Site Index

buy.corel.com — Corel Corporation's 2000-era e-commerce surface. Designed and produced as a member of the Corel web team, mirroring the corel.com homepage…

CorelCity.com — Corel Corporation's 2000-era public web portal for clients, business partners, and visitors. Web graphics and QA contributor on the team…

Corel Corporation's community resource for users of Corel LINUX OS — news, tutorials, product details, training updates. QA contributor on the team…

Late-1990s Corel Corporation web work — the 30,000-page corporate site retired in September 2000. UI conception and graphics for corporate strategy and…

A Ridgeway gallery's full digital launch: site, photography, and social presence built from scratch by Elizabeth Ross, with Christopher Ross as senior…

Three Ridgeway businesses. A new gallery launch, a cinema that sold annual memberships, a consignment shop that increased sales. One award-winning practitioner…

In 2011–2012, when Postmedia moved its network of major Canadian daily newspapers onto WordPress, I was part of the team that built…

WordPress site for M.L. Campbell's primary brand — modernised web experience that preserves technical product credibility for a professional coatings brand sold…

WordPress site for Sayerlack — conversion-focused build designed to support technical buyers and distributors with credible product presentation and clear brand hierarchy.

Across the channel I produced 128,393 views, 4,600 watch hours, and 1,200 net new subscribers. That is not a beauty-influencer number.

WordPress training portal for the M.L. Campbell Training Centre — structured for practical learner access, ongoing content updates, and clear programme navigation.

BlackBerry's support-content blog on WordPress VIP — troubleshooting, software-update guidance, recovery procedures. Theme work, 2011 and 2013.

BlackBerry's developer-relations blog on WordPress VIP — code samples, SDK release notes, API guidance. Theme work through the 2011 and 2013 rebuilds.

BlackBerry's B2B publication on WordPress VIP. Theme work across the 2011 self-hosted-to-VIP migration and the 2013 unified-codebase rebuild.

Inside BlackBerry was the umbrella property above four blogs running on WordPress VIP from a single shared theme. I worked the 2011…

canada.com was the Postmedia property that didn't fit the newsroom template — because it didn't have a newsroom. A WordPress VIP contributor…

Platform migration work on the Ottawa Citizen — link integrity and source attribution for a federal-policy readership, on WordPress VIP in 2011-2012.

Newsroom theme work and taxonomy architecture on the Windsor Star — cross-border auto-industry beat at archive scale, on WordPress VIP in 2011-2012.

Theme engineering on the Montreal Gazette — bilingual SEO and discovery for English publishing in a French-language city, on WordPress VIP in…

Child-theme work on the Edmonton Journal — sibling-paper homepage discipline on the shared Postmedia parent, WordPress VIP, 2011-2012.

I worked on the National Post platform migration in 2011-2012, when Postmedia's flagship daily moved onto WordPress VIP at the start of…

Performance work on the Calgary Herald — homepage tuning under heavy ad load on an energy-sector news cycle, on Postmedia's WordPress VIP…

Child-theme defaults and CMS ergonomics for the Regina Leader-Post — lean-newsroom theme UX on the shared Postmedia parent, WordPress VIP, 2011-2012.

Newsroom theme work on The Vancouver Sun — broadsheet article templates and section landings tuned for long-form readers, on Postmedia's WordPress VIP…

Child-theme architecture for The Province — tabloid voice on the same shared Postmedia parent that carried The Vancouver Sun, on WordPress VIP…

Newsroom theme work on the Financial Post — business-daily templates tuned for market-hours load and data-dense article layouts in the early 2010s.

Custom WordPress theme development for one of North America's longest-running culinary television franchises — two successive themes built to carry a large…

Joomla theme development for the Dukes of Dixieland — one of the United States' most decorated traditional jazz bands, with performances at…

WordPress migration and campaign-period maintenance for a 2010 U.S. House campaign in South Carolina's 1st district, subcontracted through The Mace Group LLC.

Multi-year WordPress retainer for The Mace Group LLC, a South Carolina political-media firm — server migrations, campaign sites, AdSense work, and same-weekend…

Portfolio entry for Ottawa Flight Training, an early Ottawa-based web and design project from my Rodonic studio days. Source notes preserved from…

The public-facing portal where Canadians signed up for Bell's Sympatico internet service and ordered their modem — built directly with Bell in…

Interface design and ColdFusion back-end for Algonquin College's continuing-education catalogue — 35,000 searchable course descriptions built for the registrar.

FOCAL's bilingual Cuba research directory — an online index of policy and research resources built for low-bandwidth access alongside the hemispheric think…

Web design and ASP development for FOCAL — an Ottawa-based hemispheric policy think tank whose site ran from first launch until the…

Corel's e-commerce storefront — designed and produced as part of the Corel web team to close the loop from product marketing page…

Corel.com in 1999–2000 — one of the first major corporate software sites to fully move online during the dot-com boom, serving a…

Monthly-updated resource hub for Corel WordPerfect Office Suite users — one of five Corel community properties maintained by the in-house web team.

Web experience work for Corel Designer community properties, focused on content updates, resource access, and loyalty-building touchpoints for product users.

The first website I ever shipped, in 1996, for Canada's oldest tobacco shop — which is still trading in downtown Kitchener today.…

Everything in Essential, plus a working budget for the small jobs that come up every month — a new landing page, a…

Active publishing across three to four platforms with original content production in the loop — short-form video, photography, a recurring series, the…

Monthly diagnostic SEO without the agency overhead — I look at the data, name what's moving, flag what's breaking, and write you…

Social as a strategic channel rather than a publishing checklist — quarterly campaign planning aligned with the wider marketing calendar, original content…

A site engineered to grow with you: lead capture you can actually read, a blog scaffold your team can post into, performance…

Website design and development for businesses ready to upgrade from a brochure into a site that earns its keep. Three tiers from…

Senior-level monthly retainer for sites where the cost of a four-hour outage is more than the cost of the engagement. Same-day response…

WordPress at the scale where it is no longer "the website" — it is a publishing platform with assigned editors, contributor onboarding…

Purpose-built WordPress plugins for integrations, workflows, and features that off-the-shelf plugins cannot deliver cleanly. Built to WordPress coding standards — no bloat,…

National-brand ecommerce on WooCommerce when the storefront is one channel in a larger commerce operation — ERP or PIM integration as the…

Full program-scale curriculum where the deliverable is a competency framework, a multi-course delivery system, an assessment programme with defensible scoring and item…

Enterprise SEO where there are several properties in the portfolio, an in-house dev team that needs technical specifications rather than recommendations, and…

The original store works. The next move doesn't fit inside it — wholesale alongside retail, a subscription product alongside one-time purchases, a…

A school or tutoring site that does the public-facing job properly — staff bios, programme pages, registration forms, parent communications — with…

You run actual courses for actual learners and the LMS is doing real work — enrolment flows, progress tracking, certificates, integrations with…

A digital edition that supports the print operation rather than competing with it. Section structure that maps to the masthead, contributor accounts…

Daily-news editorial WordPress at the scale where the CMS is core infrastructure — ad-stack integration, subscription mechanics, syndication, contributor governance across markets,…

One course, designed once, audit-ready. Competency mapping with your SMEs, an assessment blueprint that does what an assessment is supposed to do,…

Post-secondary delivery where the curriculum answers to an accreditor, the LMS connects to a SIS, and accessibility is not optional — WCAG…

A steady, on-brand presence on the one or two platforms your audience actually uses. Twelve to sixteen posts a month, scheduled, written…

A program of several connected modules sharing a competency framework, an assessment system, and accessibility commitments documented at the artefact level. Designed…

The shape changes when there are several mastheads under one owner and digital revenue is actually on the line. Cross-title syndication so…

Keynotes and conference sessions on WordPress in production, instructional design that survives audit, and what nineteen years of paid WordPress work has…

A real WordPress build on a stack you actually own. Five core pages, your brand applied properly, contact form wired to your…

A custom homepage structure, two service templates, and SEO basics done by hand — schema, metadata, sitemap, redirects from the old URLs.…

A real store, sized to a real launch — not the maximalist plugin stack that breaks on the first Black Friday. Product…

The site has more than one person logging in every week. That changes what it has to be: who can publish, who…

Technical SEO at the level where the audit feeds implementation and implementation feeds the next month's reporting — Core Web Vitals, indexation,…

Live instructor-led training on WordPress, Microsoft Office, or operational software your team actually runs on. Built around your install, your governance rules,…

Multi-template architecture, staging environment, edge caching, and a monthly retainer slot for the inevitable "the form broke during a campaign" Tuesday. Built…

Website design and development for businesses, publishers, and product companies. Seven specific services from $3,500 starter sites to six-figure publishing migrations.

A two-page written read on the headline risks of your WordPress site. $500 flat, 5 business days. The lowest-commitment paid audit tier.…

Three WordPress build tiers from $3,500 to $75,000+. Business Website Design for small business and brand sites, Custom WordPress Development for media/edu/gov…

Fixed-scope $4,950 LMS Strategy and Architecture Review for WordPress. Platform fit, role model, integrations, build-vs-buy. 7 business days.

Updates, backups, uptime monitoring, and a senior pair of eyes on the security log every month. Done quietly. If something breaks during…

A 10-15 page written WordPress audit naming the specific issues, trade-offs, and order of operations. $1,000 flat, 7 business days, includes a…

Safe, rank-preserving migrations from Squarespace, Wix, Drupal, or a broken WordPress install. Content, redirects, SEO signals, and media — all accounted for…

Malware cleanup, plugin audit, user permission review, and server-level hardening for WordPress sites. Systematic security improvement for organizations that cannot afford downtime…

A fixed-scope WordPress site audit. $2,200 CAD, 5 business days, complete written report, recorded walkthrough, and a debrief call with your team.

Core Web Vitals improvement, image pipeline, caching, and hosting configuration for WordPress sites that are too slow to rank or convert. Measurable…

Excel 101 is a hands-on starter course for staff who use Excel a few times a week. Real workbooks, plain language, no…

Excel 201 is for staff past the basics who need cleaner workbooks, IF/IFS logic, charts that read at a glance, and a…

Excel 301 is for analysts and team leads with bigger lists. Tables, lookups, PivotTables, slicers — turning rows of data into real…

Excel 302 is for staff who build forecasts and budgets. What-if scenarios, Goal Seek, Solver, and the auditing to trust the numbers…

Excel 401 is for analysts moving into BI work. Power Query, ETL pipelines, and dashboards built so the next refresh takes a…

Microsoft Word Level 1 training — document formatting, styles, structure, and the everyday efficiency techniques that make Word work for you.

In-person WordPress 101 for owners and new admins across the Niagara region. Pages, posts, blocks, media, and a monthly routine that keeps…

Online WordPress 201 for marketing and content leads. Structure, headings, internal links, image SEO, and Core Web Vitals as a content lever.

Online WordPress 301 for owners and ops leads. Real attack surface, backup and restore drill, update strategy, roles, and incident response.

Online WordPress 401 for agency and in-house devs. theme.json as a design-system contract, custom blocks end to end, and FSE on the…

Keep Google Site Kit connected through staging-to-production clone workflows with production-only snapshots and safe auto-restore.

Auto-formats titles, headers, category names, and feeds to title case across the site — automatic, no configuration required.

Embeds content fetched from another URL into the current page or post — useful for remote feeds, partner content, and syndicated articles.

Redirects visitors to a random post — useful for "surprise me" navigation and surfacing archived content. No settings page, GPL-licensed.

Surfaces scheduled posts before they go live via a single template tag — useful for editorial teasers and content previews.

Adds a recent-posts template tag to your theme — no settings, no plugin UI, just the tag and the posts.

Surfaces your most-viewed posts via a single template tag — no settings page, no admin overhead, GPL-licensed.

Adds a Pin It button to posts and pages via widget — lightweight, no settings page, GPL-licensed.

Generates a copyright notice from your actual first and last post dates — shortcode-ready, always current, zero maintenance.

An honest first read on what a WordPress project is likely to cost. Eight questions, four tiers, two minutes — reconciled against…

A practical pre-launch checklist covering performance, SEO, security, redirects, and testing — everything to verify before taking a WordPress site live.

A structured content planning template for service businesses that need a practical, repeatable process for deciding what to publish and connecting each…

Stops WordPress from sending self-pingbacks when posts link to other posts on the same site — set it once, forget it exists.

Drop-in replacement for get_the_excerpt() that returns whole words instead of mid-word cuts — no configuration, just better output.

Replaces the default WordPress search form with HTML5 semantic markup — drop-in get_search_form() override, no theme edits required.

Hides the JetPack / WordPress.com Stats smiley glyph from your footer — stats keep working, the visual artifact disappears.

Removes the WordPress generator meta tag that broadcasts your WP version — zero configuration, one less thing for scanners to read.

Returns a blank page if anyone loads wp-config.php or common backup filenames directly in a browser — lightweight, zero configuration.

Free Excel training prep checklist (PDF) — 22 questions to plan a session in 30 minutes, set expectations, and run the post-training…

Free WordPress diagnostics plugin with 230+ display-ready checks, plain-English guidance, and safer remediation workflows. No cloud lock-in. GPL-licensed.

Free tile calculator. Enter room dimensions, tile size, and grout spacing to estimate tile count, box count, and waste for accurate orders.

Free paint calculator. Enter wall dimensions, opening deductions, and coat count to estimate gallons with coverage and price controls for accurate orders.

Free lumber calculator. Enter wall length, stud spacing, and board length to estimate stud and plate counts plus board feet for cleaner…

Free fill calculator. Enter length, width, and depth to estimate cubic yards or tons with compaction allowance for accurate supplier orders.

Free fence calculator. Enter run length, post spacing, and gate count to estimate posts, panels, and pickets for accurate supply orders.

Free excavation calculator. Enter trench length, width, and depth to estimate cubic yards with swell, hauling, and price controls for cleaner pre-bid…

Free drywall calculator. Enter wall and ceiling dimensions to estimate sheet count with waste allowance for accurate supply-house orders.

Free concrete calculator. Enter slab length, width, and thickness to estimate cubic yards with wastage and price controls for accurate supplier orders.

Free asphalt calculator. Enter length, width, and depth to estimate tonnage with density, wastage, and price controls for accurate paving orders.

Free WordPress WebP plugin that converts every new JPEG and PNG upload to WebP automatically. No external API, no monthly fee, GPL-licensed.

Free WordPress SVG plugin that enables safe vector uploads in the Media Library. Sanitizes every file on upload, no settings page, GPL-licensed.

Free WordPress HEIC plugin that converts iPhone .heic photo uploads to WordPress-compatible JPEG automatically. No external API, GPL-licensed.

Free WordPress plugin that automatically adds nofollow, target=_blank, and noopener to every external link. Lightweight, no settings page, GPL-licensed.

One number before we start. Scope protections in the contract. No surprise invoices at the end of an engagement.

A Niagara non-profit and a federal department see the same rate. So does a global media buyer and a local chamber member.…

Every tool I use in your project is disclosed before delivery — what it did, why, and how much of the output…

Accessibility isn't a phase 2 line item — it's a precondition on every site I build. WCAG compliance ships from the start,…

Every plugin on your site runs on every page load, touches your data, and shapes your admin experience. I pick them carefully…

The next developer who opens my code should find it readable, documented, and honest about what it's doing. Clean code isn't a…

WordPress is the right tool for almost every project someone brings me. The question isn't usually about the tool — it's about…

Half-finished projects, abandoned builds, sites that worked once and don't anymore — I take rescue work. Always.

Delivery includes documentation and a handoff that leaves you understanding what was built and how to maintain it. That's part of the…

Mentoring is part of how I live and work — not a side hustle, not a revenue line. If you're learning WordPress…

Your name on a plugin in the WordPress.org directory is a standing commitment. As long as the listing is live, that code…

Another renovation week: opinions got their own post type, the training page finally got the rewrite it was asking for, and an…

Five days of working on my own site as a laboratory: a JSON-LD collision that was firing two primary types on the…

Eighteen WordCamp deliveries across fifteen unique talks, eight cities, and two countries — from free plugins in 2011 to a live game…

A WordPress site audit done well takes a day and surfaces three to five issues. Done badly, it produces a 40-page PDF…

WordPress to EmDash conversions that preserve rankings, migrate content faithfully, and modernise the editorial surface without disrupting lead flow during cutover.

EmDash builds for organisations that publish at scale — multiple authors, structured content reuse, editorial governance, SEO that holds up at 1,000+…

The 30 minutes a manager spends preparing their team is the single biggest variable in whether Excel training sticks. Here is the…

Lighthouse scores measure what a 30-second synthetic test sees. Real WordPress performance is the user, page, and template view — here is…

An LMS solves tracking and compliance well; delivery and content management poorly. Here are the four flavours that dominate, the decision matrix,…

"Enterprise" is a hosting upsell label. The four layers that actually matter — edge, application, data, observability — fit on one page.…

Headless WordPress is the right answer to about one in five problems people use it for. Here is when it helps, when…

Video hosting is three decisions, not one. SEO/discovery, on-site conversion, and private delivery each want a different host. Here is how to…

Over-optimised pages tank rankings AND conversions. Here are the seven signals, the back-off pattern, and the 30-minute audit that surfaces the worst…

CAN-SPAM has seven requirements. The most violated one is the easiest to fix: a physical postal address in every commercial email. Here…

A modern sales stack for a service business is six tools, not twenty. Here is what each one does, what most teams…

The forced transition from employee to consultant is a different problem from the voluntary one. Here is the playbook for the first…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2014 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2013 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2012 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2011 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2011 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2010 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2009 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2009 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2008 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2008 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

What I’d say now. I wrote this in 2006. The 2026 version of this thinking lives at What Makes a Website Actually…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2006 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

Every business requires marketing to let the potential customers know where to get the goods and services they need. Some forms of…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2005 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2005 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2005 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2005 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

From the archive. I wrote this back in 2005 and I’m leaving it published because the thinking still has value, but on…

I am Christopher Ross, a Fort Erie-based WordPress developer and training specialist. I help teams stabilize fragile WordPress builds, fix technical SEO…

How This Is My URL delivers projects — fixed scope, fixed price, a written audit, staged releases, accessibility and SEO checks before…

How articles on thisismyurl.com are authored, reviewed, updated, and corrected — including AI disclosure, conflict-of-interest rules, and how to report a problem.

This Is My URL is a one-person Canadian web practice based in Fort Erie, Ontario, owned and operated by Christopher Ross. This…

How accessibility is handled on thisismyurl.com and in client work — WCAG 2.2 AA target, known limitations, AODA context, and how to…

Two ways in: book a 20-minute call on Cal.com, or send a project brief through the form below. Either way the reply…

Five ways to support a one-person WordPress practice that gives its plugins and posts away — talking about the work, contributing to…

Glossary includes practical guidance, clear next steps, and recommendations you can apply with confidence.

How This Is My URL handles personal information under PIPEDA and CASL — what is collected, why, who processes it, how long…

Terms of Use for thisismyurl.com — what you may and may not do with the site, comments, third-party links, limitation of liability,…