Willard Interactive

How fast does your WordPress website load?

Josh Peichoto — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:53:40 +0000

The page load times are a very important part of the user experience for any WordPress website. Website visitors tend to care more about a quick load time than the website design, awesome functionality, or even the page’s content. In addition, page load time is an more important part of search engine rankings.

Even if your website loads pretty fast now, chances are it could be even faster. There are two major factors in improving load times. First is having a fast and reliable hosting vendor. Many companies, and individuals, have a shared hosting plan. This means your website is one of many hosted on a single server. The degree of usage on those websites can bog down the server, causing your website to load slower. This is why sometimes your site seems faster than others.

If you have a WordPress website you should spend a few minutes and test the speed of your WordPress website. This report will let you know how much faster your website could be with WP Engine Hosting. They’re an Austin based hosting company that specializes solely on WordPress websites.

The second factor in improving your website’s load time, is using a Content Delivery Network, such as Amazon S3 to serve up files used on your website. Most people associate this service with large downloads and video streaming services. However, you can even use S3 to serve up your images, JavaScript, and style sheets. By doing this, you’re limiting the amount of data that is being pulled off your shared hosting account.

Say good-bye to your WordPress website loading slow.

Poor Use of Stock Photography

Josh Peichoto — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:11:18 +0000

The other day i was working on a client’s website when I ran into an issue and needed to contact the hosting company for some assistance. I’ve been really pleased with Site5 Web Hosting and I like having the ability to jump on chat for support rather than calling in and having to wait on hold.

Upon entering the chat I was greeted by my support specialist, to help keep him from getting in trouble, let’s call him John Doe. I looked at his picture and immediately knew I’d seen that face on istockphoto a hundred times before.

After a few minutes of searching I was able to find the stock photo. Proof!

Site5, don’t use stock photography for your support specialist’s profile picture. Even though they are helpful, it makes them seem like the aren’t real people. I wonder who John Doe really is…

$45/mo Unlimited iPhone Plan

Josh Peichoto — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:49:37 +0000

Stumbled upon one heck of a deal. Straight Talk is offering a $45/month unlimited minutes, text, and data cell phone plan. Best of all, you can bring your AT&T or unlocked iPhone to their service.

Straight Talk is a pay as you go plan, which means there is no contracts to sign, but you will need to provide your own cell phone. All you do is buy a sim card from them and put it into your phone. Their service runs on the AT&T network so you’ll have good coverage in most areas.

I was skeptical at first but I took a leap and bought a refurbished AT&T iPhone 4 on eBay to give it a try. I was surprised how easy it was to sign up and port my cell phone number to Straight Talk. The whole process took about 45 minutes.

The only downside is that you cannot MMS (picture message) unless you jailbreak your iPhone. I don’t really mind though, you can iMessage with other iPhone users to send pictures as a work around.

Read more information on this $45/mo unlimited iPhone plan and how to sign up.

Happy Holidays!

Josh Peichoto — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:15:47 +0000

It’s always a special time as we approach a new year. We’d like to thank all of our clients for their continued business. As we look forward to 2012, we’re excited to continue helping our clients be successful on the web. Here’s to you and your businesses. Have a great holiday season and a wonderful 2012!

Recent WordPress Website Hack

Josh Peichoto — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:19:11 +0000

This week there has been a new WordPress website hack making the rounds. This hack injects some malicious javascript code into the tag on some key PHP files within the WordPress framework. Look for a long string of code that includes “function(p,a,c,k,e,d)” at the top of your source code.

For more details on this hack visit this website. http://redleg-redleg.blogspot.com

To help keep your WordPress website safe make sure you keep your installation and plug-ins up to date.

We’re Hiring!

Josh Peichoto — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:38:06 +0000

That’s right, Willard Interactive is accepting applications for a part-time contract developer. We’re looking for a responsible, motivated, detail-oriented front-end web developer with an energetic personality and an eye for pixel perfection. Does that sound like you? This position requires on-site availability two days per week.

Our ideal candidate is someone who is:

Experienced in programming HTML/CSS websites
Familiar with Adobe Photoshop
Friendly, well-spoken and well-written and able to work with directly with our clients
Passionate about layout and cross-browser compliance
Focuses on details and strives for pixel perfection
Able to accept criticism and feedback
Experience with open source applications, such as, WordPress and ExpressionEngine

If you think you’d be a great addition to the Willard Interactive team, click here to apply for the web developer position. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

We’ve got a cool new office.

Josh Peichoto — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:26:14 +0000

Today is an exciting one. We moved into our new office near the corner of Bee Cave and Capital of Texas Hwy (360). The space sports some great amenities, such as, built-in storage, hardwood and stained concrete floors, a balcony entrance, and more. I have to admit, I think the best part about our new office is that we’re right next door to a food trailer park. Currently there is a snow cone trailer and coming soon are sandwich and taco trailers. Yum!

Our new office office address is:
6414 Bee Cave Road
Suite B
Austin, Texas 78746

Stop by, say hello, and we’ll treat you to a snow cone. We’ll even let you choose a flavor, because we’re cool like that.