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Marketing BS free blog about website speed, performance and user experience

September 7, 2026
Stop Checking PHP Types Everywhere

Very common in PHP code bases is obsessive type check, noticeably code like declare(strict_types=1) and private function( int $id ). It's basically "Always check your types". I think a better rule is: Check a type when the variable is created, mutated, or received from an external source. Then trust it until something happens that could […]

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December 8, 2025
Slower PHP components

New PHP 8.5 Uri class is slow. Before measure starts declare variable with URL: PHP 8.5 class This take 14.8 µs Old way using parse_url() this take 3.1 µs

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September 10, 2025
From Slow to Slower: WordPress Backend Bloat Is Getting Worse

A data-backed deep dive into how plugins like WooCommerce load hundreds of unnecessary files and what it means for performance, sustainability, and WordPress’s future. When it comes to optimizing WordPress performance, all eyes are on the front end. Page builders talk endlessly about "clean HTML," asset minification, or lazy-loading images to improve Lighthouse scores. However, […]

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October 28, 2024
Use SWITCH in FAST sanitizing input process

In my current project, I needed to fetch data from an API, sanitize it, and return it in a form that is easy to work with. Over the years, I have accumulated snippets and go-to methods for various tasks, but I haven't spent much time refining them. I write code with a focus on performance, […]

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August 30, 2024
New array functions in PHP 8.4: Making them available in earlier versions

PHP 8.4 is coming soon, and it will introduce a few new and useful functions. In WP core, there have historically been so-called pluggable functions, allowing WP plugins and themes to use new functions as long as WP is running on a certain version. Here is my take on the new functions in PHP 8.4: […]

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July 11, 2024
The Case Against Tailwind CSS

UPDATE: I've received feedback from the community that Tailwind can be filtered into a version containing only used classes. Maybe it's not that bad, but I can't see how it would work for me as adds unnecessary steps to my workflow. "Keep it simple" is my philosophy. Original article: In the ever-evolving landscape of web […]

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October 8, 2022
Cloudflare Firewall Part 2 - Rules to filter data type

It's important to filter data types and allow only what you can actually use. Bots always search for files like .zip or .sql that could contain private or security information. For this, we identify first that it's a URI path with a dot (http.request.uri.path contains ".") and then by exclusion we define what we want […]

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October 7, 2022
Cloudflare Firewall Part 1 - Rules to filter bad bots

Ruleset part 1 Here is my ruleset to block bad bots with the Cloudflare firewall. I'm filtering SEO bots like Ahrefs or Moz, if you're using them then of course remove them from the ruleset. Ruleset part 2 Here is part 2 because the Cloudflare rule has a limited length. For that, you need to […]

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February 20, 2019
How to measure website speed to get the most accurate intel?

Most of the blog posts dedicated to speed just point out that we need to measure website speed and offers links to online tools that can do the jobs, but don't explain how and what to measure. For those who are looking for a one-click-solve-all solution will this article be a great disappointment. But those […]

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January 30, 2019
Website loading speed explained

There is a lot's of misconceptions about what is the "speed of the website". It's a very complex topic but it can be boiled down to two words: "User Experience".

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