We started to receive an influx of complaints from clients who run Woocommerce and membership sites alongside Elementor that the client area portions of their WordPress websites were broken. The “My Account” pages displayed incorrect information or data from other customers. Of course, this is incredibly confusing to customers and could not have come at a worse time – during the busy holiday season!

Elementor has recently released version 3.26, which introduced enhancements designed to optimize website performance. This is typically a great thing; however, it has created issues for some of our clients!

The element caching feature works by storing static HTML output for individual widgets. This reduces the need to regenerate content every time a page loads. Doing this significantly decreases server load and improves page speed, especially for sites with heavy traffic. However, while it benefits static content like headers, footers, and image galleries, caching dynamic elements—such as those that rely on real-time user data—can lead to functionality issues. For WooCommerce and membership sites, careful cache configuration is critical to maintaining a seamless user experience.

This feature, originally introduced in Elementor version 3.22 in June 2024, has now been set to be enabled by default! This update caused many unexpected issues for WooCommerce users.

After updating to Elementor 3.26, WooCommerce users reported functionality issues with the “My Account” page. Precisely, an inability to load all portions of the portal, such as the Account Details or Order pages. The pages would not load or would show cached data from other users. This issue was created as a result of Elementor’s element caching. The dynamic nature of WooCommerce’s “My Account” page was impacted. These pages greatly rely on user-specific data and should not be cached, as you can potentially show the wrong data to the wrong user.

The root cause of these issues was the caching of dynamic elements, which should have been excluded from the element caching process. There does not seem to be a way to exclude specific elements with this new feature from Elementor, which is what we’d typically do with a Cloudflare, Varnish, etc. cache.

To resolve this, we have turned off the element caching feature by navigating to Elementor’s settings:

After we disabled the element caching, the “My Account” page’s functionality was restored by ensuring that dynamic content was not improperly cached.

It is essential to be mindful of cache management for dynamic portions of e-commerce websites, such as user accounts, shopping carts, and checkout pages. While caching can significantly enhance performance for static content, applying it indiscriminately can lead to functionality issues for components that require real-time updates.

To avoid similar problems, e-commerce website owners should:

The release of Elementor 3.26 and its automatic activation of the element caching feature underscores the double-edged nature of performance optimizations. While these updates aim to improve speed and efficiency, their impact on dynamic content must be carefully managed.

Here at Clarkes.Team, we take a more proactive approach to WordPress core and plugin updates. We test updates, do smoke checks when complete, and quickly troubleshoot any issues before they impact your business.

Check out our WordPress maintenance plans if you need assistance with proper WordPress monitoring, security, performance optimization, and ongoing care.

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Losing data backups can do tremendous damage to your reputation and your finances.

We would like to share an unfortunate story to inspire you to ensure proper disaster recovery backup measures are in place. We have a client – let’s call him James for the sake of this piece. James can’t help but remember disaster every time August comes around. Two years ago, before he discovered Clarkes.Team, James nearly lost his thriving, highly profitable business when a devastating fire destroyed his office. This incident claimed a chunk of all onsite storage and backups. He lost thousands of essential files. This painful experience could have been mitigated if he had offsite backups or implemented the 3-2-1 backup strategy. And that is why the rest of this article will focus on the importance of effectively protecting your business data.

Your business data is one of your most valuable assets. Smart businesses know this and implement strategies to protect their data. We have saved several businesses from going extinct at Clarkes.Team by helping them set up adequate backups. One way to ensure that your data, files, and content are safe in case of any mishap is onsite backups. Onsite backups, stored within your business premises (like on internal drives or external hard drives), are an excellent first step. They provide instant access to your data and are relatively inexpensive to maintain. However, relying on onsite backups leaves you vulnerable to disasters like fires, theft, or security breaches. According to WebTribunal,

• Forty thousand hard drive crashes happen weekly in the US.
• Every five years, 20% of small and medium-sized businesses suffer data loss due to a significant disaster.
• 60% of businesses going through a data loss incident will shut down within six months.
• 93% of entities will lose their data center for 10+ days and file for bankruptcy within one year of the incident.
• 96% of businesses don’t back up their workstations.
• More than half of businesses don’t have enough budget to recover from data incidents.
• 75% of small businesses need a disaster recovery plan.

Losing data backups can do tremendous damage to your reputation and your finances. It could even put you out of business. This is why you need to be one step ahead. You need a secondary backup site so that if any ills befall your business location, you will have an alternative to restore them. The best strategy to consider when planning backups is the 3-2-1 strategy, which consists of three copies of your data: one original and two backups. The original and one backup copy are stored onsite, and the second backup and third copy are stored off-site/off-premises.  The 3-2-1 strategy helps minimize the risk of failure. We highly recommend offsite backups in addition to onsite backups. You need a combination of both for more potent security. So, what exactly is offsite backup?

What is Offsite Backup?

Offsite backups are stored outside your business environment. The servers and storage devices holding your backups are not within the physical reach of your business and will be unaffected by any disasters that hit your onsite backups. This can be in a cloud-based storage system or a tape system. Offsite backups should contain your most crucial backups. There are different offsite backup options that you can explore, some of which we will cover in the next section.

Types of Offsite Backups

Deciding what kind of backup to employ when storing your data offsite can be difficult. Especially when you have to consider factors like data volume, your budget, recovery time, and the cruciality of the data. Offsite backups fall into three main categories:

Benefits of Storing Offsite Backups

Onsite and offsite backups have pros and cons. For this reason, we advise you to keep both as a supplement for situations where one fails. Below are some of the benefits of storing offsite backups.

You now understand that backups are a huge necessity for any business, but proper backup is even more essential. With offsite backups, your data is more secure, protected, and accessible. Don’t wait for a disaster to strike—secure your business’s future today with Clarkes.Team’s cloud backup & disaster recovery solutions. If you are just starting and need clarification about which backup option to pick, we hope this article has helped make your decision-making easier. If you already use onsite backup services, we advise creating a hybrid storage system to store onsite and offsite backups.

Do you need help with effective cloud backups or tackling other technical challenges for your business?

Contact Us For A Consultation

We have helped numerous businesses boost sales and drive engagements by optimizing their websites with our WordPress maintenance services. But we figured we could help you fix your WordPress site’s slow loading issues by educating you on the most common reasons why your WordPress site is slow and how to fix it yourself.

WordPress is the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS) for the right reasons. As of the time of publishing this article, WordPress is already 20 years old, yet it still continues to dominate the content creation and management world. And that is because

• It’s cost-effective
• It’s flexible
• Increases functionality with plugins
• It’s SEO-friendly
• It’s highly customizable
• It’s scalable

Despite being the most popular CMS in the world, users face one common issue: slow loading times. Slow loading times can be very frustrating, especially for the visitors to your website. Over the years, the human attention span has only shortened, so you have less time to show your content to your visitors. A few seconds’ delays on your website could lead to a loss of revenue, as your visitors head straight to your competition. For your business, slow loading could lead to a loss of sales, traffic, and customers, ultimately hurting your ranking on Google. You don’t want that for your business; neither do we. Therefore we will discuss the most common causes of why your WordPress site is slow and how to fix it yourself.

Is your WordPress site feeling sluggish and in need of a speed boost? Look no further than Clarkes.Team – your partner in optimizing website performance for a seamless user experience.

Contact Us For A Consultation

How To Fix a Slow WordPress Site

Slow loading can cause a lot of havoc for websites. Thankfully there are ways to fix the most common causes of WordPress site slow loading time. We shared some of them in this post, so go ahead and try them on your website. Remember to take a website speed test first. If you need assistance optimizing your WordPress site speed, consult our WordPress experts to get a swift, FAST, and reliable website.

Far too many businesses neglect to put failsafes in place to protect themselves from the inevitable. That doesn’t have to be you. Imagine this…

It is a beautiful Monday morning. Your weekend was great, and you are excited about the new week. It is 8 am, and you turn off your phone’s do not disturb mode. Suddenly, it begins to incessantly alert you. Getting many notifications on a Monday morning is not unusual, but this is different. There are far too many. Curiously, you open the notifications. The warmth of the morning suddenly dissipates. There are endless messages from your customers complaining about your website!

The complaints are endless. You promptly check your WordPress website, and to your uttermost dismay, it is down! And from the complaints, looks like it has been down for hours.

At Clarkes.Team, we have proactive WordPress maintenance solutions that help prevent situations like this. However, we advise that you never find yourself in this position in the first place. It creates unnecessary & avoidable stress. Businesses can lose thousands of dollars just from a short period of website downtime. The good news is that this kind of disaster can be prevented.

If you are someone who experiences frequent downtimes on their WordPress websites, keep reading. We will share more information below on what it means when your WordPress is down and why WordPress website monitoring is necessary for business owners like you.

Website downtime is when your website is inactive or interrupted due to technical issues such as malware, database connection issues, file permission issues, and many other potential problems. When your WordPress website is down, it stops functioning as it usually should. Consequently, you could lose a large amount of revenue, your credibility as a business person, and your customers!

It could mean your website’s security has been compromised, and you no longer have control over it. It could be that your site’s domain has been hijacked, you have maximized your hosting package, or it could result from poor maintenance. Sometimes when a WordPress site goes down, the owner may be clueless about what caused it. This is why it is scary. Without knowledge of the problem, how do you fix it?

Whatever the cause, a website that is down is no fun. Are you now wondering if your website is up? You can head to down.com to check if your website responds OK 200. There are so many reasons your site can suddenly go down. Check out this post where we explain some reasons: WordPress is the most targeted CMS.

Have you ever wondered why some people consider installing alarm systems in their homes and offices a significant investment? The answer is simple: it allows them to respond promptly to potential threats. Similarly, WordPress website monitoring is a crucial practice for ensuring the smooth operation of your website.

WordPress website monitoring helps you to test your website’s availability. It is the process of closely monitoring your website’s availability to ensure it is up 24/7, and if it goes down, you are immediately alerted. WordPress website monitoring can be done from several locations worldwide, and tools are specially designed to carry out these services.

You get alerts from these website monitoring services via push notifications, integrations like Slack, Telegram, PagerDuty, SMS alerts, and even phone calls. With website monitoring, you can respond to problems on your WordPress immediately before they harm your business. Many top-rated website monitoring tools with unique features can help you.

If you’d like the peace of mind knowing our professional admins monitoring your sites 24/7, do not hesitate to reach out. Clarkes.Team specializes in server & application monitoring, management, security & performance optimization.

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Benefits of WordPress Website Monitoring

To help you understand how crucial incorporating website monitoring is for your business, we have listed some of the benefits that come with it.

Clarkes.Team specializes in providing professional solutions to address all of your WordPress maintenance & monitoring needs.

As your trusted administrative team, we work tirelessly to restore your compromised websites promptly to prevent any negative impacts on your business and reputation. We can help you monitor your websites 24/7. Get in touch today if you have any questions.

We see a lot of craziness in our line of work. And unfortunately, it is often hard-working business owners that are the ones victimized.

The internet really is the Wild Wild West, and it is quite scary when you don’t know what you don’t know. As a business owner, the last thing you want is for your WordPress website to be infected with malicious code injections that redirect visitors elsewhere. And when you’re a counselor and that redirection is to a very graphic adult website, it can be beyond mortifying.

Unfortunately, that’s precisely what happened to a business that recently reached out to us for support. Their website, which was powered by WordPress, had been compromised, and visitors were being redirected to various pornographic sites, potentially damaging this business’ reputation and certainly their peace of mind.

When they reached out to their web hosting company’s support department, they were left in the dark for several days, with no solid resolution in sight. That’s when they found Clarkes.Team and decided to sign up for our WordPress Secure maintenance plan, which included the resolution to this violating hack. 

Our team of experienced WordPress experts was able to fix the malicious code injections the same day, ensuring that their website was secure and back to its original state. We will now be taking care of them to ensure this doesn’t happen again with regular security updates, malware scans, and WordPress security hardening.

Behind every business website, there are real people. Such malicious activity is not a victimless crime. Sometimes the damage that is done is irreparable if proper disaster recovery isn’t in place. And again, many times, you don’t know what you don’t know until you find out the hard way. And that’s why we’re sharing this story.

With permission, we share these client stories (sensitive & identifying details removed) to help provide insight for the next business. To help ensure they do not one day find themselves feeling frustrated, helpless & violated. 

If you’re facing these or any other WordPress security issues, do not hesitate to seek expert help. Clarkes.Team specializes in WordPress management, security & performance optimization solutions.

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Our proactive WordPress security & performance optimization maintenance plans provide comprehensive protection against potential security threats, giving business owners like you peace of mind, knowing that your website is in good hands.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. No one wants their WordPress redirected to nonsense. Protect your business and website with our WordPress maintenance services today. Contact us to learn more about how we can help safeguard your online presence and give you the peace of mind you deserve.

Roughly 90% of all hacked Content Management Systems (CMS) investigated and fixed in 2018 were WordPress sites.

The above report was published by Sucuri, a website security company that helps scan websites for malware and loopholes.

Reputable as the most popular CMS in the world, WordPress is being operated by over 445 million websites worldwide. It is no surprise why it is the most targeted CMS by hackers looking to profit off your hard work. Considering the statistics above, if you are utilizing WordPress for your website, there are chances that it is compromised, and you don’t even know it yet.

Do not fret, the first step to finding a solution to a problem is to acknowledge that the problem exists. So let us look at some widespread ways hackers target and attack WordPress sites. Understanding how WordPress sites are hacked will provide insights into solutions that can be used to counter-attack them.

Hackers are relentless; they devise different means to get into websites for selfish reasons. WordPress is a popular CMS with millions of users and is seen as a flourishing ground by hackers. This is a severe challenge in the tech world because you could lose your hard-earned reputation, many customers, and profits if you become a victim. How exactly do they do this? Continue reading to understand how.

If you’re facing these or any other WordPress security issues, do not hesitate to seek expert help. Clarkes.Team specializes in WordPress management, security & performance optimization solutions.

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There are other ways that hackers can get into your WordPress account. As technology continues to advance, so do hackers. However, the points listed above are some of the most popular ways hackers access WordPress websites.

Are you unsure whether your WordPress website is compromised? Do not worry; below is a compiled list of how to spot loopholes in your WordPress website.

Have you experienced any of the above and had no idea what to do? If yes, then you are definitely at the right place because we will discuss how to protect and fix your website next. If not, you should also continue to read just in case this happens in the future; you will know what to do. It sounds scary that your favorite CMS is the most targeted, but this is not the end of the world.

Eliminating malware and ‘spring-cleaning’ a hacked site can be tedious, frustrating, and challenging. And if you are not an expert, you may find yourself lost at a crossroads. This is why highly skilled IT Consultants and experts are recommended. They relieve you of your distress and help you fix and block attacks and restore WordPress security. However, there are still some easy-to-do steps you can implement to check and protect your website. Let’s dive right into what they are.

If your website does not respond to any of these attempts to get it protected/fixed, then you must call the doctors of the tech space. Highly-skilled IT Specialists such as Steven Clarke, are available here at Clarkes.Team, are responsible for diagnosing, prescribing, and treating website and application security issues. With great reviews to his name from many satisfied clients, Steven Clarke delivers with class and efficiency, alongside excellent communication. Click the link below to book a consultation with Clarkes.Team and get your WordPress website fixed and secured professionally. This may be your last chance at securing your website. Don’t Miss It!