Charting load times.

We’ve been working with WordPress for years, from adding tagging functionality before it became a standard WP feature, to optimizing it for clients, to powering this very blog. It’s a great platform to develop for, and we’re always looking for new ways to customize it, giving new WordPress functionality to our clients and the WP community at large. Here are a couple of new, custom plugins we’ve developed for WordPress!

Wordy for WordPress

We’ve worked with Wordy, a unique copy editing service, for a while. Given how much of their business comes from bloggers, Wordy wanted to give their clients a simple and efficient way to have their posts read over. We developed a plugin which integrates into the back-end of a WordPress installation, allowing bloggers to submit their posts to Wordy and receive corrections without having to leave their installation (leaving them with more time to start drafting their next post!).

Submitting a sample blog post to Wordy through WordPress.

After providing your Wordy account information upon installation, the plugin authenticates your credentials against your account when you submit a post for review. The cost of the editing job is provided, as well as an estimated delivery time of the editing job. The revisions will be automatically saved as a draft in your WordPress installation, allowing you to review and publish newly edited versions of your posts quickly and easily, and an on-board messaging system lets you discuss revisions with your Wordy editor. Take a tour of the plugin and download it!

GTmetrix for WordPress

After launching our GTmetrix tool, we were happy to see it find a warm reception in the web development world, and were keen to find more avenues in which to offer GTmetrix’s web optimization insights. Our work with WordPress seemed like a great fit, so we built a plugin which integrates GTmetrix’s functionality into the CMS.

After installation and logging into your GTmetrix account, you can configure the plugin to meet your WordPress site’s specific needs. If your site has a region-specific target audience, you can choose a location from which speed tests will be performed, allowing you to tailor your optimizations to improve your visitors’ specific web experience. Choose whether or not the performance of off-site ads will be included in GTmetrix’s evaluations, and create labels for regularly tested pages to save time.

Reviewing past speed tests.

Scheduling GTmetrix tests with the plugin is a snap, and by browsing through archived test results in WordPress, or viewing GTmetrix’s graphs, you’ll be able to clearly track the impact of your optimization efforts. E-mail alerts can also be configured, letting you know if one of your scheduled tests falls below a specified GTmetrix grade. Learn more about the plugin and download it!

Charting load times.

Getting The Most Out Of WordPress

Interested in giving your site’s WordPress installation a boost? Check out our WordPress Optimization Guide. In addition to checking your installation’s performance with our GTmetrix tool, you can walkthrough installing and implementing some additional plugins which will help to speed up your site and reduce traffic.

Ready to take your WordPress installation’s growth to the next level? Gossamer Threads’ Enterprise WordPress Hosting offers tailored hardware configurations and expert support staff, ensuring that your site has the foundation it needs to grow.