Tips and Tricks to Make Your Squarespace Website More Accessible

Compliance with web accessibility regulations is super important these days. The accessibility compliance of websites built on Squarespace varies depending on which template you’re using. Here are some tips and tricks to fix the accessibility errors that you might find in various Squarespace templates. As part of my testing, I use the WAVE browser extension … Read more

How to Track Outbound Link Clicks in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Report showing outbound link clicks in GA4

Google Analytics 4 has the ability to natively track outbound link clicks without the use of JavaScript or Google Tag Manager. Unfortunately, it makes you jump through some hoops to see the data. In the article, I’ll explain how to set up a Google Analytics 4 Exploration to track outbound link clicks on your website. … Read more

How to Use PHP to Interface with Zoho Analytics API / OAuth 2.0

Zoho API console screenshot

A PHP web app that I created using the Zoho Analytics (formerly Zoho Reports) API suddenly stopped working one day. Digging into the Zoho documentation, I discovered that they ended support for their “authtoken” authentication method (basically a password) and switched to OAuth 2.0. Hmmm… After looking into it, upgrading my app to be compatible … Read more

Generate PDFs Using Free Open-Source PHP Libraries

PHP to PDF generators

I recently had to figure out how to generate PDFs using PHP. There are tons of solutions out there, free and paid, with pros and cons. This is a summary of what I found out during my research, however, it’s by no means comprehensive. I basically stopped when I found solutions that satisfied my requirements. … Read more

Map a Different Domain Name to a WordPress Page or Post

WW2 Fighter

I had a client who wanted to map a domain name (different than the site’s root) directly to a WordPress Page, and not show the WordPress URL. For example, let’s say you had a WordPress blog with this Page:http://myblog.com/my-first-post/ But let’s say you want the URL of that post to be http://airplanesarecool.com. Of course, you could … Read more

Create a “Slot Machine” Hover Effect with CSS

Slot Machines

A client requested a “slot machine” hover effect for their social network buttons.  When you hover on the icon, it moves up, sort of like in a slot machine, and changes color.  Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: It turns out that this effect can be accomplished with some clever CSS!  No JavaScript … Read more

My Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Space Shuttle Enterprise

This is a list of items to check before and after launching your site. It’s not necessarily an exhaustive list for every type of website, but it is a good starting point for most sites. Getting Your Site Known 1. SEO 2.  Social Media Appearance With the importance of social media, you should check to … Read more

Modify Your .htaccess File to Eliminate Query Strings and Make Pretty URLs

Mod Rewrite screeenshot

I developed a website for a client that would display different photos based on a query string in the URL.  An example of this type of URL would be “http://mysite.com/album.php?photo=ab12345”. But, that is an ugly URL. Not only that, some people claim it’s not ideal for SEO.  Much better would be “http://mysite.com/ab12345”.  Here’s how to … Read more

Add Your Website Icon to the Browser Tab

favicons

The little icon that shows up in each web page’s browser tab is called a “favicon”.  Adding this tiny detail really gives your website a professional appearance in the browser.  Here’s how to do it. If You’re Using WordPress… WordPress provides a way to specify the favicon. Log into your site and go to Appearance … Read more