Guides

WordPress, done properly

Problem-first guides written by the people who build and run the Dragon Core plugins. Each one is a reference we keep current, not a dated post.

Migrations

Moving WordPress between domains, hosts and environments without losing anything.

How to migrate WordPress to a new domain without breaking page builders

Move a WordPress site to a new domain with a serialization-safe search and replace, so Elementor, widgets and plugin settings survive the change.

6 min readRead

Moving WordPress to a new host: a cutover checklist that loses nothing

A step-by-step plan for moving a WordPress site to a new hosting provider: staging on the new server, a clean database transfer, DNS cutover and rollback.

5 min readRead

Keeping a WordPress staging site in sync with production, and pushing changes back safely

A staging workflow for agencies: pair two sites once, pull production into staging on a schedule, push a finished build the other way with a rollback point, and never download a database again.

4 min readRead

Site health

Broken links, redirects and the upkeep that stops a site quietly rotting.

How to find and fix broken links in WordPress

Find broken internal, external and image links across a WordPress site, triage them without false alarms, fix them safely in the block editor, and stop new ones appearing.

5 min readRead

Broken Link Checker alternatives for WordPress, and what to look for in one

Why people leave the cloud-based Broken Link Checker, what actually matters in a link checker (local engine, no credits, no false positives, safe fixing), and where Dragon Broken Links fits.

5 min readRead

Monitoring a portfolio of client sites for broken links: schedules, alerts and bulk fixes

How an agency keeps dozens of sites free of dead links without opening each one: scheduled scans, digests to email or Slack, a year of history, CSV reports and bulk fixes.

3 min readRead

WordPress not sending email: how to diagnose it and fix it for good

Why wp_mail silently fails, how to see exactly what the mail server said, how to set up SMTP properly, and the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records that keep mail out of spam.

7 min readRead

Failover email delivery for WooCommerce: order emails that survive a provider outage

Order emails are revenue-critical. How to send through a provider's API, fail over to a backup without double-sending, alert on failures, and resend anything lost from the log.

3 min readRead

Fixing 404 errors after a WordPress redesign: redirects that keep your rankings

A redesign changes URLs. This is how to map old to new before launch, build exact, prefix and regex redirects, triage real 404s after launch, and stop new dead ends appearing.

5 min readRead

Which plugin is slowing down my WordPress site? Measure it instead of guessing

How to tell server time from front-end weight, measure what each plugin actually costs with leave-one-out profiling, read the results honestly, and prove the fix with a before-and-after scan.

5 min readRead

WordPress cron not running: scheduled posts, backups and the four reasons WP-Cron stalls

How WP-Cron actually works, the four reasons scheduled tasks stop running, how to diagnose which one you have in a click, and how to replace the built-in scheduler with a real system cron.

5 min readRead

Security

Logins, second factors and an audit trail you can trust when something goes wrong.

Securing the WordPress login: brute-force protection, two-factor authentication and passkeys

What actually stops account takeover on WordPress: lockouts that cannot be spoofed, a second factor that gates every login path including XML-RPC, and passkeys for the people who hate codes.

4 min readRead

Enforcing two-factor authentication for every WordPress admin, without a support nightmare

How to roll out mandatory 2FA by role with a grace period, trusted devices so people are not challenged daily, risk-based re-challenges, and a report that proves who is enrolled.

4 min readRead

Who changed what: an activity log for WordPress that stands up as evidence

Why every multi-user WordPress site needs an audit trail, what a good one records, how a hash-chained log proves it has not been edited, and how to use it in an incident.

4 min readRead

Content and SEO

Keeping what you have published working for you: decaying posts, internal links, alt text.

Content decay: find the posts losing traffic in GA4 and refresh them before the rankings go

Old posts lose traffic quietly. How to spot decay early with GA4 and Search Console data, decide which posts are worth refreshing, and what a refresh that recovers rankings actually involves.

4 min readRead

Internal linking for WordPress that actually helps: orphan pages, relevance and anchor text

Why orphan content and thin internal linking hold a site back, how to find the pages nothing links to, how to rank link opportunities by real relevance, and how to add links without wrecking the copy.

3 min readRead

Alt text for every image: accessibility, image SEO and how to fill a media library of thousands

What alt text is for, what good alt text looks like, why most libraries are missing it, and how to generate it for existing images and new uploads with your own AI key at a fraction of a cent each.

4 min readRead

Integrations

Getting events out of WordPress and into the tools your team already runs.

Sending webhooks from WordPress to Zapier, Make, n8n and Slack

How to fire an HTTP webhook when something happens in WordPress, what the payload contains, how to test and debug deliveries, and how to sign and retry them so the receiving end can trust them.

4 min readRead

WooCommerce

Store-specific workflows: who sees what, and what happens when an order lands.

WooCommerce order webhooks: send orders, status changes and stock events to your CRM, Slack or warehouse

How to fire signed, retried webhooks when WooCommerce orders are placed or change status, when stock moves or a customer signs up, with conditional rules so each integration gets only what it needs.

3 min readRead

Wholesale and private catalogues in WooCommerce: show products only to certain customers or roles

How to run trade-only ranges, client-specific products and members-only collections in one WooCommerce store, with visibility rules by role, category and individual customer.

3 min readRead

Compliance

CRA, NIS2 and the paperwork that clients and auditors now ask WordPress teams for.

WordPress, done properly

Migrations

How to migrate WordPress to a new domain without breaking page builders

Moving WordPress to a new host: a cutover checklist that loses nothing

Keeping a WordPress staging site in sync with production, and pushing changes back safely

Site health

How to find and fix broken links in WordPress

Broken Link Checker alternatives for WordPress, and what to look for in one

Monitoring a portfolio of client sites for broken links: schedules, alerts and bulk fixes

WordPress not sending email: how to diagnose it and fix it for good

Failover email delivery for WooCommerce: order emails that survive a provider outage

Fixing 404 errors after a WordPress redesign: redirects that keep your rankings

Which plugin is slowing down my WordPress site? Measure it instead of guessing

WordPress cron not running: scheduled posts, backups and the four reasons WP-Cron stalls

Security

Securing the WordPress login: brute-force protection, two-factor authentication and passkeys

Enforcing two-factor authentication for every WordPress admin, without a support nightmare

Who changed what: an activity log for WordPress that stands up as evidence

Content and SEO

Content decay: find the posts losing traffic in GA4 and refresh them before the rankings go

Internal linking for WordPress that actually helps: orphan pages, relevance and anchor text

Alt text for every image: accessibility, image SEO and how to fill a media library of thousands

Integrations

Sending webhooks from WordPress to Zapier, Make, n8n and Slack

WooCommerce

WooCommerce order webhooks: send orders, status changes and stock events to your CRM, Slack or warehouse

Wholesale and private catalogues in WooCommerce: show products only to certain customers or roles

Compliance

CRA compliance for WordPress: a practical checklist for agencies and site owners

How to generate an SBOM for a WordPress site (CycloneDX and SPDX)

Compliance reports for agency clients: white-label evidence for CRA and NIS2 questionnaires