Archive
Past newsletter issues built for retrieval, not just memory.
Browse weekly WordPress fixes by topic so old issues stay useful when you need them, not just when they were sent.
Issue library
All archive issues
13 issues available.
Issue 13
Your "where to find us" map is the heaviest thing on the page
Maps are one of the heaviest things on a WordPress page, and the usual plugins make it worse by installing a whole page-builder ecosystem to show eight venues. Here's what a map plugin actually needs — geocoding, pin clustering, category filters and CSV bulk edits — plus the shortcode-driven one I built.
Issue 12
The enquiry you never got
A form submits, the visitor sees "thanks", and no email ever arrives. SMTP logging plugins can't catch it, because the failure isn't in the transport — the notification was never attempted at all. Here's how to test your own forms today, and the reconciliation approach that catches silent failures for good.
Issue 11
The video on your homepage is 200MB
Phones shoot 4K, WordPress accepts the file without comment, and your mobile visitors pay for it. Server-side optimisation isn't an option on managed hosting with no ffmpeg. Here's what web-ready actually means — H.264, 1080p, CRF 23, faststart — and a plugin that transcodes in the editor's own browser.
Issue 10
The real cost of form spam isn't the spam
Form spam doesn't cost you time, it costs you attention — and eventually a real enquiry gets skimmed past. Aggressive CAPTCHAs and bulk deletes both make it worse. The safer approach: detection that only inspects free-text fields, blocking at submission, a recoverable trash, and a schedule.
Issue 9
Your site got slower. Do you know what changed?
Every WordPress site slows down eventually, but almost none can say what caused it. Aftercare is a free, open-source plugin that records your daily Core Web Vitals from real Chrome users alongside a plain-English ledger of every change made to the site, then lines the two up when a metric breaches its budget.
Issue 8
The app I built so the vendor can't see your data
A slight detour from the usual weekly fix. Most software you rent can read everything you put into it, and can lock your data away the day you stop paying. I built NomadWealth — a self-hosted personal net-worth app — on the opposite principle.
Issue 7
How to get your content quoted by ChatGPT
AI tools favour a specific shape of content — direct questions, clear answers, short topical chunks. How to restructure a page so it gets cited in AI answers, not skipped.
Issue 6
97% of WordPress hacks come from one place
Almost all WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins and themes, not core. A 20-minute audit to find the abandoned and risky plugins on your site — and why a maintained site is a safe one.
Issue 5
Why your WordPress site feels slow
Most WordPress sites fail Core Web Vitals for the same handful of reasons. How to find your worst offender — your LCP element — in five minutes, and what to do about it.
Issue 4
Find the question first
A simple four-tool workflow for deciding what your WordPress site needs next — find real demand, check how machines read your site, fix the right thing, and escalate to an audit only when the problem is bigger than one fix.
Issue 3
The one file that tells ChatGPT how to read your site
What llms.txt is, why AI crawler traffic is now worth optimising for, and how to add the file to your WordPress site in about fifteen minutes.
Issue 2
Diagnose first, invest second
Two free checks to run before paying for an SEO audit, sprint, or plugin fix — and when the results tell you it's time to escalate.
Issue 1
Start here: the first fix
The inaugural issue — what One WordPress Fix a Week is, what to expect each week, and a 15-minute plugin clean-up that quietly speeds up almost every site.