8 Best WordPress Resources for November 2022

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday … we’ve got tips and resources to help you get your WordPress website ready for some of the busiest days of the year.

Here are 8 new design tools and resources to explore.

1. How to Prepare Your Website for the Holidays

If you haven’t started already, it is time to prep your website for the holidays right now. From festive design elements to technical considerations, the shopping season can lead to more traffic and new visitors. You want your website to be ready.

Here are a few things you need to do right now (if you haven’t already):

• Add festive or holiday elements or imagery to the design, such as colors, banner images, or pop-ups
• Create and share holiday-related content (gift guides and recipes are always popular)
• Set holiday promotions or deals (don’t forget to test your coupon codes)
• Optimize for speed; check your hosting account to ensure you have enough bandwidth to handle anticipated traffic flows
• Highlight key products and make them easy to find
• Streamline your checkout process and don’t ask for information you don’t actually need

Looking for a few more ideas or suggestions? You can find them here.

2. Why Should Your Nonprofit Should Participate in Giving Tuesday

The biggest holiday shopping weekend of the year concludes with Giving Tuesday (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) to celebrate nonprofits with a global push for donations.

Not only is this day a great opportunity to give back to your region or community, but it offers an easy opportunity for nonprofits to engage as well.

If you work with a nonprofit, GiveWP has a guide to help you understand why your organization should participate in Giving Tuesday with tips and advice on getting started.

Giving Tuesday 2022 is on Nov. 29. #GivingTuesday continues to grow, and it’s more important than ever to take part and create a powerful fundraising campaign.

3. Terms and Privacy Policy Requirements for Event Websites

If you share or run events through your website, some important new privacy laws go into effect in 2023. Compliance is important to ensure that you are operating legally, and it can keep you from paying some hefty fines (up to $2,500).

Do you do any of the following?

• Collect regulated data like names or email addresses on your website
• Share data with third parties
• Build websites for clients

Watch the webinar to learn more about new rules and how to ensure that your privacy policies are up to date.

4. How to Win with Google’s Content Update (Podcast)

We all know that Google is constantly updating its search algorithm. Rather than read hours of documentation, you can listen to The Kadence Beat podcast and catch up on all the changes in less than 30 minutes.

Google is calling this the Helpful Content Update, and it is designed to elevate “people-first content” in Google’s search engine result pages. The update has already been rolled out, and it is something content creators should be aware of.

Here’s your best hint: If you are creating excellent content with solid information, you are doing the right thing!

Listen to the podcast to learn more.

5. Upgrading Your WordPress Websites to PHP 8

PHP 7.4 is reaching end of life on November 28, 2022. After that, it will no longer receive any security updates. So if you haven’t upgraded your PHP version, it’s time to start thinking about it. Since PHP 8 causes more breaks than any version of PHP to date, it’s important to have a solid testing process in place before you make the switch.

In this webinar, Tiffany Bridge (Product Manager for WordPress eCommerce at Nexcess) will explain the process of upgrading your WordPress site to PHP 8 and show how to test for errors and deal with them when they come up.

6. WordPress Vulnerability Report

You need to keep up with WordPress issues to help keep your site safe and running smoothly. The WordPress Vulnerability Report shows all of the core issues that might pop up if you aren’t on the latest version of WordPress and vulnerabilities with plugins.

One big thing to consider is that WordPress is dropping support for core versions 3.7-4.0 on Dec. 1. If you aren’t running the latest version, it is time to update.

Did you know one of the best things you can do to prevent these vulnerabilities on your website is to keep plugins up to date?

Some things to be on the lookout for in the latest report include vulnerabilities with these popular plugins: Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce, Donations by PayPal, Beautiful Cookie Consent Banner, WP User Merger, Analytics for WP, and many others.

Read all the WordPress Vulnerability Reports for November:

• WordPress Vulnerability Report – November 2, 2022
• WordPress Vulnerability Report – November 9, 2022
• WordPress Vulnerability Report – November 16, 2022
• WordPress Vulnerability Report – November 23, 2022

7. WordPress Plugin Roundup

Each month Nathan Ingram combs the WordPress plugin directory for interesting plugins that have been added or updated in the last 30 days and assembles a list of helpful and unique plugins for your WordPress website. And it’s free! The next online event is on December 6th. Register today.

8. WordPress News Roundup

If you want to stay up-to-date on everything happening in the world of WordPress, join the monthly
WordPress News Roundup. In this session, Ingram will discuss the latest developments in the WordPress ecosystem in this informational webinar. We’ll talk through this month’s WordPress news with plenty of interaction and Q&A. The next event is on December 14th.

Wrapping Up

New tools and resources for WordPress are being released all the time, and we hope this list helps you discover new ways to improve your workflows. Did we miss something you want to highlight? Tweet us @ithemes.