Andy Feliciotti

Andy Feliciotti

Andy has been a full time WordPress developer for over 15 years. Through his years of experience has built 100s of sites and learned plenty of tricks along the way.
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102 posts published

Articles by Andy Feliciotti

How to back up a WordPress site: database and cloud backup icon on coral background

How to Back Up a WordPress Site (5 Methods)

Five reliable ways to back up a WordPress site: host-provided backups, a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus, a manual backup through cPanel, FTP/SFTP, or WP-CLI. This guide covers what a backup includes, how often to run one, all five methods step by step, the 3-2-1 storage rule, and how to restore.

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WordPress Transients API: A Practical Guide (with Examples)

WordPress transients are a built-in caching layer for storing data with an automatic expiration time. This guide covers what transients are, when to use them, the three core functions (set_transient, get_transient, delete_transient), site transients, where they’re stored, a real example, and the pitfalls that bite first-timers.

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WordPress Staging Sites: A Practical Guide (with 4 Methods)

A WordPress staging site is a private copy of your live site for testing plugin updates, theme changes, and risky edits before they hit production. This guide walks through 4 ways to set one up (host-provided, plugin, local, manual subdomain) with trade-offs and the gotchas that bite first-timers.

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WordPress Custom Post Types: A Practical Guide (with Code Examples)

Custom Post Types let you add new content types to WordPress beyond Posts and Pages: products, portfolio items, events, recipes. This guide covers what they are, when to use them, how to register one with register_post_type(), every important $args option, taxonomies and REST API exposure, permalinks, template files, and ACF/CPT UI/Pods compared.

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Headless WordPress: A Practical 2026 Guide

Headless WordPress means using WordPress as a content backend while serving the frontend with a completely separate stack (Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit, etc.). This guide walks through what it actually means, when to use it, the REST API vs WPGraphQL decision, popular frontend frameworks, hosting setup, common challenges, and a step-by-step build.

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WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong”: What’s New (and What Got Pulled)

WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” shipped May 20, 2026 with native AI integration in Core (AI Client + Abilities API), a modernized dashboard with Command Palette, four new blocks (Gallery lightbox, Heading, Breadcrumbs, Icons), block-level Custom CSS, PHP-only block registration, and a PHP 7.4 minimum. Real-time collaboration was pulled before release. Here’s the full breakdown.

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WordPress Permalinks: A Complete Guide (with Best Settings)

WordPress permalinks are the permanent URLs for your posts, pages, and archives. This guide covers the 6 default permalink structures, which one to choose, and how to change yours safely without breaking your site or losing rankings.

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WordPress REST API: A Practical 2026 Guide (with Code Examples)

How to use the WordPress REST API in 2026: 4 authentication methods, the endpoints you’ll actually hit, real curl + JavaScript code examples for vibe-coded apps and headless Next.js builds, common errors (HTTP_AUTHORIZATION, CORS, capabilities), and how to add custom endpoints.

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WP-Cron: How WordPress’s Scheduling System Actually Works

WP-Cron is WordPress’s built-in scheduler, but it isn’t real cron. Here’s how it actually works, when to replace it with a real server cron, the developer API for scheduling events, and how to debug when scheduled tasks aren’t running.

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WordPress Hooks: Actions, Filters, and How They Actually Work

Hooks are how WordPress lets plugins, themes, and your code change what the platform does. This guide covers actions vs filters, priority and accepted_args, where to put hook code, removing hooks, creating custom hooks, and modern patterns like class-method callbacks and Block Hooks in WordPress 6.4+.

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wp-config.php: A Practical Guide to WordPress’s Config File

wp-config.php is WordPress’s master configuration file. This guide covers what it does, where to find it, every constant worth knowing, debug snippets, security hardening, and modern patterns like WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE and WP-CLI config commands.

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How to Use get_post_meta() in WordPress (with Examples)

Use get_post_meta() to retrieve any custom field value in WordPress. Function reference, the $single parameter explained, real ACF and WooCommerce examples, performance notes, and how to expose meta through the REST API.

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How to Disable Comments in WordPress (Every Method)

Turn off WordPress comments completely. Six methods covering the Settings UI, single-post toggles, bulk edit, WP-CLI for hundreds of posts, a functions.php snippet, and the Disable Comments plugin, plus how to remove the leftover comments menu and admin remnants.

What is Autoblogging and How Does It Work?

Autoblogging is the process of automatically creating WordPress posts from external inputs like RSS feeds, AI topic generation, keyword lists, or structured sources like

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