Summertime is typically a bit of a slower period here at Watchful. So our engineers get a chance to chip away at some of the less-urgent tasks on our roadmap. While many of these don’t warrant their own blog post, I thought it might be useful to compile our platform Read more…
Watchful is a collection of tools and services that simplifies the maintenance and management of websites. But Watchful cannot solve every maintenance need for every user. Thus, you can extend Watchful with apps that communicate changes on your website to your Watchful account. What are apps? Watchful apps are WordPress Read more…
With over 22 plugins on the WordPress repository, Jordy Meow is a prolific plugin developer. Of these 22, seven have premium versions available from the Meow Apps website. Popular titles include Perfect Images Pro and Media Cleaner Pro. One of Watchful’s unique features is the ability to update premium WordPress Read more…
Beta testers are an important part of the development cycle at Watchful. We’ve now formalized how beta testing works. It is now called the Early Access program and it is available to all customers. What is the Early Access program? As the name suggests, the Early Access program allows Watchful Read more…
Each year I participate in the Scenic Shore 150, a 2-day bicycle ride to raise money for blood cancer research and patient services. After some encouragement from colleagues, I decided to share the 2022 charity fundraiser with all Watchful users. I hope you’ll join my team virtually! What is the Read more…
Google has announced that Universal Analytics (UA) will be sunsetted on July 1st, 2023 with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) becoming the new standard. In preparation for this shift, we are making changes to our website traffic reports. What are website traffic reports? At Watchful, website traffic reports are used to Read more…
Websites with frequently changing content often require a specialized backup process. Typically, multiple site backup schedules are used to make sure files, media, comments, transactions, blog posts and other content are backed up regularly. Watchful can now help schedule these specialized backup procedures by allowing up to three different backups to Read more…
Managing access to a large number of WordPress sites can be time-consuming and tedious. Single sign-on for WordPress is a new feature automatically included in all Watchful Premium plans. Single sign-on for WordPress makes short work for anyone managing users on multiple WordPress sites. What is user management in WordPress? Read more…
With the recent challenges imposed by COVID-19, it’s not surprising that the number of people earning an income from independent work in the U.S. rose 34 percent in 2021 (see below). But making the switch to freelance web development full-time is not an easy decision. To successfully make the switch, Read more…
Given the near-universal prevalence of sitemaps across the web, the question “Do I need a website sitemap?” seems largely redundant. Surely, the answer must be “yes” since most sites have one! As it turns out, this is one of the many persistent SEO myths on the internet. It’s right up Read more…