News Category: Website

Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, has been accused of initiating a conflict that could lead to the closure of WordPress.org. He claims that the only way to end the conflict is for WP Engine to drop their lawsuit, allowing Mullenweg to resume his campaign to drive WP Engine out of business. A WordPress user who has published nearly 600 free WooCommerce tutorials and 500 newsletters tweeted a plea to reconsider the instability he has caused, stating that it is causing instability for thousands of developers, freelancers, and small agencies. Mullenweg’s response was not well-received, and a federal judge ruled against him by granting WP Engine’s request for a preliminary injunction to block his attacks against WP Engine.

Automattic has announced it is reducing support for the WordPress.org CMS project, claiming it is a positive change to strengthen WordPress. The decision is attributed to WP Engine’s lawsuit and the belief that the WordPress community approves of this level of investment. Automattic portrays itself as a victim and frames the withdrawal of support as the unavoidable consequence of WP Engine’s lawsuit. The company also points a finger at the WordPress community, using doublespeak to reference critics and justify pulling back resources. The statement portrays Automattic as the victim, WP Engine as the aggressor, and the WordPress community as complicit in undermining itself. The backlash against Automattic’s marginalisation of critics is criticised as an inaccurate portrayal of the community. The attack on the WordPress community is seen as a milestone in Matt Mullenweg’s “nuclear” war against WP Engine.

The Google Search Relations team discussed the increasing use of JavaScript in web development, highlighting its potential for overuse and limitations in the age of AI search. JavaScript was created to help websites compete with mobile apps, but it’s not the best choice for every part of a website. The current landscape is a spectrum between traditional websites and web applications, with websites being both websites and applications. A study found that AI bots make up an increasing percentage of search crawler traffic, but they can’t render JavaScript, potentially causing issues for search engines like ChatGPT Search. To balance modern features and accessibility for AI crawlers, it’s essential to use server-side rendering for key content, include core content in initial HTML, apply progressive enhancement techniques, and be cautious about when to use JavaScript.

Automattic removed a spreadsheet containing the domain names of WP Engine customers from the WP Engine Tracker website in response to a preliminary injunction granted to WP Engine. The order ordered Automattic and Matt Mullenweg to remove the spreadsheet within 72 hours. The lawsuit began after WP Engine declined to pay tens of millions of dollars in a cease and desist letter sent to Automattic’s Chief Legal Officer. On November 6th, Automattic launched a website called WP Engine Tracker, offering a list of WP Engine customers that could be used by other web hosts to solicit clients with offers to leave WP Engine. The WP Engine Tracker website became evidence of the harm Mullenweg was causing to WP Engine and was cited in the request for a preliminary injunction. The judge sided with WP Engine and granted the preliminary injunction, requiring Automattic and Mullenweg to remove the list of WP Engine customers. Automattic has updated the WP Engine Tracker website and removed wording encouraging leaving WP Engine for another web host.

Kinsta, a web hosting platform, analysed 140,000 websites to identify the most popular plugins for performance and reliability. The findings showed that publishers prioritise good performance, seamless user experience, and effective SEO. Schema.org is the tenth most used plugin, with 1.75% of users using it. XML Sitemap Generator for Google Plugin is used by 2.17% of websites, while Broken Line Checker checks broken links and 404 errors. SEOPress is the seventh most used plugin, with 4.81% using it. All-in-one SEO is the sixth most popular plugin, while Imagify is the fifth most used image optimiser plugin. Rank Math is the fourth most used plugin, with 18.32% using it. WP Rocket is the third most popular plugin, with 19.10% using it for performance optimisation. At MultiWebMarketing, we use plugins to ensure your website runs as efficiently and smoothly as possible, enquire for our professional website design services today to improve your website today.

Choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress host is crucial for improving your site’s search rankings and user experience. Key features include reliable uptime and speed, data centre locations and CDN options for global reach, built-in security features, optimised database and file management, SEO-friendly, scalable bandwidth for growing sites, WordPress-specific support and SEO optimisation tools, and integrated domain and site management. These features ensure a reliable, high-performance hosting environment, boost SEO potential, enhance user experience, and set your site up for long-term success. A reliable hosting provider with minimal downtime and fast server response times ensures seamless access for users and search engines, while a host with a distributed network of data centres and CDN options ensures global reach. Integrated domain and site management simplifies SEO administration, allowing you to focus on growth and optimisation.

Website performance is crucial for user experience and SEO and affects Google’s ranking factors. Google has defined three user experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and Interaction to Next Paint. To pass the Core Web Vitals assessment, websites can add instant navigation with speculation rules, optimise interaction to next paint with the Long Animation Frames API, view Core Web Vitals metrics in the DevTools Performance tab, and analyse Largest Contentful Paint components. Google has published a new article explaining which components have the most significant impact based on real user data. To pass Google’s Core Web Vitals assessment, websites can use website performance monitoring tools like DebugBear to track optimisations and benchmark their site against the competition. These tools provide detailed insight into page load times, real user experiences, and CrUX monitoring, helping to identify potential optimisations and track the metrics that impact Google rankings.

A new website on WPEngineTracker.com has been registered using the words that Automattic’s WordPressEngineTracker.com domain uses to describe itself, displaying a protest message against CEO Matt Mullenweg. The domain was only registered a few days ago, on November 7th. 15 likes and 18 laughing emojis approved the post. A 16-year-old member on the WordPress subreddit announced the domain name variant, stating, “I found it odd that Matt registered wordpressenginetracker.com when the thingamajig isn’t called ‘WordPress Engine Tracker’ – it’s ‘WP Engine Tracker'”. The registration of the WP Engine Tracker domain name variant could be seen as a manifestation of the negative sentiment toward Automattic and Mullenweg, as Automattic has received limited approval from WordPress users on social media.

Matt Mullenweg and Automattic have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against WP Engine, arguing that the company is causing harm rather than Mullenweg and Automattic. The motion claims that WP Engine is compelled to provide free resources and support, but it restricts Mullenweg’s ability to express his opinions about WP Engine’s practices. The defendants claim that WP Engine benefited from the open-source community but declined to become an active partner. The motion to dismiss argues that WP Engine’s refusal to reach an agreement with Automattic and become a stronger partner with the community triggered the dispute. Mullenweg had two choices: continue to allow WP Engine to exploit free resources, use WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks without authorisation, or demand publicly that WP Engine do more to support the community.

Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, has provided guidance on diagnosing widespread crawling issues, pointing to shared infrastructure as the likely cause when multiple domains are affected. Mueller suggested checking Search Console data to determine whether DNS or failed requests were causing the problem. He also noted that the timing of the disruption was a key clue. Mueller reassured that a brief disruption lasting only hours wouldn’t cause any visible issues in search. When Googlebot suddenly stops crawling across numerous sites simultaneously, it can be challenging to identify the root cause. While temporary crawling pauses might not immediately impact search rankings, they can disrupt Google’s ability to discover and index new content. To help, check if the problem affects multiple sites at once, look at shared infrastructure first, use Search Console data to narrow down the cause, and monitor logs.