Author name: Isaac

Monitoring WordPress Cron via heartbeat checks

Part of my onboarding process and performance optimization for new sites is setting up proper server-level scheduled cron jobs using wp-cli. I use Kinsta hosting for clients and internal sites here at Sprucely Designed and, while they have an excellent hosting stack preconfigured out of the box, they don’t disable the stock WP-Cron or configure a system cron to my liking. So, based on Kinsta’s own knowledgebase recommendations, this is one of the first optimizations I make for new sites. First, I disable the default WP Cron, by adding this line to the site’s wp-config.php. On Kinsta hosting, this won’t completely disable the cron because Kinsta has a default server cron setup within crontab that performs a curl request to wp-cron.php?server_triggered_cronjob every 15 minutes. They do this as a backup to the default WP cron …

Monitoring WordPress Cron via heartbeat checks Read More »

NASA Adds Leap Second to Master Clock

What Are UTM Parameters, and How Should You Use Them?

How do you know which marketing campaigns are driving the most traffic to your website? Sure, you can track referral sources in Google Analytics. But did you know that you can get even more specific?  That’s where Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters come in.  Using UTM parameters in Google Analytics can help you understand how visitors find and interact with your content. Two crucial pieces of information that can help your business develop and grow.  In this post, we’ll share everything you need to know to get started with UTM parameters, including how and when to use them. What are UTM parameters?  Put simply: UTM parameters are tags you can add to the end of your links to tell Google Analytics more about your link so that you can track its performance.  When someone clicks …

What Are UTM Parameters, and How Should You Use Them? Read More »

Updated Hosting Plans from Sprucely Designed

More Affordable Add-Ons Effective July 1st, 2020, we’ve updated our Managed WordPress Hosting plans with more sites and available add-ons! Tidy and Dapper Upgrades Our Tidy and Dapper plans have been upgraded to allow for more sites within a single plan! Now you can host 3 WordPress sites on our Tidy ($50/mo) level or 8 WordPress sites on a Dapper ($100/mo) plan. If you just need to add a single additional site, you can now do that for only $12.50/mo. via our Additional Site Add-On. These additional sites will all share your SSD storage and traffic allocations, so if you have a particularly popular (successful!) or large site, you may need a higher plan for just the one site. Or you might be able to add that side project on for no extra cost if you have the …

Updated Hosting Plans from Sprucely Designed Read More »

Full Time Support!

I’m excited to share that I’m now working full time here at Sprucely Designed! Running this business has always been my passion project. Like so many of you small business owners, I often had more to do than time to do it in. Firstly, I’m immeasurably thankful for my wife, Rebekah, for supporting me in this transition and all she does to support me and our business. I’m also so thankful to all of my clients for entrusting me with supporting your businesses. I care as much for each of your businesses as I do my own. Change is sometimes scary, but don’t worry, I’ve got your back! Here are a few near term changes you can anticipate as I make this transition: Personal support is in our DNA You can expect improved levels of support …

Full Time Support! Read More »

Silver, analog wall clock on a white wall.
Scroll to Top