, and websites for governments or government, um,<br />institutions are, are, are typically not known for, [00:31:00] um, their design.<br />There are a few, of course . Um, so it\'s, it, you know, accessibility, I think in the design world has<br />a, a, a reputation that it\'s gonna restrict me. Um, and I don\'t like to think about that like that. I, I, I<br />want, you know, our design team, we, we sh we, we have a mindset that it\'s just an a<br />requirement and any creative brief you get, um, I\'m sorry, but it\'s gonna have requirements on it.<br />Um, and so if you think about that and shift your mind into thinking that way, it truly does<br />become a creative opportunity, um, and a creative challenge. And, um, I think designers and<br />creatives. Tend to work very well if you give them some structure, but then opportunities to<br />innovate and there\'s tons of opportunities to do that with accessibility.<br />Um, I think of like a past project we worked on for, um, oh, very well known, uh, Ivy League, uh,<br />school, um, that, you know, we designed a, a navigation, it was very robust, it [00:32:00] was<br />very, um, uh, boundary pushing, I\'ll say on the design side. And at first blush, it did not look like<br />it was going to meet accessibility.<br />Um, we worked and collaborated with our QA team, our engineering team, um, and within those<br />boundaries of accessibility and or those requirements, um, and looking at this thing that we<br />really wanted to like put live into the world, we figured it out. Um, and we shipped a very<br />accessible, um, site and navigation that ended up winning a design award like.<br />You can do it. It\'s totally possible. Does it take more resources and time? Yes, but it\'s like po you<br />know? Yes. Um, there\'s, there\'s no way around that, but yes. Um, but you, it, it\'s, it, it truly can</p>\n\n\n\n<p>actually lead to like innovative ideas because, um, even within those requirements, there\'s,<br />there\'s bars to push and like, uh, [00:33:00] uh, figure out how to, to, um, uh, make this work.<br />Cory Miller: So, yeah, I think what you\'re saying, so I fancy myself sometimes justified or not as<br />a creative, and what I hear when you say that is, I know there\'s a bunch of people, when you<br />said the first part feels like it could prohibit, they\'re probably like, yeah, it feels that way. But then<br />you spun it around and you said, this is an opportunity here.<br />I I, when I fancy myself as a creative, I go, constraints are actually really good in a lot of cases.<br />And so if, if it\'s a challenge, Hey, you\'ve give, you\'re given these tools. Take it and be creative.<br />Like that\'s what I got from that example you just gave is like, we looked at it potentially as an<br />obstacle, but we turned it into an opportunity to be really creative and make it work.<br />And I think that\'s part of like, I\'ll get a little fur here and say artistic, like when you say you\'re<br />creative, it means like, don\'t look at these as problems. [00:34:00] Look at \'em as opportunities.<br />You know, that\'s the thing we got with leadership. It seems like. That\'s what I just, I wrote it<br />down. I was like, we\'re talking about how this challenge can be viewed as an opportunity and for<br />creatives, having worked with some creatives, I\'m like, Hey, see what you can do.<br />Yeah. The best things. See what you, yeah.<br />See what you can get away with. , ,<br />Sarah Gless: no, little rebellious ,<br />Mike Klanac: as a definite not creative. I, I really think this is an interesting part of the<br />conversation and somewhere out there, well, this is the part that I can add, I can add that there\'s<br />an article about like Jack White and the White Stripes.<br />There\'s this like idea of threes where they stay within three colors, three instruments, and that<br />that parameter within that, they try to push innovation as much as possible, and clearly they\'ve<br />been successful with it, so.<br />Sarah Gless: Absolutely. That\'s awesome. I, and you know, like, oh, go ahead Chris.<br />Chris Kindred: I, I feel like there\'s another aspect specifically to the, the, um, menu that you\'re,<br />that you\'re talking about there [00:35:00] as a technical team.<br />When we look at a menu that came in like that, we\'re, we\'re looking at it going, now there\'s the,<br />this is gonna be difficult, .<br />And the, the amazing part is though, . It just takes some communication. It takes the team<br />working together to figure out, okay, here\'s where we can push a boundary. We, we, great point.<br />We know how to handle this piece. And we get that developed. We, we work with, you know,<br />our, our, our front end team does an amazing job at staying up to date with things like WIC ag<br />and, and we can really lean on them in, in some of these cases to say, okay, here\'s how you can<br />accomplish this in an accessible way.<br />And then with com, with good communication between design and, and our, our engineering<br />team, we can, we can keep pushing those boundaries. Uh, you, you mentioned that it costs<br />more, it does cost more to be innovative [00:36:00] like that. That\'s just part of being on the front<br />end of the curve. Right? If, if you are trying to push boundaries, it\'s going to cost more.<br />but accessibility doesn\'t have to cost more either. The innovation piece of it is what\'s costing<br />more. Mm-hmm. . So, you know, if, if you\'re, if you\'re wanting to, to do a big award-winning nav,<br />heck yeah, let\'s do it. Let\'s jump in, let\'s, let\'s do it together. Uh, but it doesn\'t have to be that<br />way to be accessible either, right?<br />Mm-hmm. . So, yeah.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah. That multidisciplinary kind of approach is so critical. Um, I think it requires<br />both specialization and, uh, willingness, like multidisciplinary collaboration across teams to, to<br />do it. Right.<br />Cory Miller: Well, and we talked a lot about boundaries, pushing boundaries, and it seems to<br />me too, it\'s like there\'s probably some mental boundaries we put ourselves in if we think about it<br />as just, oh, this is a [00:37:00] problem and I don\'t want to do it.<br />But I think what I hear from you too, Sarah, is like, Well, this, the, the regulations, the policies,<br />the things that govern this have actually created your canvas. You know, if we look at it like that<br />and we go Exactly. And then I love the challenge actually, like Chris going like, well, what can<br />cools, like even cross teams, we got a challenge, but let\'s look at it as this opportunity to do<br />something really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like when you said the awards and stuff, like love that you\'re like, do such a good job with this<br />challenge. They, you could actually win hearts and awards, you know? Exactly. And I think that\'s<br />for creative people, I think that\'s gotta be a stoking fire of like motivation. Oh, absolutely. An<br />inspiration.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah.<br />So that, like, nav wins an award ranks high on accessible websites in higher ed. Like what? I<br />mean, that\'s just a perfect pair<br />Cory Miller: and that person out there trying to look, trying to do see here whatever to that<br />[00:38:00] information. They\'ve, they\'ve had these experts. Giving their creative talent to do it.<br />So there\'s that other part of like, somebody got to make sure they didn\'t miss that part of the<br />website or whatever was happening in the project.<br />So exactly like, how many wins do we need? People, , , you know, like, and Chris, you\'re gonna<br />get your chance to talk tech too. Um, but I really, I really love this, like the words I hear from you,<br />Sarah, particularly as designer, you know, artistic and creative. You go, you said, doesn\'t have<br />to restrict, doesn\'t have to pro prohibit anything, can actually blossom and grow your creativity.<br />If you, if you look again, we\'re talking about mind shifts and we say, Hey, this is just the canvas I<br />get to create on. I love that. So what else comes to your mind when we talk, when you\'re talking<br />to creative teams and people really trying to make sure the experience is great? What are the<br />things that pop up to you as you\'ve worked with clients and, and the teams?<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think, uh, I mentioned this a little bit earlier, [00:39:00] but just.<br />Taking the, knowing that you don\'t have to be an expert at this thing. Like, and really, again, I<br />can\'t hit home enough, like collaborating and, and building kind of an extension of your team to<br />support accessibility is so critical. Um, and putting resources towards that.<br />Um, whether that\'s in-house or, or with an agency. Um, you know, I look at our own design team<br />as a great example. Like we, we definitely stay up on knowledge as it affects, you know, the, the<br />work that we\'re working on. Um, but even our team who is talking about accessibility all the<br />time, We still ha have experts specifically dedicated to accessibility within our organization, our<br />QA team, who we can collaborate and lean on to ensure that the work that we are designing<br />and putting out into the world is tru truly accessible.<br />And so I, I just wanna really hit home like if you, if [00:40:00] you, um, are feeling maybe a little<br />overwhelmed, like, how do, how do I do this? Lean on people who know how to do it. Um, and<br />um, yeah,<br />Cory Miller: I think you all have modeled that for me in our discussions leading up to this. You<br />really have modeled it. We, I won\'t get into the exact details, but when I was saying, Hey, we\'re<br />gonna, okay, we got our date and all that, you all started asking these questions.<br />I didn\'t think about that. And they were accessibility questions like naturally. But what I really,<br />really appreciated about you three, why we\'re like working with really super talented people that<br />are also humble is you all team approached that I think Sarah, you\'re like, okay, I think, I think<br />it\'s this, but let me, I\'m gonna go, I\'m gonna go chase that with a team.<br />Chris, same way. And you guys were collaborating and I think what you all have modeled, what<br />you\'re talking about the client should do is really look at this like it\'s not on one particular person.<br />Yeah. Embrace the team concept. [00:41:00] We, we care. And that\'s why as a team, we\'re<br />gonna figure this out together.<br />Mike Klanac: Yeah. Yeah. It\'s a, a perpetually changing topic. It\'s guidelines are evolving,<br />browsers are evolving. The tools that people use are always changing. So if you\'re an expert<br />one day, by the next day, you have more learning to do. And the way that we get around that is<br />by leaning on each other as a team, uh, and thinking about it as sort of a topic that we all need<br />to stay fresh on, um,<br />Cory Miller: and just care about.<br />I mean, this whole conversation evolved because you and I were talking to Mike, you know, and<br />I\'m aware of the work you all do, and. You know, through us talking, you go, gotta have Chris,<br />gotta have Sarah on this call. That\'s my, that\'s You have a bigger team. Absolutely. You all have<br />a bigger team of course.<br />But you\'re like, that\'s a great model. So like we had you start with leadership in making those<br />decisions and then we\'re gonna talk about creativity and then we\'re gonna talk about tech. And<br />then you all have even lighten. Say there\'s somebody else that [00:42:00] might not be in that<br />spec, but they\'re the ones publishing the post or whatever it is to the site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exactly. Yeah. I think we\'ve modeled this like cross-disciplinary, I think you said that too, Sarah<br />is like, okay, we, when we\'re having these conversations, we do need leadership, do need tech,<br />we do need design. And probably the people actually doing this, the work, like into the world,<br />probably all need to be somehow represented in that conversation.<br />So I think I\'m, I\'m digressing from your subject, Sarah, but I just go, I think that just, again,<br />models, it\'s a holistic whole team approach. We\'re, we\'re not gonna get it perfect, but we\'re<br />gonna figure it out together. Absolutely. So I I love that too. I think you\'ve given permission to<br />take some burden off Sarah, as like, yes.<br />You don\'t have to be aid<br />Sarah Gless: as long as you lean on, on, on your, your internal teams or consultants in that, in<br />that area<br />Cory Miller: Care. Lean on your team. Yes. Try to make the best decisions, get the best<br />[00:43:00] experience. You may not win the award every single time, but hey, allowing someone<br />to do that, which probably has a fr I can\'t imagine the frustration someone might feel trying to<br />get actually this cool tool called the internet, but Oh, tripped up like one of the best<br />communication tools ever invented in human history, yet there\'s significant part of our population<br />that can\'t get to it.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah. It\'s like in the states, one in four, um, have a disability and I think globally<br />it\'s one in six. Like think about those numbers. It\'s like 25% in the us.<br />Cory Miller: That can\'t,<br />Sarah Gless: that you may not be communicating with today on your website.<br />Cory Miller: I, uh, see again, you just go like, so let\'s, let\'s make this for a second, Mike.<br />I\'m curious about this, but you two chime in. You go. If we were gonna say like, just make it a<br />business decision. If I went to any corporate leader, business leader in America and said, what if<br />you could get [00:44:00] 20% more than your gi, like, what if you could tap this market, Mike,<br />like from a market size, what if just from a business, okay, let\'s take, take the pure human<br />element and you go, everybody, every business is looking for new markets to build and expand<br />on.<br />And you go the stat that\'s you just shared, Sarah goes 20% of the popul. That, that, that if we<br />just embrace this right thing to do thing, you can get access to that. And imagine just from a<br />pure business standpoint, that market that\'s served better than any they get anywhere else.<br />They\'re gonna talk, they\'re gonna share, do business here, do work here, because they\'re<br />gonna be your most vocal evangelists.<br />So Mike, like from a pure business standpoint, and I go, let\'s add it to the thing cuz this STA is<br />like we all think about the new markets that we could try to break into, you know, or grow our<br />existing thing. And you all just said, by the way, everybody ha you know, has a hard time with<br />this subject, but we\'re giving you a [00:45:00] huge part of the population.<br />You could serve extremely well.<br />Mike Klanac: Again, yes. Massive opportunity. And, you know, we have so many conversations<br />where, where we will, um, sit and deliberate over customer journeys or you know, how to adjust<br />content in a way to gain just that slight advantage, that percentage change, that 1%, 2% change<br />in conversion or experience improvement.<br />And here\'s an opportunity if you really think about it, to cater to a, you know, one in four people<br />in the United States. That\'s a dramatic improvement. And, and that alone justifies, you know,<br />thinking about this start to finish. It\'s just an incredible opportunity. Again, uh, it\'s a no-brainer.<br />Cory Miller: I\'ve told you all, I want Modern Tribe to do some stickers around these things that<br />I\'ve heard as like core values should be accessibility.<br />Yeah. But it\'s also like, Hey, uh, I got a secret. Do you wanna grow your business? Do the right<br />thing? Like, [00:46:00] just service me on the shirt. . Yeah. Get it on the shirt. Cause I need a<br />shirt for that. You know, I\'m a, I\'m a swag geek Mike. But anyway, I digress. . No, we\'re too, it\'s<br />all good. . No, and I, I think that\'s another thing I\'ve learned from y\'all too, is like, hey, we can be,<br />this can be a subject that we get kinda tense about because we don\'t know all the answers.<br />What I got from you, Sarah, was uh, you took, I think you took a big, big load of perfectionism,<br />expectation, worry, fear of people and release them to say, care about it. Get your team. Yes.<br />Like that\'s the two I got when you\'re looking at design. And that doesn\'t mean just the design<br />team. That means the people who are out there publishing content on the website too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Absolutely. You know, lean on your team and don\'t exclude anybody. Include everybody in this<br />conversation and it matters. Anything else, Sarah, on design and creativity you wanted to<br />share? .<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah, I mean, I, I\'ll echo I think a lot of what we\'ve already talked about, but if you<br />could just, [00:47:00] at the end of the day, it\'s, it\'s about putting yourself in those folks\' shoes.<br />And if, I think a great place to do that is by talking to those people, testing those people. Um, I, I<br />think that\'s something that we, we don\'t, you know, as a, um, a, a world , uh, probably do<br />enough of, um, and so empathy, empathy, empathy, just, you know, do the right thing, um, and,<br />and make it a value that you actually follow through with.<br />Cory Miller: Um, yep. Okay. I know you\'re gonna have more to this chair. Thank you for sharing<br />the creativity. I think those are powerful messages that can release and really free people up to<br />use that creativity, use that, those innovative skills in such a really cool way. Yeah. Okay. So we<br />talked about leadership, talked about creativity and design.<br />Now let\'s talk about the nuts and bolts, how this stuff works. Like [00:48:00] Chris. Uh, so you\'re<br />back in, I know you work a lot with your team, uh, Sarah\'s team, Mike\'s team, um, in delivering<br />to the client. Um, when we talk about development, and you, you\'ve, you\'ve surprised me a<br />couple times on this Bec and, but it\'s, it\'s something that we just see.<br />It\'s cuz you care about the subject, you know, you care about this work, but you\'ve been able to<br />give some really good perspective too. But when we kind of venture into this third phase for<br />subject about accessibility, it\'s the technical side. What sticks out to you? Uh, I always start with<br />you.<br />Chris Kindred: You\'ve gotta make it part of your culture.<br />And in order to do that, that means that when you are hiring, you\'ve gotta actually be looking to<br />make sure that you\'re hiring people that believe the same. And, uh, it\'s very difficult to always<br />create great accessible things if the, the people you\'re looking at to bring on board don\'t believe<br />the same thing.<br />[00:49:00] So it starts kind of there. It starts with making sure you get the right people in the right<br />seats and, and that, uh, piece of it. Um, after that there\'s a little bit of understanding why, why<br />we\'re doing this. And, um, one of the things that I like to kind of explain is that accessibility over<br />time has become the norm for, for so many places.<br />Um, think about it as, uh, curb cutouts right at crosswalks. Um, it\'s so that it\'s easier for<br />wheelchairs to get up onto the sidewalk. And, and it\'s such a normal thing to see now. Um,<br />when you\'re getting ready to cross the street and you hit the, the walk button, when it changes,<br />it makes a noise. Well, it\'s because people found out, hey, we need to make this more<br />accessible for other people.<br />And, and they need to be able to get from one side of the street to the other. [00:50:00] And it, it,<br />it just, it, it becomes part of your everyday interaction and it becomes so normal that it, it, it just<br />becomes part of what you do. The same applies building a website. The same applies for the<br />technical side of these things.<br />When you\'re building a form, you just, it, it, it is, it, it has to be ingrained in your culture that<br />that\'s the normal way of doing that. You build it as an accessible form and you don\'t cut corners.<br />Where, um, Somebody that\'s not building it accessible or maybe somebody that doesn\'t know or<br />is ignorant of how to build it accessible.<br />Um, would, would be doing that. You know, um, braille is another great example of having like a<br />braille inside a building trying to find where a, um, a, a hotel room is or an office is, that kind of<br />thing. You, it becomes normal and therefore you start [00:51:00] implementing it. You come to<br />expect it. And that\'s, that\'s a big<br />piece.<br />Mike Klanac: I, I just wanna jump in there, Chris, cause I think. The part that ties this all<br />together is the fact that those items you mentioned, which were initially built for accessible<br />purposes, how, how many other benefits have they shown to perhaps people with different<br />forms of acce, uh, disability or just really anyone like a curb cutout has, su has become a<br />convenience.<br />Um, the noise. I often just can hear that and it becomes a benefit to my experience not being a<br />disabled person. Um, and, and so those, those changes have, have become innovations for all<br />of us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Kindred: You, you mentioned a really good point there. Um, there\'s different levels of, uh,<br />disability, let\'s say. Yes. Um, you, you\'ve got permanent disabilities, which are, are people that,<br />that aren\'t going to get over whatever disability they have.<br />Mm-hmm. . And, and you also have, [00:52:00] uh, you know, that\'s, uh, Loss of limb kind of<br />thing. Maybe not being able to type, not being able to hear, not being able to see those kinds of<br />things. Uh, you also have a concept of a temporary disability.<br />Uh, we, we\'ve<br />all experience things like getting your eyes dilated and not being able to look at a website, uh,<br />that, that can really mess with your mind a little bit.<br />If, if a website has all the text way too close together, say you need to call your, uh, eye doctor<br />right after you left and you pull up their website on your phone and you can\'t find the phone<br />number because you, your eyes are dilated. Um, yeah. Now, and there there\'s also this concept<br />of situational disability.<br />Um, very similar. But, uh, say you\'re sitting next to your four-year-old and on the couch and<br />you\'re flipping through videos on your phone and you have the volume off cuz you don\'t know<br />what somebody\'s gonna say and you don\'t want your four year old to hear it. Um, You know that<br />that\'s another [00:53:00] case of an opportunity, that if they have transcripts on that video, all of<br />a sudden, you know what they\'re talking about without having to maybe have your four year old<br />say a word they shouldn\'t.<br />Um, you know, it, the, there\'s, there\'s this other concept a, around situational disabilities, um,<br />that I, it kind of hits home with me in particular because, um, there\'s this level of like your<br />emotional state when you\'re looking at a website, um, maybe your, your ability to actually have<br />like all the right, be in the right state of mind when you\'re going to a, a website.<br />And it, uh, it, my, my daughter was born with a congenital heart defect. She was life flighted from<br />the hospital three days after she was born to a hospital five hours away.<br />Um,<br />My wife went with [00:54:00] her on, on the life flight, and we were extremely thankful she was<br />able to, but uh, here we are. I\'m, I\'m five hours away.<br />I\'m getting ready to get in the car. There was a blizzard that night. There, there was just all kinds<br />of things going on, and I\'ve gotta try to figure out how to get to this hospital and how to, um, find<br />my family, my newborn baby, all of this stuff. Uh, yeah. Eric Meyer does a very good talk on this.<br />Um, I, I think it was a, a list of part talk some, something like that.<br />Um, but it, it is a, a, a, it, it specifically talks about, uh, I think designing in a crisis or designing<br />for crisis. And, you know, if, if your mind\'s not where it needs to be to read the information on a<br />website and you\'re looking for how to get to an emergency room from the airport, And [00:55:00]<br />you are scrolling through a website.<br />I, I know websites pretty well. I\'ve been reading websites my whole life, and I know that normally<br />there\'s an address in the bottom left or right side of most websites. But if you\'re trying to do that<br />looking through tiers, it\'s much more difficult. And so there\'s this level of, um, just because the,<br />there\'s this level of morality that we talked about before, it\'s the right thing to do.<br />But also it, it\'s, it, it doesn\'t, it, it can apply to anybody at any point in time. And you want to<br />make sure you\'re being inclusive of all of those potential situations, especially when it\'s, um, you<br />know, good or, or bad or, you know, education has alerts and all kinds of, there\'s just, it, it<br />permeates through the entire industry.<br />Cory Miller: So before I come back to, to you, Chris, because I want you to put, uh, what the<br />question I\'ll ask when I digress for a second with Sarah [00:56:00] is, uh, think about the<br />technical person on the other side in that seat and the challenges they have. But, you know,<br />Sarah, you, you do design. You know, you think about from the purpose of a website.<br />If I\'m an er, I mean, Chris, you just said a hundred percent of people on that website, what do<br />they want to know? I wanna get to that building as fast as humanly possible. So Sarah, from a<br />pure design ux ui, that\'s the purpose of a website. Is it not? Like, give people to the thing you<br />and your situational, uh, uh, experience.<br />Chris made me think. That\'s, let\'s, let\'s take aside for a second. Accessibility. That\'s just what<br />you wanna do with the website. Like absolutely. How do I, they are hunting, how do I put it right<br />in front of them? You know what I\'m saying? Like from the design side .<br />Sarah Gless: Yes. Like know your audiences, [00:57:00] all of them prioritize, you know, and,<br />and ensure that you\'re talking to them, you\'re listening to them, you\'re testing that work, and you</p>\n\n\n\n<p>know that it\'s going to be there in, in a variety of situations.<br />It\'s not just about slapping your brand on a website. It\'s about ensuring that that experience is<br />meeting users where they\'re at and serving their needs and, and, um, understanding the tests<br />they need to complete and, and designing to that. Um,<br />Cory Miller: like I go back to what you said, and this is reverberating now, and how deep, well,<br />what you said earlier is good accessibility is good design, and you go.<br />I mean, we can take it aside, all of this and just go, that\'s the purpose. You wanna get people to<br />the thing they need to do. You want to empathize, use the word you used earlier, Sarah too, is<br />like, empathize. What are they trying to get done? Okay. I\'m a, whatever the organization, Chris,<br />you just laid it out.<br />It\'s blindingly obvious, the location. Think about that for restaurants. [00:58:00] Think about that<br />for any, any business, any organization, nonprofits, like, they come to you by the way, and<br />they\'re looking for something and as fast and efficiently as you can get that to \'em. So I go back<br />to your comment now, it\'s even more deeper.<br />It\'s like good accessibility is a good design because it\'s about the action you\'re trying to help that<br />person get to, right?<br />Sarah Gless: Absolutely. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Kindred: I, I would even take it a step further and say, good acceptability is usability. Mm-<br />hmm. Uh, it,</p>\n\n\n\n<p>it\'s, it\'s not just the design, but. It, it\'s, it\'s the total package of it.<br />It\'s, it\'s making sure that that button, when it\'s clicked, you know, it was clicked and that it\'s not<br />going to do something unexpected. You know, taking, taking it back to a technical point of view,<br />you know, making sure to know how to make sure a screen reader is announcing that button<br />that it was clicked um, making sure that, uh, the, the person knew what that button button<br />[00:59:00] was going to do and not just say, click here. You know, that making it clear<br />that<br />that\'s what was going to happen when that button was clicked is a key aspect to it.<br />Cory Miller: So, Mike, I just go back down. Sorry. Go ahead, Sarah.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah, I was just gonna go back to like what Mike said earlier about like, there\'s<br />also like kind of these like side effects that are good side effects when you, when you design,<br />um, um, whatever the experience is, whether it\'s a curb or a website, um, to be accessible, you<br />have all these.<br />Additional benefits for folks that may not have disabilities. So like in the case of the, um, the,<br />you know, the button to call the ER is not visible. Well, what if you designed it to be, well, I bet<br />you\'re gonna pick up not just ensuring that like it\'s accessible, but also a lot of users who may<br />not have disabilities, um, still struggle to find things on websites.<br />So like, you know, they\'ll be able to get their tasks done. Um, professor too, I know it\'s a very<br />hyper [01:00:00] specific example, but, but it does help provide like context, this bigger idea,<br />right?<br />Cory Miller: Hey Sarah, I think no, it\'s a like proving you all\'s point is the it. Let\'s add another<br />one, Mike, to the first part you said, let\'s add another one if, if you only use accessibility as to<br />make your site the best converting, most efficient tool for communicating to your customers.<br />We just like backed into, uh, because you, we\'ve all gone back to these, like the usability thing.<br />If you\'re forced to look at like, okay, let\'s pull up JAWS or whatever tools you all use and<br />recommend for your clients, and let\'s, let\'s go at it from that perspective. You\'ve empathized with<br />the customer and you think if we just put it under marketing or sales, I go, this is the exercise<br />most organizations should be doing.<br />Because you\'re gonna go to the level and you\'re gonna have to think about, I\'m just talking the<br />business case. Okay? Every website [01:01:00] needs to spur an action, like we\'re trying to lead<br />them to something. It could be a sale, it could be the address of the emergency room, it could<br />be whatever it is. I just go from the business case, Mike, like, this is an exercise that all of us<br />should be doing.<br />Because if you\'re in Chris\'s situation, you\'re like, isn\'t it clear? Everybody, everybody in the room<br />know what the key thing here is we\'re trying to get people to the emergency room physically.<br />That informs design, it informs technical, but. Here\'s another business case we should add.<br />Mike Klanac: Absolutely. Yeah, and it\'s really inspiring to like see the conversation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think. As an entire, in the, across the world, evolve from being one where like the, the, the talk<br />that, that Chris just provided it, it probably used to have just been about like how to use like alt<br />tags. Like 10 years ago it would\'ve been like, how do we tag content? And now it\'s, it\'s crossed<br />into like more of a phil philosophical understanding that, hey, this is, this is, um, this is [01:02:00]<br />good business.<br />This is a usability opportunity, this is a chance to empathize with our users. This is a chance to,<br />um, improve customer and user journeys and, and, uh, make it easier for you to check out or to<br />get the information that you need. Um, so it\'s, I just am it, it, I, I\'m, I like that the dots are starting<br />to be connected and that this conversation has changed from just like a very sort of niche<br />technical, how do I.<br />Do these things that I have to do, because otherwise I\'m gonna get in trouble to look at all of this<br />opportunity that we have to incorporate this thinking to better serve our audience that affects,<br />that, improves our business and makes everybody happier. I mean, uh, it connects a lot of dots.<br />Cory Miller: It\'s cool. I, I\'m not exaggerating, but maybe we should rename this panel to how to<br />build a successful website.<br />Yeah. , I mean, I know I\'m exaggerating a little bit, but I go, like, when you were talking through<br />that, Sarah, I thought [01:03:00] that is a focusing feature. It makes us ask the question, what\'s<br />this all about? What are we trying to do? Well, if we can hit it in all these scenarios, we\'ve<br />crystal, we\'ve used it as an exercise honestly, to crystallize what we\'re trying to get from it and<br />pave the way, like that\'s the purpose of website, right?<br />Mm-hmm. , so Absolutely. Okay. I\'m preaching the choir, but I\'m just hearing what you\'re saying<br />and going, yeah. We should. Totally. I think the other title is it\'s not a problem, it\'s an opportunity,<br />you know? Yeah. Okay. Chris, I have veered all the way, but I think it\'s been good. We need this<br />out in the world. We need people to hear these things and appreciate you all sharing so<br />authentically with this.<br />So, back to the question, Chris, I\'m gonna get back to you. So from a technical standpoint,<br />there\'s, on your clients, you\'ve, you\'ve talked to a number, I mean number of teams in the<br />technical side. And you know, part of my question here is trying to help the leaders listening to<br />other people, the other parts of this team understand [01:04:00] there are issues like Sarah did<br />for design that designers have, there\'s somewhere technical.<br />What are the things that stick out to you, you know, those challenges people the technical side<br />has when they\'re working on this particular subject of accessibility?<br />Chris Kindred: Uh, I, I would say it\'s, it\'s keeping up with the changes as they come. Um,<br />that\'s, that\'s one of the big ones. Uh, you know, there, there are different requirements.<br />Uh, those, there\'s more stringent requirements when it comes to WIC ag, which is if, if you\'re a<br />front-end developer and, and backend developers to, uh, knowing what the requirements are to<br />hit certain levels, depending on kind of going back into the legal side of it, you\'re, you\'re certain<br />you\'re gonna be required to hit a certain level of accessibility.<br />And knowing what those are and how they change over time is a big piece of it. And, uh,<br />[01:05:00] at, at Modern Tribe, we really lean a lot on our front end developers for keeping up<br />with that. But also we communicate as a whole and, and we make sure that everybody\'s, you<br />know, doing code reviews for each other and, and that kind of thing to make sure that, uh, if, if<br />there is an accessibility, um, Item that we address it before it goes out, uh, and that, uh, those<br />kinds of things.<br />So it, it, I would say the, the biggest issue is trying to just stay relevant with those, um,<br />accessibility changes. Every time a browser comes out with something new, you\'ve gotta kind of<br />go back and look at it and see if it changed the way you need to implement something based<br />upon those accessibility requirements.<br />So, yeah.<br />Cory Miller: So from, so from the technical side, there\'s how, how any general guidance you\'d<br />give for how to kind of stay touched. It seemed to [01:06:00] me, you know, from a team<br />standpoint is we just regularly have the discuss. Like the topic comes up regularly enough,<br />however that is, but those developers that want to contribute, technical people that want to<br />contribute to it.<br />Any, any thoughts there about how they could try to keep up and places to go?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Kindred: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, so there\'s, we, we use a lot of different tools and,<br />and that kind of thing, but you can always go to the WAC website and, and that\'s going to tell<br />you exactly what you need to hit and, and how to perform certain actions in an accessible way.<br />Uh, but, but there\'s also some other things out there. Um, uh, I A A P certifications, uh, the, this<br />is a, um, it, it\'s a, uh, they offer a web accessibility certification that you can get and, uh, it, it<br />teaches you a, about web accessibility, and you [01:07:00] can go through the whole, whole<br />process there and, uh, you know, There\'s no better way to prove that accessibility\'s serious to<br />you than getting some kind of certification For sure.<br />Um, it\'s, it\'s not, uh, an easy thing to do. There. There are other certifications out there too. Um,<br />that\'s just the first one that came to my mind. But, uh, th those types of certifications are, are<br />nice to be able to go out and do and, and learn. Um, and if you\'re making it part of your culture,<br />then you\'re always talking about it.<br />It\'s, it\'s like, like I said, it\'s part of those code reviews. Um, if, if, if I\'m reviewing somebody\'s<br />code and I\'m, I\'m seeing it, I\'m learning too. If they implemented something that I may not have<br />been aware of yet, uh, that, that\'s a big piece as well. So mm-hmm. that, that being able to<br />communicate back and forth about \'em, uh, is, is also super beneficial.<br />Cory Miller: Mike, did you have something to add? probably jumped the gun<br />Mike Klanac: a little bit. I, I [01:08:00] think I was going to start to mention tooling a little and its<br />role in this and, and Chris hit it a, a touch there. But, um, yeah, I mean this is a, this is a, a open<br />conversation. So, you know, it\'s, it\'s something that it, you have to kind of revisit periodically.<br />And the, the tooling, one of the things that it does besides kind of educate you and their, their<br />job is to stay current on creating a system of scans that, um, enforces certain standards. Um, it,<br />it, it allows you to kind of revisit it on a regular basis, uh, and that there is some. There\'s a huge<br />role for that, right?<br />Like it no, no human can actually stay on top of all of the changes at all times. The, that<br />provides some nice rails. And yeah, as we get into this, perhaps this last section in a moment<br />where we talk about the, the, the content publishing or the sort of the, the end user role in<br />[01:09:00] accessibility, um, I think that tooling is a, a key<br />Cory Miller: part of that as well.<br />Okay. So I want to ask Chris one more thing. So this whole banner is accessibility for sure, but<br />WordPress accessibility, I think that\'s the two parts of this why I asked you all to do this<br />particular topic because, you know, accessibility, but you also know the nuances with<br />WordPress like you\'re experts.<br />Travis has been around for a very long time doing some really cool stuff with WordPress forever.<br />So, uh, Chris, my question is now accessibility with WordPress. Things that come out, stand out<br />with you with this amazing open source software that we love that\'s used around the globe and<br />it\'s great solutions for clients.<br />Um, what things stick out there with WordPress accessibility particularly?<br />Chris Kindred: Uh, well, well first open source software. It, it is always, um, it, people are<br />always talking about accessibility. If you go into the, the WordPress Slack, you can see people<br />trying [01:10:00] to focus on accessibility and try to get accessibility into, uh, everything.<br />Uh, you know, I guess it was two or three years, Gutenberg did a big accessibility audit on all<br />the blocks, and that was really important for WordPress to be doing to help move the editor itself<br />forward and make it more accessible for content editors. Um, but as Gutenberg\'s matured and,<br />and become the block editor, it\'s, it\'s become everybody\'s focus.<br />There\'s this new opportunity and, and I think that, uh, As we continue to implement these<br />accessible designs that our, our amazing designers have put together and, and our developers<br />have gone in and, and put a lot of work behind the templates and building out the header and<br />the footer and, and everything, there\'s this, uh, there\'s this content piece that is going to have to<br />be implemented and most of the time that\'s by the client.<br />And [01:11:00] the, the best way to help them would be by creating plugins that test the<br />accessibility before it\'s ever even published. And being able to interface with a service that<br />allows you to check that and give feedback in a meaningful way to a publisher and being able to<br />tell them, this is inaccessible and here is why.<br />Because that\'s a key point too, making sure they know why, so they don\'t always have to fix it<br />every time they do it. Um, and, and being able to flag that the way that editor works now</p>\n\n\n\n<p>compared to way it worked with the classic editor. It, it gives you so many more opportunities for<br />that kind of, um, benefit.<br />So, so creating a, a plugin, you know, it, it\'s something that I, I know a few places have tried to<br />create these, and, and there\'s, there\'s an opportunity to be able to, to do that. And I, I really, I\'m<br />looking forward to, [01:12:00] uh, potentially participating and creating a plugin that can handle<br />that kind of thing. Um, you know, flagging it, uh, checking it from the front, inside, all of those<br />kinds of things for a user, um, that, that would be a, a huge benefit to the community as a whole<br />and, and to content creators.<br />Cory Miller: I, I think you pointed at something that I often don\'t, I, I kind of gloss over, but the<br />fact that there\'s so many people, the power of WordPress is so many people collaborating and<br />caring about this. Yes. This isn\'t a new thing to WordPress. It\'s what I. It\'s, we\'re, we\'re<br />imperfect, but as a community. And the core software has a very passion for diversity, equity,<br />inclusion in that conversation has been championed by people like you and others in the<br />community to make sure WordPress is always accessible.<br />But having said that, there\'s still things, there\'s still things that we need to account for. And you<br />brought those up as like, well, we did in the discussions. It\'s like you can do all the [01:13:00]<br />front end work and then you\'re down to the person that just hasn\'t had the opportunity to be<br />trained a little bit.<br />And the block editor, there are things that need, that are being discussed actively and worked<br />on in the community to need to be done to ensure the other part of this. We got the great first<br />site, but now, okay, we\'re turning over and I, I think it was, Sarah mentioned one of the previous<br />conversations is one, you know, a blog post.<br />Could break the accessibility. You know, one thing that would just because you have so much<br />power, I mean, it\'s the beauty of Good Berg and the block editor, you have so much opportunity<br />there, . You also have an opportunity to kind of go into and break your, all your good work<br />you\'ve done to try to be accessible.<br />Okay. Anything else on technical? And then I wanna divide, dive in with the remain time and<br />thank you all for your time and sharing your expertise so openly. Um, the next section, just about<br />that side of this whole thing is like the other part of the team that might not be in some of the<br />core conversations but are executing, doing the work.<br />[01:14:00] Anything else? Chris, though, before we shift gears into that?<br />Chris Kindred: Uh, technical is such a code dependent thing that it could get. I, I could drown<br />you in what Aria labels mean and why and why not. But you know, the fact is if you\'ve put a<br />culture in place around accessibility, then. It\'s, it\'s something that your devs are going to be able<br />to help you with.<br />And, uh, it, it\'s, it\'s just part of, part of the process.<br />Cory Miller: I\'ve heard. I\'ve, I think another theme in all this is like, if you\'re a designer,<br />developer on the team in some way, uh, this is your webinar to go back if you need help in<br />reinforcements, saying, Hey, we need to embrace this. Um, because I know so many talented<br />designer developers, good hearts, wanna do the right thing, need the resources, you know?<br />Yeah. Need that collaboration.<br />Sarah Gless: Be champions of, yeah. [01:15:00] Making sure this, this is a conversation. Um,<br />and, and feel empowered to like, Take that upwards towards, towards leadership.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah. And share this link afterwards so they Yeah. Can come in here us talk about<br />the amazing opportunity they have here. Yeah. Okay.<br />Thanks Chris. All right. So final section is just this part. You\'ve done all the fronting work, you do<br />care, you\'re doing all the efforts, but then there\'s this situation you already mentioned that they<br />could break it on that particular page because of the power of some of the word and and the<br />lack of the resources and training and guidance.<br />So when we get to this side, the client publishing of all this, who wants to share, what do you got<br />locked and loaded? I wanna just kind of put it here. Cause I think this is another team<br />collaboration of like probably people that are oftentimes overlooked, blamed sometimes, and<br />just don\'t have this side of it that we need to be thinking about from leadership all the way down<br />through the organiz.<br />Mike Klanac: [01:16:00] Yeah, this is a, a really important part of it that oftentimes gets<br />overlooked. Um, and that is just to be really clear, it\'s that after these tools have been created, a</p>\n\n\n\n<p>lot of accessibility thinking has gone into them, and then they are delivered to, um, you know, a,<br />a content publisher to, to maintain and to use for, for possibly up to five years.<br />Um, you\'re at this key point where as a, maybe an agency partner supporting someone, like<br />you\'re putting a lot of that power into their hands now to pick up that, that, that torch and<br />continue to run with it. Um, and there\'s a really unfortunate metaphor here, which is, you know,<br />MySpace, you know, we can all recall MySpace.<br />It was really great. No longer exists today. They were very well intended. And at some point it<br />went from being this nice. Tidy page with a profile to music blaring and the thousands of like<br />scrolling pages and things [01:17:00] jumping out all over. And that\'s because there was not<br />enough rails put into place for content publishers to be success successful for the long haul<br />there.<br />So we\'ve, we\'ve sort of come to the realization, and this is kind of part of like ergonomic thinking<br />and you know, you have to set these content publishers up for success. And the way that you<br />do that is not only in how you\'re architecting the system, the publishing environment, um, to give<br />instruction, to make it just like intuitive and easy to use and sort of like heuristic and you can<br />kind of just, you can figure it out.<br />It\'s simple. Um, but like training them on the idea of publishing accessible content because we,<br />no matter how many guardrails we put into place, if you\'re not thinking about it, you will<br />eventually break the system by putting in. You know, content that is not accessible. Uh, so we<br />try to incorporate that into our training [01:18:00] process.<br />Um, and, and let, let be pretty candid upfront to say, you\'ve got a, a wonderfully accessible site<br />right now. It won\'t be this way if you put in concerning content with, you know, strange things<br />that, that perhaps like in the moment feel really exciting, but you know, they\'re, they\'re not<br />gonna, they\'re not gonna work from an accessibility standpoint.<br />It\'s something you need to continue to think about. Um,<br />Cory Miller: I mean, this goes back, that\'s first part of it. Yeah. This goes back to your, your part<br />and two is the leader and the people making the decisions need to think about all of this that,<br />okay. Part one is just getting the infrastructure, the, the base. Part two is people have to operate<br />within that base and we need to be considerate and give ample resource.<br />To to hear because all of our good intentions could go away. . Yeah. When, when inadvertently<br />someone who does care, [01:19:00] makes a, makes a decision that affects it. So putting that<br />into the process is, is huge. And I think I\'ve heard variously E three talk about the training and<br />the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of your knowledge about how these things operate, um,<br />isn\'t a very important part of all of this.<br />Um, yes sir. Chris, you mentioned tooling or I think Mike got into tooling too earlier. So that<br />seems to be one part, as I\'ve talked to you all, part of this is like just proper tooling to do some<br />as much as we can, as this continues to evolve and change with browsers and different<br />technology and stuff.<br />But, so can you talk to me a little bit about the tooling side?<br />Chris Kindred: Yeah. Uh, so. Tools we use, um, we use Site Improve Dubbo. Um, some of<br />those that what they\'ll do is they\'ll actually go out and put your, put the URL in there and it will<br />scrape your site and tell you what kind of, um, accessibility issues come up.[01:20:00]<br />Uh, they\'re, they\'re great tools that, that kind of thing helps a lot. And, and you can automate<br />that process to run weekly, daily, monthly, however often you want it to. Uh, and, and that\'s a<br />really great check, but I, I really feel like you should be doing something before that. And, and<br />the easiest way to do that is by installing a browser extension on, you know, if you\'re using<br />Chrome, Chrome has ax and you can install AX on your, on your browser, and then you can go<br />pull up your page and it\'s gonna tell you the same stuff, but you\'re just gonna catch it before<br />somebody else did.<br />You know, make it part of your publishing process that you publish a page. Go pull up X on, on<br />the front end and make sure that there\'s not a glaring problem. Um, when you\'re dealing with<br />Go ahead.<br />Sarah Gless: Go ahead. I was just gonna say even, even before that, um, too, it\'s, it\'s the<br />training aspect that, that we mentioned earlier.<br />Um, you know, from [01:21:00] a kind of content side of things, established guidelines and, and<br />make sure that they\'re accessible by everyone on your team that\'s creating content and that</p>\n\n\n\n<p>they\'re updated regularly, um, as things change and evolve with, uh, within the accessibility<br />world. Um, so people are, are making good content from the start.<br />So we, we looked at it a little bit backwards, but I I, I like that because it, yeah, it kinda leads<br />back to that, that person,<br />Cory Miller: the two sides are seems like tools and training the two sides of the airplane, you<br />know? Um, so the,<br />Chris Kindred: there\'s, there\'s one more piece that I wanna mention is that you can always fix<br />what\'s in the editor.<br />It\'s not, you didn\'t just destroy your site forever because you posted one piece of content that<br />was, uh, that had an accessibility problem, evaluate it, go back in and fix it. It\'s not the, the<br />whole point is being aware. Yeah. It\'s when you didn\'t go back and fix it. It\'s [01:22:00] knowing<br />it was there and ignoring it.<br />Those kinds of things that will really get you going along a<br />bad path,<br />Mike Klanac: right. I mean, people are gonna make mistakes. In fact, I\'m assuming at some<br />point someone will look back at this webinar and think they said something incorrect. Um, the<br />point is that we care and we\'re we\'re trying to do the right thing.<br />Um, and, and so I think you\'re right, Chris, like going back, if someone identifies an issue, you<br />can fix it. I mean, that\'s the best thing about this is nothing set in stone here forever.<br />Cory Miller: That is the beauty of the web. I used to be in new newspapers, and when you<br />printed a mistake, it went out . I can\'t imagine we had this opportunity to make it, to fix it.<br />Go back and fix it. Um, well, I, I like that. Any other thoughts on the training and tooling side?<br />Um, making sure, you know, I, I assume all this when you\'re, we\'re talking about like checklists<br />and workflows, like making [01:23:00] sure this is things you do with clients. Like, Hey, there\'s<br />somebody in, not in this meeting and hasn\'t been privy to all this<br />Here you go. Here\'s some basic stuff to look at. I don\'t know if that\'s style sheets. I don\'t know if<br />that\'s like, earlier you talk, you know, Sarah, about like the colors of your logo and then how<br />does that transit translate accessibly And, uh, Chris again, any, anything like that you think as<br />you\'re, you\'ve been working with clients for a long time with this particular thing.<br />What you do that kind of makes the difference for someone you know, is, are there style guides?<br />Are there. Typical things they do. How do you approach this from alus perspective on that<br />training? Like, do you build in like, you know, um, training with a team or I, you know, anything<br />on that regard?<br />Mike Klanac: I, I could probably add one more thing, which is that we, you know, there\'s a lot of<br />intention in the, in the design and the construction of content, so I, if you do that right, [01:24:00]<br />the, the publishers experie.<br />Is pretty like straightforward. It\'s about the quality of the content and the messaging and less the<br />construction of it, and therefore like there\'s less opportunity to get creative at that point. You\'re,<br />you\'re sort of like focused on like what the message, the content\'s trying to convey is, and not<br />so much how the looks and where it positions or if you do have some editorial power at that<br />point.<br />It\'s from a predetermined set of, of configuration. So you\'re like putting the content in and<br />flipping levers and hitting buttons from pre-approved standards that everyone was agreed, uh, in<br />agreement on and happened to be accessible. Um, so if that, that work upfront has been done<br />well, those are some of those guardrails and I, I think that that can, that can help continue<br />success into the future.<br />Chris Kindred: That\'s where Gutenberg has made things so much easier [01:25:00] for, for us.<br />We can go in and create patterns and build out those patterns to be accessible and, and meet a<br />certain, um, layout that sales teams provided the front end to, to be able to do. And, and so<br />we\'ve, we\'ve said, okay, here\'s, here\'s a pattern you can use that we\'ve already vetted as an<br />accessible pattern, and, and you don\'t have to worry about it.<br />If you use this pattern, you\'re good. And then you can use the next pattern. You\'re good, and,<br />and you can kinda work your way down the page that way. And it, it makes things better for the<br />end user. And, you know, that\'s, that\'s everybody\'s goal here. How can we do what\'s best for the<br />end user using WordPress to publish and then in turn their users<br />coming to the website.<br />Cory Miller: All right. Anything else on that? And before we do some takeaways,</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mike Klanac: I think that pretty much covers it.<br />Cory Miller: This has been like, I think it\'s [01:26:00] beyond primer. What this is is helping one,<br />somebody that does want to care, that cares, takes some meaningful steps about holistically<br />embracing this. Um, and with really solid business and human reasons attached. And I think<br />part of this that I was surprised a little bit is just the thinking when we got into accessibility.<br />It\'s like actually you can, you can make money doing the good thing, doing the right thing. Um,<br />Maybe more money because we\'ve talked about the one in 6, 1, 1 in four in America in<br />particular. But, and, and then the situational that you did, Chris, permanent, situational,<br />temporary Mike, really sharing, um, the, that, that whole case to help us think about that.<br />Um, so I, I love it. And I think the big headline is don\'t look at this as a problem. Look at this as<br />an opportunity. And I think you all have masterfully shared some really compelling, [01:27:00]<br />you can\'t look away from reasons why this should be like the center of, not just the project, not<br />just the website Pro, but culturally as a, as an organization, how we\'re gonna be in the world.<br />And I think it\'s pretty, pretty awesome. Anything we missed? Anything you wanna share? Um,<br />that we didn\'t touch?<br />Mike Klanac: I\'ll just like, my final thought on this was, first of all, again, thank you Corey, for, for<br />recording this. I, I like the opportunity to sometimes approach these topics from a new angle<br />and, and specifically as it relates to accessibility.<br />There\'s been a lot of talks and accessibility and a lot of times they do get pretty in the weeds.<br />Um, because that\'s an important part of this is understanding the weeds and the, the specifics.<br />Um, but what I was, what really drew me to this conversation was the ability to take a step back<br />and, and think about, uh, this topic more holistically as it relates across all the layers of culture<br />and business.<br />Um, both like at a, working with an agency partner, but in your own organization and how doing<br />that, [01:28:00] um, can ultimately bring you a lot of success. So I appreciated the new angle on<br />it.<br />Cory Miller: Sarah, Chris, any any save takeaways or thought.<br />Sarah Gless: Yeah, I think like my, my biggest kind of takeaways are how critical it is for, um,<br />you know, organizations to truly like, resource for this.<br />Don\'t, you know, it\'s, it\'s kind of that idea of like, show don\'t tell, like make it part of your values.<br />Sure. But then show it, right? And, and, and put resources towards it. I think that, um, is a<br />critical step in making sure this is truly valued, um, at your organization and that you\'re<br />connecting with your, your audiences.<br />Chris Kindred: Uh, I, I really agree. Uh, I, I agree with everything that\'s been said, but you<br />know, I, I think Mike talking along the points of, there\'s a bunch of talks out there about<br />accessibility from a technical point of view, [01:29:00] from, uh, how to implement and, and<br />those kinds of things. But I, I think one of the places that struggles the most is, um,<br />Organizations understanding that it costs a lot of money to do that, and it, it costs a lot of money<br />because they\'ve been going at it the wrong way, and they\'ve been coming at it from kind of an<br />inside out, not an outside in, and not making it like sarason not making it part of your culture.<br />And if you can make it part of every piece, it\'s not, it\'s not going to be as expensive as it is if you</p>\n\n\n\n<p>have to remediate something once it\'s all done. Uh, so it, it\'s, um, this has been very eye-<br />opening to me to, I don\'t think many people are looking at it from this direction. And I, I, uh, am</p>\n\n\n\n<p>am excited to be a part of that.<br />Cory Miller: Well, thank you three for sharing. Uh, so openly, uh, your expertise and experience<br />about [01:30:00] this pretty vital, you know, topic that if we\'re working on the web, it\'s just, In<br />fact, it\'s, we\'ve illustrated some good points, but appreciate you all for being and sharing so<br />openly and taking your time. I know it\'s, it\'s a Friday now as we\'re recording, but, um, you have,<br />you have those clients waiting on you.<br />Mike, would you share a little bit how can someone heard what you all have shared and talk,<br />start the conversation with Modern Tribe.<br />Mike Klanac: Yeah, for sure. If anybody has a, a follow on question or wants to talk to Modern<br />Tribe about the work that we do, um, our website is, uh, t r i.be. Um, so you can Google Search<br />Modern Tribe, we pop up around there, uh, the first couple responses.<br />Um, you can also reach me@helloattri.be and um, You know, our goal is to be helpful. So I I<br />really, we do this quite often. If you just have a question, we\'re happy to, to just just talk about</p>\n\n\n\n<p>stuff. So it doesn\'t always [01:31:00] have to be reaching out if you have a, a new project<br />opportunity. This is important to us.<br />We like to hear from people and, uh, yeah, build relationships with everyone in the space. So<br />that\'s how you can reach us. And, and thanks again. And Corey, and then, and the work that<br />post status is doing, carrying these topics through, uh, to the audience. It, it\'s really, really<br />important.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah. I, I think we\'ve got a couple more to topics to pull back because I\'ve, I\'ve<br />already identified some ones that I want to go.<br />I go, I think there\'s more here that I kind of hear, heard that like it may be more, more a specific<br />treatment. So, but Sarah, Chris, Mike, thank you for today. Appreciate your time, what you do<br />and WordPress and the larger world, uh, out there. So have a great, uh, rest of your day. Thank<br />you for being here.<br />Cheers.<br />Mike Klanac: Good talk.<br />Cory Miller: Bye.</p>\n<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Mar 2023 22:35:37 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Cory Miller\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:63:\"Post Status: Launching a WordPress Product in Public: Session 5\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=148247\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:73:\"https://poststatus.com/launching-a-wordpress-product-in-public-session-5/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:37210:\"<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt\">In this episode, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/coreymaass\">Corey Maass</a>, a freelance web developer, joins <a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Cory Miller</a> to discuss the continuation of the development of their WordPress plugin, <a href=\"https://crop.express/#welcome\">Crop.Express</a>, and the value of their partnership. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"yoast-reading-time__wrapper\"><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__icon\"></span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__spacer\"></span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text\">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__reading-time\">73</span><span class=\"yoast-reading-time__time-unit\"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#h-transcript\">Transcript</a> ↓</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn from <a href=\"https://twitter.com/coreymaass\">Corey Maass</a>, a master of WordPress plugins and apps, and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Cory Miller</a>, a marketing, business, and WordPress experience guru. The two discuss the intimacies of partnering on a product and how solopreneurs can benefit from support.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Top Takeaways:</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Value of Partnerships.</strong> Starting a business can be a lonely experience. Having someone to bounce ideas off, talk through tough subjects with, and celebrate successes with makes a significant difference. Having that collaborative support system can make managing a business more enjoyable and streamlined, which is a huge benefit, especially for startups and small businesses.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Discussion vs. Decision. </strong>It’s important to be intentional with communication considering the stage you are in when you are improving a product or creating something brand new. Being vocal about whether you are still discussing or whether you are ready to make decisive moves is critical to keep the process moving forward without missteps.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Art of Failing.</strong> Understanding that taking risks and being willing to fail in order to ultimately achieve success is key for solopreneurs and partnerships. Quantifying your success rate on projects isn’t the ultimate indicator of how successful you truly are. Stumbling through a myriad of shortcomings while still pursuing success is powerful.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"eplus-wrapper\" id=\"h-mentioned-in-the-show\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f517.png\" alt=\"🔗\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://crop.express/\">Crop.Express</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://elementor.com/\">Elementor</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.wpbeaverbuilder.com/?mm_campaign=brand&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtsCgBhDEARIsAE7RYh23X1L149jQi21SES3Z61y0aaY770GDRGkCSimg-hDgjtWb6JfA0xEaAqzDEALw_wcB\">Beaver Builder</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"eplus-wrapper\" id=\"h-you-can-follow-post-status-and-our-guests-on-twitter\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png\" alt=\"🐦\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"eplus-wrapper\">\n<li><a href=\"http://twitter.com/coreymaass\">Corey Maass</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Cory Miller</a> (CEO, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status\">Post Status</a>)</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/lemonadecode\">Olivia Bisset</a> (Intern, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status\">Post Status</a>)</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"eplus-wrapper has-background\">The <strong>Post Status Draft</strong> podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png\" alt=\"📝\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><br /><br /><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Browse our archives</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe via <a href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes</a>, <a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube</a>, <a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Simplecast</a>, or <a href=\"https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P\">RSS</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a7.png\" alt=\"🎧\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"eplus-wrapper\" id=\"h-transcript\">Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<h2>Session 5 Corey & Cory Launch a WordPress Product Live</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Cory Miller: [00:00:00] Ooh, cheers are good. . You talented, man.<br />Corey Maass: So yeah, session six. Okay. Impromptu time change, but life happens. And that\'s part of the<br />journey of being a founder. Exactly.<br />Cory Miller: Let me push it to Twitter.<br />Corey Maass: Are we founders? Yeah.<br />Entrepreneurs, founders Starters,<br />for once. I\'m not a solopreneur,<br />Cory Miller: you know, I talked to a lot of people over the years and, um, Like solopreneurs. And the one thing I<br />hear from a lot of \'em, cause I had, I had partners from the beginning, they weren\'t active. But is that, you know,<br />business as lonely as it is and um, [00:01:00] having somebody else to kind of walk with I think is pretty dang<br />awesome.<br />Yeah,<br />Corey Maass: I, I did it best when I worked in a co-working space with, Four other guys that I was friends with and<br />we had formed a little cohort and so regularly, you know, get out of, get out of the house, get to a, a focused place<br />of work. And then have people who you were on a journey with and knew their journey.<br />And so you could grab somebody and say, Hey, can we talk this through for a minute? And that went in all<br />directions. Like it just makes such a difference. Yeah,<br />Cory Miller: it, it really does. Um, I had Matt Daner and I themes, um, On the team. And of course my Lindsay<br />was, um, in and around the team in different ways. Um, and it was just then I have my business group, which I told<br />you I\'m meeting with this afternoon, [00:02:00] I\'ve walked with for 11 years, and I tell you, wow, it\'s such a tough<br />job.<br />You know, where you\'re trying to, like we\'re doing here. Where if it wasn\'t with you, I\'d be sitting here going, okay,<br />what segments are we gonna try to hit? You know, and. And the highs and lows. You know, there\'s things that you<br />celebrate as an entrepreneur that you not, maybe not necessarily celebrate with your team.<br />And just having another group, or a sidekick or a partner or whatever that is, I think is pretty dang healthy for me<br />Corey Maass: at least. Yeah. And yeah, it\'s, it\'s a step better than rubber ducking it also, I find, Because it\'s like,<br />you know, I don\'t, I don\'t always immediately respond to you, and you don\'t always immediately respond to me.<br />But I have a, a real human being to say things at, even if it\'s not to talk about it with, and, you know, when you see<br />the message in the afternoon and, and [00:03:00] celebrate it with me, that I fixed a bug or whatever it is like that.<br />Makes a difference and you ping me out of, you know, whenever you kind of, whenever you need to.<br />Like, that\'s such a difference cuz like, who did I, oh, for a different product. I was having issues with, not issues at<br />all with, um, EDD I was trying to hack the hell out of EDD , let\'s be honest. Um, to make it do things that it has no<br />right doing. Because it\'s the better product. I\'d rather use the core and slap my janky ass code on top of it.<br />Anyway, there\'s my little EDDendorsement. Um, but I know one of the head programmers over there and was like,<br />I would love to have him look at this. And he and I were in a. Co-working group years ago. And so I have a little bit<br />of connection with him, you know, but haven\'t talked to him in a year or two.<br />And so I had to hesitate and I hemmed and hod and was like, let me, let me refactor this five [00:04:00] times<br />before I send it over to him because I don\'t wanna waste his time. I\'m using up a favor. I guess that\'s my long way<br />of saying that I\'m using up a favor. And uh, and if you have somebody. You\'ve lost count of favors or you have a<br />partner, then you don\'t have to hesitate.<br />And honestly, that, that lack of hesitation is huge. I hadn\'t really thought about it like that, but it\'s just that what a<br />waste of time. I mean, it was great that it made me refactor my code because, you know, that\'s never a bad thing.<br />But, uh, have to think that hard about just asking a question rather than just asking a question.<br />Maybe that\'s why we all like chat, GPT or something.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah. You\'re not alone, . No, I, I think that\'s, uh, when I left eye themes, I wanted to do coaching and<br />had some clients my first year before I started with post status and, um, I said, you know, the hardest for me was<br />when I was [00:05:00] in trying to make these big decisions and, and even the little ones, and just having<br />someone.<br />I could bounce things off of. So that, that\'s one of the reasons I did coaching. One of the reasons I talked about my<br />group as much like I left, came back, they were gracious enough to, to let me come back. And, um, these were the<br />several of the guys that were in Phoenix with me and, um, In fact, that\'s who\'s funeral, uh, dad\'s funeral.<br />One of the guys that went with us is where I\'m going today. Mm. Uh, while we couldn\'t meet at a normal time, but,<br />you know, just kind of doing life together, but then having someone just to bounce stuff off of, like, I feel like you\'re<br />very open and we\'re having this conversation where it\'s, it feels like, you know, the whole improv plus one, it\'s like<br />we\'re keeping, we\'re, I think we\'re trying to keep each other kind of.<br />on the trail here, but you know, you\'d let me veer off and like discuss it. Let\'s take a sidebar side trail. Yeah.<br />[00:06:00] And come back, . And that\'s part of my process though, and I really deeply respect that and appreciate<br />it for you. Um, but just having somebody that understands that you can bounce stuff off, it\'s pretty, pretty critical.<br />Corey Maass: Yeah. Well, I, I\'m a big proponent of, uh, discussion, not decision, which I. Once I learned that I, I\'m<br />a, I\'m a big rule person, so like I applied that rule to most conversations and try to make sure that it\'s clear to<br />everybody else. Um, but also I think more often it\'s the. Being vocal about when you\'re switching to decision.<br />So it\'s like, okay, you know, we are still discussing, we are still discussing. Now we are deciding because as you\'ve<br />seen, I\'m prone to go, oh, that sounded cool, and then I just go off and, and do it rather than, you know, is that the<br />best use of my time, is at the highest priority, all [00:07:00] those kinds of things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So try to impose that upon myself a lot of the time too of like, is. You know, because I\'m also, I\'m the type of<br />extrovert who needs to talk out loud. And so there tends to be a lot of discussion. Um, you know, oh, hold on, I got<br />a barking dog. Come on.<br />Cory Miller: I think that\'s good, especially in the beginning, in the start, you know, um, is making, you know, the<br />whole woodworking thing is measured twice, cut once kind of thing. Not to say to get into overthinking or<br />overanalyzing, but we\'re, we\'re figuring it out, you know? Right. Uh, together. And I think that\'s been pretty critical<br />and really, like last week was huge breakthrough for me.<br />It\'s. Seeing, okay, here\'s v1, or here\'s the free version, I should say, what we\'re gonna do there, and then there\'s<br />all this, we can kind of chase and see what\'s there for [00:08:00] the pro side.<br />Corey Maass: Yep. Yep. One more, one more comment on partnerships too is I think I\'ve talked about like I\'ve,<br />I\'ve looked for people to work with for years and one of those.<br />one of the outstanding questions is always that I\'ve, that I\'ve heard from other people that I\'ve worried about too, is<br />the, like, how do you, how do you quantify compatibility? Right? And it\'s like, I couldn\'t, I think I\'m, I\'m bringing this<br />up rhetorically, like, it\'s not a question necessarily unless you have something, unless you have an answer.<br />But it\'s like, You, you and I sort of talked about it a little bit and then said, okay, let\'s work on this together, and I<br />didn\'t hesitate and, and of course then I\'m like, you know, then we have amazing con like we\'ve had amazing<br />conversations. . And I think that it helps that we both have [00:09:00] been aware of each other for a while and so<br />have some sense of how we operate.<br />And I think I\'ve also, I\'ve heard you speak in public, you\'ve heard me speak in public, so I, I had a sense of you,<br />and I\'m being presumptuous, but I imagine you had some sense of me. Um, but it\'s, it\'s definitely one of those,<br />What does this look like in a year? And if we end up with, you know, an I themes or a, you know, something,<br />something, Of of decent size.<br />You know how, how do you know that that person that you casually said, oh yeah, we should work on this little<br />plugin together with ends up being the person that you partner with. And that\'s, it\'s crazy cuz there\'s so much<br />around pairing people and, you know, meeting co-founders and stuff like that, and, Yeah, I don\'t know.<br />It\'s ju it\'s like I say, I think I\'m bringing it up rhetorically from my perspective. It\'s just, it\'s a crapshoot. You just kind<br />of go with your gut .<br />Cory Miller: [00:10:00] Yeah, I, I totally agree. Um, you know, I, I\'m trying to think how many times I\'ve partnered<br />and it\'s been quite a few, you know, uh, Brian, initially with post status, I had two partners.<br />They weren\'t, weren\'t active in the business. Um, at Ithe, I\'ve had several. Um, partnerships last four years. Um,<br />and, uh, I, I almost think it\'s like this product stuff, partner, partnerships and products are very similar in my<br />experience for me is that . I told Lindsay, I said, you know, when we started Ithe, it\'s like people bought it and they<br />kept buying it and it was pretty, pretty simple, like a good looking theme.<br />You know, and this is 2008, and I did these things and put \'em out there and things that I kind of wanted for myself,<br />but I didn\'t think, like, I didn\'t have a big inner monologue of like, should I do dropdown menu? Should I not?<br />Should I do? [00:11:00] I was just doing things I wanted to do, which spoke to like, I was obviously embedded in<br />our user group that were customers that eventually bought to us.<br />And I think that was first. But like I say, I compare it to baseball, like products and maybe even partnership and<br />people, it\'s like, you know, classic growing up was Tony Gwen, San Diego Padres. He got on base all the time. If<br />you hit 300 in the majors, you\'re, you\'re in the Hall of Fame. If you have a career consistently with 300 in, you\'re,<br />you\'re in the Hall of Fame, even close to it, you\'re probably in the Hall of Fame.<br />And, uh, when I left Ithe and tried to start some new projects, products, and businesses and partnerships, I was<br />like, oh yeah, I just know, I know how to do this, I can do this. And I was like, oh, you know, that means Tony struck<br />out three out of 10 means Tony struck out or got out seven times out of 10, but he\'s in the Hall of Fame.<br />And I\'m like, wow. That\'s kind of like [00:12:00] entrepreneurship and products. And, and I\'m gonna go even<br />further, uh, uh, partnerships, you know, like it\'s, it\'s not a high percentage of wins in my personal experience. , um,<br />from products like, I don\'t know if you, if I told you this, we had 200 s skews that I think were not left 200 plus.<br />How many of those actually made money? Right? Like maybe it\'s, that\'s a little bit low, but like, you know, and uh,<br />then I\'ve gotten crushed cuz things just don\'t go as fast or as easy as I always want them to. And you\'ve done a<br />number of products and I don\'t know where you\'re, you staying with partnerships, but, Just a lot of failure, a lot of<br />learn learning lessons.<br />Corey Maass: I, I learned, I was in New York, uh, I had just moved to New York after college and there was one<br />couple, so I was pursuing mo a music career, mostly, um, DJing, producing dance music, electronic music. And<br />there was one [00:13:00] married couple who threw a party and had started a label and. They were, uh, they were<br />bananas.<br />They were all over the place. They were, they\'re still very eccentric people. I, I love them to death, but they are, uh,<br />sometimes out there. But I would follow them anywhere. And I, and I finally quantified it and I was like, because<br />they. 7% of what they say they\'re gonna do. Everybody in New York City talks a great game.<br />Every bartender is a comedian. You know, every person you meet, working any kind of job is actually writing a<br />script or is in a band or whatever, which is awesome. But most people talk a really good game and don\'t actually<br />do. What they say they\'re gonna do. And so I think that for me, a lot of it is, is exactly what you talked about.<br />Like people don\'t have to have success. Like I didn\'t wanna work with you be necessarily because you had<br />success, [00:14:00] but because you\'ve put yourself out there, you\'ve clearly done a lot, you\'ve tried a lot, and you<br />keep trying. And I think that that, like for me, that\'s the gold standard. Like I try to live by that.<br />Like I put, I put a lot of products out there. Same thing have, how many of my products have actually like done<br />anything made little blips, you know? But you\'ve gotta keep getting up to bat. I think this is the first baseball</p>\n\n\n\n<p>analogy I\'ve ever made in my life. But you\'ve gotta keep getting up to bat and eventually you\'re gonna hit<br />something, presumably, you know, big or small.<br />And then you want to keep, you know, practice makes perfect kind.<br />Cory Miller: I tell you, the part of like, keep going on is the one I\'ve really struggled with the last four years. Hmm.<br />Just keep going on. Um, and then last year with the burnout, um, and all that kind of stuff is just like, it\'s, it\'s tough<br />because, uh, it\'s, it\'s one thing if like this, nothing huge, significant, but not like life shattering.<br />Is dependent on [00:15:00] this. Um, but you know, when I left Ithe, I didn\'t really have another business to just<br />kind of walk onto. Now Posttest came next, you know, the next year, and it wa and it was like really good timing for<br />me. Um, but now it\'s, you know, it\'s still a part-time gig for me. So like, It, it\'s been tough cuz you just kind of have<br />these ideas to put \'em out there.<br />And the theme I told people for how I\'ve done business, at least my ithe chapter, is stumbling successfully. Like ,<br />keeping going, tripping but not falling flat on your face. You know, like, just kind of keep a low profile to the ground.<br />Cause you\'re gonna keep stumbling. And, and you know, a lot of the products, for instance, were stumbled like,<br />and I\'m not, I\'m not saying it\'s pure.<br />However, there was healthy blend of right time or a place, um, hard work, right. To get more luck. And then once<br />the first one was rolling, it was easier to add [00:16:00] new, you know, when you get that first hit, it\'s easier to hit<br />to do others. But I still didn\'t have even a like 50% success rate , you know?<br />Corey Maass: Yep. Well look at Google.<br />How many products have they shut down, you know? Yeah. So anyway, sorry. I wanna respect your time. So<br />we\'ve got 10 minutes. I\'ve, I\'ve dragged this out much longer than I needed to. I did too. Um, um, so product, we<br />have version 0 0 2 is in the repo. Uh, the has come a long way. Uh, we have added, uh, a few bells and whistles.<br />I\'ve cleaned up the UI a bit, and then a duplicate. Cropper is now in the media library. So if you go to media library,<br />there\'s now an extra button that says Upload and Crop. Next to add new. I felt a little bad totally ripping out the<br />ADD new button, but we can decide to do that because there is now a [00:17:00] bypass.<br />So you, even if you open the cropper, And select an image. There\'s a button that says, crop it. There\'s a button<br />that says Just upload it so you can bypass the crop. Um, and then the other sort of sneaky thing that I, I added last<br />minute yesterday is if you go to media, add new, it technically opens the media library with the cropper open.<br />So we are totally hijacking media a new, so I mean, all these. Discussions, not decisions, but at this point we\'ve<br />still got fewer than 10 users. And you and I are, are kind of, you know, we are a kitten with a ball. We\'re bating it<br />around just kind of deciding, you know, where we wanna land with it.<br />Cory Miller: Um, it\'s great. The new stuff that you pushed out, I think that\'s awesome. Iterating on some things<br />that you feel like, hey, I, this is a small little check I can do that I think is so good for progress on the product.<br />[00:18:00] So I was looking at it on my personal site and then my test site and um, I\'ll give you, I\'ll give you notes,<br />uh, in chat too.<br />But when I tried to upload from the media library and I just installed the new plugin on my personal, lemme do this<br />real quick. It\'s not showing the preview. Sorry. I should just be showing you.<br />It\'s not showing that preview. And maybe I\'ve got the wrong image or something like that, but, oh, huh. So we got<br />uploading crop<br />so it\'s not preview in here, and then I just click square crop. Huh. So I don\'t, I I, I\'ve done it at least on two sites<br />and it\'s done this, so I wanted to mention it. Ooh. But lemme just say, Thank you for that button iterating on those<br />buttons, these two, because I was testing your previous version [00:19:00] and with my, with images from my<br />phone, and one was like sideways and I was like, Hey, so oh yeah, you got that in like, I don\'t<br />know, an hour after we test.<br />Corey Maass: Well, I, yeah, the, I mean this is, we are still riding the, the happiness that is the library we\'re using.<br />Um, so there\'s, there\'s, they. Rotate. They also have, um, you can actually flip it horizontally and vertically, which is<br />an option, but I don\'t think we need it. Um, I don\'t, I don\'t yet see the use case. Um, but rotate, I was like, I will add<br />it.<br />He must be onto something. And the fact that you pulled it from your phone and we\'re like, oh, instead of rotating it<br />on my phone and then uploading it again, make creative tasks simpler, easier, fun. There you go. Like, you<br />shouldn\'t have to think like, oh, I have to rotate it in one place before I upload it to another.<br />Um, but I will go fix that bug. So, um, the, to me, the outstanding [00:20:00] question is, um, we, I think we did<br />come to the conclusion last week that we want a settings page, which let. The creator of the site or the whoever is<br />controlling the site, which might be the same person who\'s creating content, but to go into a settings page and say,<br />four featured images, we want 16, nine, and we want them to be 1600 pixels wide every single time.<br />Set it once, forget it, and then they go set their featured image right. When we are including that. Originally we\'d<br />said that that was be, that would be a paid thing, but I. I kind of feel like the free version\'s useless without it.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah, I do too. And I think we\'re gonna get more momentum, um, with this, with that thing cuz we, like<br />we talked last week, really becomes a cool utility tool for a, a problem.<br />And so<br />Corey Maass: and, and is and is feature complete? Is product complete? [00:21:00] Yep.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah. So the savings page with the custom. Dimensions. That\'s really our biggest thing left, is that<br />right?<br />Corey Maass: Uh, and, and we want to, there\'s all the other holes, all the other places where you upload an<br />image. So to me, um, after media library, I think block is the next big one.<br />So I think we, I think we need, cuz I, I use the classic editor and I\'m gonna look at. Adding our cropper to featured<br />image. You know, and, and classic editor plugin has, you know, millions of installs. So I, it\'s, it there. I don\'t think<br />there\'s, to me, there\'s not a clear majority one way or the other. Gutenberg block editor over classic editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need, we need the cropper in both. Um, but since we have [00:22:00] the beginning of the block, I think that<br />that\'s, um, the way to go. And I, I, at some point I will look. Also applying it to the classic editor. Okay. But it\'s, it\'s<br />finding all of those primary places and there\'s a lo as we\'ve talked about, there\'s a long, long tail.<br />Like eventually we will build a module for Elementor and, and Beaver Builder. Um, but we need to work, work for<br />vanilla WordPress first. Yeah.<br />Cory Miller: So that leaves me at really, and I\'m with this with process too, is like, we need a lot, it seems like we<br />need a lot of users. Mm-hmm. to start getting more users in there, giving feedback, requesting features.<br />And this next one with the, uh, well the blocks will be big, but that\'s another conversation. But like, I think the<br />custom dimensions, then we\'re getting [00:23:00] something. I ped and ccd you in those. As you know, Robbie<br />from Beaver Builder, Kathy San from Cadence. Um, I need to look at generate press. Um, but then we bumped up<br />against like everybody be gone, being gone for Asia or Camp Asia.<br />Um, but yeah, are you going to any word camps? I\'ll have it down for like a placeholder for Europe and then US is<br />standard for me for sure. You are gonna go, yeah, I was supposed to go to Phoenix, but yeah. What, what about<br />you? Do you have any plans.<br />Corey Maass: I was, uh, thinking about US . So if you\'re gonna be there, then yeah, we need to meet up.<br />That\'s in August, so. Okay. It gives us, um, let\'s do plenty of time to, I think that\'d be a blast. Yeah. We could do<br />this live. That\'d be fun. Do it live.<br />Cory Miller: Let\'s, uh, let\'s plan. Yeah, let\'s plan on that. I\'d be, that\'d be great if another opportunity comes up in<br />between. Um, I know work camps are getting started and [00:24:00] stuff, or, um, we\'ve loosely been throwing<br />around some in-person stuff with.<br />Post, but I\'ll let you know, uh, before we even announce that and see if you\'re able to, to get to it too. Um, nothing,<br />sorry.<br />Corey Maass: Yeah. Um, I derailed us. So you were talking about getting users. Um, do we, to me, I\'m starting<br />more and more, I\'m getting anxious that we don\'t have a website. Okay. Which, I mean, we.<br />crop.express the website that is currently just the cropper, um, but to, with no mention of the plugin. And so I\'d love<br />for you to start thinking about what that looks like,<br />even if it\'s a little banner that then links to a landing. You know, we could have crop.express/wordpress plugin and<br />have a landing page temporarily, but [00:25:00] just cuz it\'s even like I\'m now. I\'m linking people to the plugin in the<br />repo, but I feel like we wanna start expanding the use case, expanding what we\'re talking about, you know, to a<br />website.<br />Cory Miller: Um, yes, absolutely. I think we\'re there<br />Corey Maass: in the coming weeks. It doesn\'t need to be tomorrow. Yeah,<br />Cory Miller: I was thinking about. Um, from the brand we talked about last week too. Mm-hmm. , it\'s like, do we<br />just go ahead and make the keep, keep crop.express like it is? Hmm. Probably link to it, but then at some point<br />we\'ll probably want to change an update plugin to go what our new brand is.<br />And that made me think about, my mind went to. Some discussion that could be recorded like this for users, not<br />about our product [00:26:00] necessarily, or this detailed stuff, but you know, hey, here\'s some sources we can,<br />where you can go find all, you know, all these images. Um, some of those mar more messaging, marketing<br />content, thoughts we had last week.<br />I was like, you know, that might be, um, pretty good. It\'s like having that site. Maybe scheduling, you know, some,<br />like, we outline it loosely and just talk through and then we can take that, you know, put it on our YouTube channel,<br />all that kinda stuff. And then, um, maybe see if we turn that into like our lead magnet or something like that to start<br />building emails.<br />That\'s where my head goes initially, but I\'ve. We\'ve got two things on my list, outreach and website. Um, right now,<br />at least until you tell me otherwise. Um,<br />Corey Maass: well, and, and the other thing that Kathy brought up that I thought was valuable was to aid in your<br />discussions. [00:27:00] She\'s like, oh, what does it do? And we\'re, and you were like, here\'s the plugin.<br />And she\'s like, Oh, thanks. Now I have to go find a WordPress install, install it on this WordPress install. And then<br />because it\'s essentially a a beta, we have no guidance. We have no user docs, we have no anything. And so she\'s<br />like s Now if she even gets that far, she\'s like splashing around trying to figure out what the hell it does and how<br />so?<br />Um, I kind of feel like we are getting close to, like, I could do a. QuickTime, screen capture of here\'s how you re<br />crop your featured image. 1, 2, 3. Mm-hmm. , here\'s how you crop an image going into media library, you know,<br />and put them on YouTube or you know, even just to have them in our back pocket. One for any potential users, we<br />can link to those.<br />If they\'re on YouTube, we can put those in our readme, which goes on the, you know, So it\'s Crop Express in 30<br />seconds, a video in [00:28:00] that, in the Read Me Doc in the, in the repo. Um, and it gives you something to link<br />to when you\'re having dis discussions because rather than you having to do a demo or people trying to figure it<br />out, you know, here\'s, here\'s a quick 32nd video, then let\'s have a conversation.<br />Yeah. So it seems like if you agree that I feel like that should go on my list. Oh,<br />Cory Miller: if you\'re good to put on your list, absolutely. Yeah, I<br />Corey Maass: can bang through those pretty<br />Cory Miller: quick. And that lends back to website is like having something where people can see it. Mm-hmm. .<br />Um, yeah, I\'ll, okay, I\'ll do some thinking on that.<br />Corey Maass: Yeah. Again, I feel like we\'re, right now these are discussions, not decisions, but good ideas, so,<br />Yeah. Uh, ruminate on them a little bit today, and then, you know, this week or next, let\'s make some decisions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay? [00:29:00] All right. And I\'ll continue. No matter what, there\'s this. You know, as a developer, you\'re like<br />building product and it\'s, and it\'s a straight line.<br />It\'s a rocket ship going up, but it\'s inevitable to do everything else. There\'s, there\'s the, the triangle. So as the<br />triangle goes up, it gets wider and wider. and wider. I\'m just seeing it. It\'s like I can just keep adding features. I can<br />just keep making the product better, but nobody\'s gonna know about it.<br />Nobody gives a shit. There\'s no, you know, but it\'s like, Ever so slightly the more features then it\'s like the more<br />you want a website, the more you want docs, the more you want, uh, feedback. The more you want assets, the<br />more you want swag, the more you want, you know, and it just keeps getting broader as, as much as it gets taller.<br />It feels like that<br />Cory Miller: It does, it def definitely blends over time. Um, okay, so I\'ve got outreach and website to continue the<br />outreach outreach. Um, [00:30:00] I think Kathy, I think Robbie, when he\'s back, um, I need to reach out to the<br />Elementor team.<br />Corey Maass: Do you have, um, like the starting in the conversation seemed good. Do you have a plan for<br />specific questions that we\'re trying to get answered?<br />Um, or do you wanna leave it broad?<br />Cory Miller: What I intend to get to them with that is like getting to the heart of what are the things that annoyed<br />the team, building the themes. Mm-hmm. , what are they hearing from customers? Um, and, or even, even seeing<br />like they see sight and like the images just blown out and stuff.<br />And I, I want to keep those conversations open enough where they can tell us something I might surprise us that<br />goes in a particular direction.<br />So, and I think Rob Robbie\'s very open to that. He just is out this week. So yeah, [00:31:00] sure. I\'m really eager<br />to hear what he says. And that\'ll be our first integration or, you know, potential integration for us thinking through<br />that. Um, so that\'s kind of my intention. And then, uh, same thing with, um, any other theme framework from<br />Element towards generate press<br />sounds. But open. Do you have any thoughts or anybody else we should talk to? But you know, and then, well, the<br />story I\'ll share too is like, here\'s what free is gonna be, you know, and then to start to share the story to lead to this.<br />This could be a great tool for y\'all to recommend to your communities kind of thing.<br />So I\'ll, once I get some of those, I\'ll drill down into, okay, cadence. What are the ratios, what are the things that we<br />could build into free to be, you know, that utility tool?<br />Corey Maass: Yeah, for sure. [00:32:00] So that, that\'s kind of my plan there is just kind of digging in and seeing<br />what we hear. Trying to get to that true marrow of it.<br />Like how are people using it? What are you seeing? And hopefully be surprised. Love.<br />Um, and I\'ll, I\'ll do some thought too on the website. I know that\'s been something we\'ve been talking about,<br />um, but I like what you just said, like that solves the problem. If we switch to a branded site that talks ab, that\'s, or<br />a company site that lets us be open up to anything, crop Express can stay the same.<br />Start to talk about the plugin and link back to what ultimately would be the shopping cart or the mm-hmm. , you<br />know, the main marketing site around it. But let crop.express as a website, be a lead magnet, a U [00:33:00] utility<br />site that is a lead magnet for the WordPress plugin. And for anything else, we end up spitting up.<br />Mm-hmm.<br />Cory Miller: Yeah. And then you\'ve got a great free tool out there, so. Right. I do think, like you said, the banner<br />to, do you want the WordPress version, you know, you want this in WordPress and link over to the thing will be<br />helpful as we kind of grow for people to Yep. See the vision. Okay. All right. Anything else you had?<br />Corey Maass: No, I, I just, we\'ve been, I like, I think I talked to you before. I, I\'ve been watching Silicon Valley, so<br />I\'m, I\'m feeling like we need to scale up. We need to get some, um, venture capital. I need at least three more<br />developers under me.<br />Cory Miller: Um, I gotta get back and<br />Corey Maass: watch that. Move all of our operations out to Silicon Valley.<br />Of course. Hey, I\'m in San Francisco in three weeks I\'ll do our first raise. Um, I\'ll talk to some angels out<br />Cory Miller: there. There you go. . When that came out, I, [00:34:00] I actually happened to have at the time a<br />little community car. It was a Ford Escape. Yellow, just like, uh, ,<br />Corey Maass: Avi Avik,<br />Cory Miller: ak a classic.<br />Corey Maass: All right, man. Well, good luck today.<br />Okay. It\'ll be a long day. Hope you\'ll be all right. Yeah. And, uh, I\'ll<br />Cory Miller: appreciate that.<br />Corey Maass: Um, yeah, I\'ll keep you posted.<br />Cory Miller: Okay, sounds good. And I\'ll get these webinars back on the, reschedule them and put \'em on our<br />calendars. Okay. So, sounds<br />Corey Maass: good. All right. Thanks. Thanks, Steve.<br />Cory Miller: Bye.</p>\n<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Mar 2023 21:13:25 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Cory Miller\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:86:\"WPTavern: WooCommerce 7.5.0 Introduces 3 New Blocks, Expands Support for Global Styles\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=142738\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:96:\"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-7-5-0-introduces-3-new-blocks-expands-support-for-global-styles\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2193:\"<p><a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/03/14/woocommerce-7-5-released/\">WooCommerce 7.5.0</a> was released this week with three new blocks for the Product Archive templates. These include a new Store Breadcrumb block, Product Results Count block, and a Catalog Sorting block, all seen in action below.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />image credit: <a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/03/14/woocommerce-7-5-released/\">WooCommerce 7.5.0 Release Post</a>\n\n\n\n<p>These blocks were released as part of an effort to <a href=\"https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/issues/8059\">&#8220;blockify&#8221; Product Archive templates</a> so that they can more easily be customized with a block experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We also want to account for the extensibility within this project by researching the mechanism for extensions to extend the templates and implementing a compatibility layer to keep as many extensions as possible working with blockified templates while giving time for extension developers to update and blockify their extensions,&#8221; WooCommerce engineer Tung Du said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project also includes support for <a href=\"https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/issues/8062\">a Notices block</a> so merchants can display store notices to customers as well as determine where they appear.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WooCommerce 7.5.0 has expanded support for Global Styles, so that the Product Button, Product Rating, and Product Price blocks can now be customized more easily in the Site Editor. The Product Rating block now supports padding controls in Global Styles so that store owners can add more spacing around the blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This release also brings in expanded support for the Style Book, which has been available since the WooCommerce Blocks 9.5.0 release. The Featured Product and Featured Category blocks can now be previewed in the Style Book and have Global Style changes applied.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WooCommerce 7.5.0 includes two database updates, 278 commits to WooCommerce Core, and rolls in 170 commits from the WooCommerce Blocks plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://woocommerce.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/screenshot-2023-02-02-at-12.11.33.png\"></a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Mar 2023 19:49:01 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:94:\"WPTavern: #67 – Talisha Lewallen on How CertifyWP Is Hoping To Offer WordPress Certification\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=142702\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:108:\"https://wptavern.com/podcast/67-talisha-lewallen-on-how-certifywp-is-hoping-to-offer-wordpress-certification\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48696:\"Transcript<div>\n<p>[00:00:00] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, what a WordPress certification might look like.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast, player of choice, or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you, and hopefully get you all your ideas featured on the show.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Head to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and you use the form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So on the podcast today we have Talisha Lewallen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might have found your way into WordPress intentionally, or perhaps you stumbled across it and decided to explore further. Whichever it was, you&#8217;ve learned things along the way. Some of it might have been through training, but there&#8217;s likely been some self discovery on the way as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps you&#8217;re a coder, or a designer. In fact, there are dozens of different pathways in the WordPress ecosystem. Given the broad range of knowledge you might possess, how can you prove that you know what you know?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many industries provide training programs which, when completed successfully, allow you to assert that you were competent in a given area. You&#8217;d want your lawyer or surgeon to have passed through the appropriate programs of study, so that they&#8217;re equipped to do the work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With WordPress being such a dominant force in the world of websites. Would it be a good idea to have a certification for WordPress? Talisha certainly thinks so, and has founded CertifyWP to try to make that happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We approach this subject through the work that she&#8217;s been doing at WPConnects, in which she&#8217;s been trying to provide training to military veterans, so that on the departure from the services they have the prospect of finding work in the WordPress space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about whether there&#8217;s a need for certification for WordPress and how such a certification would come about. What levels of training does Talisha see as essential, and how many such layers might there be?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We discuss whether the WordPress community is ready for a third party to be certifying people&#8217;s abilities, and whether this strays away from the approach that we&#8217;ve had so far in which routes into employment have relied on other, less formal, methods.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later in the podcast, we talk about the structure of CertifyWP, and who&#8217;s behind the project. You&#8217;ll hear that it&#8217;s not just Talisha. There&#8217;s quite a few members of the WordPress community who want this project to succeed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re curious about certifications in the WordPress space, this podcast is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all the links in the show notes by heading to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Talisha Lewallen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Talisha Lewallen, Hello Talisha.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:00] Talisha Lewallen: Hi Nathan.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:02] Nathan Wrigley: Very nice to meet with you. You&#8217;re welcome on the podcast. Thank you for joining us. Would you mind just introducing yourself and give us some indication of what you do, perhaps who you work for, and how come you are in any way connected with WordPress?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:18] Talisha Lewallen: Yes. I am Talisha Lewallen. And I am the owner of WPConnects, which is a company that helps US military veterans or really any veterans, but helps them receive training while they&#8217;re active duty, and then when they&#8217;re separating from the military we provide them with mentors and help them find employment within WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then I&#8217;ve also started this new venture with some very amazing people within the WordPress community called CertifyWP Foundation. And that is where we are creating a couple of WordPress credentials.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:51] Nathan Wrigley: So we&#8217;re going to talk about both of those endeavors today, but I think probably the correct road into both of those subjects is if we begin with WPConnects. Now, you mentioned that this is a company that you are the founder of. It&#8217;s got a mission, it&#8217;s connected with the military, but in broad outline really, it&#8217;s a, it&#8217;s an endeavor to connect people who are looking for work and are in need of guidance. Do you just want to tell us how all this started and what really the bedrock, the core philosophy is, and who you are helping and how you are helping?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:26] Talisha Lewallen: Yeah. So I worked at Post Status for a little while, and while we were over there, we kept hearing a lot of people state that they really needed some trained WordPress developers and employees. And so that really got us thinking, you know, it&#8217;s one of those twist of fate things, that we ran into a gentleman named Hector who has a similar company to WPConnects.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he&#8217;s definitely been a very big mentor to me. So when service members go in and sign up to join the military, a lot of times they&#8217;ve never had an interview, they&#8217;ve never had job experience, they&#8217;re literally just starting their career. Well, when they get out there are transferable skills, but not a lot employers are looking for, if that makes sense. So we want to provide them with, it&#8217;s called transitioning assistance. And we want to provide them with that training and so it helps them transition into the civilian sector a lot easier. There&#8217;s different skills that, you know, we do over here. And then we&#8217;re training them for WordPress front end and backend development.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if they wanted to do anything else in WordPress. You know, it&#8217;s really expanding past just developer careers. And so we&#8217;re just really helping them find the right connections, along with mentors who have been where they&#8217;ve been and can help them transition and really just know that experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so it really just comes from a place of, I have several members in my family that were in the military, and seeing them transition out of the military was kind of hard. I took the general route over here and I went to high school, college and then started my professional career and seeing my family members and friends join the military, and then when they get out and they had these amazing jobs in the military. They had all of this training and then they get out and they can&#8217;t even get a job.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I heard one of my friends tell me the story of a gentleman who was a military police officer and couldn&#8217;t get a job as a police officer here in the States. And it&#8217;s because he didn&#8217;t have, in that town, you had to have an associate&#8217;s degree. So he didn&#8217;t have the training to become a police officer when that&#8217;s all he did for 10 years in the military, was be a police officer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so it&#8217;s very interesting to see the skills that they have and the jobs that these men and women have had, and then transferring it into civilian life. It&#8217;s just not, or hasn&#8217;t been there. They&#8217;ve just been struggling to find these employment. And so we&#8217;re really just reaching out a hand and saying, let us help you and let us get you introduced to these amazing people inside of WordPress. WordPress has the best community that I have ever been a part of, and so it really just seems like a good fit for them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:04] Nathan Wrigley: Can I ask, do you give them a curriculum which they follow? In other words, have you mapped out, in the same way that a university may do, you know, you&#8217;d attend a university and you would fully expect that they would provide you with the course and they&#8217;re not just making it up on the fly? Or is it more working with them to try and figure out what they need? It might be a mixture of both. I don&#8217;t know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:25] Talisha Lewallen: Yeah, so how we do it, we have three pathways right now. And this is what makes WPConnects very unique, even within the military training field. So there&#8217;s a saying in the military that&#8217;s crawl, walk, run. So you&#8217;re not just going to get something and immediately start running. So our steps for crawl, walk, run are these three pathways.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first one is the credentialing assistance program. Active duty and reserve military personnel are able to take a credential and it is funded through the military, so it does not cost them a dime. And they&#8217;re able to take this training. So we currently have the web foundation associate credential. And this is also where CertifyWP comes in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So currently we&#8217;re using that WFA course. So once they complete that and they decide to transition out of the military. It could be the next month, whenever their service contract&#8217;s up. It can be two, three years later. Whenever they are transitioning out in the last 180 days of their service contract, they can join what&#8217;s called a Skill Bridge program.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we also have a WordPress Skill Bridge program. This program is an instructor-led 12 week course. And it&#8217;s all over the US. We do it over Zoom, and we&#8217;re looking at a few other platforms. But again, it&#8217;s that instructor is there. There is a curriculum, and they are learning how to, mostly that one is backend development, is what they&#8217;re learning currently.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then whenever they finish that, we just opened up an apprenticeship program in Texas. And we&#8217;re about to open one in Oklahoma. And so it&#8217;s just this three step process. The apprenticeship program, they have certain skills that they will acquire throughout the year long apprenticeship program. And then they are 100% ready to be employed and be able to do any job that they&#8217;re really wanting to do, because we will give them that individualized skill.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And through all of that, they have a mentor that they can reach out to, and the mentors reach out to them and just help them with anything they&#8217;re struggling with or have questions about. There&#8217;s different terminology that we use in civilian life than they&#8217;ve used in the military. And so really that person&#8217;s just to be there, to just have a helping hand.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But yeah, it&#8217;s a little bit of both. We have a pathway, we have curriculum. And we do change our curriculum. We get feedback from other people within WordPress. Nikki with Liquid Web has been the biggest help for our Skill Bridge program. She comes through and interviews and mock interviews just about every person we have in our programs and helps give us feedback so we can help them gain those interview skills. We have them write a resume and then I go through and help them work on their resume, so then they have that resume whenever they get out as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:59] Nathan Wrigley: I guess if you are in a different industry, there may already have been for a great deal of time, there may have been institutions or pathways like this already set up. You mentioned the example there of the police and that pathway not really working out. But presumably there are other ways that people leaving the military can go and there&#8217;s things that are already concrete. Institutions that they can join. Companies that they can join. Programs that they can go through. But not in the WordPress space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And given WordPress&#8217; 43, and counting, percent share of the internet, it&#8217;s a really credible career to go in, but it&#8217;s a difficult thing to, I would imagine, to even understand. If you&#8217;ve never touched the internet before, apart from being a user and a consumer of the web, you may have no skills or whatsoever.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I&#8217;m guessing it&#8217;s bridging that gap. Trying to persuade people that actually there&#8217;s a job in here. It&#8217;s an in demand job. Can be well paid and a good career path, and there&#8217;s a nice community behind it all as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:57] Talisha Lewallen: Right. And you know, we have some people that are literally, I&#8217;ve never touched a computer before. But we also have people that come through the program that have been a part of the satellite operations within the military, or have done tech in the military. But getting that pathway to employment is what they really need. And learning WordPress. There&#8217;s a lot that goes into WordPress that we want our individuals to learn and that will help them grow within whatever job they decide to do. But yeah, so we have two opposite ends of the spectrum usually. We have the ones that have a ton of tech experience, or the ones that have no tech experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:33] Nathan Wrigley: So that was a really nice introduction into the why really, for the next bit of the podcast, which I think will consume the rest of the show. So we&#8217;re going to talk now, instead of talking about WPConnects, we&#8217;re going to talk about credentialing in the WordPress space. And maybe I&#8217;ll begin this way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I were to attend a university that everybody&#8217;s heard of, let&#8217;s say I&#8217;ve been to, I don&#8217;t know, Harvard or Cambridge or somewhere like that. That credential that you hold, it&#8217;s a real passport. Everybody understands what that means, and you present it to employers and they get, okay. Right, you&#8217;ve been to a university, we know what that university is about. We understand that it&#8217;s been around for a while and, that&#8217;s a credible piece of paper that you are holding. But curiously, in the tech space, there are things like this, but specifically in the WordPress space, there&#8217;s nothing like this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a great big hole there, isn&#8217;t there? So people who wish to be employed, going to an employer, you really are relying on testimonials, the CV, the reputation that you&#8217;ve got from your previous employer, and the letters that they may write on your behalf. But there&#8217;s no bit of paper that you can hold, going in cold, to say, I&#8217;ve done this. Look, there it is. It&#8217;s certifiable. This is what I&#8217;ve achieved.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:51] Talisha Lewallen: Yes. And you know, that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re kind of finding out on both ways. Having a credential helps both employers and people looking for employment, especially within the WordPress space, without having that credential. There&#8217;s a lot of people that I would say could very well do certain jobs. But because there&#8217;s not that level of credentialing and there&#8217;s not that standard education.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does a WordPress developer mean? What can you do if you say you&#8217;re a WordPress developer? And that&#8217;s what a lot of companies are running into. So it really is almost word of mouth. Sometimes I feel like I should say that it&#8217;s almost word of mouth for you to get hired, because somebody&#8217;s worked with you and knows your level of skill. If you&#8217;re new to the WordPress space, it could possibly be harder to find a job because nobody knows who you are, your work ethic and what your skillset is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:39] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. So that&#8217;s the premise behind all of this. So I guess I should ask at the beginning, what level are you going in at? Because really in the WordPress space, we could probably come up with 50 curricular that people could follow, probably more. We could have things on the hosting side, speed optimization, SEO, backend WordPress. The sky&#8217;s the limit, but I&#8217;m presuming. That in the scenario that you are dealing with, mainly it&#8217;s getting started?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:08] Talisha Lewallen: You know, that&#8217;s the interesting thing. So we, so we have the advisory board. I should say, whenever I first decided this is something I want to do, I really want to make this credential. I reached out to several people, because I kept hearing nos and yeses, and so we put together a team of an advisory board and we had this conversation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because originally I was thinking about one credential, that would have three tiers. So now we&#8217;ve decided on two. We&#8217;re going to have a front end developer credential and the backend developer credential. So each one will have three tiers. So it starts at base level of here&#8217;s how I download a WordPress. This is how I can add admins. This is how I do, you know, very, very basic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the next level, and then there&#8217;s the expert level. So to obtain the credential, you must pass, it&#8217;s either one cumulative exam, or you could take it with each course. So you take that exam that has all three tiers of those, and that&#8217;s how you obtain that credential.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;ll be on the backend credential too. It&#8217;ll have that three tiers again, crawl, walk, run. We&#8217;re not going to expect you to be able to do it if you&#8217;ve never been taught the why behind it. So with that being said, one conversation that I had with a gentleman was, well, you know, it almost turned into some people can take tests, but some people can&#8217;t. That doesn&#8217;t mean that they&#8217;re able to do the job. And I said exactly, and that&#8217;s where we are trying to find a way. It&#8217;s still, still alluding me a little bit, but we are trying to find a way to have a practical part to the exam, in the top two tiers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first tier exam probably will just be question and answer type exam. But in that expert level, I want there to be a practical part of it. To have people show that, yes, I did learn how to master this skill. And yes, I can do this. And so I think that that&#8217;ll help. Also with the credential and why it&#8217;s, I think, beneficial to WordPress is, you know, WordPress changes sometimes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have big changes, we have small changes. So there&#8217;s a certification that you can take. And that can just be a course. Anybody can come up with a course. I could just go to my back room and be like, this is what I think somebody should know for WordPress and create this certification.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then I never have to re-certify. I never have to go back in and show that my knowledge has not waned, or that I do still know what I&#8217;m doing, and still have that level, just standard level of education. With a credential, there is an advisory board and a board of directors and you have to re-certify every three years, to show that you are still maintaining that knowledge. So it&#8217;s not 10 years down the road, oh look, I took this and I&#8217;m still here. You&#8217;re able to show that you still maintain that level of credentialing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:53] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s an industry practice that I&#8217;ve seen before, especially in things like networking. And I mean networking in the sense of cables and connecting routers. The organizations often behind that will require you to come back after a given period of time and re-certify yourself. Just because otherwise that credential kind of loses all meaning, because the technology itself has moved on so far in the three, four however many years. That if you claim to know from 10 years ago what&#8217;s required to be known today, there could be a complete mismatch. Okay, that&#8217;s really interesting to know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:25] Talisha Lewallen: There&#8217;s been a lot of thought that went into this credentialing. Along with having, you know, just what I would consider WordPress experts that are being there and really talking about what they feel somebody should know in the WordPress for each level of the credentialing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, let&#8217;s see. I think JavaScript has a credential that you have to re-certify. If you&#8217;re a nurse, here in the US you have to re-certify your knowledge. Car mechanics. You know, so there&#8217;s a lot of credentialing out there in every industry that does have that continuing education piece. Just because things do change, the world changes so much, and it&#8217;s very beneficial.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:58] Nathan Wrigley: So given that you are hoping to find people who wish to take these credentials. Is it open to anybody? We know that your background was connecting with people leaving the military. Is the intention of CertifyWP, and of course I should have mentioned the URL. The URL that you&#8217;ll go to, which of course I&#8217;ll put in the the show notes is certifywp.com, as you&#8217;d imagine, it&#8217;s all spelled in the typical way. No, no underscores or anything like that. Is the intention that these certifications will be open to everybody? Or is there a subset of people? What&#8217;s the audience for this?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:37] Talisha Lewallen: So the audience for the credential is everybody. CertifywP is for anybody and everybody to take. Our hope would be that companies start looking at their credential and stating that, yes, I want to hire people that have this credential because we know they have this baseline education. So it is open to every single person.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The baseline, the level one certifications I hope to get into some smaller communities. I live here in Oklahoma and so there&#8217;s a lot of Indian capital technology centers and stuff like that, that I would really like them to start taking these credentials and really trying to help the minority groups get more into WordPress as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But one thing that has confused a lot of people, and I have to say that this is definitely my fault. I expect everybody to be on my brainwave sometimes. The mention of the DoD, the Department of Defense has thrown a lot of people off. And so they think that this is just a credential for the military and that is really the farthest from it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I just have not fully been able to explain that to everybody. But the DoD approving the credential comes in for WPConnects, so that we can train our military. Instead of using that web foundation associate credential, we will use our WordPress credentialing to train them. So they will be trained from the bottom up in WordPress. So that&#8217;s where that has came in. But CertifyWP is open to everybody to take.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:03] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, so just to clarify that. There was a hoop that you had to jump through in order to receive money from the government to train people from the military, but the training is ostensibly the same, but there&#8217;s that slightly strange mixed messaging there. Have I parsed that right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:20] Talisha Lewallen: Yes, yeah. And that&#8217;s all it is, is for our military members to be able to take the training where the government pays for it. They have educational grants and stipends in the Army and Air Force, especially here in the US that they don&#8217;t have to take those, they don&#8217;t have to pay for those credentialing. So for us, for them to be able to use those monies, our credential has to be approved through the DoD.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:43] Nathan Wrigley: Speaking of money, that&#8217;s an interesting segue for a minute. Is the intention for this then to have a fee bound to it? In other words, if you want to take this credential and receive the training materials and the time of the tutors and all of that, that there&#8217;ll be a fee attached to it? And, if that&#8217;s the case, do you have plans to have scholarships and things like that? Is there any of that afoot even as an idea?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:07] Talisha Lewallen: Yes. That&#8217;s, you know, partly why we actually turned CertifyWP into a nonprofit, is so that we can offer those scholarships. For the credential to be, I almost want to be, say accepted into definitely DoD standards. But if we ever get it accredited, either, there has to be certain qualifications that credentialing meets.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we&#8217;re trying to set up CertifyWP credentials to meet the qualifications for, one, the DoD, but also if we ever do decide to get it accredited. And one of them is that it has to meet the standard for financial costs. So, I think there&#8217;s even a PHP credential, but the other tech credentials out there, ours will have to match that price.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we are going to be able to scholarship people in. That is definitely our hope. Because again, we don&#8217;t want this to be a gatekeeping thing of you have to pay to play. Not everybody can do that. And so we definitely want to work with people and companies on just trying to get this credential out to the community and making it affordable for every person.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there are ways to do that. The board hasn&#8217;t fully decided on one and cost has not even been mentioned yet, just other than the fact that we have to have one and it has to meet an industry standard. But yes, definitely trying to find a way to cut costs down for just the regular person is something that we are looking at, because it can be, they can be quite expensive. And I know that that&#8217;s been a talk within, that I&#8217;ve seen in the Post Status Slack channels before. Whenever somebody moved CertifyWP into one of the channels, somebody was like, oh, here we go, gatekeeping. And oh, it&#8217;s going to cost so much and stuff like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it&#8217;s a very good concern and conversation to have. But our whole intention, and I don&#8217;t want to speak for everybody on the board or advisory board, but isn&#8217;t to keep it away from people. We want everybody to be able to take it. So we are finding ways to really scholarship and bring people in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:01] Nathan Wrigley: So we&#8217;ve talked about the audience, well, one of the audiences or one of the, one of the spokes of the wheel, if you like, for you. But of course there&#8217;s another side to this, and I&#8217;m, imagining that you really are a bridge between the people who want to be certified and the people who subsequently want to receive the wisdom that you&#8217;ve given them, the certification.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, the employers, the people who are going to be employing the people out the other end. And presumably that&#8217;s going to be a challenge that you&#8217;re going to face as well, is convincing businesses that look the certificate that we&#8217;ve given them the certification that they&#8217;ve gone through and achieved actually means something. And I&#8217;m guessing there&#8217;s going to be quite a lot of your time spent making those people aware that it really is bonafide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:46] Talisha Lewallen: Yes. That&#8217;s where having the DoD backing, and also possibly getting it accredited shows that this is a real credential. There are people out there that do see that this credential is a massive benefit. So with that, for us there&#8217;s different ways to get it DoD approved, I should say.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the easiest way is to have community buy-in. So having those companies state that yes, I do see a need for this education level and to have credentialing. So that&#8217;s where on the website we have the endorsement letters. And I know Sophia Desrosiers has been making some phone calls and we have a couple of people that have been reaching out to companies and explaining what we&#8217;re really doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because we&#8217;re trying to get those endorsement letters because that will help us get it DoD approved. It&#8217;s just showing that there is a need in the community for a credential. Not even our credential. It&#8217;s one of those fun little things, but it&#8217;s just saying that there is a need in the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I definitely think once we get our credentials up and running and people start seeing what we have in there, and the education. I really think that a lot of companies will come around to it. The ones that I&#8217;ve talked to so far, I talked to one that was a little hesitant and I love that he booked a meeting with me and talked to me about his concerns, and that I was able to, I don&#8217;t want to say that I argued my point, just was able to genuinely share what we are trying to do at CertifyWP, which is just to make a community built and maintain credential.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he ended up signing our endorsement letter, and I absolutely loved it. But I loved that space to be able to fully explain what we&#8217;re doing and how we&#8217;re setting up the credential to really benefit not only employers, but the job seeker.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:29] Nathan Wrigley: It&#8217;s a virtuous cycle in a way, isn&#8217;t it? In that if you get people on board and you can take them through the whole process and then they are ultimately employed, and the employers are happy that they can hit the ground running at whatever level that may be. That has a sort of feedback loop to it, doesn&#8217;t it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a period of time, the employers will broadcast that message. It will presumably encourage people who are looking for a way to be certified in tech, to hop on board and on it goes. So yeah, that&#8217;s going to quite an important part. So you are reaching out to those people and you&#8217;re hoping to get some more on board to bolster the whole enterprise.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:07] Talisha Lewallen: Yeah, we definitely need more endorsement letters from the community. It could be individuals or companies. The companies are what really the DoD is looking for. But just showing the need in the community. And like I said, I&#8217;ve talked to quite a few either hiring managers or companies that have sat here and said, you know, I put out a job description and I need a WordPress developer. And then I pay them the salary and they come in and they can&#8217;t do what we need them to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But on their resume it looked fine. And they were able to say these things, but they didn&#8217;t have the education that they needed. So then it costs the company more money to have to train this person to be able to get them up to this level, to where if we are able to train them and then you&#8217;re able to hire them, and you know they passed this, I hate to say they passed the test, but they&#8217;re able to show that their competency is there. It saves companies time and money on hiring.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:00] Nathan Wrigley: Speaking of the test, you mentioned that in some scenarios it may be like a written paper or something like that, but presumably the higher up you go on the ladder of difficulty, the more need there will be for practical implementations. And you said that there was still room to be, you&#8217;re still trying to figure all that out, and work out what that path might be, but I guess that&#8217;d be an interesting subject to pause on for a moment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are your thoughts around that? Testing in some kind of platform that allows you to do code examples on the screen, live. Those kind of things. Just essentially making sure that it&#8217;s legit, it&#8217;s bonafide, and that the people that are doing it are actually doing it. You could be bringing them into test centres. There&#8217;s all sorts of permutations here, isn&#8217;t there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:41] Talisha Lewallen: Exactly. And that&#8217;s where, right now, I&#8217;m looking at LMSs, Learning Management Systems to put the coursework, but also the exam on. And so I&#8217;ve been talking a lot with these companies about what this exam could look like with this practical application. And what I hear a lot, and even this has been suggested in conversations with the advisory board is almost having like a capstone, or a project that they complete after they take the written assessment. In having this practical that they turn in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that is always an option, and we might have to go to that. I&#8217;m leery about that because then we will have to train and hire people to look at these capstone projects if you will. And determine if somebody has passed or failed it. And so then you run into, well maybe I got somebody that graded my capstone or my project harder than person B.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I really shy away from that type of stuff and I&#8217;d rather have it be computer generated. It&#8217;s unbiased. There&#8217;s just so many ways you can set that up to where there&#8217;s not that fault in there. So definitely the back end and coding one, there will be sides once you get higher up for you to actually code. I&#8217;m not a coder, so I don&#8217;t want to sit here and use terminology that I don&#8217;t understand myself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there is that practical part in there where you&#8217;re actually going to go in there and you&#8217;re going to do it. The front end side&#8217;s going to look, you know, a little bit differently, but still, I&#8217;m not a test taker, but I can perform the task and I can do the job generally.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then you have other people, and I always use the example of my sister. I love her to death. She&#8217;s very, very smart. And she could take a test like nobody&#8217;s business, but that doesn&#8217;t always mean that she can do the work that she just tested on. It just means that she can have really good memory recollection. But doing the task is not something that is there all the time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so we really want to hit both sides. As well as companies having the confidence that when they hire somebody with this credential, they know that they passed the practical part and they can do it. And so it&#8217;s really just trying to find out the best, we&#8217;ll say best, most efficient, cost effective way to really have this and what is best for everybody.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because what I really don&#8217;t want to get into is somebody sitting there and saying, well, I didn&#8217;t pass the exam because of, you know, X, Y, Z. And it ended up, it could have been human error. Computers have errors too, and we can work with that. But I just want to take the human error side out of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:31:07] Nathan Wrigley: I can imagine there&#8217;s going to be a subset of people listening to this podcast who will be thinking there should be no canonical certification in WordPress. We should be open to go wherever we choose. It feels like you would like this to have some sort of backing, if you like. Community backing, if nothing else. Not necessarily official backing. But you&#8217;d like this to become a baseline. Something that anybody can aspire to, and anybody can see within the community that this is something which represents a decent beginning if you like.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not really sure I&#8217;ve phrased that question particularly well, but what I&#8217;m trying to say is that there&#8217;s going to be some people who say, why do we need this? What&#8217;s the point when we&#8217;ve been getting along just fine for many, many years? We don&#8217;t want one player dominating the market in accreditation and certifications. So we&#8217;ll just speak to that for a minute.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:00] Talisha Lewallen: Yeah. I&#8217;ve had this conversation, it actually might have been on Bob&#8217;s podcast. And through a conversation that I had with somebody else, it got brought up to why CertifyWP. Why should a third party be able to have this credentialing instead of either the hosting companies or Automattic themselves, whichever way you want to look at it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why should this third party be able to do it? And my answer is always, why not? We are able to have this just absolutely community built and maintained. I think it gives us the freedom is what I should say. It gives us the freedom to be able to keep it unbiased as possible, to where it benefits the most people that we can.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not everybody&#8217;s going to be happy with it, no matter what we do, and that&#8217;s fine. We&#8217;re here to help the most people that we can. So having it community built and maintained just allows for a little bit more freedom to get the information that we see as a community that people need to learn, and have to be able to do the jobs that we are hiring them for, or that we want them to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so my example, if you go onto Fiverr, and again, I&#8217;m not dissing anybody that works on Fiverr or does websites. It is a great platform for you to be able to get contract work. But when you look on there and you look at a WordPress developer, I need a WordPress website. There are, I mean, it seems like thousands of people out there that are like, oh, I&#8217;m a WordPress expert.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I even saw a couple that were I&#8217;m certified in WordPress. And I&#8217;m like, no you&#8217;re not, because there&#8217;s not one. It&#8217;s one of those that people that are just an average Joe that&#8217;s trying to get their website built is not going to know about the community. That we don&#8217;t already have this certification. That we don&#8217;t already have all of this baseline knowledge. They&#8217;re not going to know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so this credential allows even contractors to hire the right person and know that they have been certified, and that they know what they&#8217;re doing and they know what they&#8217;re going to get out of the product based off of that. So it really, it&#8217;s really just this, I keep going back to community built and maintained, because I want, I really want everybody to know it&#8217;s not us sitting here saying that, oh, we have the master knowledge and we, we know what everybody needs, because we don&#8217;t.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s where we are willing to hear your side and your opinion and really build the credential that the community needs and is going to use and finds the most benefit out of. We&#8217;re coming from a very big place of love and light and you know, trying just to help. And you know, that&#8217;s just really where we&#8217;re at at this point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:34:28] Nathan Wrigley: With that conversation in mind, have you had any collisions with the use of WordPress, because obviously WordPress, the word is a trademark. I noticed that you&#8217;re calling it CertifyWP, so you&#8217;ve, you&#8217;ve sidestep that one, but I wonder if there are any collisions there that need to be avoided.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:34:49] Talisha Lewallen: So, so far, I&#8217;ll say now, we have been in contact with Josepha and Matt Mullenweg has been on some email chains. I have not personally got to speak to Matt about these, but Michelle Frechette, fantastic woman, and saves my life every day, I swear. Michelle, and myself had a meeting with Josepha and we sat down and we explained what we are trying to, and it really, I mean it was a very positive conversation in my opinion.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so it was never brought up that, I&#8217;d hate to say that, you know, we get trademark or you know, cease and desist, but it was really, they were just trying to figure out where they wanted their position to be and that they would get back to us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that was around December and, you know, you got to love the holidays and everything else. But so far, no. But we are definitely wanting to also work with everybody with inside WordPress. So we would never want to do anything that Matt or Josepha would think that was not appropriate to the point of wanting us to cease and desist or whatever else.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I also know that there&#8217;s another company, I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s public knowledge, so I don&#8217;t want to just like throw it out there. But there is another company that is building or hoping to build a top tier credential. So it would be like our credentialing, and then you would be able to take theirs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that would allow participants who had that credential to be hired by these absolutely massive corporations that are in WordPress. There are very large companies that use WordPress and they need a certain type of developer and security knowledge. And so that level of credentialing would take it one step above ours.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And since that company works with those high level companies, they would be the best fit to be able to create that level of credentialing. I mean, that&#8217;s the fun thing. The credentialing is coming. It&#8217;s been talked about a lot and I&#8217;m excited for the growth. I&#8217;m excited for the next couple of years to see where these credentials really take us as a community. But yeah, no, so far the conversations we&#8217;ve had with, I&#8217;ll say the powers that be, have been very positive.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:50] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. It&#8217;s just nice to hear that you&#8217;ve had those conversations because obviously that would be an area of, uh, of concern if you hadn&#8217;t, so at least that, that&#8217;s been put on the table, shall we say. You mentioned community a few times there, and it might be an interesting moment just to wrap this up to talk about the people that are involved and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, Talisha, there&#8217;s obviously you. But you&#8217;ve got a whole bunch of other people on board. Do you just want to give us a bit of a name drop on who&#8217;s involved so far. And I guess an ancillary question to that is, are you still open for other people to join and lead certain areas, and be involved? Is this still a group which is welcoming community members in to help?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:37:30] Talisha Lewallen: Yes. So right now our advisory board and I always say this like, oh, sorry if I forget anybody. I always feel so bad. Because we have added people on in the last little bit. So we have Courtney Robertson, we have Gabriel Cohen of PMC. Jess Frick from Pressable. Michelle Frechette, love her. And we also have Nikki Bulmer. So they&#8217;re both from the Liquid Web brand. And then we have Robbie Adair with OS Training, and we just brought on Zach Stepek, and we brought him on because once we started talking about, okay, we needed the front end and the back end credential. All of us are talking about the front end, and I said, okay, so what do we know about backend?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do we know about really coding and what do we know about all of this? And we all just kind of sat there and we&#8217;re like, okay, we need to find somebody else that could be that expert in that field. So whenever we find there is a lack of our knowledge, or that we could find somebody that has a little bit more, we are definitely open to bringing them on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not that we&#8217;re trying to keep it small, but we want to keep the team progressing. And so when you get too many people, sometimes that can be a hindrance to the progression forward, but we also need to have as many people as we need to get the best product possible as well. So we are still open to certain people. If anybody wants to be involved, definitely reach out. If we have the space and need that area of knowledge, definitely want to do that. And then we have our board of directors. And we are trying to keep the board as separate from the advisory board as possible. There are a few people that are crossing over, just because of their expertise and skills whenever we are putting the board together.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we have myself, Michelle, Nikki and Jess. But then we also have Rob Howard, and Hans. That is currently our board of directors. We have our first meeting today, actually. I&#8217;m very excited about that. And then we have our next advisory board meeting on Thursday, and we are hoping to get the level, so for the front end credential, the level one course and exam approved by the board and the level two course and exam as well. Very exciting stuff happening this week.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:39:50] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, it&#8217;s all moving forward, isn&#8217;t it? This is really great. We&#8217;re probably just going to have to round it up in terms of time, but before we do that, if people have been listening to this and they&#8217;d like to find out more, possibly get involved from either direction, whether that&#8217;s from the company side, looking to consume the accreditation, or if somebody would like to be involved in taking the accreditation and wants a little bit more information, where are the best places to go to contact either CertifyWP or just you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:40:18] Talisha Lewallen: Me, you could find me on Post Status Slack. Or you can always hit the contact forms on either website page. They get emailed to myself to either wpconnects.com or certifywp.com. And we are also in Twitter and we now have Tumblr. We just recently got on Tumblr as well. So any of those ways are perfect ways to get ahold of us. Or my email is always a great way, which is just talisha @ wpconnects.com</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:40:46] Nathan Wrigley: As always, I&#8217;ll put the links that you mentioned into the show notes, so if anybody wants to follow those up, just head over to the WP Tavern website, search for this episode and you should be able to find the links there. So it only remains for me to thank you Talisha for coming on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:41:02] Talisha Lewallen: Well, I very much appreciate you having me and WPConnects and CertifyWP all in one. I know it&#8217;s a lot of information, but I very much appreciate it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:41:11] Nathan Wrigley: Thank you very much indeed.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/talisha-lewallen-57758b85/\">Talisha Lewallen</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You might have found your way into WordPress intentionally, or perhaps you stumbled across it and decided to explore further. Whichever it was, you&#8217;ve learned things along the way. Some of it might have been through training, but there’s likely been some self-discovery on the way as well. Perhaps you’re a coder, or a designer. In fact, there are dozens of different pathways in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the broad range of knowledge you might possess, how can you prove that you know what you know?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many industries provide training programs which, when completed successfully, allow you to assert that you are competent in a given area. You’d want your lawyer and surgeon to have passed through the appropriate program of study, so that they’re equipped to do that work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With WordPress being such a dominant force in the world of websites, would it be a good idea to have a certification for WordPress? Talisha certainly thinks so and has founded <a href=\"https://certifywp.com/\">CertifyWP</a> to try to make that happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We approach this subject through the work that she’s been doing at <a href=\"https://wpconnects.com/\">WPConnects</a> in which she’s been trying to provide training to military veterans, so that on their departure from the services, they have the prospect of finding work in the WordPress space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about whether there is a need for a certification for WordPress and how such a certification would come about. What levels of training does Talisha see as essential, and how many such layers might there be?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We discuss whether the WordPress community is ready for a third party to be certifying people’s abilities and whether this strays away from the approach that we’ve had so far, in which routes into employment have relied upon other, less formal, methods.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later in the podcast we talk about the structure of CertifyWP and who is behind the project. You’ll hear that it’s not just Talisha, there are quite a few members of the community who want this project to succeed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you’re curious about certifications in the WordPress space, this podcast is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Useful links.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wpconnects.com/\">WPConnects website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://certifywp.com/\">CertifyWP website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://dothewoo.io/wordpress-certification/\">Talisha on the Do the Woo podcast</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/wp_connects\">WPConnects Twitter</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.tumblr.com/wp-connects\">WP Connects Tumblr</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Nathan Wrigley\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:54:\"HeroPress: Everybody is a Node: Connecting and Growing\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=5400\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:158:\"https://heropress.com/essays/everybody-is-a-node-connecting-and-growing/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=everybody-is-a-node-connecting-and-growing\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:21526:\"<img width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/031423-min.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pull Quote: Everybody you encounter is an opportunity to learn and grow, and when we commit to growing together, we create ecosystems of mutual joy.\" /><h2 id=\"h-starting-with-a-definition\">Starting with a Definition</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Google defines the term <em>node </em>as “a point at which lines or pathways intersect.”It’s a connecting point. For the use of <em>node</em> in botany, Google offers a second definition: “the part of a plant stem from which one or more leaves emerge.” It’s a point for growth. Today, I’ll provide a third definition that combines the first two. A <em>node </em>is you, me, and everybody, all on our professional and personal journeys through life.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I currently work as an independent product designer, which perfectly combines my interests in culture, business, and the internet. One day, I hope to evolve my practice into a consulting business for Black-owned internet companies. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>My path to my current position and future goal has been shaped by points of intersection with everyone I’ve encountered along the way. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>These experiences helped me grow, helped my leaves flourish and my branches stretch further. My pathway collided with others in my field and adjacent areas, and from these interactions, I made connections with mentors, colleagues, and friends.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The business term for this is <em>networking.</em> Something we’re all told to do to move forward in our careers. But making connections is more than just a box to tick on the to-do list of life — it’s the fundamental act that makes our lives worth living.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, the journey to a fulfilling life began in an art museum.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-finding-new-direction\">Finding New Direction</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In college, I pursued a degree in Art History. I interned at, and was later employed by, the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I practically lived in that building during my employment, and I loved it. Art is a way to connect with people: when we interpret creative works, we interpret the human experience. Art helps us understand one another and understand ourselves. I thoroughly enjoy immersing myself in the art world consisting of brick-and-mortar museums and galleries. But as it turned out, art became a stepping stone towards my next passion &#8211; the internet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My brain thrives on projects. I love to create and collaborate, and I’m an idea-engine, always itching to bring my concepts to life. Throughout college, I had aspirations to start a website about art, but struggled to find the best avenue to start. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>After graduation when my schedule cleared up, a friend working in software engineering turned me toward WordPress. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It was for non-developers like me and provided the digital access I craved for my latest project. His advice permanently shifted my trajectory. Without this interaction, I never would’ve found the pathway to realizing my passions with WordPress.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using WordPress, I developed the arts website I had dreamt of. That site, <em>In-Art</em> was a place to talk about art online &#8211; <em>include, interpret, interact</em>. At that point, WordPress still felt like a hobby — albeit, the hobby that made me feel the most human. I devoted as much time to it as I could, and began seeking out WordPress meetups.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little did I know at that very first WordPress Meetup, I’d meet the man who would later become my boss. Dan Olson gave a talk on “The Future of WordPress” at my first Philly WordPress meetup. In hindsight, the title feels like a pun from the universe since WordPress became <em>my </em>future. At this event, I also met Jason McClintock, my mentor and the lead designer at DigitalCube. In fact, he’s the one who suggested Dan hire me!&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-verticals\">Verticals</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The beauty of networking is two-fold: verticals and horizontals. In the case of Dan and Jason, Jason serves as my vertical. Verticals have the same specialty, like product design, but are at different stages in their journeys, from interns to experts.&nbsp; Your verticals serve as inspirations and guides when you break into the field, since they’ve been there, done that, and lived to tell you how you can do it too.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you’re further along in your professional journey, you take over and become the mentor for other newbies. You bestow upon them all your wisdom, like, “This is the best platform to simplify your process” and “splurge for the large coffee on big project days, your sleepy brain will thank you.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But your verticals are also your competition. Competition doesn’t have to be cutthroat, and should never sway you from interacting with them. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The lessons your verticals will teach you are invaluable, and the act of teaching mentees is fulfilling and enlightening. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>However, logically, if you only interact with people who do what you do, you won’t be meeting the people who <em>need</em> what you do. Fellow UX designers don’t have a need for UX design, they have a need for UX design <em>jobs</em>. Who offers jobs like that? That’s where Horizontals come into play.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-horizontals\">Horizontals&nbsp;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Horizontals are the people working side by side in the supply chain of a service. Take a website for example — designers collaborate with developers, marketing specialists, content creators, and business owners to create the strongest final product for their future customers. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Unless you’re a multi-talented wizard with no need for sleep and no limit for creativity, it takes <em>every single team member</em> working together to bring excellent large-scale projects into fruition. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>For DigitalCube, Dan was one of my horizontals. Dan’s technical expertise combined well with my passion for networking and public speaking. Together, we created a discovery process for new clients, reworked our events marketing strategy, and improved technical support service.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I’m a people person, and part of what I admire so much about people is how uniquely skilled we are in different ways. Life would be incredibly dull if we all had the same goals, same passions, same drives that make life worth living. Everybody you encounter is an opportunity to learn and grow, and when we commit to growing together, we create ecosystems of mutual joy. There’s an antiquated idea that to be successful, you must work solo. You should be a lone wolf, step on whatever toes necessary to get your foot through the best doors. I wholeheartedly reject that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone deserves a piece of the pie, and everyone deserves a spot at the table. The horizontals I surround myself with are believers in the power of side-by-side success, in working together to achieve excellence<em> together</em>. This commitment to communal efforts helped me take the leap to finding success and happiness.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-how-i-leaped-where-i-landed\">How I Leaped &amp; Where I Landed&nbsp;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I dabbled as a digital marking assistant for a few months, but it was a UX bootcamp that really ignited my professional passions. The bootcamp built upon my foundation of WordPress. Before it was even over, I began freelancing by creating elementor websites for others. I started helping entrepreneurs put forth websites that launched their projects and captured their essences through effective, engaging design.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spend each day actively seeking new clients, growing my portfolio and my abilities with each new project. The clients I work with inspire me and align with my values, an added freedom that comes with entrepreneurship. I’m also preparing business school applications for some point in the future to learn more about finance and management, with the goals of growing a consulting service that will support Black-owned businesses on the web.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contracting is very fulfilling, and it keeps me connected to the spaces that sparked my passion in the first place. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>I continue to attend WordPress meetups and WordCamps, volunteering in any way I can, eager to support the community that motivates me. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I relish these meetups: sources of learning and growing where I could nerd out about all the WordPress topics I love with a bunch of fellow nerds. Plus, the free swag at WordCamps<em> never </em>hurts. In 2020, I crafted my first WordPress talk, leaning on my love of public speaking. These efforts forged even more connections between myself and the WordPress community. Now, I&#8217;m happy to lead the Philly WordPress Meetup Group, recruiting interesting speakers for our events to help forge more connections for our members.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shoutouts to some WordPress <em>SUPER-</em>nodes who changed the trajectory of my journey:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilio-garza-13126490/\">Emilio Garza</a> for telling me to use WordPress for my first website</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-t-olson/\">Dan Olson</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/hithisisjason/\">Jason McClintock</a>, and <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiromichi-koga-128b2428/?originalSubdomain=jp\">Koga Hiromichi</a> for giving me my first big WordPress gig</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-letson-phl/\">Amy Letson</a> and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/kcristiano/\">Kevin Cristiano</a> for welcoming me as an organizer for the Philadelphia WordPress Meetup group</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mauteri/\">Mike Auteri</a> and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/newyorkerlaura/\">Laura Bryne</a> for welcoming into the Montclair WordPress Community</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/isvictorious/\">Victor Ramirez</a> for co-hosting WP @ REC Philly with me</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://allienimmons.com/\">Allie Nimmons</a> and <a href=\"https://meetmichelle.online/\">Michelle Frechette</a> for general awesomeness&nbsp;</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-moral-of-my-story\">Moral of My Story</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Life is a string of transitions, a catapult of change. Whether you’re a recent graduate with no clear path to finding your peace and realizing your passions, or you’re settled into your career with no clear signs of stalling, life will keep throwing new obstacles and opportunities at you. If you tackle them alone, you’ll enjoy the highs alone, with no one to celebrate your successes. You’ll endure the lows alone too, with no one to offer a helping hand and pull you from your pit of self doubt. You will miss out on critical lessons that set you back in both your professional and personal journeys.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each day, I immerse myself in growth-centered communities so we can learn and succeed together. I am who I am because of who I’ve met, from college friends, to coworkers, to clients. Here’s the story so far: I’ve found my place, my peace, and my passions. This is a tale I couldn’t tell without the communities, mentors, and friends I’ve encountered along the way.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id_2abfd1-ed alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout\"><div class=\"kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column_5bfb8b-3c\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<h2 id=\"work-environment\" class=\"kt-adv-heading_c792ee-c4 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">Rachel&#8217;s Work Environment</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We asked Rachel for a view into her development life and this is what she sent! </p>\n\n\n\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .hotspots-image-container,\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-container {\n		background: #efefef	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .hotspots-placeholder,\n	.featherlight .featherlight-content.lightbox-5415 {\n		background: #ffffff;\n		border: 0 #ffffff solid;\n		color: #000000;\n	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-title,\n	#hotspot-5415 .bc-product__title a,\n	.featherlight .featherlight-content.lightbox-5415 .hotspot-title,\n	.featherlight .featherlight-content.lightbox-5415 .bc-product__title a {\n		color: #000000;\n	}\n\n			#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-style-1 {\n			stroke-width: 1;\n			fill: #ffffff;\n			fill-opacity: 0;\n			stroke: #ffffff;\n			stroke-opacity: 0;\n		}\n		#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-style-1:hover,\n		#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-style-1:focus,\n		#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-style-1.hotspot-active {\n			fill: #ffffff;\n			fill-opacity: 0.81;\n			outline: none;\n			stroke: #ffffff;\n			stroke-opacity: 0.81;\n		}\n			#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-default {\n			stroke-width: 1;\n			fill: #ffffff;\n			fill-opacity: 0;\n			stroke: #ffffff;\n			stroke-opacity: 0;\n		}\n		#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-default:hover,\n		#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-default:focus,\n		#hotspot-5415 .hotspot-default.hotspot-active {\n			fill: #ffffff;\n			fill-opacity: 0.81;\n			outline: none;\n			stroke: #ffffff;\n			stroke-opacity: 0.81;\n		}\n		#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-tooltip,\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-rrose-content-wrapper {\n		background: #ffffff;\n		border-color: #ffffff;\n		color: #000000;\n	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 a.leaflet-rrose-close-button {\n		color: #000000;\n	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-rrose-tip {\n		background: #ffffff;\n	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-popup-scrolled {\n		border-bottom-color: #000000;\n		border-top-color: #000000;\n	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-tooltip-top:before {\n		border-top-color: #ffffff;\n	}\n\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-tooltip-bottom:before {\n		border-bottom-color: #ffffff;\n	}\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-tooltip-left:before {\n		border-left-color: #ffffff;\n	}\n	#hotspot-5415 .leaflet-tooltip-right:before {\n		border-right-color: #ffffff;\n	}\n\n\n\n	<div class=\"hotspots-container  layout-lightbox event-click\" id=\"hotspot-5415\">\n		<div class=\"hotspots-interaction\">\n			<div class=\"hotspots-image-container\">\n	<img width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/my-desk-scaled-scrubbed.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Winchester\" class=\"hotspots-image skip-lazy\" usemap=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hotspots-image-5415\" />\n</div>		</div>\n		<map name=\"hotspots-image-5415\" class=\"hotspots-map\">\n											<area shape=\"polygon\" coords=\"1171,627,2158,636,2182,654,2125,1277,2103,1294,1697,1251,1721,1271,1753,1281,1786,1292,1771,1410,1404,1360,1469,1245,1519,1249,1523,1227,1171,1199,1149,1186\" href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hotspot-hotspot-5415-0\" title=\"HP W2082a 20-inch LED Backlit Monitor\" alt=\"HP W2082a 20-inch LED Backlit Monitor\" target=\"\" class=\"more-info-area\" />\n											<area shape=\"polygon\" coords=\"321,854,1053,829,1088,1257,1212,1477,295,1618,353,1334\" href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hotspot-hotspot-5415-1\" title=\"Lenovo Yoga\" alt=\"Lenovo Yoga\" target=\"\" class=\"more-info-area\" />\n											<area shape=\"polygon\" coords=\"292,398,538,382,576,404,592,454,632,486,680,834,304,844,254,506,294,468\" href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hotspot-hotspot-5415-2\" title=\"Guitars!\" alt=\"Guitars!\" target=\"\" class=\"more-info-area\" />\n											<area shape=\"polygon\" coords=\"2558,4,2380,928,2422,958,2420,984,2396,970,2355,1104,2374,1262,2554,1304\" href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hotspot-hotspot-5415-3\" title=\"Philadelphia!\" alt=\"Philadelphia!\" target=\"\" class=\"more-info-area\" />\n											<area shape=\"polygon\" coords=\"2200,905,2249,905,2292,909,2333,921,2379,933,2401,952,2348,1108,2397,1420,2393,1444,2517,1494,2522,1506,2514,1521,2368,1629,2347,1633,2325,1633,1988,1493,1976,1480,1977,1468,2151,1377,2174,1373,2194,1380,2251,1401,2265,1373,2255,1264,2166,1239,2102,1204,2107,1190,2127,1191,2212,939,2196,923\" href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hotspot-hotspot-5415-4\" title=\"AboveTEK Phone Stand\" alt=\"AboveTEK Phone Stand\" target=\"\" class=\"more-info-area\" />\n					</map>\n\n		\n					\n						<div class=\"hotspot-info\" id=\"hotspot-hotspot-5415-0\">\n				\n				<h2 class=\"hotspot-title\">HP W2082a 20-inch LED Backlit Monitor</h2>								<div class=\"hotspot-content\">\n					<p>My monitor used as a second, rather than a mirror.  I only wish it were touchscreen also.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-20-inch-displays/7274714/model/7846273/manuals\">Link</a></p>\n				</div>\n			</div>\n					\n						<div class=\"hotspot-info\" id=\"hotspot-hotspot-5415-1\">\n				\n				<h2 class=\"hotspot-title\">Lenovo Yoga</h2>								<div class=\"hotspot-content\">\n					<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">I love my laptop because it\'s touch screen, and it can convert into a tablet. To me, Touch screen navigation is a better experience than using a mouse. But my monitor isn\'t touch screen lol.</span></p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/yoga/\">Link</a></p>\n				</div>\n			</div>\n					\n						<div class=\"hotspot-info\" id=\"hotspot-hotspot-5415-2\">\n				\n				<h2 class=\"hotspot-title\">Guitars!</h2>								<div class=\"hotspot-content\">\n					<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1habvwh r-1wbh5a2\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-k200y r-gu4em3 r-6t5ypu r-1roi411 r-1fuqb1j r-deolkf r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l r-ymttw5 r-1f1sjgu r-o7ynqc r-6416eg\">\n<div class=\"css-901oao r-jwli3a r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-bnwqim r-fdjqy7 r-1rozpwm r-qvutc0\" dir=\"auto\">\n<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">I have two next to my desk. One is an Ibanez semi hollow, and the other is an ESP explorer. </span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">I just play for myself sometimes. </span></p>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1habvwh r-1wbh5a2\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-k200y r-gu4em3 r-6t5ypu r-1roi411 r-1fuqb1j r-deolkf r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l r-ymttw5 r-1f1sjgu r-o7ynqc r-6416eg\">\n<div class=\"css-901oao r-jwli3a r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-bnwqim r-fdjqy7 r-1rozpwm r-qvutc0\" dir=\"auto\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">The Ibanez is great for jazz rock and blues. The ESP is for metal.</span></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n				</div>\n			</div>\n					\n						<div class=\"hotspot-info\" id=\"hotspot-hotspot-5415-3\">\n				\n				<h2 class=\"hotspot-title\">Philadelphia!</h2>								<div class=\"hotspot-content\">\n									</div>\n			</div>\n					\n						<div class=\"hotspot-info\" id=\"hotspot-hotspot-5415-4\">\n				\n				<h2 class=\"hotspot-title\">AboveTEK Phone Stand</h2>								<div class=\"hotspot-content\">\n					<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1habvwh r-1wbh5a2\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-k200y r-gu4em3 r-6t5ypu r-1roi411 r-1fuqb1j r-deolkf r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l r-ymttw5 r-1f1sjgu r-o7ynqc r-6416eg\">\n<div class=\"css-901oao r-jwli3a r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-bnwqim r-fdjqy7 r-1rozpwm r-qvutc0\" dir=\"auto\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">I keep my phone in the stand most of the day so i don\'t use it too often. It becomes apart of my workspace just like the monitor.</span></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"></div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1habvwh r-1wbh5a2\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-k200y r-gu4em3 r-6t5ypu r-1roi411 r-1fuqb1j r-deolkf r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l r-ymttw5 r-1f1sjgu r-o7ynqc r-6416eg\">\n<div class=\"css-901oao r-jwli3a r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-bnwqim r-fdjqy7 r-1rozpwm r-qvutc0\" dir=\"auto\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">If i keep it in my pocket or laying around somewhere else, I\'ll take it out too often just to check it. But when it\'s docked, I don\'t pick it up as often.</span></div>\n</div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"></div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/AboveTEK-Business-Aluminum-Professional-Showroom/dp/B07KJLBG8G/ref=sxin_16_ci_mcx_mi_sr_m_il?content-id=amzn1.sym.628beb02-7a42-4f70-8d1a-a780fab5eff1%3Aamzn1.sym.628beb02-7a42-4f70-8d1a-a780fab5eff1&crid=2RQ43EHTZGR0Y&cv_ct_cx=abovetek+phone&keywords=abovetek+phone&pd_rd_i=B07KJLBG8G&pd_rd_r=6e909905-882d-49e3-b5c7-9c753158d3ce&pd_rd_w=PF4tT&pd_rd_wg=Zi305&pf_rd_p=628beb02-7a42-4f70-8d1a-a780fab5eff1&pf_rd_r=BC482B9CJ32Q1J7VR935&qid=1678723787&s=electronics&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=abovetek+phone%2Celectronics%2C84&sr=1-3-9eb59ba4-cd99-4f87-9222-b322340b23c8\">Link</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n				</div>\n			</div>\n			</div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading_b9c76c-f5 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading has-theme-palette-9-background-color has-background\">HeroPress would like to thank <a href=\"https://wpdrawattention.com/\">Draw Attention</a> for their donation of the plugin to make this interactive image!</p>\n</div></div>\n\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Header image <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/\">CCO</a> licensed <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/61862d3612/\">photo</a> by <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/photos/author/newyorkerlaura/\">Laura Byrne</a> from the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/photos/\">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://heropress.com/essays/everybody-is-a-node-connecting-and-growing/\">Everybody is a Node: Connecting and Growing</a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://heropress.com\">HeroPress</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17:\"Rachel Winchester\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:61:\"WPTavern: Gutenberg 15.3 Adds New “Time to Read” Block \";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=142655\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:63:\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-15-3-adds-new-time-to-read-block\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1721:\"<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/13/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-3-13-march/\">Gutenberg 15.3</a> was released this week with a new &#8220;Time to Read&#8221; block that calculates the estimated reading time for the post or page using the same method that appears in the details panel. The block displays this information on the frontend wherever it is inserted. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>This is the first iteration of the Time to Read block, so it isn&#8217;t very customizable yet. Although users can add custom CSS to the block, it only includes alignment controls right now. The block needs Typography controls and more options for customizing its appearance to be consistent with other core blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 15.3 Duotone filters have been <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/48318\">reworked</a> in several ways to make them more portable across themes. Previously, duotone settings were stored as an array of colors. This has been changed so that duotone presets are stored as slugs, making the color swatches available when a user changes themes. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another change for Duotone filters in this release is the ability to set them globally inside the Site Editor&#8217;s Styles panel. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Site Editor also received several improvements to make the design more clear and consistent, updating the designs for the edit button and the add template modal, and cleaning up the template details popover, among other small changes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/13/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-3-13-march/\">15.3 changelog</a> for the full rundown of all the enhancements, bug fixes, and accessibility and performance improvements.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Mar 2023 21:10:04 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:68:\"WPTavern: WordPress 6.2 RC 2 Drops Navigation Panel from Site Editor\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=142699\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:79:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-2-rc-2-drops-navigation-panel-from-site-editor\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2828:\"<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-2/\">WordPress 6.2 RC 2</a> was released today on schedule. The new Navigation section in the Site Editor was <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/14/fyi-navigation-section-of-new-site-editor-experienced-removed-for-6-2-rc-2/\">dropped from the upcoming release</a> in a somewhat unusual turn of events this late in the release cycle. The feature will remain in the Gutenberg plugin and will be iterated on for a future core release. Users will still be able to manage their menus within the block settings of the Navigation block. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Navigation section was added in Gutenberg 15.1, the last release to be rolled into 6.2, and the one with the least amount of time to be tested.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;After being added and as the beta cycle continued, various bugs and refinements started adding up,&#8221; Editor Triage Co-Lead Anne McCarthy said. &#8220;In particular, the top pain points revolved around which menu appears (and how to change it), needing a better description of what this newer section did, and improving the general experience of adding links from that section.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>McCarthy published a video showing what has been removed: </p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>The conversation leading to this decision was spread across many PRs, issues, and Slack conversations, so it became difficult to track. McCarthy cited a dozen of the related issues and PR&#8217;s, including page links being buried in the inserter, confusion around which menu is pulled into the panel, and many other loose ends that do not provide a good experience for users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p> &#8220;Even with trying to lock the experience further down, bugs continued to pop up and the experience isn’t polished enough to move forward with,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This led to a decision amongst Core Editor Tech, Core Editor Triage, and the Design lead ahead of WordPress 6.2 RC 2 to remove that was then <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C04JZ199XPG/p1678728808778249\">shared with the wider release squad</a>.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/49043\">PR to remove the feature</a> was merged 13 hours ago and now the navigation panel will only be visible if using the Gutenberg plugin. Anyone who is creating documentation or educational resources for WordPress should be aware that those related to the navigation panel may need to be udpated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 6.2 is now just two weeks away from being released on March 28, 2023. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/02/07/help-test-wordpress-6-2/\">Testing</a> and <a href=\"https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev\">translation</a> are still needed to ensure the official release will be ready for the world of WordPress users.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Mar 2023 18:58:08 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.2 Release Candidate 2\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=14640\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:69:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-2/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4643:\"<p>Here it is: the second release candidate (RC2) for WordPress 6.2 is ready! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 6.2 is scheduled for release on March 28, 2023—which is only two weeks away. Now is your perfect opportunity if you haven’t tried it out yet. Your feedback and help filing bug reports are what keep the WordPress experience stable, smooth, and delightful. It’s important work and a great way to contribute to the project.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to everyone who tested the Beta and RC releases so far. Since RC1 was released on March 9, there have been about 36 issues resolved in <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=accepted&status=closed&changetime=03%2F07%2F2023..03%2F13%2F2023&milestone=6.2&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=id\">Trac</a> and <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/6.2\">GitHub</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Catch up on the featured highlights, and dig into more 6.2 details, in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-1/\">WordPress 6.2 RC1 release announcement</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to install RC2 for testing</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This version of the WordPress software is under development. </strong>Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended that you test RC2 on a test server and site.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can test WordPress 6.2 RC2 in three ways:</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Option 1</strong>: Install and activate the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/\">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Option 2</strong>: Direct download the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.2-RC2.zip\">RC2 version (zip)</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Option 3</strong>: Use the following WP-CLI command:</p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>wp core update --version=6.2-RC2</code></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A shoutout to plugin and theme developers</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your products are the reason WordPress does so many more things for more people across the world. As you test your latest versions against RC2, make sure you update the “<em>Tested up to”</em> version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.2. If you find compatibility problems, please post detailed information to the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/\">support forums</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/09/wordpress-6-2-field-guide/\">WordPress 6.2 Field Guide</a> for more details about the major changes in this release.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Help translate WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href=\"https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev\">Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages.</a>&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Join the bug hunt—test, test, test</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Without your testing support, hitting important product milestones would be a much bigger challenge. It’s also a meaningful way to contribute to the project. If you’re new to testing, or it’s been a while, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/02/07/help-test-wordpress-6-2/\">this detailed guide</a> can help you get started.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you think you have run into an issue, please report it to the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/\">Alpha/Beta area</a> in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket\">file one on WordPress Trac</a>. You can also check your issue against a list of <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major\">known bugs</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Release the haiku</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen, we are close<br />One step to final RC<br />Breathe, and keep going</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/laurlittle/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>laurlittle</a> <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>marybaum</a> <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>audrasjb</a> <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>cbringmann</a></em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Haiku by <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sereedmedia/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>sereedmedia</a></em></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Mar 2023 17:59:33 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:16:\"Jonathan Pantani\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:46:\"Post Status: WordPress Website Cost to Develop\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=6897\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:46:\"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-website-cost/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:27067:\"<p>Every business needs a website. Not only does it tell your customers what you do, but it gives you credibility. WordPress is the best website option, but what will it set you back? The WordPress website cost to develop question isn’t so cut and dry.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, you have to talk about cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you’re a consultant, you’ve been asked how much your services cost. And you have to make some decisions:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>What services am I providing?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>How many hours do I think this will take?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>How much is this worth to the client from a business perspective?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Does the client have money? How about a business plan?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Should I charge hourly or by the project?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is this a one-off thing, or is there potential for a long-term relationship?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>How busy am I? Do I need this job? Do I want it?</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These questions are important. The answers are critical. Gauging the client is vital. Every interaction with the client helps you learn more about them and the project and affects the cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cost often also depends on the market and location. For the purpose of this post, we’re assuming we’re talking to an American audience in U.S. dollars.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"develop\">How Much Should a Custom WordPress Website Cost to Develop?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian has built websites or been part of website projects — all on WordPress — ranging in cost from less than $1,000 to more than $100,000 for complete websites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, in short: It always depends.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This differentiation is why we can’t ballpark it for you. It’s essential to build out an estimate specific to your project.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"contents\">Table of Contents</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress Website Cost to Develop</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#develop\">How Much Should a Custom WordPress Website Cost to Develop?</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Table of Contents</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#costs\">Types of Websites and their Costs</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#intodevelopment\">Understanding What Goes into Development</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#cost\">Factors Affecting Website Development Cost</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#businesses\">Considerations for Small Businesses</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#website\">Estimating the Cost to Develop a Website</a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#timeline\">Estimate Cost and Timeline</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#views\">Pricing Views</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#content\">Pricing Content</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#time\">Pricing Time</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#factors\">Pricing Site Factors</a></li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#freelancerdevelopment\">Working with a Freelancer for Website Development</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#agencydevelopment\">Working with an Agency for Website Development</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#rates\">Comparing Freelancer vs. Agency Rates</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#started\">How to Get Your Website Development Started</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"costs\">Types of Websites and their Costs</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many types of websites, each with its potential costs. Brian ranks sites in complexity like this:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Simple Blog.</strong> Archives and single post views only. A pretty typical layout.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Complex Blog.</strong> A bunch of “out of the box” styles for various templates. It requires attention to detail on archives, single posts, and other stuff like post formats.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Brochure Site.</strong> Fairly standard but custom home page design and page layout. Stock archive/blog setup with little to no customizations.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Marketing Site</strong>. A mashup between a simple brochure and a complicated blog. It requires more designs, and the home page might be a little more advanced than the simple brochure.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>E-Commerce Site.</strong> It could be a mix of any of the websites above plus all the needs in e-commerce (like cart/account/checkout views and tons of configuration considerations). This type of project is often a huge PM bump as well.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Small Business Site.</strong> Similar to a marketing site, but often includes a couple of custom content types that require design and code, like events, testimonials, services, etc.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Large Company Site.</strong> Big business websites are like regular business websites, but more. They often have many custom content types, advanced searching needs, tons of content, and some fancy user permissions needs. And, of course, potentially much more.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Non-Profit or Advocacy Site.</strong> Non-profit and advocacy sites are the holy grail of wanting everything on a budget. These are difficult to keep in scope because they often have the exact needs of big businesses without the budgets.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Large Scale Site. </strong>You can take any of these types of websites and then say you need it to handle millions of page views per month without breaking a sweat. A whole new layer of complexity comes into play.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The hours it takes to build these different websites can vary tremendously. It depends on the consultant’s experience, whether they’ve done similar work before, how many “gotchas” appear in the project, how particular the client is about any given feature, and more.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"intodevelopment\">Understanding What Goes into Development</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Not all websites are created equal, so not all websites will take the same time and work to create. Here are some factors to consider related to the website development process.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Static vs. Dynamic Websites</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Static websites are the easiest types of sites to maintain and build. They’re faster for users because they require little back-end processing, and the server only retrieves the requested files. Static sites make it challenging to execute a site-wide change because they require you to update each HTML file.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dynamic sites display different information to each visitor. The visitor’s location, time zone, personal preferences, and habits determine the content. This feature creates a more tailored and interactive experience. Instead of building one page that stays the same, web servers build these personalized pages when users request pages. Dynamic sites build these pages on server-side scripting languages like PHP, Python, or Ruby.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Depending on which type of site you need, you may have to work with different developers. Some common types of development include:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Front-End Development.</strong> The practice of producing CSS, HTML, or JavaScript for a website that the user sees and interacts with directly.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Back-End Development.</strong> Working with server-side software to make sure the site is functioning correctly. Backend development focuses on databases, architecture, and servers.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Database Development.</strong> The type of development that focuses on design, programming, construction, and implementation of new databases and modifying existing databases.&nbsp;</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"cost\">Factors Affecting Website Development Cost</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Each website project is unique, and the factors surrounding each project help determine the website cost to develop.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Factors that affect every project:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Level of Complexity.</strong> More pages take more time and money to build. Plus, parent and child pages can complicate the process.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Design Requirements. </strong>Some websites need special features and customization. The more design requirements for a specific project, the more it will cost.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Platforms and Technologies. </strong>If the project requires the developer to integrate technologies into the website, it adds to the time and cost to build. While many technologies make integrations easy with API keys, not all companies can quickly provide that to their web designer.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Functionality. </strong>Plugins can be relatively inexpensive, but setting them and ensuring they work well together can take a lot of time.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Security.</strong> You can add different levels of security to websites. The costs can be a one-time fee or ongoing. For any e-commerce site, continuous security monitoring is crucial.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maintenance and Updates.</strong> The developer will need to add new components to sites, and regular maintenance ensures everything functions probably and is consistently updated.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"businesses\">Considerations for Small Businesses</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you’re a small business owner needing a website, there are some unique factors to consider before you approach a developer.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Factors that affect small business projects:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Budget. </strong>Knowing the limitations of your budget is crucial. This knowledge will help you choose the best web developer for you while also giving you realistic expectations about the type of website you’ll receive.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Timeline. </strong>The more complex a website is, the longer it takes to develop. Plus, if you have a lot of old website content that needs to be accounted for, it can add development time.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Outsourcing.</strong> When you create a website in-house, you have more control of the process and final product. But when you outsource, you don’t have to worry about paying full-time salary and benefits to the developer or tying up team members with the project.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"website\">Estimating the Cost to Develop a Website</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An estimate takes time. Whether that time is in a paid discovery or a sunk cost the consultant takes on themselves is a different matter. Either way, estimates are expensive because they’re time-consuming. And if a consultant spends a week on an estimate or proposal, they’ll put that cost into the proposal somewhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"timeline\">Estimate Cost and Timeline&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There are some broad brush typical price ranges we can establish for you. Let’s start by segmenting based on who you’re working with. Basically, working with a freelancer will generally be cheaper than working with an agency. Agencies have more overhead, padding built in, concern about cash flow, and generally just tend to be a bit more expensive.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you work with an agency, the risk of them falling off the map is generally lower, but they move slower too. And you’ll often have to deal with changing contacts as the project progresses (from sales to design to development to maintenance).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you work with a freelancer, your risks are a bit higher that they’ll disappear someday. It means vetting them is even more important than with an agency. But they also tend to move quickly and don’t juggle as many projects simultaneously. You also benefit from working with (typically) one person who knows everything about your project, and you don’t feel like you’re constantly getting bounced around between people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s possible to have a great relationship with a freelancer or agency. Which route is better typically depends on the client’s mentality and requirements.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"views\">Pricing Views&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s generally good to estimate how many unique views a website has to consider how much it will cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Unique views are:</h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The home page</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The archive page — although it could be category, search, and more, combined in one unique view</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The blog “post” page</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The generic “page” template, though it can be mashed with the post view</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Custom page templates — like fancy about us pages or a key landing page</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Custom post types — sometimes in the traditional archive/singular sense and other times the way it sits within another view, like how an FAQ content type may fit into a regular page</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Variable sidebars within sections of the website</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Unique views aren’t always evident. Depending on how discovery conversations go with the client, you can figure out more necessary unique views.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What’s essential about unique views is that they’re excellent for estimating design time, and they can help guide estimating development time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a unique view requires a comp (design preview for the client), then that’s a relatively set number of required hours for design. If it doesn’t require a comp, it’s still best to build in time for the designer to do a quality check after it’s developed, so they can make sure it looks good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Designing a unique view from the ground up could take a designer between four and 10 hours, depending on the complexity. For certain complex or innovative views, that number could hit upward of 20 hours just for design.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, design requires a base set of hours to establish the overall tone of the website and to design things rarely considered with unique views, like the header, footer, and overall style guide. The website\'s base elements and style guide could easily range between 10 and 100 hours. It’s a ridiculous range, but it\'s necessary.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we’ve established a framework for pricing the design of unique views. Developing them is a different story.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You must carefully consider development. Generally, every design hour should get a development hour to go with it. But development hours can easily break that rule, especially when developing something complex.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Development hours can be <em>literally anything</em> for wholly custom functionality, which is entirely outside this post\'s scope. Development can cost millions of dollars.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"content\">Pricing Content&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With WordPress, you can add as many posts and pages as you want. But the more posts or pages the client’s existing website has (and expects to transfer to the new site), the more complex the new project will be.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Some levels to consider when pricing content:</h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Less than 10 pages </strong>&#8211;<strong> </strong>No big deal</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>More than 30 pages</strong> &#8211; Start thinking about structure</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hierarchical pages (lots of parent &gt; child page relationships)</strong> &#8211; Require strategic thinking time</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hundreds of pages</strong> &#8211; Either a problem or a lot of strategy and design consideration</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Thousands of blog posts, taxonomies (category/tag handling), and searches</strong> &#8211; Probably cost more</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A lot of content</strong> &#8211; Navigation needs to be uniquely priced&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Multi-author blog</strong> &#8211; Needs special consideration</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pages or posts need editorial workflow (section management, change or publishing approval, etc.)</strong> &#8211; Need special consideration</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Current CMS isn’t WordPress &#8211; </strong>Migration requires special language and details to make it happen</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Current CMS is WordPress</strong> &#8211; Understand plugins or custom code potentially creating shortcodes or weird content handling (maybe with custom fields) or what other bad practices may be present</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"time\">Pricing Time</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Time is a huge factor to consider when building a website. Developers need to charge for the time a project will take to complete.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both freelancers and agencies factor time into their pricing. So the time spent researching a project, bidding on it, and meeting with the clients is built into the pricing structure. It’s not just the cost of the time spent working on WordPress website development, though that is the bulk of the cost.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"factors\">Pricing Site Factors&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Every website development project is different, and the goals of each website owner vary as well. The developer must consider each specification when determining the website\'s cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the client is a huge factor in price. In short, if a client is going to be difficult, it affects the client multiplier on the overall project cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Client qualities that end up costing money are when the client:</h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Doesn’t have a single point of contact (multiple people always have to be looped into communication)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Has to get some form of committee approval</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Isn’t decisive or is incapable of playing the “consultant advocate” role well internally</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Has a lot of red tape for decision making</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Payment schedules are awful (payment may take months)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is prone to huge email threads about small issues</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wants daily or frequent phone calls or meetings</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Doesn’t have a clear business plan and will require a lot of advising</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These are mostly people and organizational things. They have little to do with the actual project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let’s say the work for a project will be about $20,000. Add in these client qualities that could get costly from a project management perspective and apply them to the overall cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a $20,000 project, it’s not uncommon for $5,000 of that to be project management costs. If there are enough concerns to warrant 50% higher PM costs, the project gets a $2,500, or 12.5%, increase in overall project cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking for client qualities that trigger higher costs is vital as a consultant. For potential clients, remember that your qualities (organizational and behavioral) affect your consultant’s price.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"freelancerdevelopment\">Working with a Freelancer for Website Development&nbsp;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Freelancers can be an affordable option for website development, but not everyone enjoys working with them, and they aren\'t the right fit for every project.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Pros and Cons of Freelancers</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Working with freelancers can be good if you have a quick turnaround time. Unlike agencies, freelancers tend to work on one project at a time, so they can focus on your website until it’s finished. You’ll also only communicate with the freelancer during the project, unlike with agencies where you may speak to different departments in various project stages.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But freelancers don’t always have the same schedule availability since they’re a smaller business operation. So, if you need updates in the future, it may take a long time to get on the freelancer’s schedule.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, many freelancers work alone, leading to a more unstructured process, which means you may not know the project\'s stage. The freelancer you work with will also likely be acting as their own project manager, so you won’t necessarily get as many updates or information about the project\'s status while they’re working.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>When a Freelancer is a Good Fit&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In general, freelancers are great for jobs that fit the following criteria:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Are small enough for one person to handle&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have a tight timeline, and you want them to start quickly</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are fine with informal communication channels&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don\'t need big contractor agreements, insurance, or other common big-business requirements</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"agencydevelopment\">Working with an Agency for Website Development&nbsp;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Agencies are a more established alternative to working with freelancers. They tend to have greater resources and an established process.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Pros and Cons of Agencies&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Working with agencies can be good for a lot of reasons. Because they specialize in what you’re paying for, you have the potential to build a long-term relationship with them and will be able to come back to them for future projects. You’ll also have a project or client manager to usher you through the process and explain what’s going on with your website. Plus, agencies have dedicated processes, so you know nothing will be left out or forgotten.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are still limitations to working with agencies. They work with a large number of clients, so that means you may have a waiting period before they begin your project. It can also lead to a slower project turnaround time.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As your project progresses, you’ll have different points of contact for the various stages.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Working with an agency also can be expensive since they have more overhead costs.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>When an Agency is a Good Fit&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In general, agencies are better when you:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Don’t want to risk your consultant disappearing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are comfortable with a project structure you don’t define and following their process</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can handle a multi-month project that takes two to six months</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don’t mind waiting 30 to 90 days to start until you can fit into their schedule&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Want a dedicated project manager</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have a large-scope or fast-turnaround project that requires multiple people working full-time on it</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"rates\">Comparing Freelancer vs. Agency Rates</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For most projects, the consultant has to estimate the time it will take them to build and charge <em>at least</em> that. So the consultant probably isn’t charging much more than their cost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether the consultant is an agency or a freelancer, the developer only spends about half their day on the project. Also, that number is probably higher for your average web worker in an agency. It still works as an average because managers and PMs typically won’t hit 50%, and their time may not even factor into direct costs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assume the freelancer is billing an end client, not subcontracting to an agency where their costs decrease considerably due to less PM and consistent work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, utilize these hourly rates as if it’s for billable work and known costs. So, if the rate is $100 per hour and the design will take 50 hours and the development will take 50 hours, and you build in 25 hours for project management, it would be 125 hours, and the project would cost $12,500. Profits, overhead, and everything else are built into the internal hourly rate — just like if someone were billing the client hourly for the work.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Understanding Special Cases&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Freelancers and agencies also break their own rules all the time. A great example is when you get an inquiry from a big brand. If it’s a competitive bid, and a consultant wants that brand as a featured client, they could easily drop their rates by a third or more to get it — hoping that that brand will make other folks want to work with them down the road.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes this is effective. Other times it’s a terrible idea. Referrals can come from anywhere, and generally, bending your rates for a brand name is a bad idea, even though it\'s tempting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other times, consultants break their own rules or don’t follow their internal rates. Consultants may charge less if it’s a client they work with repeatedly and know the true costs better. Consultants may charge less for non-profit organizations, with a retainer, if work is slow or if they get emotionally invested in the bid. The list of ways to break the guidelines goes on and on.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Common Freelancer Rates</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Freelance WordPress website developers today make $30 to $175 an hour, with the average developer charging $70 an hour. Freelancers with good experience, who are more in demand, and those with reputations as specialists charge more for their services.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Common Agency Rates</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress website development agencies charge anywhere from $3,000 to $75,000 or more to build a website, depending on your needs, their reputation, and the size of the market they serve. The better their reputation and the bigger, more high-profile projects they’ve completed in the past, the more they can charge. They also can charge more if they have a niche expertise.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Market size is the difference between working in big towns or small cities (small market), cities that are thriving but not huge (medium market), or the type of city that’s got pro sports teams and more than a million people (large market). The bigger the market, the more an agency can charge. Agencies in mega markets, like New York and San Francisco, can charge much more.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"started\">How to Get Your Website Development Started</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you contact a web developer to build your website, there are some things to do to prepare. This list will help you be more intentional about your web development project and ensure you get what you need.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Assess Any Current Site Failings.</strong> What do you wish your site could do that it doesn’t? Are there any functions you absolutely need to add?</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Identify Your Goals.</strong> Know what you want from a new site. This direction will help your developer build a better site for you.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Create a Comprehensive List of Needs. </strong>This list will help your developer create a website that works best for your business and help you determine what’s most important during the web development process.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Determine Your Budget.</strong> Knowing how much money you have to work with will help you choose a developer and understand what features you can afford.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Research Freelancers or Agencies. </strong>Think about your timeline and how you’d like the project to proceed. Find a developer that will work well with you.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Track Progress and Stay Connected.</strong> Know where your website is in the development stages. This tracking will help you stay on top of the project.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Do You Want to Learn More About WordPress Development?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you a WordPress pro or someone who works with WordPress pros? If so, you’ll want to connect with a greater WordPress community to learn from and share with. Where else can you talk in-depth about how much a WordPress website costs to develop? <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/#choose-membership\">Join Post Status</a> today and get access to members-only content and tons of WordPress news.</p>\n<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Mar 2023 15:30:30 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Brian Krogsgard\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:65:\"Do The Woo Community: Emerging Web Tech with Brad, Kathy and Dave\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:28:\"https://dothewoo.io/?p=74622\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:63:\"https://dothewoo.io/emerging-web-tech-with-brad-kathy-and-dave/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:419:\"<p>An introduction to our upcoming series with Brad Williams, Kathy Zant and Dave Lockie of new web technologies and WooCommerce/WordPress.</p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://dothewoo.io/emerging-web-tech-with-brad-kathy-and-dave/\">Emerging Web Tech with Brad, Kathy and Dave</a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://dothewoo.io\">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Mar 2023 10:38:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:89:\"WPTavern: Patchstack Tracks 328% More Security Bugs Reported in WordPress Plugins in 2022\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=142666\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:99:\"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-tracks-328-more-security-bugs-reported-in-wordpress-plugins-in-2022\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4618:\"<p>Patchstack, a WordPress security maintenance and management tool, has published its &#8220;<a href=\"https://patchstack.com/whitepaper/wordpress-security-stats-2022/\">State of WordPress Security</a>&#8221; whitepaper for 2022, tracking a few key metrics on publicly reported vulnerabilities. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings highlight the risk of using unmaintained themes and plugins along with developers&#8217; need to keep pace with updates to libraries and dependencies included in their work. Patchstack is tracking a significant increase in vulnerabilities reported in 2022:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>In 2022 we saw&nbsp;<strong>328% more security bugs reported</strong>&nbsp;in WordPress plugins – we added&nbsp;<strong>4,528</strong>&nbsp;confirmed security bugs to our database, compared to&nbsp;<strong>1,382 in 2021</strong>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar to previous years, the majority of these security bugs were found in plugins (93%), followed by themes (6.7%), and WordPress core (0.6%).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These numbers were sourced from public data from Patchstack and other security companies and researchers in the WordPress ecosystem. The total number of vulnerabilities comes from the three official CNAs in the WordPress space that are authorized to assign CVE IDs to new security vulnerabilities and to whom researchers report issues. These include Patchstack, Automattic (WPscan) and WordFence. Patchstack CEO Oliver Sild said some of the vulnerabilities were also independently published elsewhere or reported directly to MITRE.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report emphasized that the increase in the number of vulnerabilities reported means that ecosystem is becoming more secure as the result of more security issues being found and patched.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another small improvement over last year is the percentage of critical security bugs that never received a patch. In 2022, that number was 26% versus 29% in 2021. Critical vulnerabilities were better addressed this year but Sild said so far it&#8217;s not a significant change that they would connect with any trend yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We still think it shows a big problem, which is that some plugins are unsupported or abandoned and do not receive timely patches,&#8221; he said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Solving the problem of developers abandoning their work is challenging, and many users have no idea how to select plugins that are more likely to be supported. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think it’s important to be transparent,&#8221; Sild said. &#8220;It is also okay that projects come to an end. I just recently told my colleague that &#8216;when someone builds a new plugin, they should keep in mind that someone might actually use it.&#8217; It kind of stuck with me, because even if the plugin developer has moved on and is not working on the project anymore, there still might be people who rely on it.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sild said users often get left in the dark because WordPress core only shows if an update is available. If a plugin gets closed by WordPress.org due to an unpatched security issue, users don&#8217;t get notified.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It’s something we try to improve together with our partners such as other security plugins and hosting companies,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Communication is key. We recently also created a free service for plugin developers called &#8216;managed vulnerability disclosure program&#8217; shortly mVDP.  The goal is to help plugin developers adopt more mature security practices and show users that they take security seriously.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other notable insights from the whitepaper include a breakdown of WordPress security bugs by severity. In 2022, the majority of vulnerabilities (84%) were classified as Medium severity, with a smaller percentage of High severity (11%) and Critical (2%).</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Of the most popular plugins (over 1 million installs) that had security issues, only five contained high severity bugs. The two with the highest CVSS score vulnerabilities were Elementor and Essential Add-ons for Elementor, followed by UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup, One Click Demo Import, and MonsterInsights.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The whitepaper highlights a few other trends, including hosting companies alerting their customers to vulnerabilities, the growth of the security research community, and increased security awareness within the WordPress ecosystem. For more details on the state of WordPress security in 2022 and predictions for this year, check out the <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/whitepaper/wordpress-security-stats-2022/\">whitepaper</a> on Patchstack&#8217;s website.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Mar 2023 01:09:14 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:62:\"WPTavern: Automattic Acquires ActivityPub Plugin for WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=142658\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:73:\"https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-activitypub-plugin-for-wordpress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4255:\"<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Automattic has acquired the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/\">ActivityPub plugin</a> for WordPress from German developer <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/pfefferle/\">Matthias Pfefferle</a>, who will be joining the company to continue improving support for federated platforms. Pfefferle, who is also the author of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/webmention/\">Webmention</a> plugin, said his new role is to see how Automattic&#8217;s products can benefit from open protocols like ActivityPub.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2021, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg indicated that he would be interested in <a href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/\">having Tumblr support the ActivityPub protocol</a> for a greater level of interoperability across networks like Mastodon and others using the same protocol. That is still in the works, but WordPress sites already have this capability through the plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;ActivityPub and a lot of other Open Web Plugins (like the Webmention plugin) were spare time projects, so I was not looking for an acquisition,&#8221; Pfefferle said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When Matt announced that Tumblr wants to implement ActivityPub on Twitter, I asked why not WordPress, so I came in contact with Automattic and they offered me the opportunity to work full time on the plugin and other Open Web projects.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ActivityPub plugin makes it possible for readers to follow a WordPress  site in the fediverse using the ActivityPub protocol. This includes Mastodon, one of the most popular platforms using the protocol, and other platforms like <a href=\"https://pleroma.social/\">Pleroma</a>, <a href=\"https://friendi.ca/\">Friendica</a>, <a href=\"https://hubzilla.org/\">HubZilla</a>, <a href=\"https://pixelfed.org/\">Pixelfed</a>, <a href=\"https://socialhome.network/\">SocialHome</a>, and <a href=\"https://join.misskey.page/\">Misskey</a>. For those using Mastodon, this plugin will automatically send posts to the network and replies to it will become comments on the post.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last March, the ActivityPub plugin had just 700 users. Today it has grown to more than 2,000 active installs. Although it is not yet widely used, it has gotten more exposure since Elon Musk bought Twitter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Thanks to Elon Musk, the number of downloads from my ActivityPub (WordPress) plugin and <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@pfefferle\">my followers on Mastodon</a> have increased at least tenfold!&#8221; Pfefferle said in a post on his blog in January 2023. &#8220;This inspired me to work more actively on the plugin again and some great changes came about.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most recently, Pfefferle added a new onboarding screen with recommended plugins, added the published date to author profiles, and added outgoing mentions, among other features.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Pfefferle said he thinks the idea of the acquisition is not to have the protocol merged into core, but to &#8220;guarantee that it will stay open source and to maybe make it a canonical plugin.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As more social networks unite on open protocols, it won&#8217;t matter where you choose to create your home on the web. Interoperability between apps allows people to post from whatever network they enjoy, creating a richer, more diverse web. Automattic&#8217;s support of the ActivityPub plugin ensures WordPress&#8217; place in the fediverse, where blogs will not isolated islands but rather interconnected as many were in the early days of blogging. Pfefferle&#8217;s work embodies these ideals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think my drive was always to build an alternative to the big walled gardens of Facebook &amp; co,&#8221; Pfefferle said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I fell in love with the idea of blogging and the spirit of the Web 2.0 movement and tried to keep the idea alive. I worked on several WordPress plugins and participated in several movements (<a href=\"https://github.com/diso/\">DiSo</a>, <a href=\"http://dataportability.org/\">DataPortability</a> and others) starting in 2007.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It is so exciting to finally see such a big interest in Open and Federated technologies!&#8221;</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:24:27 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:62:\"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 51: Is Routine a Rut?\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=14621\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:63:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/episode-51-is-routine-a-rut/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8911:\"<p>On Episode fifty-one of the WordPress Briefing podcast, join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy as she makes a case for why routine is a good thing&#8211; in life and in the WordPress project. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Have a question you&#8217;d like answered? You can submit them to <a href=\"mailto:wpbriefing@wordpress.org\">wpbriefing@wordpress.org</a>, either written or as a voice recording.</strong></em></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Credits</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/\">Dustin Hartzler</a><br />Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiarce/\">Javier Arce</a><br />Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/santanainniss/\">Santana Inniss</a><br />Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod </p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show Notes</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/wordpress-6-2-rc1-postponed-additional-beta-5-added/\">Beta 5, Additional Beta Released</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-1/\">WordPress 6.2, Release Candidate 1</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wp20.wordpress.net/wp20-celebrations/\">Join WordPress 20th Anniversary Celebrations</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/organizing-diverse-inclusive-wordpress-events-ameremea-tickets-561034247537\">Organizing Diverse and Inclusive WordPress Events</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/02/27/proposal-modify-the-events-and-news-widget-to-show-topic-based-meetups-worldwide/\">Events News Widget Modification Proposal</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-14621\"></span>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:29]</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right, my WordPress wonders; it&#8217;s time to join me for one of my gentle rants on basic leadership principles. Today we&#8217;re talking about the importance of routine and predictability in everyday life. But don&#8217;t worry, I&#8217;m gonna tie it all together with WordPress, too. So by now you&#8217;re probably aware that I don&#8217;t really consider myself one of those “born leaders.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, I&#8217;ve put a lot of effort into researching characteristics of good leaders and general leadership methods overall. But one of the things I encountered early on in my leadership learning journey was the concept of routine.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with most leadership practices I hold, routine has more than one purpose. From a very pragmatic standpoint, routines provide predictability and the more predictable something is, the lower the cognitive load becomes, which in turn lets you use your thinking power for something better. For instance, if you know that in every check-in with your team lead, she&#8217;s gonna ask you what you were proud to have shipped last week, what you want to ship next week, and what things stand in the way of your plans, then you know that that is what you have to prepare for.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The knowledge work, the thinking part. The thinking part stops being, what is my team lead going to ask me and starts being what is the problem that she can help me solve?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But from a more human standpoint, that kind of predictability helps us to understand when something that happened is out of the ordinary. Whether it&#8217;s a notification of a comment left on your blog or syntactical highlighting that lets you know that you&#8217;ve written something that&#8217;s out of voice or against grammar standards, it just lets you know that something is unusual there and deserves your attention.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now for me, this has a lot of applications across the WordPress project. There are the obvious things like the cadence of our major release cycles or our notification system, which honestly could use a bit of TLC, a little bit of elbow grease.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are also less obvious things that this idea still applies to simply because of the way our brains work, the information architecture on our sites, for instance. It should make sense visually and semantically because that makes it easy for us to skim and predict where the highest value content is for us. Or the user interface across the back end of our software.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having familiar tasks or actions across any type of content or area of content makes it easier for a site maintainer to flow from one area of a site to the next, fixing things as they find them without necessarily having to stop and put down their hammer and pick up a screwdriver or whatever metaphor works for you. Or if you&#8217;re doing more nuanced work, like put down your timpani mallets and pick up your xylophone mallets.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yeah, consistency. Consistency is the topic of today&#8217;s gentle rant. I get really worked up about it because I feel like consistency ends up being this euphemism for being boring. But I honestly believe that it&#8217;s the consistency and the dependability that make it clear what is supposed to be exciting, the things that are different enough that they merit our attention.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:38]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which, fortunately, now brings us to our small list of big things. It&#8217;s actually a pretty big list today and also a bunch of pretty big things. So first thing to know, there was an additional beta added to this release cycle.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was beta five; it came out last week, I think. There was a bit of a regression that we worked our way through. And so RC1, release candidate one, is going to be postponed a little bit because of that. But don&#8217;t wait until RC to start testing, obviously RC is tomorrow, so that means you get to test, like, today!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second thing on our small list of big things is that we have the WordPress 20th anniversary coming up. That&#8217;s May 27th. And you can join in the celebrations. So at WordPress&#8217;s 10th anniversary and 15th anniversary, we had like a big, ongoing global set of parties, like Meetup events got together and made cakes, or did a concert, or did a hackathon for various reasons.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like they all got together on May 27th or thereabouts and did some really fun, like celebration of how far WordPress has gotten them and how far they hope to be able to go with WordPress.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you are from the before times WordCamp kind of organizing timeframe, you know that we always consider WordCamps to be like an annual celebration of the excellence of your community and how much you all come together and how different you are as part of this overall big WordPress-y thingy.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right. Third item that we have is that, I know that I mentioned this in the last WP Briefing as well, but we have another session of the diverse and inclusive WordPress events coming up that&#8217;s happening on March 16th. So coming up really fast, we&#8217;ll put a link to that in the show notes as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the final thing, I don&#8217;t remember what list number we&#8217;re at, but the final thing is that there is a proposal out there right now to modify the events and news widget that we use inside the WordPress dashboard. If you&#8217;re not familiar with it, it is a place where all of the local-to-you Meetup events get listed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:00]&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s where all of the news items from various WordPress media outlets get published. We just have a link to it there. And so, we would like to make some changes to that so that we&#8217;re able to include not only specific location types of events but also events that are location agnostic because they&#8217;re online but might have a specific, identifying niche that you particularly find interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it might be for Spanish speakers or for women in particular, or whatever it might be. There&#8217;s a proposal out for that. We&#8217;ll put a link to that in the show notes as well.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.&nbsp;</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 13 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Santana Inniss\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:91:\"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #80 – WordPress 6.2 Preview, Gutenberg 15.2 and 15.3\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=23587\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:104:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-80-wordpress-6-2-preview-gutenberg-15-2-and-15-3/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:59907:\"<p>Rich Tabor and Birgit Pauli-Haack chat about WordPress 6.2 Preview, Dev Notes and Fieldguide, Gutenberg 15.2 and 15.3. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#shownotes\">Show Notes</a> / <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Music:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox\">Homer Gaines</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/\">Sandy Reed</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://markuraine.com/\">Mark Uraine</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://icodeforapurpose.com\">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-larger-font-size\"></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WordPress Developer Blog</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/block-theme-resources-roundup/\">Block theme resources roundup</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/intrinsic-design-theming-and-rethinking-how-to-design-with-wordpress/\">Intrinsic design, theming, and rethinking how to design with WordPress</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/static-vs-dynamic-blocks-whats-the-difference/\">Static vs. dynamic blocks: What’s the difference?</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/creating-a-custom-block-that-stores-post-meta/\">Creating a custom block that stores post meta</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/converting-your-shortcodes-to-blocks/\">Converting your shortcodes to blocks</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/block-deprecation-a-tutorial/\">Block deprecation – a tutorial</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/03/10/summary-community-themes-project-kickoff/\">Summary: Community Themes Project Kickoff</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://felix-arntz.me/blog/rebuilding-my-website-using-a-block-theme/\">Rebuilding my website using a block theme</a> by Felix Arntz</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordPress 6.2</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-1/\">WordPress 6.2 Release Candidate 1</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/09/wordpress-6-2-field-guide/\">WordPress 6.2 Field Guide</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2023/03/03/6-2-live-product-demo/\">Product Demo of WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dev Notes</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introduction-of-block-inspector-tabs/\">Introduction of Block Inspector Tabs</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/shadows-in-global-styles-with-wordpress-6-2/\">Shadows in Global Styles with WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introducing-the-html-api-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Introducing the HTML API in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/sticky-position-block-support/\">Sticky position block support</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/custom-css-for-global-styles-and-per-block/\">Custom CSS for global styles and per block</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/minimum-height-dimensions-block-support/\">Minimum height dimensions block support</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/24/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-2-22-february/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 15.2? (22 February)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<ul>\n<li>Did you like this episode? <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ping us on Twitter or send DMs with questions. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gutenbergtimes\">@gutenbergtimes </a>and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bph\">@bph</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li>\n</ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Transcript</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hello and welcome to our 80th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about WordPress 6.2 Preview, Gutenberg 15.2 and 15.3. I&#8217;m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and WordPress developer advocate and a full-time core contributor to the WordPress Open Source Project. I&#8217;m thrilled to have with me today Rich Tabor, product manager for the WordPress Open Source project and part of Automattic&#8217;s Five for the Future program. Hi, Rich, thank you so much for taking the time out of your very busy week to be here with us and talk to our listeners. How are you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Hey, thanks, Birgit. I&#8217;m doing pretty well. I can&#8217;t complain, to be honest. Thanks for having me on this show. It&#8217;s been a long time coming here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, I think so, for two years or so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: In and out. For many who have known you in the community, you are an early adopter of the block editor, you and Jeffrey Carandang worked on several things together in the early days, and that&#8217;s about five years ago now. Since then, you presented at WordCamps, virtual and in-person. I remember your talk at WordCamp Atlanta. No, was it Atlanta in 2019?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yeah, it was.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: &#8230; Boston &#8217;19 that I saw you, but both of them are fine. Also, your talk on WordCamp US in 2021 and last year, so there&#8217;s a lot you did in the last five years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I&#8217;ve been exploring block editing since I guess before it landed in WordPress. WordCamp US in 2018, I believe, is really what kicked me into gear on designing and building block experiences for Gutenberg. Since then, I&#8217;ve been building, launching, and sharing my knowledge however I can. Code Blocks, the project I did with Jeffrey Carandang, it&#8217;s now under the GoDaddy brand, I was one of the early explorations and just a really great entry to learning the ins and outs of Gutenberg. I personally learn best by doing something real and releasing an open source block plugin for folks to actually use was certainly the catalyst to where I am today.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I used Code Blocks together with Atomic Blocks. Michael Allison was pretty much also on the forefront and it must have been before 2018, though, WordCamp US 2018, because I think wasn&#8217;t that there when you already sold Code Blocks to GoDaddy?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I think it was January 2018. In 2018, it was the like, &#8220;Hey, I need to get serious,&#8221; moment. Maybe it was &#8217;17, I don&#8217;t know, but right around there, it was like the, &#8220;Hey, let&#8217;s learn this and let&#8217;s do this.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Now, as a product builder, what do you find now fascinating about the WordPress, the block editor, the Site Editor, and this potential to empower folks?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I think that potential is huge. The WordPress experience is changing and evolving, and it&#8217;s slowly becoming more intuitive and better to use on the site level, not just on the post editor level. I just think that the opportunities for empowering those creatives and publishers and just people who want to share something and have a little ownership in it on the web is paramount to the future of the web, and I&#8217;m just so thankful to be a part of this time in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: It&#8217;s been quite exciting to see what people come up in their creativity, what they do with the sites, what they do with the design tools, how they manage the space and the spacings and the dimension controls. There are quite a few additional explorations there that are totally new to WordPress, nobody really, apart from additional third-party page builder, but to have that right into the software is such an amazing product. I&#8217;m really happy about that. I&#8217;m glad we are finally here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: We&#8217;re getting there, yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: We are there. To the Site Editor, do you think it&#8217;s ready to have people use it in production and all that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Oh yeah, certainly. I think that there&#8217;s always improvements to be made and there&#8217;s still a lot of lines to draw between the dots to connect a lot of these experiences, but overall, as a holistic editing experience for your site, it&#8217;s really been fine-tuned in the last couple of maybe half a year or so, since the release of 6.1, it&#8217;s really tightened up quite a bit and there&#8217;s more to do, but I&#8217;m pretty stoked at where we&#8217;re headed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Me too, me too. We will talk about it when we go to 15.3, I had another great experience with the new tools that are in there, but first of all, we have some announcements, well, actually one announcement, but it has multiple facets there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Announcements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There is an official WordPress Developer Blog and in February, there were six new posts published there and one of them was a block theme resource roundup by Daisy Olsen. If you are WordPress developer, either you have already experience with block themes, you get some resources there, as well as if you just get started and want to have one page where you can have a startup page, so to speak, get started and get to the resources that are available on wordpress.org, all through learn, through the Developer Blog, through documentation, the theme handbook, it&#8217;s a great roundup of all those resources.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next one is a little bit is a topic that is really high on our minds and finally, we have a post up there, and you probably can talk about that, as well, it&#8217;s about the intrinsic design theming and rethinking how to do design with WordPress. Justin Tadlock wrote this post because there were a lot of questions about the responsiveness of WordPress, that&#8217;s one thing. The other one is many people that come from other page builders, they miss their viewpoints, the three viewpoints that they have been using for the last 8 or 10 years. But intrinsic design is more the fluid typography, so no matter what the screen size is, it adapts to the screen size and there&#8217;s also fluid spacing that&#8217;s now part of WordPress. Is that enough, what do you think, Rich?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I think you hit it on pretty good. It&#8217;s the idea that when you design something in WordPress, in this case, that it inherits the responsive nature of the viewport, instead of you having to actually declare those values, like instead of declaring that you want to font size smaller on mobile or even a column going to Stack on mobile versus on desktop, maybe it&#8217;s side-by-side. It is something that intrinsically will Stack whenever it becomes too small to render side-by-side, so trying to figure out those controls, it is tricky to be honest, but there&#8217;s been a lot of improvements in that direction and overall, it does simplify the editing experience quite a bit. That doesn&#8217;t mean that we&#8217;re there, by any means, on the controls that we need, but if we do improve some of the Row and Stack capabilities and some of this intrinsic design methodology in WordPress, I think it will move forward to the point where it&#8217;s less of a concept that you have to think about and more of just a way that you expect it to work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I can see that those viewpoints, that&#8217;s more for designers rather than your site owners or those who just want to build a website and hope that it&#8217;s all working out of the box, and those concepts can get really confusing, but also very hard to manage. I saw a plugin that was built on the block editor, but they had six viewpoints for every design decision. I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s where we want to go as a product, pretty much, or for the normal user or even the design user, the theme developer, that they have to be so granular. It&#8217;s not so much thinking about the first version of it, but also where did I change this? Is it in the viewpoint of this one or this one or this one?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the proliferation of the screen sizes, they go smaller, but they also get bigger, I think it&#8217;s going to be harder and harder to actually hit the right size for the viewpoints. I think there was a very interesting article from Justin Tadlock and there&#8217;s definitely a lot of discussion also on there, so dear listeners, you can definitely spend a half an hour or so reading that and also reading the discussions. Another article on the Developer Blog explains the difference between the static and dynamic blocks. Joni Halibi wrote this one. I know it was a topic close to her heart. She&#8217;s a developer at Georgetown University.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right, yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Thank you. I heard her talking about it, so I asked her if she wanted to write about it. It&#8217;s definitely a great rundown of the pros and cons of static and dynamic blocks. Dynamic blocks are rendered with PHP, static blocks are everything the editor, as well as frontend is coming from Post Content from the JavaScript. I think the biggest hurdle is the updating during development and after development. I&#8217;m jumping over the other lists there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is just today, Michael Burridge published an article on how to deprecate static blocks and have some version, so you have a version of a block on the site and you use it multiple times and then a new update comes for the block. Sometimes when you open up the post into the editor and there was a block in there and it wasn&#8217;t deprecated right, it has this error message in there, so something happened with the block kind of thing, and some of you have already seen it, and this prevents that from happening. It&#8217;s not difficult from the mechanics, but it&#8217;s definitely something to think about when you do static block development. How did you feel about that when you came across it in your early days of block development?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I feel like that&#8217;s a pointed question. The idea between static and dynamic blocks is really powerful. Dynamic blocks are definitely, I would say, probably the primary use case on most of the more complex blocks that you would build, in particular in third-party situations like rebuilding a custom block for a client, because you don&#8217;t need deprecations at that point. If you need to make changes, you can, because it&#8217;s all rendered in PHP, and the tooling around dynamic blocks has improved quite a bit, as well, with the render.php file that you can load in and it makes templating a much easier process than it was originally. But deprecations are a necessary part of static blocks and they can be a little frustrating just because it sits there forever at that point, but if I&#8217;m building a custom block these days, I probably would lean more on the dynamic side, if possible.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I can see that. There are some new ideas actually happening that also will be on tap into the dynamic block development there, and we will talk about it on the Gutenberg Changelog when the time is right. Two more posts were launched just recently, one was how to create a custom block that stores Post Meta. That&#8217;s certainly a big question that a lot of people had and Ryan Welcher answers that question nicely, walk you through step-by-step, and explains very much most of the steps that are necessary to make that successful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then the other post is converting your short codes to blocks, and that one is from Jonathan Bossenger and he has his use case that he&#8230; It&#8217;s not really a conversion, it&#8217;s recreating something that was a short code into a block and make it more user-friendly. Short codes had their good usage, but with newer modern interfaces, they are just too cumbersome for site users to write all those text strings and not forgetting a comma or something like that, so converting them to blocks is definitely a good way to go about them. Any thoughts about those two problems? It doesn&#8217;t have to be from the articles.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I would say they&#8217;re both well-written and good examples of writing tutorials and documentation together, in a sense. There&#8217;s a short code that Jonathan&#8217;s actually converting in real time, you can see and watch it, I think you might be able to listen to part of it, but the idea that you&#8217;re taking a real-world example and converting it, I think is very powerful. And then the same goes for the other one about storing Post Meta with the custom block. I think it&#8217;s very powerful and hasn&#8217;t been done very often, or at least not often enough that&#8217;s front and center, because it really is a powerful way to manipulate Post Meta, but also site options. I think it works very similar if you&#8217;re updating the site options, which is what the site title block does and the Site Logo block. But you could do other options, perhaps, like I experimented with pulling in the WooCommerce phone number into a block, but if you update it there, it also updates it in WooCommerce, again, connecting some of those dots that right now are very disconnected and this is one of those steps in that direction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, that&#8217;s actually a good idea to look beyond the WordPress core and see where connections and integrations are made. We definitely share the links in the show notes that are coming out with this episode or you can just go to the Developer Blog and read through the latest What&#8217;s new for developers? (March 2023). That&#8217;s the second edition of a roundup post of what&#8217;s new not only in a block in the block development, but also for core and the learn places, but it&#8217;s specifically for developers, extenders, plugin developers, theme developers, or agency developers so they can get up to speed very fast.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Community Contributions</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We have, in the section of community contributions, there&#8217;s one new project, the theme team kicked off the community theme project, and I believe, Rich, you were part of it. What can you tell us about it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yeah, certainly. On March 7th, we had, I think, over 20 people participating in the Hallway Hangout session to discuss it. This community theme project is an interesting way to start really just encouraging experienced and new WordPress contributors to create more themes, in particular, block themes. It was a big learning curve to how block themes are created compared to existing themes, but really they&#8217;re much more of a simple system that&#8217;s design-oriented, so some of the talks were centered around a designing a theme within the editor and not necessarily with a different design tool like Figma, which is a huge challenge, but I really think it will help open up a lot more eyes to the issues that we need to continue resolving within the editor to encourage more of the explorative design work that designers can leverage to build beautiful themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a Slack channel within Make, it&#8217;s the Core Themes Projects channel, there&#8217;s some discussion there. There&#8217;s a repo, I think it&#8217;s WordPress/community-themes. The idea is that you can start creating themes and submit them as a pull request and collectively, we&#8217;ll all try to help get these situated in the right way, so where we&#8217;re all learning and growing from this experience of building themes together.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I&#8217;m really excited about this. This started with the theme team, thinking about the latest default team that was 2023, where there was a call for sending in style variations. There was a base theme that was made public very early and then there were, I think, 19 theme designers sent in about 30, almost 40, style variations, of which 10 made it into the final release. But that kind of community collaboration is always very fruitful and very creative and it helps people really learn about things, but also push the boundaries so much more than just brooding alone in your own remote home office. I think that&#8217;s a fantastic way to get the community also in producing more than one theme per year; I hope that is what will come out of it. The theme will all be published under the username of WordPress, so that&#8217;s the new part of it, I would think. Do you already have an idea for a theme that you might want to work on?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I&#8217;ve got the bug to redesign my blog again. I love it, but I want to remove some of the barriers to publishing. Featured image, right now, it&#8217;s almost required in my current blog design, and then I want my headings to be a certain lead flow, so I want to try to identify the things that are blocking me from publishing more and start designing in that essence, so it could be more of a thought feed instead of only technical blog posts, in a sense. That&#8217;s my personal project I&#8217;ve been exploring a little bit on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I saw that the list of block patterns for the Query Loop actually would probably help you with that, because there are quite a few text-based lists design available now in the Block Pattern Directory, as well as I think that are now coming out, as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yeah. There&#8217;s more opinionated design elements to some of these patterns, which I think is great because at the end of the day, if you don&#8217;t want to use a pattern, you don&#8217;t have to use it, but if you do want to use one of these more interesting, opinionated designs, then it&#8217;s a great start to building out the rest of your theme. I&#8217;m really looking forward to even more of the patterns coming down from WordPress.org.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Oh, speaking about switching the site up, Felix Arntz, who is a software engineer with Google, shared his experience on doing exactly that, switching his site from a classic theme to a block theme and his post is exactly that, rebuilding my website using block theme. It&#8217;s a very long post; he recounts all the steps in detail that it took him to convert it, and it wasn&#8217;t so much&#8230; It was minimal code editing, he says, in part, but he also had to update his custom blocks, so that&#8217;s part of it. But he also, and that was very interesting for me to read, is that Felix is also a member of the WordPress Performance Team, so what he did was also measuring the performance before and after the redesign and it really piqued my interest, and you definitely should read it, dear listeners. I&#8217;m only Miss Numbers on the podcast, it&#8217;s really hard, but I just wanted to say one number.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He did two steps. One was just recreating the same pages with the block theme, the header and content and Query Loop and that part and then measured it, and then he did additional tweaking and he actually explains very detailed how he did those. And then with the first step, just moving it over to a block theme, he had an improvement on the LCP, which is the longest content paint, one of the web vitals. He went from something a little over 1 second to 600 milliseconds, so that was an almost 38% improvement of the speed. But when he did the first performance tweaks, he went down to 452 from 1 second to 0.4 second, that&#8217;s an improvement of almost 60%. That was the first time that I actually saw this so very much spelled out and I have a trust in Felix that his numbers are actually averages from multiple tests, he explains that also in his post, but this was a very interesting post in many, many directions. Also, learning more how to do some more performance tweaks was one. I&#8217;ll leave the link in the show notes and definitely go and read it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I would just like to echo what Felix writes at the very end. He says, &#8220;Block themes in full site editing, the effort for the Site Editor has evolved quite a bit since it originally launching in 5.9.&#8221; He says, &#8220;Here, I can with confidence say that it was the right decision for me to jump on that train now. If you&#8217;ve tried block themes a while ago and weren&#8217;t satisfied, maybe give it another try.&#8221; I totally agree with that sentiment. Especially if you have a personal blog, I would say just give it a shot, even 2023, put that on there and start designing it within the editor, then start running with it, you can see what happens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: If you are not a developer and a little bit of hesitant to change something in production or on a live site, definitely be cautious. There is a new tutorial up and I just listened to it a couple days ago with Sarah Snow, she actually did the same thing. She went and replaced her old theme with a new theme and rebuilt her website, but she also walks through how she tried to avoid all the pitfalls to take her site down and all that, so that is also for non-developers, a very good tutorial to look at and to watch.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What’s Released &#8211; WordPress 6.2</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>That brings us to the section of what&#8217;s released? Of course, we start with this week, it was release week with multiple releases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of them was the 6.2 Release Candidate 1 and the contributor published 12 dev notes that are related to the block editor in the Field Guide. The Release Candidate 1 is that point in the release cycle where there is hard string freeze, the Field Guide is published, and the emails go out to plugin and theme developers about what&#8217;s new, that send the Field Guide and also to test their products against the new version so they can figure out all the incompatibilities or make it compatible to the version. The final release is on March 28th, 2023, that&#8217;s, right now, 18 days from today. We are recording this on March 10th. Rich, you were part of the release squad as lead for design, what was your role there, or is your role there, you are not done yet?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: No, not quite yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: We are not done yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right. I think there&#8217;s three focuses, especially around this release. But the first, I would say it&#8217;s keeping a general pulse on what&#8217;s coming, what&#8217;s being worked on, keeping contributors focused on delivering that best, optimal WordPress experience that&#8217;s always right there on the horizon. It doesn&#8217;t mean we&#8217;re there today, like I&#8217;ve said a couple times here, but if we set our gaze in that direction, I&#8217;m sure we will continue refining and iterating towards that best experience, so that&#8217;s the first. The second would be the about page. The WordPress about page introduces you to the latest and greatest parts of WordPress that have been put into by all these contributors over the last release.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s been a fun project working with designers from the design community and really putting together the images and the layout and the structure, even the copy, to make sure that it portrays 6.2 as intended. 6.2 has a lot of new stuff in it and it&#8217;s hard to distill that into one page, but it&#8217;s been a welcome challenge, for sure. And then the last bit, this release, we did a product demo of 6.2, I did it with Anne McCarthy, and that was a very nice way to really showcase what&#8217;s coming in a live action, here, this is like a real demo on a real site that I set up. I was using 2023 and I designed it a little bit differently so that it showcased some of the design tooling in the actual demo itself and it was great. We had lots of help, lots of folks really chimed in to make that what it was, and I thought it went pretty well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: The site was beautiful. If you, dear listeners, haven&#8217;t seen it yet, go, and of course there will be a link in the show notes, but go to the product demo and watch that video. You will learn a lot about 6.2, but also it&#8217;s actually a joy to watch, so that&#8217;s definitely….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Awesome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: It shows that a designer was preparing for the product, absolutely. As mentioned, there are block editor related dev notes, so what&#8217;s coming, what should developers watch out for? We are not going through all 12 of them, but there, we have a few. First off is the introduction of the Block Inspector tabs, which is a design, an interface change, that your customers or you, if you build sites for others, will need to get used to, because now the settings are in two tabs, one is the settings tab, the other one is the appearance tab. In the developer note, we learn how a custom block can manage that for themselves, where do the settings go or the styles? I know that some custom blocks have their own color picker and if they don&#8217;t do anything, they will find it under settings and not under appearance, for instance, because settings is a default. There&#8217;s a little trick there that&#8217;s in the dev notes how to do that, there&#8217;s a new Group attribute that says either style or settings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Next step, we have shadows that are added to global styles in 6.2. These are shadow presets that are provided within the core theme.json file, but themes can also provide their own shadow presets using, I think it&#8217;s settings, shadow preset. There are four or five provided by core, but they&#8217;re pretty easy to override. In the future, releases will include the shadow control elsewhere. Right now, it&#8217;s only on the button block and that&#8217;s to restart refining it and tightening up the experience first. Some other ideas that are circling are perhaps allowing multiple shadows, so how do you Stack them, perhaps? Of course, the blur, the X and the Y, trying to really hone in on the design of the shadows, as well, but right now, they&#8217;re just preset-based. I think they&#8217;re nice, but they do need a little bit more work before we move them available on more blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: You said that they are now only available for the button block, they are not available in the post editor, only in the Site Editor in the style sidebar, just because of that….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: &#8230; that you only can do global studies with that. The next one is the introduction of an HTML API, which is, it&#8217;s very developer-oriented, so it&#8217;s highly technical, but it&#8217;s a uniform way that WordPress developers now can travel through parsing a website and changing out tags. That was always prone to rejects and all the other things that was only prone to not always hit the mark and this one is now so much better. People can use it not only for the block editor, but of course, also for their PHP plugin or other apps that they add to the WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right. The next one here is the sticky position block support was added in 6.2. Right now, it&#8217;s featured on top-level Group blocks, so only the Group blocks that are within the top level of your document, so in the list view, it&#8217;s the first level. It&#8217;s this new prop that right now enables you to set it to sticky and if it&#8217;s set to sticky, even within the editor itself, the actual Group block will stick. Right now, it&#8217;s not open to other blocks because there&#8217;s still some UX considerations around sticky positioning, because it doesn&#8217;t always stick if the surrounding element isn&#8217;t tall enough to allow for sticking, so trying to figure a smart way to communicate that is a very important part of that experience, otherwise you would think it would stick, but it doesn&#8217;t. I think that that&#8217;s something significant to iron out, but that&#8217;s already in the works for, hopefully, the next release of WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: There&#8217;s a lot of trial and error to do and a lot of people have a different ideas on how is this supposed to work, but I am really looking forward to it. Well, the sticky header, we all know about, but with mobile, you also need to think about a sticky footer, because that&#8217;s where your thumb goes. When you look at a webpage, you are not going to the top, you are going to the bottom, so there are quite some new variations possible. The next one is that a lot of people waited for it and now, here it is, custom CSS in the global styles, that&#8217;s one part, but also you can have custom CSS4 on a block level, so it&#8217;s now here. It&#8217;s a little bit more hidden, so it&#8217;s also in the style sidebar, it&#8217;s not upfront in the left-side menu item like it was for the customizer, but it&#8217;s there and it works and it&#8217;s beautiful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: A few people asked me if it would also come to the post editor so you can do it on a single instance of a block, because in the style sheet, you only do it for the block and then it propagates over the full site, but if you just want to do one section in your per&#8230; That&#8217;s not possible, unless you do an additional class name in the advanced section and then go to the standard sheet and put that class name and your styles in there. I have an answer for that person who had the question.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes. And then the next big one is the minimum height dimension support, and this is a new block support feature added to 6.2 for the Group and I believe the Post Content blocks and it&#8217;s opted in by default. This makes the Group and Post Content blocks perform much like the Cover block, where you can set a minimum height that it would take over in the page. It&#8217;s useful, for example, if you had a footer and some content and you wanted the content to keep the footer down below, so you can set a minimum height of the content using a viewport unit, perhaps, and then that would apply it to where the footer would stay towards the bottom of the page and not be meshed up at the top. It&#8217;s pretty self-explanatory and we already have this in the Cover block, but it starts to extend it out into other blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Wonderful. Excellent. Also, there is not a Card block per se, but there is a component there, but I think with the minimum height, you actually could use that Card block for all kinds of different content there. The Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6 is that that place where all the little things go in. There are a few little things that are not new features, but they are extending existing features. The first one is the fluid typography now also has a minimum font size in the UI that you can set, I think is it UI? Yeah, I think so. You could always do this for the theme. How you can use it, I read 13,000 words in three days or something like that, forgive me for that. That&#8217;s why in 6.1, there was a minimum, but there was a hard coded minimum and now it&#8217;s you can set this as a theme developer, as well, in the theme.json. Of course, it&#8217;s not in the UI yet, fluid topography is not that yet in the style things, I guess.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: For another Miscellaneous improvement, we have sizing controls for flex layout children. This means that when you have Container blocks, like the Group block and Row and Stack blocks, you can set a flex-type layout which provides controls for the blocks within those. If your blocks are stacked vertically, then it would be a height control, if they&#8217;re stacked horizontally, it&#8217;s a width control, so it&#8217;s dynamic in that sense. You can set, I believe it&#8217;s fit, fill, and fixed, so that&#8217;s where it either hugs the content, fills the available space, or is a fixed value. This plays into the intrinsic design that we were talking about earlier in starting to add more controls that allow a block to either try to take up only a space as it needs, fill up all the space that is available, or stay within constrained value, so it&#8217;s one of those improvements in that direction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: The next one is there is a new CSS class attributed to every Heading block, so now you can control the Heading block more granularly for each of the levels, and you can, for instance, say a blue background for all the H1s and a pink one for all the H2s, which is now easily done through the theme.json by adding the other style for the elements. You have style elements, each one, color, background, that would be the latter, and the other one would be styles for blocks and then Heading and then the elements, then each one, and the background, so it&#8217;s quite granular in the controls, that&#8217;s pretty cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yeah, I agree. I believe the last one for the Miscellaneous Editor improvements is the ability to edit block style variations from theme.json. This is a new theme.json API that allows existing core block style variations to be styled directly from theme.json. For example, the Image block has a rounded variation, so you could target the rounded variation and set its border width or border radius within theme.json now, which is pretty neat.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I believe then, was it in 15.3, we also get the UI for it in the style?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, we&#8217;ll come to that. But that is our WordPress 6.2 rundown on the developer notes. Of course, there&#8217;s more, look at the Field Guide, the links will be in the show notes, of course.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Gutenberg 15.2 and 15.3</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re coming to the last, to Gutenberg releases 15.2 and 15.3. Gutenberg 15.2 was released on February 23rd. Yes, it&#8217;s been that long that we heard each other, I know, and I&#8217;m really sorry about that. Daisy Olsen was release lead for that and it contained 197 PRs merged by 57 contributors, four of them were new. It was mostly fixing bug fixes, because WordPress 6.2 will contain all the features that came out in 14.2 to 15.1, that&#8217;s the whole range, 10 Gutenberg plugin releases, the features all come into core. But then after the beta release, there are a lot&nbsp; more people testing it, they find bugs, and they are still also finished the last little bit on some of the features, so many things in the Gutenberg 5.2 release or in the bug fix category. The new features probably didn&#8217;t make it into 6.2, but we can tackle each one of them and find out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes, I&#8217;ll kick us off here. The first bit here is that there is a new nested level when selecting templates or template parts in the Site Editor, which is an enhancement that right now is a little bit it&#8217;s in a middle ground, where it&#8217;s basically a placeholder state for future contents to go. Some ideas are when you focus in on a template part, we could potentially have the different template parts that you could replace with that one, for example, or even some other different controls, like assigning it a category, having its name present, so it&#8217;s right now, a place to start thinking of what controls we can put there to control that template part.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: The second part I want to point out is there&#8217;s now a modal to choose a start pattern for particular templates. The biggest problem users have is they want to start a new template, but how do they start? Now, theme developers and also plugin developers can actually add patterns to the site that now opens a modal and then can be selected. Also, the selection is a little bit better to view because you have more space to see all the patterns that are available for that. There is also an API in the works that lets you target certain templates with your patterns, but that has not been released yet, that&#8217;s still in the works.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: This next one here is pretty interesting, it&#8217;s the UI for template revisions. Now, we have a button to open up the revisions for templates and template parts, which is quite powerful because previously, it was very difficult or nearly impossible to find those revisions for your actual template parts. Say you&#8217;re focused in on your header and you changed some of your navigation items and then you changed maybe the background color of your header and then saved it all, but wanted to go back to a different version the next day or so, say it didn&#8217;t really sit well, you can now access those revisions and make those requests to change them back to what it was previously. I think it&#8217;s pretty neat on the template level and again on the template part.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Revisions, I always need to change my mind once back and forth, this revision is really helpful, having access to it to know what my former self was thinking with that and go back to a previous one. The next one with 15.2, it came a global save button to the Site Editor, so when you make changes to multiple templates and all that, it tracks them and then you can save all at once, but it&#8217;s not anymore to the right, it&#8217;s going to be on the left. I think it makes it, actually, in 6.2, you can have that, that was….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yeah, I believe so. We have another one here for the Post Excerpt block that allows you to control the length of the excerpt. There&#8217;s a range control now where you could slide it left or right, or I think you could also enter an integer value, as well. It would essentially truncate to the Post Excerpt within the Query Loop block, so now you can define how long you want those to be instead of falling back on the default number of characters, which was pretty large, so it&#8217;s a nice quality of life improvement for designing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I&#8217;m just hesitating and I need to verify this, there is the possibility that that was actually reversed in a later version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I think the change, it was affecting if a post type didn&#8217;t support Post Excerpts. I don&#8217;t know that it actually reverted the control itself, but it is still a work in progress, that&#8217;s why I don&#8217;t think it landed in 6.2.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: No, it didn&#8217;t.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: It could be tidied up a little bit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: We definitely need to test this, as well, in a real-life situation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Do you have a site that&#8217;s on Nightly or on trunk, where you have all the latest versions in production or so?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes. I&#8217;m running it dangerously, I&#8217;m running everything. The whole eat your own dog food stuff, I just really want to see the problems before they get big.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I changed over, I don&#8217;t know, a year ago for the Gutenberg Times to run on WordPress Nightly and also on the trunk version of the Gutenberg Nightly, which is a plugin coming every day from the current version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: On the website, on the Gutenberg Times, you can see the Nightly, if you need to live on the edge.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: The next item on the list is that the Post Featured Image block now has aspect ratio controls, so you can determine that and it makes your post table, the list of posts, much nicer to control that so when you have different sizes and images, you can actually say which aspect ratio you want to have in there. That&#8217;s a long-time want of mine to get that. There are themes who manage that quite well, but now you can do this, as well, in the block editor site templates thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes. There&#8217;s some more follow-ups on aspect ratio. I think it can be quite a powerful tool for not just a Post Featured Image block, but also just Image blocks or even Cover block maybe, I think there&#8217;s other ways to continue to push that forward, for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I see from my agency days, which are not that long ago, see users adding featured images or even just images when they&#8217;re just changed the size of it and they didn&#8217;t change the aspect ratio with it, it was just very distorted. It&#8217;s very hard to teach that who is not dealing with it on a day-to-day basis and does not have an image dimension feel for it, it&#8217;s very hard to teach that, so if that works out as it should be in the editor, it makes for a much better web.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bug Fixes</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes, yes. I think that&#8217;s it for the highlights, for the enhancements. There was a whole slew of bugs that were fixed in 15.2, so I&#8217;ll call out this one here. The ToolsPanel needed a couple of tweaks, there&#8217;s a new feature in 6.2 for copy and pasting styles so you can design a heading or design a button, design anything, and copy its styling and then paste it onto another like block, so copy the heading styles to another heading or button to another button, for example. We needed a way to ensure that those values were properly propagated to these other blocks so there were some minor tweaks to fix that, but now, it&#8217;s all good and when you copy and paste those styles, you see those applied properly within the tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: That&#8217;s such a phenomenal feature, that copy styles over, that you can have it. It&#8217;s in-between block-oriented or block on this post and global styles, it&#8217;s in-between, and sometimes you need that to make the same things look the same, but not the other things. It&#8217;s really good to just do copy paste on that. I think that was it for 15.2, unless I&#8217;m overlooking something. I&#8217;m scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: This is a pretty big Changelog, yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I find one, though. You could use, so that&#8217;s for the build tools, the WP Scripts has now another flag that you can actually run it in development without having the watch from apply every build on your development system. I think that&#8217;s a good flag to point out for people who use those internal script for that. That&#8217;s the Gutenberg 15.2 for us. Let&#8217;s dive right in to 15.3. You&#8217;re coming right off of releasing it, Rich, so what was your first experience with&#8230; Was this your first experience releasing a Gutenberg plugin?</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Gutenberg 15.3</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes, it was, but I did co-release it with Hector, so he&#8217;s a team member of mine. He helped me, he guided me quite a bit on this one, but it was pretty smooth, to be honest, especially there&#8217;s a little bit of tension around getting the immediate bug fixes in for 6.2 and backporting and keeping that in line. But generally speaking, I think it&#8217;s a well-oiled machine and moving forward.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Definitely. It&#8217;s the 153rd release, so you hope that everything is well-oiled by then.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I like when you say backport and not only to 6.2, but also there are bug fixes for the release after the Release Candidate. There is an expression that I really like that&#8217;s cherry picking, which is an interesting thing to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: But it&#8217;s just a little joke. People talk about it with cherry emojis. The release had 161 PRs in there, so almost as big as 15.2, and also a lot of bug fixes in there, but it also had some enhancements to the Duotone, quite a few. The Duotone CSS is now not created in line, that&#8217;s the expression, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes. It&#8217;s not applied in line.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: In line, it&#8217;s now in the style engine, so it can also be controlled through all the different levels. There is a control for the global size control for the Duotone and CSS variables instead of slugs, which helps it to propagate it over different to use the presets, as well, so Duotone is quite interesting. There is actually a bug in the backwards compatibility, it&#8217;s already noted that when you have a Cover block with Duotone and you upgrade it to 15.3, you get the heart attack kind of thing, oh, my Duotone is missing. If you apply them again on the same Cover block, it will appear again. That&#8217;s something that we found while we were testing it, but the bug fix is in the works.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Nice. It also means that by using these slugs instead of hardcoded hex values for colors, that when you do switch to variations, for example, those Duotones can actually map now to the new variations. If they use the same slugs, then you&#8217;ll get the new styles instead of in previous versions, where if you applied a Duotone reset from a theme, like say it was yellow and blue and then you switched to a variation or changed your theme up to one that was green, they would still be yellow and blue, so now it can receive the new ones if there are there. I think it&#8217;s a pretty cool improvement on something that is one of those things that should have always worked this way and now that we&#8217;ve explored a little bit more, it&#8217;s like, &#8220;Let&#8217;s go ahead and knock that out,&#8221; so a lot of effort went into that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: The style versions are very, very interesting in that regard, that sometimes you want the thing to come over, take over your site, but then you want certain things that stay the same. It&#8217;s very hard to read the user&#8217;s mind as a developer, as a designer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: The way I look at it is if you&#8217;re using a preset, then that&#8217;s game for a theme to manipulate. But if you&#8217;ve applied your own colors, I believe in these Duotone PRs, even if you applied a red and black, by picking the actual colors yourself, then those will stay hex value, so when you switch to a different theme, they&#8217;ll still remain red and black. But if it&#8217;s a preset, I would say that it&#8217;s open for interpretation by the theme designer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I think there is a bug in there. 15.3 also brings us a new block. It&#8217;s been a while since we had new blocks, but this one is a very tiny block, but it&#8217;s very powerful. People know that in a list view, you can see the number of blocks and the number of words and the time to read and several people asked, &#8220;Can we have that also show up as a block so we can add it to our post template or for the single post?&#8221; Yes, this was now implemented. It&#8217;s a very basic block, it only shows one minute or three minutes, well, 15 minutes, that&#8217;s all it does, but I really like that, because first, it can be translated in any language, and if you use it together with a Paragraph block in a Row, then you can have any string in front of it or after it that you as a site owner want to put in there. I tested that and it worked really nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I think there&#8217;s some follow-up PRs to do on that to add some of the design tooling that exists on other blocks, but it&#8217;s a great start and just nice, another piece of meta that can help readers know what to expect, investment-wise, like how much time am I going to invest on this? I think it&#8217;s great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: That was the one point where I really needed and was so happy that they have now, the custom CSS, because on the blog where I used it, I wanted to have that line reading time, one minute or three minute, be smaller than the rest of the excerpt in the post list. I was able to, of course, use the typography controls for the paragraph part, but not for the time to read, so I created, there is an advanced section where I can add a new class. I set a T2R and then went to the custom styles and then created the custom style for the T2R and made it font size small, which is pretty much the same as the reading time. It worked out of the box and with the rows, I could align it. The row controls were really nice, I like that. Now, I see that you could do some of the other shortcuts that are out there that are actually strings that are in a paragraph can now be blocks that need some design controls, but you don&#8217;t have to use the shortcuts anymore.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I&#8217;m thinking a little bit more in that direction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I know that some of the developers actually were exploring having a token system to take care of those string-related in the middle of a paragraph kind of thing. I&#8217;m not sure if that is needed or just introduces another complication or complexity to the system and it&#8217;s hard for users to use. If you have a block meta for it, it&#8217;s so much easier to get it into the system.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yes, I agree. 15.3, I would say these are the big hitters on these, but there were a bunch of small improvements like making the Site Logo block placeholder just a little bit smaller so it fits better within headers, especially around the new header patterns included in 6.2. There&#8217;s been some quite a few bug fixes around template parts, resetting all for typography, making sure the Site Editor&#8217;s a little bit more tightened up, so some of the alignment parts and then the design units within the Site Editor have been tweaked and it looks and feels like it&#8217;s coming together quite well, but generally, I think those are the big hitters.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Let me go a little bit, I&#8217;m scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Oh, what also happened, say, for some of the developers there wanted to know if there are new theme.json filters came into 6.1, but they were not yet in the documentation and they are now. There is a page in the how to guides of the Block Editor Handbook that is titled Curating the Editor Experience that has all the different ways how you can control or disable some of the features that are either in the sidebar available for your user or not or show up or are not. Now, you can also do this for the theme.json filters, they are now listed there. I believe one of the writers on the Developer Blog is actually looking at writing about them and having some good examples that are a little bit more closer to the real-life situations. I used the release candidate Changelog, but I think that was it, right, we all done?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: Yeah, I think so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes. That&#8217;s all we wanted you to know about 15.3, the rest you need to discover yourself. Of course, we have the What&#8217;s New in Gutenberg 15.3 post will be in the show notes. I don&#8217;t know if you published them yet or is it still in the works?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: It should be out soon, yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I wait for the episode to be published for that post, of course, so we can get it in there. Almost at the end of our Changelog episode, so what&#8217;s next for you in next week or next month?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: 6.2, the idea is that it sums up the culmination of Phase 2 and the kickoff of Phase 3. It doesn&#8217;t mean that there isn&#8217;t quite a bit more customization and design tooling that we need to continue to bake in, even like I was saying with the time to read block, as well, but that means that there&#8217;s now some more thinking going into what workflow-oriented processes look like for Phase 3, what type of collaboration can we start looking at. Making those plans and start writing about them and sharing ideas with everyone and really getting folks on focus and on point with Phase 3, I think is really important, so I&#8217;m going to start digging into that a little bit more, making sure the about page assets are tightened up and looking good for 6.2, and continuing to explore around designing block themes within the editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Awesome. I very much looking forward to the Phase 3 collaboration because it also will catapult your WordPress a little bit ahead of all of the other content management systems, because that&#8217;s what we are actually waiting for the last 25 years, is collaborating on our websites and not using all the other tools where you have to copy paste things over once you&#8217;re done with the collaboration. Now, you can do it all on the website, so I am really excited about that. Thank you so much for being on the show and walking us through all the great design and interface changes. When people want to reach you, where can they reach out?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rich Tabor</em>: I write and share everything I know on my blog, richtabor, that&#8217;s T-A-B-O-R, .com. I am on Twitter, so Richard, R-I-C-H-A-R-D, _Tabor. I like to explore the fringes of WordPress and experience and try to push ideas around and see what resonates with folks, so feel free to chime in and ask questions or ping me anywhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: As always, the show notes will be published on the gutenbergtimes.com/podcast. This is the 80th episode. If you have questions, suggestions, or news you want us to talk about, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. Thank you all for listening and thank you again, Rich, for spending time with me on this. Goodbye, everybody.</p>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 12 Mar 2023 12:27:27 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:113:\"Gutenberg Times: Fieldguide for WordPress 6.2, Community theme project, Theme.json and PHP—Weekend Edition #246\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=23549\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:119:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/fieldguide-for-wordpress-6-2-community-theme-project-theme-json-and-php-weekend-edition-246/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:19184:\"<p>Howdy, howdy! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has been a busy week! Phew. The contributors published twelve Dev Notes related to the Block Editor together with the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/wordpress-6-2-release-candidate-1/\">Release candidate 1 version</a> of WordPress 6.2. The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/09/wordpress-6-2-field-guide/\"><strong>Field Guide</strong></a> has all the developer related updates. It&#8217;s time for plugin and theme developers to test their products for compatibility with the new WordPress version. The final version is scheduled for March 28th, 2023. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The release squad for documentation, Milana Cap, Abha Thakor, Femy Praseet, and yours truly, wrangled the developer notes from two tracking systems, WordPress Trac and Gutenberg Repo. After the posts were drafted, we took turns reviewing them before publishing, all 13,150 words. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there were the posts for the <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/\">WordPress Developer Blog</a>, that needed editing and reviewing. That was lot of reading already, and then I kept an eye out for interesting content in the community to assemble this week&#8217;s round up post. The good news is, I am done for the week. 😎  🏖️</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy and don&#8217;t take it in all at once. Keep some for later. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost\"><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#dev62\">Dev Notes WordPress 6.2 (Block Editor)</a><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-theme-related\">For Theme developers</a></li></ul></li></ul></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li></ul></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/marybaum\">Mary Baum</a></strong> published a follow-up to the Preview of 6.2 which ran out of time for numerous questions.  <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/10/6-2-live-product-demo-qa/\">6.2 Live Product Demo Q &amp; A</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/your-wordpress-6-2-preview/\"><img /></a><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/your-wordpress-6-2-preview/\">Preview of WordPress 6.2</a>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dave Smith</strong> and <strong>Rich Tabor</strong> chatted about the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibEvgw88lls\"><strong>Top Five features coming to WordPress 6.2</strong></a>, with some cool demos of Site Editor browsing, the Style Book, Media inserter and Distraction-free mode in the post editor. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In the post, <strong><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/whats-new-for-developers-march-2023/\">What’s new for developers? (March 2023)</a></strong>, Justin Tadlock collected a myriad of interesting updates to WordPress that are specifically relevant for developers. &#8220;If you’re a developer who builds on top of the WordPress platform, this news is for you. The goal is to make it easier to navigate the fast-paced development cycle, narrowing down the list of must-read content into a single digestible source.&#8221; Tadlock wrote. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>It&#8217;s the second edition of this monthly round-up. If the roundup posts are all you require to stay on top of changes of WordPress, you can subscribe to the <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/tag/roundup/feed/\">Roundup Tag Feed</a> with your favorite Feed Reader. </em></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"dev62\">Dev Notes WordPress 6.2 (Block Editor)</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/03/editor-components-updates-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Editor Components updates in WordPress 6.2</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/add-new-prop-to-serversiderender-component/\">Add new prop to ServerSideRender component</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/02/wordpress-6-2-accessibility-improvements/\">WordPress 6.2 Accessibility Improvements</a>  </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introduction-of-block-inspector-tabs/\">Introduction of Block Inspector Tabs</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/introducing-the-html-api-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Introducing the HTML API in WordPress 6.2</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/upgrading-to-react-18-and-common-pitfalls-of-concurrent-mode/\">Upgrading to React 18 and common pitfalls of concurrent mode</a> </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-theme-related\">For Theme developers</h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/custom-css-for-global-styles-and-per-block/\">Custom CSS for global styles and per block</a>  </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/miscellaneous-editor-changes-in-wordpress-6-2/\">Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.2</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/28/custom-settings-wordpress-6-2/\">Customize settings for any block in WordPress 6.2</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/shadows-in-global-styles-with-wordpress-6-2/\">Shadows in Global Styles with WordPress 6.2</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/07/sticky-position-block-support/\">Sticky position block support</a>  </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/06/minimum-height-dimensions-block-support/\">Minimum height dimensions block support</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/19/style-book-preview-of-blocks-in-global-styles/\">Style Book preview of blocks in global styles</a> </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p><strong>🎙️ </strong> New episode:  <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-80-wordpress-6-2-preview-gutenberg-15-2-and-15-3/\">Gutenberg Changelog #80 – WordPress 6.2 Preview, Gutenberg 15.2 and 15.3</a> with Birgit Pauli-Haack and special guest Rich Tabor  </p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday, Rich Tabor, joined me on the Gutenberg Changelog episode #80 recording. We had great fun geeking out over the upcoming release of WordPress 6.2, Gutenberg 15.2 and 15.3. The recording will appear at your favorite podcast app over the weekend. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite a few new Block themes arrived at the Theme Directory. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> at the WPTavern reviewed <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/lemmony-a-free-wordpress-block-theme-with-30-patterns\"><strong>Lemmony: A Free WordPress Block Theme with 30+ Patterns</strong></a>, a magazine style theme for publishers and bloggers alike. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Gooding also reviewed: <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/lettre-newsletter-theme-now-available-on-wordpress-org\"><strong>Lettre Newsletter Theme Now Available on WordPress.org</strong></a>, a theme suitable for writers and publishers to style their newsletters. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/maneshtimilsina\"><strong>Manesh Timilsina</strong></a>, a plugin developer from Nepal, and new member of the WordPress Theme team, published his first theme for the Theme directory and made it a Block Theme. Congratulations! The theme is called <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/zino/\">Zino </a>and described as a minimal,  lightweight, and speed optimized. It&#8217;s still a pre-release version 0.0.2, though. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>The team at Automattic also released a new theme: <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/bibimbap/\">Bibimbap</a>, named after a Korean dish, is a simple and fun restaurant theme. Sarah Gooding has the details in <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-bibimbap-a-free-block-theme-for-restaurants\"><strong>Automattic Releases Bibimbap, a Free Block Theme for Restaurants</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brad Hogan</strong>, at <a href=\"https://blockthemespro.com/\">Block Themes Pro</a> published the first Theme in the Theme directory as well. It&#8217;s call <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/blockster/\">Blockster</a>, &#8220;a simple, clean, easy to manage block theme meant for non-profits, bloggers, freelancers and agencies&#8221; with four Style Variatons. It&#8217;s also used as a starter theme for #node site builders, creating websites for others. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Snow </strong>and <strong>Kathryn Presner</strong> were the hosts of the workshop <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2023/02/23/how-to-confidently-migrate-from-a-classic-theme-to-a-block-theme/\">How to Confidently Migrate from a Classic Theme to a Block&nbsp;Theme</a></strong>. The description reads: &#8220;Are you are worried about potential down-time on your live website if you make a mistake when switching from theme to theme? Would you like to learn how to move widget areas from your classic theme to a new block theme? If this sounds exciting, please join Sarah Snow in a live workshop to learn how to safely and comfortably migrate from a classic theme to a block theme.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/tetsuaki_hamano\">Aki Hamano</a></strong>  released version 3.2 of his plugin <strong>Custom HTML Block Extension</strong>, which extends  custom HTML blocks into a code editor, allows you to write code on a larger screen via a modal component! </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress doesn&#8217;t have a Pattern manager/editor for site&#8217;s yet. The plugin <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/blockmeister/\">Block Pattern Builder by Block Meister</a> has been my go-to tool for a few years now. I also use the pattern builder of Newsletter Glue. Now the developers at WP Engine released their Pattern Manager Plugin. <strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> has the skinny: <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-pattern-manager-plugin-now-in-beta\"><strong>WP Engine Pattern Manager Plugin Now in Beta</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn.WordPress published a new course: <strong><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/course/develop-your-first-low-code-block-theme/\">Develop Your First Low-Code Block Theme</a>.</strong> &#8220;By the end of this course, you will be able to&nbsp;build a fully functional, custom WordPress theme using very little code.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> published the <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/03/10/summary-community-themes-project-kickoff/\">Summary: Community Themes Project Kickoff</a>.</strong> &#8220;Over 20 members of the WordPress theming community gathered for an initial discussion on the proposed Community Themes project on March 7, 2023. The primary goal of the conversation was to gauge interest and discuss what this project might look like.&#8221; There were also a few outcomes, and a few open questions. Further Discussion will happen in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C03T2GLB97W\">#core-theme-projects</a> channel on the Making WordPress Slack space. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you want to follow along but don&#8217;t have an account yet, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/chat/\">here are the instructions on how to gain access</a>. </em> </p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2022&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/\"><em>The index 2020 is here</em></a></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Carolina Nymark </strong>published another lesson on her site: <a href=\"https://fullsiteediting.com/lessons/how-to-filter-theme-json-with-php/\"><strong>How to filter theme.json with PHP</strong></a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Here is how it works: WordPress loads a&nbsp;<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/trunk/src/wp-includes/theme.json\">default theme.json file (source)</a>. This file has all the default settings including colors and gradients. WordPress merges this data with settings from other sources, in the following order:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The block itself (block supports)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The theme.json file in the active theme (and parent theme if applicable)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>User settings: The options in the Styles sidebar in the Site Editor</li>\n</ul>\n<cite>Caroline Nymark, fullsiteediting.com</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/felixarntz\">Felix Arntz</a>,</strong> software engineer at Google,  shared his experience switching his site from a classic theme to a block theme in his post: <a href=\"https://felix-arntz.me/blog/rebuilding-my-website-using-a-block-theme/\"><strong>Rebuilding my website using a block theme</strong></a> He recounts all the steps in details, and the minimal code editing he had to do. Arntz is also a member of the WordPress Performance team, so his study on the before and after performance piqued my interest. An excellent read.</p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/michaelburridge\"><strong>Michael Burridge</strong></a> wrote <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/03/block-deprecation-a-tutorial/\"><strong>Block deprecation – a tutorial</strong></a> for the WordPress Developer blog. It walks you through the mechanics of block deprecation of static blocks, with step-by-step instructions. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this month, the team of the Block Protocol published their<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/blockprotocol/\"> WordPress plugin</a>. <strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> reported on it in his post: <a href=\"https://thewpminute.com/digging-into-the-wordpress-block-protocol-plugin/\"><strong>Digging Into the WordPress Block Protocol Plugin</strong></a> with an interview with David Wilkinson, CEO of Hash, the company behind the Block Protocol. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>&#8220;Although Block Protocol blocks are developed with&nbsp;<em>no knowledge&nbsp;</em>of the applications that embed them, through&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href=\"https://blockprotocol.org/docs/spec/hook-module\">hook module</a>&nbsp;they can tap into the embedding application’s native functionality anyway.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that things like WordPress’s native image gallery, file uploading, text editing, and so on all work seamlessly within Block Protocol blocks, as if they were native Gutenberg ones.&#8221;</p>\n<cite>David Wilkinson, CEO of Hash</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Are you experimenting with the Block Protocol, too? I would love to connect with you and compare notes! Email at <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">pauli@gutenbergtimes.com</a></em> or<em> share some information  in the comments online </em></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/\">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><img alt=\"GitHub all releases\" src=\"https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge\" /></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size\"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">them via email</a> or send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size\">For questions to be answered on the <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n\n<p>Featured Image: Bangkok Taxi Ride by Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n\n\n<form class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" name=\"ngl_email\" id=\"ngl_email\" /></div></div><button type=\"submit\" class=\"ngl-form-button\">Subscribe</button><p class=\"ngl-form-text\">We hate spam, too and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay\"><div class=\"ngl-message-svg-wrap\"></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" id=\"ngl_list_id\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" id=\"ngl_double_optin\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 11 Mar 2023 09:25:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:105:\"WPTavern: Toot the Word Survey Finds Mastodon Increasingly Important to WordPress’ Community of Tooters\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=142628\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:113:\"https://wptavern.com/toot-the-word-survey-finds-mastodon-increasingly-important-to-wordpress-community-of-tooters\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5939:\"<p>More than 200 users on Mastodon who consider themselves part of the WordPress community, responded to the recent Toot the Word 2023 Survey, which was conducted by the admins of five WordPress-oriented Mastodon instances. The purpose of the survey was to help those running these instances understand how important