6694da4ceb61d__c4f9c033-ee0f-45ae-82b3-9b06237d2cba

<p>The problem presented itself in Google Merchant centre as alerts alongside products. Feed data for stock or prices has been "fixed" base on data found on your website… or something along those lines. The feed was accurate and the website was accurate but the “fixed” data was incorrect.&nbsp;</p>

<p>So to cut a long and boring story short, &nbsp;the problem was with “Structured Data” for the product type in "application/ld+json". The official BigCommerce theme came with built in "application/ld+json" which is great however it does not separate out variants so if you use select or radio options on your product pages for things like size or colour options you should check your Schema is valid. Normally it might not make much difference to have one top level product tagged as the entity for SEO purposes however Google was using it to determine stock and price.&nbsp;</p><p>For BigCommerce the fix was a custom page template. Adding a new template for products with variants and using some logic to check the variant type to swap the @type from “Product” to “ProductGroup” then implement “hasVariant” &nbsp;<a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-variants">https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-variants</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>One further issue with BigCommerce was how the landing page for each product variant in the feed displayed the default top level product. As a customer, imagine clicking on the lower cost smallest option in the google shopping area then arriving on the most expensive variant or one without stock available. Further work was applied to the feed url, each variant having a unique url via a query string. Then using javascript on the product page to read the url query string, capture the variant and set the relevant select or radio options which in turn loads the correct price and stock.</p>

Ad Approval and Conversion Optimisation Work

BigCommerce Structured Data for Product Variants

6689546a83300__47c0cf87-8f24-4bd4-a440-c81ac01521d8

<p>In the ever-evolving landscape of digital content creation, staying somewhat in the game is crucial suppose. In place of using “faker” database seeder to generate latin blogs for later re-write, I decided to try some ChatGPT prompts. Perhaps artificial intelligence could help progress with ideas crafting compelling blog posts and generate some interesting images.</p>

<p>Here's a brief account of how I seeded out some blogs using AI tools like ChatGPT for writing and DALL-E 3 for image generation. This approach is a significant improvement over latin sample text and after some modest edits the results must be useful to someone.</p><h2>Moving Beyond Lorem Ipsum</h2><p>For years, the placeholder text "Lorem Ipsum" has been a staple in web and print design. While it serves its purpose for layout testing, it falls short in providing a realistic sense of content flow and user engagement. I need more than just a Latin filler text—I need contextually relevant and meaningful content that resonates with my imaginary audience.</p><h2>Crafting the Blog Post with ChatGPT</h2><h3>Initiating the Process</h3><p>The first step in my AI-assisted content creation journey was to use ChatGPT, an advanced language model developed by OpenAI. I started by asking ChatGPT to write a blog post about the changes in website trends over the last five years, with a focus on technologies like PHP, Laravel, headless CMS, Node.js, JavaScript, React, and Next.js.</p><h3>The Result</h3><p>ChatGPT generated a comprehensive and well-structured blog post that covered all the key points I wanted to address. The content was not only relevant and informative but also engaging and easy to read. This was a stark contrast to the static and context-free Lorem Ipsum text. The AI provided a dynamic, human-like narrative that truly added value to my content.</p><h3>Refining the Content</h3><p>While the initial draft was impressive, I made some minor tweaks to align it with my personal style and the specific needs of my audience. The process was incredibly efficient, saving me hours of writing and research time. Here's an excerpt from the AI-generated blog post:</p><blockquote><p>"The past five years have been transformative for web development. PHP and Laravel have demonstrated that older technologies can adapt and thrive in a modern context. The headless CMS approach has revolutionized content management, while Node.js and JavaScript have solidified their dominance in both frontend and backend development..."</p></blockquote><h2>Generating Images with DALL-E 3</h2><p>With the text in place, the next step was to create visually appealing images to complement the blog post. For this, I turned to DALL-E, another innovative AI tool from OpenAI that generates images based on textual descriptions. I provided DALL-E with detailed descriptions of the images I envisioned. For example, I described a futuristic web development workspace, an abstract representation of a headless CMS, and a vibrant depiction of PHP and JavaScript logos. DALL-E generated multiple images for each description. I reviewed the options and selected the ones that best matched my vision and the tone of the blog post. The ability to quickly generate and choose from a variety of high-quality images was pretty neat for a lazy person like myself.</p><p>Once I had the selected images, integrating them into the blog was straightforward. The AI-generated visuals added a professional touch and enhanced the overall aesthetic of the post, making it more engaging for my imaginary readers.</p><h2>A Major Improvement Over Traditional Methods</h2><p>Using AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E save me a bunch of time and let me focus on other pressing stuff like build errors and broken libraries. What used to take hours of procrastination now resulted in an actual blog article or two.</p><p>The quality of the AI-generated content and images is pretty good. You cant beat the real thing but its better than a lot of stock photography and certainly the old clip art. Unlike the generic Lorem Ipsum text, the AI-produced content was contextually relevant, informative, and tailored to my specific needs. The images were not just placeholders but integral parts of the narrative. AI tools opens up new avenues for productivity, whilst it may not be creative and innovative it certainly competes with most humans out there. The ability to generate diverse and generic content quickly should give us all a nudge to try and raise our game.</p><p>Embracing AI in the blog creation process has been a positive experience. From generating usable content with ChatGPT to creating usable visuals with DALL-E, AI has proven to be another reminder of how useless we all are and how the old days of illustrators, photographers and farming was so much better.</p>

Some examples with ChatGPT and DALL-E

Embracing AI in Blog Creation

66894dc0b6d2e__4fd4336c-a2ca-4d04-9ce5-833f6b448226

<p>The web development landscape has witnessed significant transformations over the past few years. Driven by the need for faster, more responsive, and user-centric experiences, several trends have emerged and evolved. This article delves into these changes, highlighting key technologies like PHP, Laravel, headless CMS, Node.js, JavaScript, React, and Next.js.</p>

<p>The web development landscape has witnessed significant transformations over the past few years. Driven by the need for faster, more responsive, and user-centric experiences, several trends have emerged and evolved. This article delves into these changes, highlighting key technologies like PHP, Laravel, headless CMS, Node.js, JavaScript, React, and Next.js.</p><h2>The Resurgence of PHP and the Rise of Laravel</h2><h3>PHP: The Old Guard with New Tricks</h3><p>PHP has been a cornerstone of web development for decades. Over the past five years, PHP has seen a resurgence, mainly due to continuous updates that have improved performance and introduced modern programming paradigms. PHP 7, released in 2015, brought substantial performance improvements and reduced memory usage, which has encouraged many developers to stick with or return to PHP. The release of PHP 8 in late 2020 further solidified this with features like JIT compilation, union types, and improvements in error handling.</p><h3>Laravel: The Modern PHP Framework</h3><p>Laravel has been at the forefront of PHP's revival. As a modern, elegant PHP framework, Laravel simplifies many common tasks such as routing, authentication, and caching. Its expressive syntax and powerful toolkit have made it a favorite among developers. Over the last five years, Laravel has continued to evolve, introducing features like Laravel Vapor for serverless deployment, improved job batching, and real-time capabilities with Laravel Echo. This has ensured that PHP remains relevant and competitive in modern web development.</p><h2>The Advent of Headless CMS</h2><h3>Decoupling Content Management</h3><p>The concept of headless CMS has revolutionized content management systems (CMS). Unlike traditional CMS platforms where the frontend and backend are tightly coupled, headless CMS separates the two, providing content via APIs. This allows developers to use any frontend technology they prefer.</p><h3>Benefits and Popularity</h3><p>The benefits of a headless CMS are numerous: flexibility in frontend design, improved performance, and easier integration with other services. Over the past five years, platforms like Contentful, Strapi, and Sanity have gained traction. These platforms enable developers to create more dynamic, personalized user experiences and better manage content distribution across multiple channels.</p><h2>The Rise of Node.js and JavaScript</h2><h3>Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere</h3><p>Node.js has been a game-changer in web development, enabling JavaScript to be used on both the client and server sides. Its non-blocking, event-driven architecture makes it ideal for building scalable and high-performance applications. Over the last five years, Node.js has continued to grow in popularity, driven by its robust ecosystem and the ever-increasing demand for real-time applications.</p><h3>JavaScript: The Ubiquitous Language</h3><p>JavaScript remains the backbone of web development. Its evolution, through the introduction of ES6 and beyond, has brought significant improvements in syntax and performance. JavaScript frameworks and libraries like React, Vue.js, and Angular have become indispensable tools for developers. The language's versatility, combined with the power of Node.js, allows for the development of full-stack applications entirely in JavaScript.</p><h2>React and the Advent of Next.js</h2><h3>React: The Dominant Frontend Library</h3><p>React, developed by Facebook, has established itself as the leading library for building user interfaces. Its component-based architecture and virtual DOM have made it the go-to choice for developing complex, high-performance web applications. Over the past five years, React has continued to evolve with features like hooks, concurrent mode, and suspense, making it even more powerful and easier to use.</p><h3>Next.js: The React Framework for Production</h3><p>Next.js, a framework built on top of React, has gained immense popularity for its ability to simplify the development of server-rendered React applications. It offers features like static site generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR), which improve performance and SEO. The introduction of Next.js 10 brought even more enhancements, including image optimization, internationalized routing, and improved build performance. Next.js has become the de facto choice for developers looking to build production-ready React applications.</p><h2>The Push for Performance and User Experience</h2><h3>Performance Optimization</h3><p>Over the last five years, there has been a significant focus on performance optimization. Tools and techniques like lazy loading, code splitting, and tree shaking have become standard practices. The introduction of Google's Core Web Vitals has further emphasized the importance of performance in web development, encouraging developers to prioritize metrics like loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.</p><h3>User Experience (UX)</h3><p>User experience has always been a critical aspect of web development, but its importance has been magnified in recent years. Modern web applications are expected to be fast, responsive, and visually appealing. This has led to the widespread adoption of design systems, accessibility standards, and user-centric design principles. Frameworks and libraries now often include built-in support for animations, transitions, and other UX enhancements to ensure a seamless and engaging user experience.</p><p>The past few years have been transformative for web development. PHP and Laravel have demonstrated that older technologies can adapt and thrive in a modern context. The headless CMS approach has revolutionized content management, while Node.js and JavaScript have solidified their dominance in both frontend and backend development. React and Next.js have set new standards for building user interfaces and production-ready applications. As we look ahead, the emphasis on performance and user experience will continue to drive innovation, shaping the future of web development.</p>

Web Development Trends Over the Recent Years

6687bb6920342_pci-dss-cyber-security

<p>As cyber threats continue to evolve, maintaining good security practices and keeping up to date with technical news is especially important for businesses that handle payment card information.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) provides a comprehensive framework to ensure the security of card transactions and the protection of cardholder data. Recent updates to PCI DSS reflect some of the new challenges and attack vectors that have affected online retailers.&nbsp;</p><p>Many merchants choose to use the payment provider's hosted payment pages in order to reduce PCI compliance requirements down to the most basic Self Assessment Questionnaire A. Importantly, no card data is transmitted or stored in electronic format by the merchant with all account and card data outsourced to compliant payment providers.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p><strong>Merchant Eligibility Criteria for Self-Assessment Questionnaire A</strong><br>Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) A includes only those PCI DSS requirements applicable to merchants with account data functions completely outsourced to PCI DSS validated and compliant third parties, where the merchant retains only paper reports or receipts with account data.<br>SAQ A merchants may be either e-commerce or mail/telephone-order merchants (card-not-present) and do not store, process, or transmit any account data in electronic format on their systems or premises.</p></blockquote><p>Unfortunately hosted payment pages no longer exempts a merchant from actively protecting their own website pages. Cyber criminals have been targeting redirects and iframe pages directly on merchant websites before they even reach the hosted payment processor. This has forced card companies to expand the security requirements to mitigate those attack vectors. Here are just some of the more important changes:-</p><h4>Updated and New Requirements</h4><p><strong>Requirement 6.4.3</strong></p><p><i>Note: For SAQ A, Requirement 6.4.3 applies to a merchant’s website(s) that includes a TPSP’s/payment processor’s embedded payment page/form (for example, an inline frame or iFrame).</i></p><p>All payment page scripts that are loaded and executed in the consumer’s browser are managed as follows: A method is implemented to confirm that each script is authorized. A method is implemented to assure the integrity of each script. An inventory of all scripts is maintained with written justification as to why each is necessary. This requirement applies to all scripts loaded from the entity’s environment and scripts loaded from third and fourth parties. This requirement is a best practice until 31 March 2025, after which it will be required and must be fully considered during a PCI DSS assessment.</p><p><strong>Requirement 11.3.2</strong></p><p><i>Note: For SAQ A, Requirement 11 applies to merchant webservers that host the page(s) that either 1) redirects customers from the merchant website to a TPSP/payment processor for payment processing (for example, with a URL redirect) or 2) includes a TPSP’s/payment processor’s embedded payment page/form (for example, an inline frame or iFrame).</i></p><p>External vulnerability scans are performed as follows: At least once every three months. By PCI SSC Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV). Vulnerabilities are resolved and ASV Program Guide requirements for a passing scan are met. Rescans are performed as needed to confirm that vulnerabilities are resolved per the ASV Program Guide requirements for a passing scan.</p><p><strong>Requirement 11.6.1</strong></p><p><i>Note: For SAQ A, Requirement 11.6.1 applies to a merchant’s website that includes a TPSP’s/payment processor’s embedded payment page/form (for example, an inline frame or iFrame).</i></p><p>Unauthorized changes on payment pages are detected and responded to. A change- and tamper-detection mechanism is deployed as follows: To alert personnel to unauthorized modification (including indicators of compromise, changes, additions, and deletions) to the HTTP headers and the contents of payment pages as received by the consumer browser. The mechanism functions are performed as follows: At least once every seven days.</p><p>The intention of this requirement is not that an entity installs software in the systems or browsers of its consumers, but rather that the entity uses techniques such as those described under Examples in the PCI DSS Guidance column (of PCI DSS Requirements and Testing Procedures) to prevent and detect unexpected script activities. This requirement is a best practice until 31 March 2025, after which it will be required and must be fully considered during a PCI DSS assessment.</p><h4>Implementation Timeline</h4><p>While some requirements became effective immediately upon the release of PCI DSS v4.0, others have future-dated deadlines. Merchants need to prioritize implementing controls that are immediately required for 2024 assessments and prepare for additional requirements that will come into force by 2025.</p>

Ensuring Your Business Stays Compliant

Navigating PCI DSS v4.0 Requirements

6687c8af3e89d_google-algorythms

<p>Google search plays a pivotal role in shaping how we find and access information. Over the years, Google's ranking algorithms have undergone significant changes, with each update refining the search results to make them more accurate and useful to searchers.&nbsp;</p>

<p>As we step further into 2024, understanding how Google's latest algorithm updates are impacting your web traffic is critically important.</p><h4>A Brief History of Google's Ranking Algorithms</h4><p>Google's search algorithm has evolved tremendously since its inception. Key updates such as Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, RankBrain, and BERT have each contributed to improving the quality of search results by addressing issues like spam, keyword stuffing, and understanding natural language queries better.</p><ul><li><strong>Panda</strong> (2011) focused on reducing the prevalence of low-quality content.</li><li><strong>Penguin</strong> (2012) targeted webspam and manipulative link practices.</li><li><strong>Hummingbird</strong> (2013) enhanced the understanding of conversational search queries.</li><li><strong>RankBrain</strong> (2015) introduced machine learning to better interpret search intent.</li><li><strong>BERT</strong> (2019) improved the algorithm’s grasp of natural language processing.</li></ul><h4>The 2024 Algorithm: Key Features and Changes</h4><p>In 2024, Google's algorithm continues to prioritize user experience and quality content. Here are some of the significant changes and features of the latest update:</p><p><strong>Enhanced AI and Machine Learning</strong>: The latest algorithm leverages advanced AI and machine learning models to understand user intent with greater precision. This means that Google's ability to deliver relevant search results based on context, user behavior, and nuanced language has improved significantly.</p><p><strong>Focus on E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)</strong>: Google's commitment to E-A-T remains strong. Websites and content that demonstrate high levels of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness are favored in search rankings. This ensures that users receive reliable and accurate information, particularly for queries related to health, finance, and other sensitive topics.</p><p><strong>User Experience Signals</strong>: Page experience metrics such as Core Web Vitals continue to play a critical role. Factors like page load speed, interactivity, and visual stability are crucial for ranking. This emphasizes the importance of a seamless and engaging user experience.</p><p><strong>Natural Language Understanding</strong>: Building on the advancements of BERT, the new algorithm includes updates that further enhance natural language understanding. This enables Google to comprehend complex queries and long-tail keywords more effectively, providing users with highly relevant results.</p><p><strong>Increased Personalization</strong>: Personalization has reached new heights with the 2024 update. By analyzing user behavior, preferences, and past interactions, Google tailors search results to individual users more accurately than ever before. This makes the search experience more intuitive and personalized.</p><p><strong>Visual and Voice Search</strong>: With the rise of visual and voice search, Google's algorithm now better understands and processes these types of queries. Image recognition technology and voice processing capabilities have been enhanced, catering to the growing trend of users seeking information through images and voice commands.</p><h4>Impact on SEO</h4><p>For website owners and SEO professionals, adapting to these changes is essential. Here are some strategies to align with the new algorithm:</p><ul><li><strong>Produce High-Quality Content</strong>: Focus on creating well-researched, informative, and engaging content that showcases expertise and authority.</li><li><strong>Optimize for User Experience</strong>: Ensure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and provides a smooth user experience. Pay attention to Core Web Vitals.</li><li><strong>Leverage Structured Data</strong>: Use schema markup to help Google understand the context and relevance of your content. If you have e-commerce products pay special attention to how product variant data appears in source code.</li><li><strong>Embrace Multimedia Content</strong>: Incorporate images, videos, and other multimedia elements to cater to visual and voice search trends.</li><li><strong>Stay Updated on Algorithm Changes</strong>: Keep abreast of the latest updates and continuously refine your SEO strategies to align with Google’s evolving algorithm.</li></ul><h4>The Future of Search</h4><p>Moving forward Google's algorithm will undoubtedly continue to evolve, driven by advancements in AI, machine learning, and user experience insights. The goal remains the same: to provide users with the most relevant, reliable, and user-friendly search experience possible.</p><p>For searchers, this means a more intuitive and efficient way to access information directly in the search results. For website owners, it underscores the importance of monitoring changes and adapting to try and take advantage of new trends.</p><p>If you have seen a major drop in traffic that is affecting your business, you could look at “Pay Per Click” advertising if you have not already. Paid Ads could help generate sales whilst you work on recovering some of the lost organic traffic.</p>

The impact on your website traffic

The Evolution of Google's Algorithms

6687d93d3aad7_concrete-cms

<p>Many developers immediately head down the WordPress route however there are other content management systems out there. Concrete CMS is up among my favorites. Not that I don't use WordPress for clients but I tend to select it for those “no brainer” situations when the budget is tight and the feature list is ambitious.</p>

<p>From a WordPress perspective it handles custom themes and add-ons really well, all whilst keeping the core system relatively stable and upgrade-able. Tools like Elementor and WPBakery make it a powerful visual tool for coders and non-coders and WooCommerce is up in the top shopping carts for a reason. That said it has always been like an unbranded watch, impressive for the price but hardly breathtaking. Take the back off and you probably wished you hadn't… or maybe that is just me.</p><p>Concrete CMS is a different beast, the engine and architecture make perfect sense with many composer dependencies taken from Symfony and Laravel components. Concrete CMS &nbsp;was doing the inline WYSIWYG years before Elementor and most of the other SaaS website builders. Comparing Concrete CMS to WordPress, the main thing holding it back is themes, the marketplace for themes has always been short on good options. Fortunately building custom themes and packages in Concrete CMS is relatively easy and developer friendly. In fact it has so much power behind the scenes such as authentication, caching, versioning and automated jobs that I use it as a platform for many of my custom software builds - extranets, intranets and e-commmerce subscription systems.</p><p>Whilst I use Concrete CMS, I am a little more selective and play to its strengths these days. After-all it could be considered bloated and slow compared to other options available today, especially the query counts which can easily get out of hand. Keeping Core Web Vitals happy needs special attention and work to remove bottlenecks and code practices that might inadvertently slow the page, but that goes for any platform. If your budget doesn't cover speed optimisations, performance might get sacrificed so if you need to scale I would definitely keep that in mind.</p><p>One thing I am sure most developers agree on, WordPress suffers in the security area. Given its popularity and the abundance of add-ons of questionable quality its a major target for hackers. I have been asked to assist with a few site breaches over the years and WordPress is usually the victim. Concrete CMS on the other hand is quite the opposite, aside from the occasional spam abuse on contact forms it has always been robust and secure requiring minimal maintenance in comparison.</p><h4>Future Trends</h4><p>Like WordPress, Concrete CMS has lost ground to the SaaS website builders such as Wix, Squarespace and Shopify. Also, the monolith approach is starting to look quite old compared to the React/Next.JS “Headless” front ends that are now becoming the norm. Both Wordpress and Concrete CMS have tried to address this trend - they both have API options to bridge some of the gaps that allow content to be delivered to mobile or React front-ends. As the headless trend continues, much of those block and area page composer tools become obsolete or redundant so separating layout from content is more important than ever. Long term large site owners will want to be considering how content is stored in the database so content can be presented in many layout formats or platforms.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

Blog Articles