Baseline Tech Specs

The basic audit template covers some basic technical stats so we can get a bird eye view of how well the site is put together. There are some tools and plugins that can help us preform the audit, but much is done by manual code review. We want to have a basic understanding of the client's website so we can come up with quick and informed plans for improvements. 

When we rank something red or yellow we need explanations of what these ratings mean in the Notes section. We will also need to change our default recommendations if, for instance, a multisite is a good solution for a client's needs.

Site Audit Template is HERE

Section 1: Basic WordPress Audit

SELECT table_schema AS "Database", 
ROUND(SUM(data_length + index_length) / 1024 / 1024, 2) AS "Size (MB)" 
FROM information_schema.TABLES 
GROUP BY table_schema;

php --version

Considerations With Managed WordPress Hosting Services

Managed WordPress hosting services such as Pantheon and WP Engine handle all of the dev ops aspect of website management. Furthermore, their hosting platform is geared towards hosting WordPress websites and many aspects of a good website are handled by them. These aspects include but are not limited to:

• overall web server security
• PHP, nginx/Apache, and Database performance, updates, and security
• server side performance including various types of caching 
• CDN (content delivery network) management and implementation

It can be assumed that if a website is using a reputable managed hosting company, the above aspects of the website are of high quality and up to date.

It is almost always desired that a client use a managed website service to host their website. At Kalamuna, Pantheon and WP Engine are the recommended managed WordPress hosting services.

Considerations With Self Hosting 

If the client is currently hosting their website internally and plans on continuing to host internally various precautions need to be taken. In addition to doing a thorough technical review the client needs to confirm the following:

• In general, if their web server is set up to effectively run WordPress. https://en-ca.wordpress.org/about/requirements/ can be used as reference
• If they have the appropriate IT resources to do ongoing server/security updates
• If their server setup is capable of handling current and reasonably foreseen increased website traffic. One way to examine the current server load is to examine a week long log of CPU and RAM usage. If the usage is close to maxing out then they should update their server hardware.

If the client is not able to properly set up and/or maintain their website server it could result in:

• slow page load times, for both front end and back end
• hacked websites and other security compromises
• vulnerability to DDoS attacks
• PHP errors

The client may not understand the technical nuance of the website creation service we do at Kalamuna and the website hosting. They may erroneously view Kalamuna as being responsible for their web server issues. 

WordPress Code Structure

WordPress offers a lot of flexibility with how themes and plugins are structured code-wise. This is both positive and negative. This flexibility can allow a WordPress site to technically function and work while being very fragile and difficult to extend (adjust or add new features). On the contrary, a WordPress theme or plugin can have excellent architecture which makes adding or adjusting features and functionality easy. It is very important to determine what kind of project Kalamuna is taking on as early as possible. There are many plugins available that can allow a novice website editor to make structural and styling changes directly from the WordPress admin. These types of plugin can result in fragile and confusing architecture. If a WordPress website has any of the following plugins installed (this is not a complete list, but a list of some of the more popular plugins) it should be viewed as a red flag:

• Custom Post Type UI
• WCK Custom Post Types and Custom Fields Creator
• Pods
• Toolset Types/Views
• Custom Post Type Maker