It’s a scary and all-too common story: a WordPress plugin update has taken your website offline and you don’t have a recent backup to revert the changes. Now you’ve got to spend a bunch of time troubleshooting and fixing the problem on the live site before your clients start calling. Read more…
Watchful includes a built-in backup monitoring system that keeps an eye on the age of your website backups. And when a backup passes its useful “shelf life”, stale backup notifications can be sent by email. Stale backup warnings are also placed in convenient places throughout the Watchful platform to help Read more…
Automatic software updates can speed up website maintenance dramatically. So, managing automatic updates in bulk — enabling and disabling them across many websites at once — is a critical tool for any digital agency. For instance, you may discover that a WordPress plugin breaks your sites or installs a backdoor. Read more…
A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic forced most in-person conferences to either cancel or move online. Web design conferences were no exception. The coming of age of truly engaging online conference platforms seemed to portend a bright future for online meetings. But here in the spring or 2021 it feels Read more…
The ability to schedule client report emails was first introduced at Watchful last Spring. We’ve now refactored the report scheduling and delivery system to make it more reliable as well as easier to use. Why schedule client report emails in the first place? Recurring maintenance plans are responsible for a Read more…
Version 3 of Google Analytics is called Universal Analytics. It provides traffic and keyword data that are popular in the white-label reports here at Watchful. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) launched recently, but for the foreseeable future most client reports will require Universal Analytics. Here’s why. How does Watchful obtain site Read more…
Version 4 of Google Analytics launched recently. We’ve followed the progress carefully as traffic and other site data appear in the client reports at many web agencies. But for a host of reasons, updating to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) requires careful consideration even now, nearly 5 months after its initial Read more…
After November 28, 2021, PHP 7 will only receive security fixes. And while PHP 8 barely registers in the current usage statistics of WordPress and Joomla, it will be the only actively-supported version after that date. So now is a great time to test your website with PHP 8, including Read more…
Like many communities, Joomla users pine for the return of live events. And we grew tired of Zoom conferences many months back. A new and innovative event called Joomla Day USA will be held on April 23-24, 2021 that hopes to address both issues. It is a refreshing and exciting Read more…