Penguin Initiatives

18 Ways to Make WordPress Fast As All Hell

Andy Forsberg — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:50:36 +0000

This blog loads faster than 97% of all websites tested by Pingdom’s Website Speed Test as you can see in the report above. It wasn’t just naturally this fast, it took some effort. To save you time and help you speed up your WordPress site, I’ve outlined 18 specific ways you can do this on any WordPress driven web site. Some of these items will not be options if your web host doesn’t accommodate them, but most of them will be relevant regardless of your web host.

Best Practices for Load Time Optimization

Remove Unused Stylesheets & ScriptsIf you’re not using it, remove it.
Remove Unused Images Referenced via StylesheetsDon’t reference what you don’t use.
Disable Unused PluginsMake sure you’re only running plugins you actually use or they’ll clog up your site for no good reason.
Ensure Elements Load Only When In UseFor example, don’t load a script in your header file throughout your site if it only needs to be called on one page.
Use JPG’s Instead of PNG’s when AppropriateJPG’s have smaller file sizes, if you don’t need the image to be transparent, then you don’t need it to be a PNG.
Don’t Rely on Slow Third PartiesTwitter is notorious for downtime and slow connections, cache their data, don’t depend on it being available all the time or it will destroy your site’s load time.
Localize External Files Whenever PossibleDon’t make external requests when you don’t have to; the more you make, the more servers you have to trust to not slow your web site down.
Load All Stylesheets in the Head Before scripts where possibleJavaScript generally takes longer to load than stylesheets, you don’t want your JavaScript to delay the loading of your styles.

WordPress Plugins for Load Time Optimization

Use WP Super CacheWhile this may be less popular than W3 Total Cache, I have found it to reduce load time more effectively. You’ll just have to deal with a less user-friendly interface to take advantage of it.
Use Better WP MinifySometimes it’s better not to minify your files, so test the load time with Pingdom’s Website speed test before and after enabling it, to determine whether or not it makes sense for your site. This is particularly true if you have a lot of CSS files being loaded, as one big group they can take a lot longer to load than they would separately.
Use WP Smush.itIdeally you’ll be able to just bulk “smush” all your images. Yahoo’s Smush.it service tends to be a bit unreliable however. If it’s not working at the time, you can always run a GTmetrix report on your site and manually download the compressed version of the images it reports as not being optimized.

Third-Party Services for Load Time Optimization

Use a Content Delivery Network (I recommend MaxCDN)If you don’t know what a CDN is, read this.
Use CSS Sprites (create them with SpriteMe)This gem makes it super easy to create & implement CSS sprites for your site.

.htaccess Tweaks for Load Time Optimization

Enable mod_deflateAfter enabling mod_deflate on your server, add the following directives to your .htaccess file:

# MOD_DEFLATE #
 
 #The following line is enough for .js and .css
 AddOutputFilter DEFLATE js css
 #The following line also enables compression by file content type, for the following list of Content-Type:s
 AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml application/xml
 #The following lines are to avoid bugs with some browsers
 BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
 BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
 BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
 
# MOD_DEFLATE #

Enable mod_headersAfter enabling mod_headers on your server, specify a vary: accept-encoding header by adding the following directives to your .htaccess file:

# MOD_HEADERS #
 
 
 Header append Vary: Accept-Encoding
 
 
# MOD_HEADERS #

Set Cache ExpirationAdd the following directives to your .htaccess file (with whatever expiration you feel is most appropriate for your site of course):

# CACHE EXPIRATION #
 ExpiresActive On
 ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType image/ico "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 month"
 ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 week"
# CACHE EXPIRATION #

WordPress Functions for Load Time Optimization

Load JavaScript from Your Template’s FooterYou can install the JavaScript to Footer WordPress Plugin…or just add it’s PHP code to your functions.php file:

/*
 Plugin Name: JavaScript to Footer
 Plugin URI: www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins/footer-javascript
 Description: This plugin automatically moves JavaScript code to page footer, speeding up page loading time.
 Version: 0.4.1
 Author: Vladimir Prelovac
 Author URI: www.prelovac.com/vladimir
 */

// super easy way to move javascript to footer
 remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_print_scripts');
 remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_print_head_scripts', 9);
 remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 1);
 add_action('wp_footer', 'wp_print_scripts', 5);
 add_action('wp_footer', 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 5);
 add_action('wp_footer', 'wp_print_head_scripts', 5);

The problem is, some of your JavaScript files may not work properly if they’re moved to the footer. In this case you’ll have to move the JavaScript files to the footer on a case-by-case basis. You can do this utilizing the wp_register_script() & wp_enqueue_script() functions. These are normally found in the functions.php file of your WordPress theme. The fifth parameter in each function is $in_footer. As long as you set this parameter to true for both functions for a given script, the given script will then be loaded in the footer where the wp_footer() function is called in your theme’s template.

For example if you had the script prettyphoto being included as follows:

wp_register_script( 'prettyphoto', $uri.'/js/prettyPhoto/js/jquery.prettyPhoto.js', array('jquery') );

wp_enqueue_script( 'prettyphoto' );

You would adjust it as follows to get it to load in the footer:

wp_register_script( 'prettyphoto', $uri.'/js/prettyPhoto/js/jquery.prettyPhoto.js', array('jquery'), '', true );
wp_enqueue_script( 'prettyphoto', '', '', '', true );

Remove Query Strings from Static Stylesheets & ScriptsAdd the following to your functions.php file to remove them from all your scripts & styles:

/* Remove unnecessary query tags from scripts & stylesheets in header */
 function _remove_script_version( $src ){
 $parts = explode( '?', $src );
 return $parts[0];
 }
 add_filter( 'script_loader_src', '_remove_script_version', 15, 1 );
 add_filter( 'style_loader_src', '_remove_script_version', 15, 1 );

Use the following instead if you need to keep the version query string on a style or script for some reason (i.e. the Google Maps API reference breaks if it’s removed):

/* Remove unnecessary query tags from scripts & stylesheets in header */
 function _remove_script_version( $src ){
 $parts = explode( '?', $src );
 //return str_replace("http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js","http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false&ver=3.5.1", $parts[0]);
 return str_replace("http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js","", $parts[0]);
 }
 add_filter( 'script_loader_src', '_remove_script_version', 15, 1 );
 add_filter( 'style_loader_src', '_remove_script_version', 15, 1 );

Share Your Results

Test your load time before following this guide. Once you have fully implemented these techniques, please share your results in the comments! Also, if you have any further recommendations I’d love to hear those too!

The post 18 Ways to Make WordPress Fast As All Hell appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

14 Signs of a High-Quality Responsive WordPress Theme

Andy Forsberg — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:21:18 +0000

When you’re shopping for a premium responsive WordPress theme on ThemeForest you want to get your money’s worth. Choosing a theme can be very overwhelming as there are a myriad of options on ThemeForest. Next time you’re in the market for a responsive WordPress theme you may want to follow this guide to ensure you choose your theme wisely.

Throughout this guide I have used the Avada Responsive WordPress Theme created by Theme Fusion as the example theme in question. I chose this particular theme because it is an extremely popular, well-constructed, premium responsive WordPress theme. I have no association with Theme Fusion.

Test The Theme Demo

View Standard Responsive Layouts All At Once with Google Chrome’s Web Developer Extension

This is a very efficient & effective way to identify any obvious quality issues with a responsive design.

Test the responsive design given your specific mobile use case with Google’s GoMoMeter

Your particular use case determines whether or not the theme will meet your need as is. For example the Avada Responsive WordPress Theme would require tweaking to accommodate a web site focused on lead generation, but would be ready out-of-the-box for a publisher.

Test the theme’s page speed & underlying quality with GTmetrix

Keep in mind that you should ignore the server-side specific issues, since your site will ultimately be dependent upon your own web server’s configuration. Also, some issues are inevitable with very highly configurable themes, as they unfortunately require lots of unused CSS and inefficient CSS selectors in order to accommodate a wide array of optional design configurations.

Test how the theme renders in all the browsers and operating systems you want your web site to support with Browsershots

Discovering a cross-browser compatibility issue after you’ve launched a new design is no fun for anyone and cleaning these types of issues up can be very tedious.

Test the site for color blind design issues with Chrome Daltonize

About 7% of American males & 0.4% of American females are color blind. The Avada Responsive WordPress Theme looks essentially the same when “Daltonized” so I’m including an example screenshot from the extension rather than the example theme.

Take a quick look at the source code, this can give you a lot of insight into the quality and readability of the underlying code

Look at naming conventions, formatting, consistency, code efficiency, referenced libraries, etc. For example, the Avada Responsive WordPress Theme creators leverage the Google Font API and use a CDN for their demo site. They’re also using the meta viewport tag. The fact that they are using these more recent technologies & standards is a good sign.

Test the contact form and see if it offers user-friendly validation

When theme developers take the time to implement validation on their contact forms they are more likely to spend time on other little, but important details.

Type in a URL you know doesn’t exist for the theme and see if an elegant 404 page design exists

On the same note, when theme developers take the time to implement custom 404 page designs they are again more likely to spend time on other little, but important details.

Look for ThemeForest themes with…

Elite Authors

These authors have earned over $75,000 on the Envato Marketplace, clearly they’re doing something right!

Good Buyer Ratings

Pretty obvious why this is important.

High Purchase Volume (relative to the release date)

Again…obvious.

Frequent Updates (relative to the release date)

You’re not buying a theme to maintain it’s core design & functionality. Make sure the theme you buy will be supported for the foreseeable future.

Significant Customization Options

While the theme demo may look spectacular, you’re going to want to personalize it. You don’t want your site to look like all the other web sites running the same theme. Make sure there’s enough built-in customization options to differentiate your site, especially if you’re not a front-end developer.

Unique Theme Features (that you couldn’t easily replicate using freely available WordPress plugins)

For example you can get tons of shortcodes and/or create your own by simply installing Shortcodes Ultimate.

The post 14 Signs of a High-Quality Responsive WordPress Theme appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

Top 14 Responsive WordPress Themes Born In 2013

Andy Forsberg — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:10:53 +0000

These 14 themes were hand-picked because they were deemed the most flexible, clean, elegant, efficient & professional of them all.

The post Top 14 Responsive WordPress Themes Born In 2013 appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

Top WordPress Theme Clubs, Developers & Marketplaces

Andy Forsberg — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:38:10 +0000

Top WordPress Theme Clubs

The Top WordPress Theme Clubs

RocketTheme

Club WordPress Themes 49
Minimum Club Cost $50

WooThemes

Club WordPress Themes 84
Minimum Club Cost $145

Elegant Themes

Club WordPress Themes 81
Minimum Club Cost $39

ThemeFuse

Club WordPress Themes 30
Minimum Club Cost $216

Theme Trust

CLUB WORDPRESS THEMES 18
COST PER THEME $49

Top ThemeForest WordPress Theme Developers

The Top WordPress Theme Developers on ThemeForest

Kriesi

Sales 55,169
WordPress Themes 27
1st in overall number of sales in all Envato Marketplaces

PEERAPONG

Sales 52,894
WordPress Themes 42
1st in overall number of sales on ThemeForest

internq7

Sales 32,270
WordPress Themes 4
#1 selling theme of all time on ThemeForest

TrueThemes

Sales 28,326
WordPress Themes 2
Built a couple really, really solid themes and it paid off

GoodLayers

Sales 32,870
WordPress Themes 27
Lots of good themes at a reasonable price point

Brankic1979

Sales 16,256
WordPress Themes 9
My blog is using their Bigbang theme & I love it!

purethemes

Sales 8,513
WordPress Themes 8
Clean & elegant themes

bringthepixel

Sales 6,147
WordPress Themes 6
Flare is a true gem

Top WordPress Theme Marketplaces

The Top Places Online To Buy & Sell WordPress Themes.

ThemeForest

WordPress Themes 2,500
Members 2,500,000

Mojo Themes

WordPress Themes 400
Members 58,000

More To Come Soon

This is a work in progress. If you know of any I missed that should be here, please mention them in the comments, thanks!

The post Top WordPress Theme Clubs, Developers & Marketplaces appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

New Web Server Loads Website In Less Than One Second

Andy Forsberg — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:21:12 +0000

The Catalyst

Recently I enabled load time tracking in Google Analytics by adding the following line of JavaScript to the Google Analytics tracking code snippet:

_gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);

Appalled by my sites horrendous average page load time of 13.65 seconds, I decided I needed to make a change. While I enjoyed only paying $9.95/month for my shared hosting plan, this level of slow was unacceptable to me.

The New Rig

So I decided to follow Joost de Valk’s spectacular advice (yoast.com/articles/wordpress-hosting/) and get a VPS.NET Cloud Server. I followed all of his advice. I replaced Apache with LiteSpeed. I installed APC. I even setup a CDN via MaxCDN.

After all was said and done I was paying $65.75/month for a VPS.NET Cloud Server with:

2 Nodes – minimum required for cPanel (+$36.00/month)
LiteSpeed license (+$14.00/month)
cPanel license (+$10.00/month)
Automated Snapshot Backups (+$5.00/month)
Softaculous (+$9.00/year)

In addition, I dropped $29.95 for 1TB of bandwidth through MaxCDN, which will likely last me the entire year.

The Results

Old Server (5.61 second load time)

Old HostGator Baby Plan Shared Web Host

New Server (0.971 second load time) – That’s 5.77x Faster!

New VPS.NET Cloud VPS Server

Benefits of a Fast Website

More pageviews
More Google traffic
Happier visitors
Bragging rights

Impact of a 1-Second Delay in Page Load Time

The Conclusion

You get what you pay for and, as always, Joost knows best!

The post New Web Server Loads Website In Less Than One Second appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

Domain-Wide Facebook Shares, Likes & Comments Social Statistics Tool

Andy Forsberg — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 23:03:37 +0000

I’ve always wanted a quick and easy way to see social activity domain-wide. The other day I got to playing with some social APIs and realized I could build one for Facebook. So I decided to polish it and provide it as a free resource for anyone to utilize. Currently you can enter up to three sitemaps at a time.

Example Sitemaps

This Blog’s Sitemap URL: http://penguininitiatives.com/post-sitemap.xml
Competitor Sitemap URL #1: www.boughseo.com/sitemap.xml
Competitor Sitemap URL #2: http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/sitemap.xml

Example Report

Finding XML Sitemaps

Unfortunately, sometimes it can be very difficult or simply not possible to find the sitemap file for another web site. First try just domain.com/sitemap.xml & domain.com/sitemap_index.xml, if neither works try checking domain.com/robots.txt to see if they reference the location in their robots.txt file.

Run The Facebook Stats Tool

G5WJ5CJQNAK7

The post Domain-Wide Facebook Shares, Likes & Comments Social Statistics Tool appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

37 Steps to Launch Your Next Awesome Web Site

Andy Forsberg — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:08:00 +0000

I have built a lot of awesome web sites in my time. Odds are you have probably visited one of my awesome web sites in the past. Suffice to say I have learned a lot the past 15 years of my life while building these awesome web sites. My gift to you, is this awesome list of steps to follow when launching your next web site. As long as you’re able to make great content (which is by no means an easy task), following these steps will ensure that your web site becomes truly AWESOME!

Click on any step for additional details to be shown. The relevant tools & services are notated for each step.

Synonym.com1) Decide on a great brand name

Namecheap2) Make sure the domain is available

KnowEm3) Make sure your brand name has social media accounts available

Namecheap4) Register your domain

KnowEm5) Register your accounts for your brand name on major social networks

HostGator6) Purchase a web server

Google Apps7) Setup a service to manage your email, calendar, documents, etc.

Google Analytics8) Setup analytics

Segment Templates9) Import Advanced Segments

99designs10) Create a logo & decide on standard colors for your new brand

Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet11) Brand all of your social network accounts

iOS App Icon Template12) Create a favicon & iOS App Icons for your web site

Chrome Sniffer13) Decide on what your site will run on, usually a good CMS is the best solution

Theme Forest14) Have a custom design made or utilize a solid template as a starting point

Robots.txt15) Start developing the web site

you can use robots.txt to prevent search engines from indexing it while you’re building it, just create a text file named “robots.txt”, add the following 2 lines of text to it and place it in your root directory (just don’t forget to remove it once you launch the site):

User-agent: *
	Disallow: /

Sublime Text16) Use a great text editor when editing any code

GoMoMeter17) Make your web site mobile-friendly

Web Developer18) Make sure your web site renders well in all key resolutions

GTmetrix19) Make sure the site is as optimized as possible for load time

Adobe Browser Lab20) Make sure the web site has solid cross-browser compatibility

SEO Cheat Sheet21) Utilize SEO best practices

Load Impact22) Perform load testing

FeedBurner23) Create an RSS Feed

XML-Sitemaps.com24) Create an XML Sitemap

Termsfeed25) Create the Terms of Service & Privacy Policy for your web site

Great Content Process26) Create great content

Track Social Shares27) Add social share widgets to pages with interesting content

Grammarly28) Spellcheck your web site

Google Analytics29) Launch the web site & record the launch date

Bing Webmaster Tools Google Webmaster Tools30) Utilize webmaster tools

Google Alerts mention31) Setup brand monitoring

Site24x732) Setup website uptime monitoring

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity33) Build links

AddThis34) Promote your content

HubSpot’s Marketing Grader35) Grade your web site

WooRank36) WooRank your web site

Penguin Initiatives37) Enjoy your web site

Time for you to make an awesome web site & while you’re at it…be awesome and share these 37 steps with your friends & colleagues via your favorite social networks below!

The post 37 Steps to Launch Your Next Awesome Web Site appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

Track Social Shares: AddThis Widget + Google Analytics

Andy Forsberg — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:01:08 +0000

My Friend Wanted Social Share Tracking

My friend Alex was just dying to track social shares on his opinionated fashion, gaming, haiku, review, rant & trolling blog AGREEorDIE. He was dying for this because his site recently went INSANELY viral due to his uniquely awesome eldredge tie knot and trinity tie knot how-to instructional videos. If you’re a male and want to look particularly stylish with a tie one day, I highly recommend trying them out! Ideally he wanted to track actual shares, rather than just clicks on social sharing buttons. I mean, who really cares if someone clicks on a sharing button, but doesn’t actually go through with the social sharing? I sure don’t and I figured I would enjoy having this information for my web sites as well. So I decided to find a solution for us both. I wanted it to be easy, accurate, free and I didn’t want to sacrifice how my social sharing widgets were display or show some attribution link either. I also didn’t want to be restricted to any particular social media sites either. Well Google Analytics may already provide this data by default for Delicious, Disqus, Google Plus, Pocket, and some other more obscure Social Data Hub Partners that doesn’t come close to cutting it since it excludes the majority of the most important social media sites out there (i.e. Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Twitter, etc.).

Google Analytics Doesn’t Make It Easy

Initially I toyed with integrating Google Analytics Social Interactions – Web Tracking (ga.js) with the various networks that were most important to Alex and I. This proved to not be easy and therefore didn’t meet my stated need fully. I followed the instructions and ultimately was unable to get it to work for any network (not that I spent much time on it, since I wanted this to be easy). I then tried using pre-existing code that had been setup for exactly this purpose, that is the Google Analytics Social Tracking Demo. This too, did not appear to work out of the box and so I moved on thinking there had to be a better way to meet my need. I mean seriously, this has to be a common need for a lot of web sites, why should it be difficult? I could have gone the easy route using social icons and just tracking click events on them, but again I didn’t care if people clicked on them, I only cared if they actually shared content. It was also important to me to include the social share tally next to the share buttons, the icons alone simply were not acceptable.

The Easy, Accurate, Free Option: AddThis

So I kept looking for a better option. I had used AddThis in the past and I didn’t necessarily appreciate the service. It used to be rather inflexible and didn’t add much value above and beyond saving some time getting separate social widgets to render well next to one another. To my surprise and delight, I found that AddThis had come a very long way since I had last used the service. It was now the solution to all of my problems. Alex and I were able to customize our sharing widgets with full flexibility and enjoy a truly easy way to integrate social sharing tracking with Google Analytics! I was even able to do this without including the infamous AddThis share button! Thank you AddThis for making my life easier!

Google Analytics Social Plugins Report + AddThis Data

The Code That Did The Trick

The Penguin Initiatives AddThis code renders as follows:

The following is the AddThis code I used for Penguin Initiatives to accomplish this:

You can use whatever social network share widgets you prefer using the AddThis Client API

To use the Penguin Initiatives AddThis code on your site, replace the following strings:

INSERT_YOUR_GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_UA_ID_HERE
INSERT_YOUR_ADDTHIS_PUBLISHER_ID_HERE

Alex’s AddThis code renders as follows:

The following is the AddThis code Alex used to accomplish this on AGREEorDIE:

Note this doesn’t include an AddThis button and has an RSS Feed appended to the AddThis code

To use Alex’s AddThis code on your site, replace the following strings:

INSERT_YOUR_RSS_FEED_URL_HERE
INSERT_YOUR_GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_UA_ID_HERE
INSERT_YOUR_ADDTHIS_PUBLISHER_ID_HERE

Advanced Segments for Social Shares

I’m somewhat of a Google Analytics advanced segment fan, which is quite evident from my recent Comprehensive Google Analytics Advanced Segments Template Collection post. For this reason I was compelled to find a way to create an advanced segment for social shares. I desperately desired the ability to identify where the visitors are coming from that share my content socially, as I appreciate this segment of visitors much more than those who don’t help spread the word about my blog. I want to know where they’re coming from, so I can focus on gaining additional visitors from these important sources. Unfortunately, Google Analytics does not allow you to segment by social source at this time. Regardless, I am working with AddThis support to identify a viable solution to this dilemma. One way or another, I will find a solution and once I do I will update this post and my Comprehensive Google Analytics Advanced Segments Template Collection post with said solution.

Social Share Tracking Only for Now

For now, I hope that you find the ability to easily & accurately track social shares for free, by social network, in your Google Analytics account to be useful. If you have a different and/or better way of accomplishing this, please share your wisdom in the comments.

Now please allow me to more thoroughly enjoy the social share tracking I have enabled, by sharing this link with your friends & colleagues via your favorite social networks using the social sharing widgets below!

The post Track Social Shares: AddThis Widget + Google Analytics appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

Theme Sniffer Chrome Extension v0.82 Quality Results

Andy Forsberg — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 02:36:03 +0000

Recently I wrote about How I Increased My Extension’s Chrome Web Store Impressions 1,112% in only 15 Minutes. Since then the Theme Sniffer extension has not only grown significantly in its number of active users, but it has also received a lot of negative reviews for its failure to accurately identify the theme or template of a large portion of Drupal, Joomla & WordPress web sites. I just launched a new release (v0.82) of the Theme Sniffer Chrome Extension to address these quality issues, the following are my results.

WordPress Test Sites

For this test I used the latest 50 web sites listed on the WordPress Showcase.

blog.linkedin.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: linkedin
www.charitywater.org/blog/ Detected WordPress Theme: charity
fourhourchef.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: pub
bestbuymobile.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: bestbuymobile
xzibit.com/ Failed to detect theme
www.rollingstones.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: rolling-stones-2012
qz.com/ Failed to detect theme
cio.gov/ Detected WordPress Theme: twentyten
www.tonpetitlook.com/en Failed to detect theme
365awesomedesigners.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: 365awesomedesigner
channingtatumunwrapped.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: pagelines
fluffyguy.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: gabrieliglesias
fourhourbody.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: pub
moonfrye.com/ Failed to detect theme
thecrosbypress.jackthreads.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: vip
product.espn.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: pub
magazine.topman.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: generation
thealpinereview.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: alpine
www.riverdance.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: riverdance
woorkup.com/ - Failed to detect theme
sickdesigner.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: sick2012
peter-facinelli.com/wordpress/ Detected WordPress Theme: peter-facinelli-green
williamshatner.com/ws/ Detected WordPress Theme: meshable
www.butterfield.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: butterfield
www.bonnaroo.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: bonnaroo2k12
thenextweb.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: icetea
gcbaz.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: gateway
factoryjackson.com/ Failed to detect theme
www.dompteurs.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: dompteurs
www.nrccwdt.org/ Detected WordPress Theme: NRC-CDWT
www.webdevelopmentgroup.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: thewebdevelopmentgroup
www.su.edu/ Detected WordPress Theme: school-subsite
stylegirlfriend.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: lifestyle
today.salve.edu/ Detected WordPress Theme: deadline-child
ricklohre.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: bigformat
winefolly.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: WF-Skeleton
halsparks.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: Prestige
thingswemake.wordpress.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: pub
shitiheart.com/ Failed to detect theme
rhicenter.org/ Detected WordPress Theme: outreach%201.2
blog.flickr.net/en Detected WordPress Theme: h4
code.flickr.net/ Detected WordPress Theme: vip
www.milwaukeepolicenews.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: milwaukeepolice
evening-edition.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: evening-edition
blog.chartbeat.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: chartbeat
acityatwork.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: premium
mibwatch.wordpress.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: pub
snooplion.com/ Failed to detect theme
gaptheoryband.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: h4
standtalleducation.com/ Detected WordPress Theme: StandTall_115

84% (42/50) of WordPress Themes Detected Successfully

Joomla Test Sites

For this test I used the latest 50 web sites listed on the Joomla Portfolio as well as the Joomla Community Showcase.

boutique.heathrow.com/ Detected Joomla Template: businesslab3
gtbank.com/ Detected Joomla Template: global-resources
www.peugeot.com/en Detected Joomla Template: peugeot
www.leonardodicaprio.com/ Detected Joomla Template: leoldc
www.mtvgreece.gr/ Failed to detect Template
www.villarrealcf.es/ Detected Joomla Template: yoo_cloud
www.df.gob.mx/ Detected Joomla Template: blueface
www.jaguar.gr/ Detected Joomla Template: jaguar
kratkofil.org/ Detected Joomla Template: sienna
www.theskydeck.com/ Detected Joomla Template: skydeck
www.minedu.gov.gr/ Detected Joomla Template: gk_twn_blue
www.monacoyachtshow.com/ Failed to detect Template
nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/ Detected Joomla Template: cloudbase
www.exact.com/ Detected Joomla Template: exact
www.tour-eiffel.fr/ Detected Joomla Template: tour_eiffel
www.tatanano.com/ Failed to detect Template
www.actian.com/ Detected Joomla Template: actian
www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk/ Detected Joomla Template: stabunit
www.minplanet.se/ Detected Joomla Template: minplanet
www.santiagotimes.cl/ Detected Joomla Template: gk_twn
www.hcourt.gov.au/ Detected Joomla Template: highcourt
www.groupama-transport.com/ Detected Joomla Template: ai_groupama2
maersktraining.com/ Detected Joomla Template: mtc-maersk.com
api.orange.com/ Detected Joomla Template: orange
www.getransportation.com/ Detected Joomla Template: getrans
www.bicentenario.gob.mx/ Detected Joomla Template: mx_joomlafree
gorillaz.com/ Detected Joomla Template: blank_j15
www.fai.ie/index.php Detected Joomla Template: fai
portal.mec.gov.br/index.php Detected Joomla Template: mec
www.guggenheim.org/ Detected Joomla Template: guggenheim
www.danone.com/ Failed to detect Template
www.uab.edu/ Detected Joomla Template: uab3.0
www.eurunion.org/eu/ Detected Joomla Template: standard
www.scottishrugby.org/ Failed to detect Template
www.pentathlon.org/ Detected Joomla Template: hz_uipm_homepage
www.fina.org/ Detected Joomla Template: rt_infuse_j152
www.itwire.com/ Failed to detect Template
www.afro.who.int/ Failed to detect Template
www.linux.com/ Detected Joomla Template: linuxcom_v2
www.culturaonline.net/ Detected Joomla Template: culturaonline
www.everythingperu.com/ Detected Joomla Template: atomic
www.compagnieantares.com/ Detected Joomla Template: antares_v2
www.impactwrestling.com/ Detected Joomla Template: system
www.lamaisondelucy.com/ Failed to detect Template
www.mharch.com/ Detected Joomla Template: mharchitects-index
www.mb-photography.com/ Detected Joomla Template: mbtemplate
michaelgreves.com/ Detected Joomla Template: yoo_crystal
www.mythrottle.net/ Detected Joomla Template: rt_voxel
www.npowerpeg.com/ Detected Joomla Template: theme917
go.okstate.edu/ Detected Joomla Template: okstate_2011

84% (42/50) of Joomla Templates Detected Successfully

Drupal Test Sites

For this test I started to use the latest 50 web sites listed on the Drupal Case Studies Featured Showcase. I quickly realized that the quality of detection for Drupal themes was so poor (less than 10% detected after quickly scanning 20 Drupal sites) that it was worth removing support for Drupal from the extension entirely at this time. I plan to bring back Drupal support in future versions of the extension, as well as add support for additional popular content management systems. For now at least we have the two most popular content management systems Joomla & WordPress supported and with significant quality.

~10% (5/50) of Drupal Themes Detected Successfully

Takeaways from Quality Testing

For both Joomla and WordPress, detection is successful now 84% of the time. This is without a doubt a huge improvement over where it was, even though I don’t have the specific % handy. This meets the 80/20 rule, and the additional effort necessary to account for the remaining 16% is not worthwhile. It was apparent, during testing that the 16% of sites not being detected were almost always utilizing custom themes and templates. Since the purpose of the extension is to identify high-quality themes for potential use on your own web site, it serves this purpose perfectly. The only thing we are missing out on now, is being able to quickly identify the not-so-interesting naming conventions of some custom themes and templates. So going forward, my efforts will be aimed at adding support for additional content management systems, as well as ensuring their detection quality meets the 80/20 rule as well.

Passes the 80/20 rule
Ignore the remaining 16%
Meets the core need/purpose
Drop Drupal support for the time being
Add support for additional content management systems

Install & Review The New Theme Sniffer Chrome Extension

The post Theme Sniffer Chrome Extension v0.82 Quality Results appeared first on Penguin Initiatives.

Google Analytics Advanced Segments Comprehensive Template Collection

Andy Forsberg — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:48:22 +0000

Google Analytics Advanced Segments

Advanced segments in Google Analytics are one of the most powerful tools for gaining immense insight into your visitors. Not utilizing them is a HUGE mistake for any web site owner. For this reason I’ve spent the time creating, collecting and consolidating them to aid you in your Google Analytics mastery. If you have any I missed, please share them. I want to make this the best and most thorough source for Google Analytics advanced segments online. In order to use these advanced segments in your Google Analytics accounts, simply click on the links of the ones you would like below to add them to your accounts for your own use. Note that if you would like to add many or all of these advanced segments, you can save time using the batch installation method explained at the bottom of this post.

Keyword Length Segments

Note that I have excluded keywords with “://” and “.com” in them to avoid URLs and domains from making their way onto this segment, since they are not keywords. I’ve also taken the liberty of removing “(not provided)” and “(not set)” from the 2 Word Keywords segment for this reason. So obviously, you’ll have to adjust the .com to whatever your domain TLD is, if it isn’t a .com.

Mobile Traffic Segments

Google Analytics comes with Mobile Traffic and Tablet Traffic segments built-in as defaults. For some odd reason they do not, by default provide Smartphone Traffic or Desktop Traffic segments. You can easily build these missing segments using the default Mobile & Tablet segments, which I have done for you below.

Responsive Resolutions Traffic Segments

Wouldn’t it be useful to see how many actual visitors are encountering the various dimensions of your responsive layouts? A lot of time is spent making sure responsive layouts render well in all the standard resolutions. I’ve created the following advanced segments to help you see how many of your visitors are actually being impacted by your work utilizing regular expressions. I’m utilizing the resolutions found in the Skeleton boilerplate responsive grid. If you have any others that you’d like to see here, please let me know.

Branded & Non-Branded Keywords Segments

I have these setup, so they include “[your-brand-here]” in the filters. So you’ll need to replace this with your brand name. If your brand is multiple words, it usually make sense to setup multiple filters. For this blog I would use if “penguin” or “initiatives”, rather than just if “penguininitiatives”. This should encompass your core brand as well as brands related to your core brand. This can include projects, products, people, events, nicknames, etc. Essentially anything people may type in to find your web site specifically due to an association with your web site. Take a quick look through your Google Alerts keywords, as some of the keywords you’re tracking there may be relevant. Just scanning through your non-brand keywords will help you identify any of these you may have missed. I have them setup to exclude “://” and “.com” as well as “(not provided)” and “(not set)”, so your segments aren’t cluttered with non-keywords.

(not provided) Traffic Segment

If you want to painfully discover how much traffic you aren’t allowed to see the organic query behind thanks to our friends at Google, I’ve included it as well.

(not provided) Traffic

Social Media Traffic Segment

I’ve tried my best to capture as many major social media channels and common social URL shorteners as possible. Feel free to suggest more so we can make this more comprehensive. Currently the list includes: facebook, quora, twitter, linkedin, google plus, youtube, hacker news, reddit, imgur, tapiture, disqus, 9gag, tumblr, stumbleupon, delicious, technorati, digg, myspace, bit.ly, tinyurl, ow.ly, t.co, & tweetdeck.

Social Media Traffic

Blog Traffic Segment

Your blog traffic is another segment that should be included by default, but isn’t. The one below assumes your blog is located at the following path: domain.com/blog/

Blog Traffic

Google Image Search Traffic Segment

Unfortunately, this won’t get you the detail of the specific keywords driving this image traffic. It will merely tell you how many visitors are coming in per day from Google Image Search. Google considers all of this traffic “referral” traffic for some bizarre reason, so you’ll need to be viewing the Overview or the Referrals Traffic Source in order to see this segment’s data.

Google Image Search Traffic

User Behavior Segments

Explorers (visited more than 3 pages and are new visitors)
Fans (visited more than 3 pages and are returning visitors)
Bouncers (visited one page and left)
Non-Bouncers (visited more than one page)

Goals Segments

You should absolutely be tracking custom goals for all froms of conversion on your web site (desired actions you want your users to take on your site). Make sure you setup advanced segments for all of your custom goals as well, if you haven’t already.

Share Your Google Analytics Advanced Segments

In order to share your Google Analytics advanced segments, once you’ve created them simply follow the instructions from the Google Analytics Blog: Share your custom reports, advanced segments and dashboards

Save Time With Batch Installs

If you want to install most or all of the above segments, you can save yourself some time by batch installing them via the links below. Unfortunately, they cap the batches at 20, so I had to use two batch links instead of just one. You can pick and choose which segments you want or do not want to install in each batch.

Return The Favor

On a final note, think about how much time you just saved by having all these advanced segments ready to go for your use. Just imagine how much time that would have taken you to set all of those up from scratch!

Now please return the favor and put forth a small percentage of the time & effort you just saved, by sharing this link with your friends & colleagues via Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook!

If you want to go the extra mile, please suggest a useful advanced segment that we should add to our collection here.

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