Marcus Miller says, “If you run a small or local business, there is a good chance that your site is built in WordPress. In fact, statistics from BuiltWith.com would indicate that WordPress powers about 50 percent of the entire internet. The exact numbers vary, with other statistics showing WordPress powering 22 percent of new active sites or 58.9 percent of sites where CMS is known. Whatever way you look at it, that’s a lot of WordPress websites. WordPress is not just used for the likes of food blogs and local businesses, though — brands and huge websites use the platform. Further stats... [...]

Matt McGee says, “WordPress is strongly encouraging users of its self-hosted software to upgrade immediately to version 4.4.1, which was released on Wednesday. From the announcement: This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately. WordPress versions 4.4 and earlier are affected by a cross-site scripting vulnerability that could allow a site to be compromised. The update also includes 52 bug fixes, WordPress says, and offers an update that includes the latest diverse emoji. Self-hosted WordPress users can install version... [...]

Matt McGee says, “WordPress has released version 4.4, the latest update to its uber-popular content management platform. The company says this release is named “Clifford” in tribute to jazz musician Clifford Brown. Much more importantly, WordPress 4.4 offers a couple of new features to make your website a little more mobile-friendly and potentially more visible on other WordPress blogs and websites. Responsive Images: All images uploaded into WordPress are automatically made responsive, so they’ll adapt in size to different devices and browser dimensions. “You don’t need to do... [...]

Carly Stec says, “40,296. That’s the number of plugins on WordPress. With so many available, it’s tough to figure out the best ones to use — especially when you’re strapped for time. Here’s the good news: We’ve done the work for you. Below you’ll find 17 fantastic plugins every marketer using WordPress should know about. From writing to SEO to analytics, these plugins will help you arrive at the solutions you’re seeking while saving you a ton of time in the process. 17 Essential WordPress Plugins for Marketers 1) Jetpack Jetpack is an all-in-one... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Safer password management is one of the highlights in WordPress 4.3, which was released this week. Also added in the latest release are new text formatting shortcuts and the ability to change site menus in the Customizer, among other things. WordPress 4.3 brings a completely new approach to passwords. When new users are added, or when the password of an existing user profile is edited, WordPress will automatically generate a strong password for that user. Users are given the choice to keep the recommended strong password or choose their own. In addition, the WordPress software... [...]

Matthew Toren says, “When it comes to your website, you want to take advantage of any technology that helps maximize your efforts and get more traffic to your site. Other than creating epic content that you post consistently, what else can you do that will really leverage traffic flow? There are some incredible WordPress plugins that can help you optimize, audit and promote your site to help you increase your traffic. Here are seven great ones: 1.  Sharebar Sharebar is an easy-to-install WordPress plugin that syncs with the big social media outlets so that visitors can easily share your... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “Whether a brand new blogger or a seasoned writer, WordPress is one of the most popular and versatile content management systems (CMS) available. You can set up a quick, good-looking, fully-hosted blog using one of its many templates, or you can get into the world of self-hosting and coding to build your own professional site from scratch. Last year I wrote a complete guide to setting up and running your own WordPress site along with an SEO for WordPress best practice guide. That latter SEO guide has become somewhat out of date now, so this is a revised and updated... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “WordPress users: Now would be an excellent time to make sure your system is up to date. The content management system rolled out an update Thursday that addressed a security flaw that affected millions of websites. The vulnerability, first spotted by security researchers at Sucuri, leaves affected websites susceptible to an attack that could allow others to take control of the sites. The flaw stems from a bad file within Genericons, which is preloaded into many WordPress sites by default, including the default TwentyFifteen theme and the JetPack plugin, according to researchers.... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Hot on the heels of the 4.1.2 security release, WordPress has announced version 4.2, which is available now. This version of WordPress sports an updated Press This tool, which allows quick posting to your blog by quoting the text, video or images from another website. Press This works on mobile devices and as a desktop browser bookmarklet. Other new features include a streamlined plugin update process that eliminates the multiple page experience and does the updating inline with a single click. Also new is the ability to embed Tumblr and Kickstarter content just by pasting... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Whether you call it Mobilegeddon, Mopocalypse or something else, Google’s mobile-friendly update arrives tomorrow. The update will be significant and potentially impact a large number of websites that aren’t mobile-friendly. Remarkably, some estimates suggest that as much as 40 percent of the top sites aren’t mobile friendly today. The best and fastest way to tell if you’re site is ready is to use Google’s mobile friendly testing tool. Barry Schwartz has written a comprehensive Mobilegeddon FAQ post on Search Engine Land that answers almost every question... [...]