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During this time, labor strikes often turned violent, with the

The following is drawn from a speech I delivered today at Cooper Union’s Great Hall, where I joined Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman to discuss the future of the American Dream. This shared address, Rebuilding the American Dream: A Path Forward, outlined both immediate actions and a long-term plan to give every American a fair chance at achieving the dream that was promised when our nation was founded.

What is the American Dream?

In 1931, at the height of the Great Depression, James Truslow Adams first defined the American Dream as

“[…] a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. […] not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which [everyone] shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position”

Last year, I found myself stuck on a singular problem.

I wanted to know what these words meant to us today. I needed to know what parts of the American Dream we all still had in common. I had to make some sense of what was happening to our country. I’ve been writing on my blog since 2004, and on November 7th, I started writing the most difficult piece I have ever written.

I asked so many Americans to tell me what the American Dream personally meant to them, and I wrote it all down.

Later in November, I attended a theater performance of The Outsiders at my son’s public high school – an adaptation of the 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton. All I really knew was the famous “stay gold” line from the 1983 movie. But as I sat there in the audience among my neighbors, watching the complete story acted out in front of me by these teenagers, I slowly realized what it meant: sharing the American Dream.

We cannot merely attain the Dream. The dream is incomplete until we share it with our fellow Americans. That act of sharing is the final realization of everything the dream stands for.

Thanks to S.E. Hinton, I finally had a name for my essay, “Stay Gold, America” and I published it on January 7th, with a Pledge to Share the American Dream.

In the first part of the Pledge, the short term, our family made eight 1 million dollar donations to the following nonprofit groups: Team Rubicon, Children’s Hunger Fund, PEN America, The Trevor Project, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, First Generation Investors, Global Refuge, and Planned Parenthood.

Beyond that, we made many additional one million dollar donations to reinforce our technical infrastructure in America – Wikipedia, The Internet Archive, The Common Crawl Foundation, Let’s Encrypt, independent internet journalism, and several other crucial open source software infrastructure projects that power much of the world today.

I encourage every American to contribute soon, however you can, to organizations you feel are effectively helping those most currently in need.

But short term fixes are not enough.

The Pledge To Share The American Dream requires a much more ambitious second act – deeper, long term changes that will take decades. Over the next five years, my family pledges half our remaining wealth – fifty million dollars – to plant a seed toward foundational long term efforts ensuring that all Americans continue to have the same fair access to the American Dream.

Let me tell you about my own path to the American Dream. It was rocky. My parents were born into deep poverty in Mercer County, West Virginia, and Beaufort County, North Carolina. Our family eventually clawed our way to the bottom of the middle class in Virginia.

I won’t dwell on this, but every family has their own problems, and we did not remain middle class for long. But through all this, my parents got the most important thing right: they loved me openly and unconditionally. That is everything. It’s the only reason I am standing here in front of you today.

With my family’s support, I managed to achieve a solid public education in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and had the incredible privilege of an affordable state education at the University of Virginia. This is a college uniquely rooted in the beliefs of one of the most prominent Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson. He was a living paradox. A man of profound ideals and yet flawed – trapped in the values of his time and place.

Still, he wrote “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” at the top of the Declaration of Independence. These words were, and still are, revolutionary. They define our fundamental shared American values, although we have not always lived up to them. The American Dream isn’t about us succeeding, alone, by ourselves, but about connecting with each other and succeeding together.

I’ve been concerned about wealth concentration in America ever since I watched a 2012 video by politizane illustrating just how extreme wealth concentration already was.

I had no idea how close we were to the American Gilded Age from the late 1800s. This period was given a name in the 1920s by historians referencing Mark Twain’s 1873 novel, The Gilded Age, A Tale of Today.

During this time, labor strikes often turned violent, with the Homestead Strike of 1892 resulting in deadly confrontations between workers and Pinkerton guards hired by factory owners. Rapid industrialization created hazardous working conditions in factories, mines, and railroads, where thousands died due to insufficient safety regulations and employers who prioritized profit over worker welfare.

In January 2025, while I was still writing “Stay Gold, America”, we entered the period of greatest wealth concentration in the entirety of American history. As of 2021, the top 1% of households controlled 32% of all wealth, while the bottom 50% only have 2.6%.

We can no longer say “Gilded Age”.

We must now say “The First Gilded Age”.

Today, in our second Gilded Age, more and more people are finding their path to the American Dream blocked. When Americans face unaffordable education, lack of accessible healthcare, or affordable housing, they aren’t just disadvantaged – they’re trapped. Often burdened by massive debt. They have no stable foundation to build their lives. They watch desperately, running in place, working as hard as they can, while life simply passes them by, without even the freedom to choose their own lives.

They don’t have time to build a career. They don’t have time to learn, to improve. They don’t get to start a business. They can’t choose where their kids will grow up, or whether to have children at all, because they can’t afford to. Here in the land of opportunity, the pursuit of happiness has become an endless task for too many.

We are denying people any real chance of achieving the dream that we promised them – that we promised the entire world – when we founded this nation. It is such a profound betrayal of everything we ever dreamed about. Without a stable foundation to build a life on, our fellow Americans cannot even pursue the American Dream, much less achieve it.

I ask you this: as an American, what is the purpose of our dream left unshared with so many for so long?

What’s happening to our dream?

Are we really willing to let go of our values so easily?

We’re Americans. We fight for our values, the values embodied in our dream, the ones we founded this country on.

Why aren’t we sharing the American Dream?

Why aren’t we giving everyone a fair chance at Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness by providing them the fundamentals they need to get there?

The Dream worked for me, decades ago, and I deeply believe that the American Dream can still work for everyone – if we ensure every American has the same fair chance we did. The American Dream was never about a few people being extraordinarily wealthy. It’s about everyone having an equal chance to succeed and pursue their dreams – their own happiness. It belongs to them. I think we owe them at least that. I think we owe ourselves at least that.

What can we do about this? There are no easy answers. I can’t even pretend to have the answer, because there isn’t any one answer to give. Nothing worth doing is ever that simple. But I can tell you this: all the studies and all the data I’ve looked at have strongly pointed to one foundational thing we can do here in America over the next five years.

Natalie Foster, co-founder of the Economic Security Project, makes a powerful case for the idea that, with all this concentrated wealth, we can offer a Guaranteed Minimum Income in the poorest areas of this country – the areas of most need, where money goes the farthest – to unlock vast amounts of untapped American potential.

We believe GMI could unlock massive human potential in this country, perhaps the greatest transformation of this country since the industrial revolution.

This isn’t a new idea. We’ve been doing this a while now in different forms, but we never called it Guaranteed Minimum Income.

In 1797, Thomas Paine proposed a retirement pension funded by estate taxes. It didn’t go anywhere, but it planted a seed. Much later, the implementation of the Social Security Act in 1935 . The economic chaos of the Great Depression coupled with the inability of private philanthropy to provide economic security inspired Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal government programs. The most popular and effective program to emerge from this era was Social Security, providing a guaranteed income for retirees. Before Social Security, 50% of seniors lived in poverty. Today only 10% of seniors live in poverty.

In his 1967 book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, Martin Luther King Jr made the moral case for a form of UBI, Universal Basic Income. King believed that economic insecurity was at the root of all inequality. He stated that a guaranteed income — direct cash disbursements — was the simplest and best way to fight poverty.

In 1972, Congress established the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, providing direct cash assistance to low-income elderly, blind, and disabled individuals with little or no income. This cash can be used for food, housing, and medical expenses, the essentials for financial stability. As of January, 2025, over 7.3 million people receive SSI benefits.

In 1975, Congress passed the Tax Reduction Act, establishing the Earned Income Tax Credit. This tax credit benefits working-class parents with children, encouraging work by increasing the income of low-income workers. In 2023, it lifted about 6.4 million people out of poverty, including 3.4 million children. According to the US Census Bureau, it is the second most effective anti-poverty tool after Social Security.

In 2019, directly inspired by King, mayor Michael Tubbs – at age 26, one of the youngest mayors in American history – launched the $3 million Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration in 2019. It provided 125 residents with $500 per month in unconditional cash payments for two years. The program found that recipients experienced improved financial stability, increased full-time employment, and enhanced well-being.

In my “Stay Gold, America” blog post, I referenced Robert Frost and the path not taken.

That path is Guaranteed Minimum Income, an improved version of Universal Basic Income. It is a more practical, simpler, scalable plan to directly address the root of most economic insecurity with minimum bureaucracy.

We are partnering with GiveDirectly, who oversaw the most GMI studies in the United States, and OpenResearch, who just completed the largest, most detailed GMI study ever conducted in this country in 2023. We are working together to launch a new Guaranteed Minimum Income initiative in rural American communities.

Network effects within communities explain why equality of opportunity is so effective, and why a shared American Dream is the most powerful dream of all. The potential of the American Dream becomes vastly greater as more people have access to it, because they share it. They share it with their families, their friends, and their neighbors. The groundbreaking, massive 2023 OpenResearch UBI study data showed that when you give money to the poorest among us, they consistently go out of their way to share that money with others in desperate need.

The power of opportunity is not in what it can do for one person, but how it connects and strengthens bonds between people. When you empower a couple, you allow them to build a family. When you empower families, you allow them to build a community. When you guarantee fundamentals, you’re providing a foundation for those connections to grow and thrive. This is the incredible power and value of community. That is what we are investing in. Each other.

A system where there are no guarantees creates conflict. It creates inequality. A massive concentration of wealth in so few hands weakens connections between us and prevents new ones. America’s origin is a place of connection. Millions of us came together to build this nation, not individually, but together. Equality is connection, and connection is more valuable than any product any company will ever sell you.

You may ask, why focus on rural communities? There are consistently higher poverty rates in rural counties, with fewer job opportunities, lower wages, and worse access to healthcare and education. It’s not a new problem, either—places like Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and American Indian reservations have been stuck in poverty for decades, with some counties like Oglala Lakota, SD (55.8%) and McDowell, WV (37.6%) hitting extreme levels. Meanwhile, urban counties rarely see numbers that high. The data from the U.S. Census and USDA Economic Research Service make it clear: if you’re poor in America, being rural makes it even harder to escape.

Rural areas offer smaller populations, which is helpful because we need to start small with lots of tightly controlled studies that we can carefully scale and improve on for larger areas. We will build a large body of scientific data showing that GMI really does improve the lives, and the communities, of our fellow Americans. Who knows, you might even be able to get elected on this platform one day.

The initial plan is to target a few counties that I have a personal connection to, and are still currently in poverty, decades later:

• My father was born in Mercer County, West Virginia, where the collapse of coal mining left good people struggling to survive. Their living and their way of life is now all but gone, and good jobs are hard to find.
• My mother’s birthplace, Beaufort County, North Carolina, has been hit just as hard, with farming and factory jobs disappearing and families left wondering what’s next.
• Our third county is yet to be decided, but will be a community also facing the same systemic, generational obstacles to economic stability and achieving the American Dream.

With the help of organizations like Team Rubicon, (one of the recipients of our donations), we hope Veterans will play a crucial role – the same veterans who served our country with distinction, returning home with exceptional leadership skills and a deep commitment to their communities. We will work with local veterans to coordinate GMI studies where community members choose to enroll, conduct outreach, and provide mentorship to opt-in study participants. Their involvement ensures these programs reflect core American values of self-reliance and community service to fellow Americans.

We’ll also partner with established community organizations — churches, civic groups, community colleges, local businesses. These partnerships help integrate our GMI studies with existing support systems, rather than creating new ones.
GiveDirectly and OpenResearch will gather extensive data from these studies, building on their existing body or work.

We’ll measure employment, entrepreneurship, education, health, and community engagement. We’ll conduct regular interviews with participants to understand their experience. How is this working for you? How can we make it better? You tell us. How can we make it better together?

Economic security isn’t only about individual well-being – it’s the bedrock of democracy. When people aren’t constantly worried about feeding themselves, feeding their family, having decent healthcare, having a place to live… we have given them room to breathe. We have given them freedom. The freedom to raise their children, the freedom to start businesses, the freedom to choose where they work, the freedom to volunteer, the freedom to vote.

This isn’t about ideology or government. It’s about us, as Americans, working together to invest in our future – possibly the greatest unlocking of human potential in our entire history. I do not say these things lightly. I’ve seen it work. I’ve looked at all the existing study data. A little bit of money is incredibly transformational for people in poverty – the people who need it the most – the people who cannot live up to their potential because they’re so busy simply trying to survive. Imagine what they could do if we gave them just a little breathing room.

GMI is a long term investment in the future of what America should be, the way we wrote it down in the Declaration of Independence, perhaps incompletely – but our democracy was always meant to be malleable, to change, to adapt, and improve.

I’d like to conclude by mentioning Aaron Swartz. He was a precocious teenage programmer much like myself. Aaron helped develop RSS web feeds, co-founded Reddit, and worked with Creative Commons to create flexible copyright licenses for the common good. He used technology to make information universally accessible to everyone.

Aaron created a system to download public domain court documents from PACER, a government database that charged fees for accessing what he believed should be freely available public information. A few years later, while visiting MIT under their open campus policy and as a research fellow at Harvard, he used MIT’s network to download millions of academic articles from JSTOR, another fee-charging online academic journal repository, intending to make this knowledge freely accessible. Since taxpayers had funded much of this research, why shouldn’t that knowledge be freely available to everyone?

What Aaron saw as an act of academic freedom and information equality, authorities viewed as a crime—he was arrested in January 2011 and charged with multiple felonies for what many considered to be nothing more than accessing knowledge that should have been freely available to the public in the first place.

Despite JSTOR declining to pursue charges and MIT eventually calling for leniency, federal prosecutors aggressively pursued felony charges against Aaron with up to 35 years in prison. Facing overwhelming legal pressure and the prospect of being labeled a felon, Aaron took his own life at 26. This sparked widespread criticism of prosecutorial overreach and prompted discussions about open access to information. Deservedly so. Eight days later, in this very hall, there was a standing room only memorial service praising Aaron for his commitment to the public good.

Aaron pursued what was right for we, the people. He chose to build the public good despite knowing there would be risks. He chose to be an activist. I think we should all choose to be activists, to be brave, to stand up for our defining American principles.

There are two things I ask of you today.

• Visit https://www.givedirectly.org/rural-us where we’ll be documenting our journey and findings from the initial three GMI rural county studies. Let’s find out together how guaranteed minimum income can transform American lives.
• Talk about Guaranteed Minimum Income in your communities. Meet with your state and local officials. Share the existing study data. Share outcomes. Ask them about conducting GMI studies like ours in your area. We tell ourselves stories about why some people succeed and others don’t. Challenge those stories. Economic security is not charity. It is an investment in vast untapped American potential in the poorest areas of this country.

My family is committing 50 million dollars to this endeavor, but imagine if we had even more to share. Imagine how much more we could do, if we build this together, starting today. Decades from now, people will look back and wonder why it took us so long to share our dream of a better, richer, and fuller life with our fellow Americans.

I hope you join us on this grand experiment to share our American Dream. I believe everyone deserves a fair chance at what was promised when we founded this nation: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of The American Dream.

Further Reading

Historical Works

• Martin Luther King Jr. – Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
• Thomas Paine – Agrarian Justice (1797)
• Mark Twain & Charles Dudley Warner – The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873)

Modern Books on Economic Justice and Basic Income

• Rutger Bregman – Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World (2014)
• Annie Lowrey – Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World (2018)
• Andrew Yang – The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future (2018)
• Guy Standing – Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen (2017)
• Samuel Moyn – Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (2018)

Wealth Inequality and Labor History

• Joseph E. Stiglitz – The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (2012)
• Matthew Desmond – Poverty, by America (2023)
• Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2001)
• Thomas Piketty – Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013)
• Jason Hickel – The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and Its Solutions (2017)

Guaranteed Minimum Income & Economic Studies

• Natalie Foster – The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy (2024)
• Michael Tubbs – The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home (2021)

Michael Tubbs

Upsetting the Setup: Creating a California for All

Long NowThe Long Now Foundation

I’ve seen a handful of recent posts talking about the utility of the :is() relational pseudo-selector. No need to delve into the details other than to say it can help make compound selectors a lot more readable.

:is(section, article, aside, nav) :is(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6) {
  color: #BADA55;
}

/* ... which would be the equivalent of: */
section h1, section h2, section h3, section h4, section h5, section h6, 
article h1, article h2, article h3, article h4, article h5, article h6, 
aside h1, aside h2, aside h3, aside h4, aside h5, aside h6, 
nav h1, nav h2, nav h3, nav h4, nav h5, nav h6 {
  color: #BADA55;
}

There’s just one catch: the specificity. The selector’s specificity matches the most specific selector in the function’s arguments. That’s not a big deal when working with a relatively flat style structure containing mostly element and class selectors, but if you toss an ID in there, then that’s the specificity you’re stuck with.

/* Specificity: 0 0 1 */
:is(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6) {
  color: #BADA55;
}

/* Specificity: 1 0 0 */
:is(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, #id) {
  color: #BADA55;
}

That can be a neat thing! For example, you might want to intentionally toss a made-up ID in there to force a style the same way you might do with the !important keyword.

What if you don’t want that? Some articles suggest nesting selectors instead which is cool but not quite with the same nice writing ergonomics.

There’s where I want to point to the :where() selector instead! It’s the exact same thing as :is() but without the specificity baggage. It always carries a specificity score of zero. You might even think of it as a sort of specificity reset.

/* Specificity: 0 0 0 */
:where(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6) {
  color: #BADA55;
}

/* Specificity: 0 0 0 */
:where(h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, #id) {
  color: #BADA55;
}

So, is there a certain selector hijacking your :is() specificity? You might want :where() instead.

Quick Reminder That :is() and :where() Are Basically the Same With One Key Difference originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

Zeroheight’s “Design Systems Report 2025” shows that design tokens are exploding in popularity, with 84% of teams adopting them, but resource shortages and communication breakdowns are still major roadblocks. As AI enters the scene and dedicated teams grow, the future of design systems looks promising…

Gone are the days when “pretty pictures” alone could ensure visitor engagement. If your site isn’t responsive, practical, and easy to work with, users will quickly bounce. As a result, we’ve narrowed down a list of 10+ AI and professional design tools for web designers that go beyond surface-level aesthetics. From powerful website builders like […]

Across the fast-paced digital-scape, social media platforms have become goldmines for modern marketers. It acts as a bridge for companies while forging impactful connections and building thought leadership.

The truth is most brands and users merely focus on creativity and the content aspects of a social media strategy. But consistent posting stands as the most essential yet frequently ignored factor here.

There’s a psychology behind why consistency appeals to audiences. What could be the attention-grabbing factor amidst the noise?

Psychological principles involved in shaping human perception and behavior also form the foundation for why consistency proves effective. The mere exposure effect demonstrates how people develop preferences toward things they frequently encounter, explaining why consistent branding creates strong audience connections.

It’s owing to this theory that followers begin to associate positive feelings with a brand once they repeatedly experience its visual style and tone of voice. Users experience also states that reduced mental processing when interacting with familiar brands makes the interaction feel natural and comfortable.

And all of this is despite the overwhelming content they encounter in their feeds.

Maintaining uniformity in brand voice, visual identity and in posting schedules develops a cohesive digital presence that audiences identify and trust.

This blog will dive into the plethora of benefits of maintaining consistency in social media strategies. It will further expand on how this factor can be assessed effectively to achieve fruitful outcomes.

Understanding Consistency in Social Media 

Social media consistency involves more than regular postings. Because a unified brand experience involves multiple interconnected elements. 

A consistent social media strategy means presenting brand elements uniformly across all platforms. This means regularly delivering predictable content that audiences can proactively depend on. Your audience anticipates and appreciates consistency because it promises to provide reliable experiences, developing long-term trust.

It’s the overall social media activity that builds brand reputation. Scheduled posts alone don’t represent the full scope of consistency. 

Thus, brands must create consistency through their posting frequency, and a steady content rhythm, ensuring they don’t bombard audience feeds with excess information.

• The second consistency factor is themes. Businesses must create content that maintains thematic continuity through clearly defined content pillars. This should support their overall objectives while delivering diversity throughout the organization.

The set pillars from market insights and customer success stories to thought leadership, should work together to strengthen the brand’s position and demonstrate its expertise.

• Third, design and visuals. Social media feeds with uniform visual components, such as color schemes and typography, enable fast recognition due to shrinking attention spans.
• And lastly, the fourth element to focus on is tone and language. Tonal consistency in communication works with visual and scheduling components to fundamentally shape audience perception and connection with brands.

Moreover, a uniform brand voice works to make complex brand messages relatable and create an emotional bond with their audience.

Brands maintain consistent interactions with their community across all forms of engagement, including comments and direct messages. Brand reliability perception stems from response times, communication style, and personalization levels.

Integrating different consistency dimensions forms an intricate, seamless, and genuine brand experience for followers despite short-lived trends.

Advantages of Maintaining a Consistent Social Media Presence

Maintaining regular social media activity allows companies to achieve several key advantages. Overall, it delivers multiple quantifiable benefits that enhance a company’s market standing and customer connections.

Brand Recognition 

The most fundamental benefit of consistency is that it enhances brand recognition. Research shows that brands that present consistently generate 10-50% more revenue on average.

Brand recognition is a direct result of consistent visual and messaging elements that form powerful memory links in consumer minds. It enhances brand recall during purchase choices or peer recommendations.

A uniform brand presence across all platforms generates a multiplying effect where subsequent interactions strengthen previous brand exposures until a familiarity threshold is reached.

This process, where casual followers transform into active brand advocates, is a resource during an era of word-of-mouth recommendations.

Audience Engagement 

Regular consistency across platforms also substantially improves engagement metrics.

Major social platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube use algorithms that reward accounts that maintain regular posting. It helps generate steady engagement by increasing their organic reach.

The algorithmic benefit grows exponentially to form a positive cycle where regular posting increases visibility, drawing additional followers and engagement.

Thus, brands that maintain regular posting schedules enjoy 2-3 times more audience interaction than those with sporadic posting habits, proving regularity yields measurable benefits.

For brands that want to become thought leaders through innovative demonstrations, engagement is a must. Because it produces more chances to illustrate expertise and establish trust with future clients and partners.

Trust and Credibility with Clients 

Third, consistent interactions assist brands in building stronger audience connections through digital touchpoints that followers can rely on.

Audiences integrate their media consumption habits to align with the predictable content schedule, which may include weekly tutorials, monthly webinars, and quarterly trend analyses. Through this, the brand is sure to become a crucial element of its followers’ daily routines.

Building relationships leads to higher customer loyalty, shorter sales cycles, and improved customer retention.

Examples of Brands with a Winning and Consistent Social Media Strategy

Microsoft’s Platform-Optimized Consistency 

Microsoft is an exceptional example of how consistency in its social media strategy can benefit a brand.

Its go-to approach is preserving a unified brand identity throughout its varied product offerings and audience types. This means the company keeps its essential brand elements constant while curating targeted content modifications for its various platforms and product lines.

Microsoft’s marketing team distributes thought leadership content, workplace insights, and corporate announcements through LinkedIn. However, it directs users to more informative content via tutorials, case studies, and product demonstrations on their YouTube channel.

Microsoft achieves visual uniformity across platforms through consistent color schemes, logo placement, and design elements.

This generates immediate brand recognition despite varied content strategies.

What makes Microsoft’s consistency particularly noteworthy? 

Microsoft retains consistent branding across communications by addressing diverse target groups, including developers, business executives, and everyday users.

The brand’s content strategy uses standard content pillars on all platforms, featuring innovation stories, customer success highlights, product education, and other thought leadership pieces. These content pillars provide a structured framework for content creation while facilitating space to modify it according to specific platforms and target audiences.

For example, the Microsoft Developer YouTube channel features advanced technical material for developers but also upholds the visual standards of Microsoft’s brand identity. Through this approach, the tech powerhouse manages authenticity across multiple audiences while safeguarding its overall brand identity.

Not only this. 

Microsoft’s uniform strategy has resulted in tangible business results through its enhanced social media metrics and widespread market reputation. It entails over 14 million LinkedIn followers, positioning them as one of the top-followed companies on the platform. Meanwhile, its network of YouTube channels receives billions of views each year.

Microsoft’s steady social media strategy significantly transformed how the brand has been viewed over the last ten years. It has come a long way from being known as a traditional software vendor to a cloud and AI technology innovator.

This change in Microsoft’s brand perception has paralleled its business evolution, proving that coordinated social media strategies can help achieve and advance corporate goals.

IBM’s Thought Leadership Consistency 

IBM’s example proves how consistent content themes and tone can build unmatched thought leadership within intricate technical fields.

Its social media footprint follows fixed content pillars, supporting its status as an authority in enterprise technology, AI, quantum computing, cloud solutions, etc.

For example, IBM’s “Think” blog publishes articles from industry experts, strengthening its position as a technology and innovation leader. 

This helps IBM maintain credibility among its followers through content that demonstrates deep expertise and forward-thinking insights. But how does this help? It sets certain expectations that their information is valuable rather than just promotional. 

And the result? Very few brands have achieved this level of trust.

IBM manages to concretize consistency through its strategic use of multiple platforms.

IBM presents complex technical information across platforms by offering accessible explanations and in-depth content.

Additionally, the brand maintains consistency on Twitter by linking striking visuals with short explanations about complex technologies and offering thorough explorations on the LinkedIn page.

Most technical messages across various platforms follow the same themes. These aim to deliver IBM’s technical strengths irrespective of the platform.

Its strategic thought leadership approach has further allowed it to sustain relevance and authority through significant market changes. Through steadfast social media engagement, IBM managed to bridge its transition from hardware manufacturing to becoming a hybrid cloud and AI solutions provider.

The result?

The tech organization’s social platforms achieve high interaction levels, attracting limited audiences, and illustrating how steady content delivery builds loyal followings. IBM’s robust social media efforts have crucially impacted its sales process by teaching potential buyers about new technologies, even complex ones.

Implementing Consistency in Your Company’s Social Media Strategy

Social platform consistency demands meticulous planning and a robust organizational infrastructure. Improving content consistency includes a single rulebook where specific elements have to hold priority over others. 

The lack of these elements could decrease the effectiveness of one’s social media strategy. Then, what would be the point?

1. Social media guidelines are a comprehensive foundation for documenting every aspect of the brand’s online presence. It comprises the visual standards, voice parameters, content pillars, and platform-specific adaptations. 

These guidelines must provide detailed instructions for team members while remaining flexible enough.

What successful brands do is establish 3 to 5 content pillars that support their business goals and resonate with audience needs. It provides a content creation framework reflecting corporate values and culture. 

And the one unspoken or unwritten rule? No random posting that could drive a social media lawsuit.

2. Developing content calendars is essential while implementing social media strategies.

But, a successful calendar requires planning for at least one month to support strategic alignment and proper resource distribution. This also helps avoid creating low-quality surface-level content.

Additionally, for content calendars to work effectively, they should include posting dates, content details, defined content pillars, and performance targets for every content and campaign.

This comprehensive approach ensures that each social media post operates within the overall content framework instead of existing independently.

3. The content and planning are aligned with each other. What if the organization doesn’t possess the right tools and software? 

Thus, to achieve operational consistency, every business requires proper technological systems and effective workflow processes.

Content management systems with approval workflows, brand asset libraries, and scheduling capabilities facilitate team-wide uniformity. Most successful brands have established a tiered approval system to manage content quality and consistency.

Further, one of the crucial steps should be auditing.

The content evaluation process requires regular audits to ensure it follows established guidelines, detect consistency gaps, and make edits before they turn into bigger inconsistencies.

But how can businesses keep an eye on these characteristics and ensure structure?

Measuring Consistency Across Social Media Channels: A Framework

Most companies don’t factor in the different evaluation metrics to measure the effectiveness of social media strategies. It’s quite an essential but neglected component. 

A strategy doesn’t end at implementation but should also monitor and improve the existing ones. It requires a sophisticated approach that leverages quantitative and qualitative methods.

Visual Consistency 

Now, how does one measure visuals? 

• Color analysis tools for brand palette adherence
• Image recognition technology to identify consistent visual elements 
• Routine manual audits for standardized evaluation criteria

Regular assessments at monthly intervals help prevent visual presentation drift from reaching levels that would affect brand recognition.

Consistency Across Content 

Maintaining content theme consistency means monitoring topics and themes covered. They should be developed in line with predetermined content pillars to ensure a balanced delivery of core brand messages and values.

But first, determine the target distribution percentages for each content pillar by considering brand priorities and audience engagement patterns monthly.

For example, a software company may distribute its content as follows:

1. 30% product education
2. 25% thought leadership
3. 20% to customer success stories
4. 15% to industry trends
5. 10% to company culture

When predetermined limits for content distribution are exceeded, the content strategy is adjusted to regain the planned balance. This approach ensures no theme overpowers others across the feed and maintains balanced exposure.

Tracking Engagement Patterns 

One of the last but crucial steps is to note how regularly the brand interacts with its audience and track the engagement.

The key metrics in this category are:

• Response time to comments and messages
• Uniform tone and personalized replies
• Systematic engagement pattern analysis for various content types
• Mapping when the posts are published and how many times.

This is a significant and efficient tactic for businesses that handle customer support through social media. Maintaining consistent responses is the key because their punctuality and quality shape customer satisfaction and the overall brand reputation.

Consistency: The Undervalued Factor in Driving Success 

Social media is often an overlooked element. But it remains at the forefront while driving brand achievement in digital spaces across evolving markets.

Consistency in a social media strategy includes multiple dimensions – from visual identity, brand voice, and content themes to posting cadence and engagement patterns. This multiplicity demands systematic execution and meticulous planning.

A well-planned social strategy fosters a positive growth experience for brands. It improves brand recognition, audience building, and efficiency in overall business performance.

Whether building meaningful relationships or maintaining a consistent social presence, a sturdy strategy is necessary. It’s all about grabbing and leveraging user attention that’s gradually diminishing daily.

As the digital domain grows more crowded and expensive, such improvements in maintaining consistency across its marketing channel will offer it a strong competitive edge.

The post Consistency in Your Social Media Strategy: A Comprehensive Approach appeared first on noupe.

Clients walk in, and enjoy your service, but never return— so frustrating, right? It’s the issue with any salon as they face salon client retention struggles without realizing what’s wrong. The basic things all love are consistency, clarity, and appreciation. If they lack these, they look for other suitable salon options. 

Are you looking for strategies for how to keep salon clients? The more you read, the more you’ll be able to fix your problem. Read and apply ideas to become unstoppable in the beauty industry. 

Reasons and Solutions for Salon Client Retention

Inconsistent Customer Service

• Your issue

You must be wondering why salon clients don’t return. What happens to them? The big reason is you consistently provide poor service and even your quality is uneven. If each visit feels different, they feel cheated.    

If a haircut or color turns out different from last time, clients may lose trust in the salon. This inconsistency can make them look for a new place that meets their expectations.

When you or the staff seem distracted or don’t listen, clients feel unimportant. The result is that your clients will take the service of another salon. 

• It’s Solution

Let’s talk about how to keep salon clients. The solution is always hidden in the  problem and here are client retention tips for salons – 

• Ensure every team member follows the same high standards. Regular training helps maintain quality and consistency in services.

• Use a client database to track haircut styles, color preferences, and past services. This ensures every visit meets expectations.

• Encourage stylists to actively listen and engage with clients. A friendly, attentive experience makes customers feel valued and respected.

By maintaining consistency, showing attentiveness, and personalizing services, you can build trust and salon client retention turns smooth!

Long Wait Times

• Your Problem

Wait. It is something that everybody hates. And if clients have to wait longer than expected, they’ll be annoyed and feel unimportant. This situation gives them every right to lose confidence in you. Now you know why salons lose customers. 

There are many other factors – overbooking, poor scheduling, and unexpected walk-ins often cause built frustration. Moreover, a crowded waiting area or slow-moving queue can push clients to leave before being served.

Rushed services due to time constraints also reduce quality, leading to dissatisfaction. If wait times aren’t managed well, customers will look for a salon that values their time and offers a smoother experience.

• The Fix

Want to know the client retention strategies for salons? The points provide you with some smart ideas:

• Use an efficient booking system to manage appointments and prevent overbooking. Space out bookings to allow enough time for each client.

• Set clear guidelines for walk-ins to avoid disrupting scheduled clients. Use a waitlist system or offer callbacks for better organization.

• If brief wait times are unavoidable, keep customers interested by offering a calm area with periodicals, snacks, and entertainment.

By improving scheduling, managing walk-ins, and enhancing efficiency, you can reduce long wait times and keep salon clients happy!

Loyal Customers Left Without Offers

• The Worry

Loyal clients keep a salon running, but when they don’t receive special offers, they start feeling ignored. Seeing discounts for new customers while paying full price makes them wonder if their loyalty even matters.

Without exclusive perks like discounts, free services, or membership rewards, loyal clients may feel unrecognized. They expect appreciation for their continued support, not just routine service—this is where salon customer loyalty truly matters.

Over time, they might start looking for salons that value their loyalty with better deals. If a salon focuses only on attracting new clients while neglecting existing ones, it risks losing its most valuable and regular customers.

• The Way

Here are some of the salon client retention tips for your help – 

• Introduce salon membership programs that offer exclusive perks, like discounts, free services, or rewards for frequent visits.

• Offer returning customers special discounts, birthday rewards, or priority booking. Small gestures show appreciation and keep them coming back.

• Use client history to offer tailored promotions, like discounts on their favorite services or free add-ons after multiple visits.

By rewarding repeat customers, you strengthen relationships, increase retention, and ensure your best clients never feel overlooked.

Lack of New Technology

• The Trouble

Look around—why is your salon client retention declining? Now, take a closer look at the tools and salon booking system you’re using. See the gap? The beauty industry is evolving rapidly, but if your salon still relies on outdated techniques, clients will notice.

Modern customers expect convenience—online booking, digital payments, and automated reminders. But technology isn’t just about scheduling. If you’re still using old hairdryers, outdated laser machines, or basic nail tools, your services may feel slow and ineffective.

Failing to upgrade both salon management systems and service tools makes your salon seem outdated, pushing clients toward competitors with the latest innovations.

• The Plan

The problem you’re having and to solve that issue, applying these solutions provides the best results –

• Upgrade outdated tools like hairdryers, laser machines, and nail equipment to improve efficiency and service quality. High-tech tools deliver better results and enhance client satisfaction.

• Use salon appointment reminders, digital booking systems, and online payments to streamline operations. Clients like easy scheduling and smooth transactions.

• Stay ahead by introducing modern treatments like LED facials, high-frequency hair treatments, and smart nail technology. These innovations attract tech-savvy clients.

Regularly research and invest in new technology to meet changing client expectations. Keeping up with trends ensures your salon remains competitive and appealing.

Unstable Pricing

• Your Shortcoming

Imagine visiting a salon and paying a price today, then a higher price next visit for the same service. If it happens regularly, it makes clients frustrated and makes them feel cheated. When prices constantly change without explanation, customers lose confidence in the salon’s fairness.

Unexpected price hikes can make clients hesitate before their next booking. If they don’t know what to expect, they might start looking for a salon with more consistent and transparent pricing.

Clients appreciate clarity and fairness. When pricing feels unpredictable, they may see it as a red flag and take their loyalty elsewhere.

• You Overcome

When you understand, where you lack, finding and applying solutions become easy – 

• List all service prices clearly on your website, social media, and in the salon. Clients should always know what to expect before booking.

• If adjustments are necessary, increase prices gradually and give clients advance notice. Sudden hikes can damage trust and hurt salon client retention.

• Offer different service levels at various price points. This gives clients choices while ensuring fair pricing for premium services.

If prices rise, explain why—better products, advanced techniques, or improved service quality. Clients accept changes when they see the benefits.

Conclusion

Keeping clients loyal isn’t magic—it’s about consistency, appreciation, and great service. If salon client retention is a struggle, small changes can make a big difference. Fixing service quality, managing wait times, rewarding loyal customers, upgrading technology, and keeping pricing fair will help your salon stand out.

Happy clients return, refer friends, and boost your reputation. The secret is simple – understand their needs and exceed their expectations. Be ready to take action. Apply these strategies and see your salon transform into a location where clients want to come time and again!

Featured image by Greg Trowman on Unsplash

The post Why Your Salon Struggles with Client Retention (And How to Fix It) appeared first on noupe.

Breadcrumbs, once a staple in web design, have become obsolete in today’s non-linear, context-driven web, where dynamic and personalized navigation systems take precedence. Modern navigation focuses on intelligent, search-first, and adaptive solutions that better cater to user needs and expectations.

It might surprise you that a distinction exists regarding the word “component,” especially in front-end development, where “component” is often used and associated with front-end frameworks and libraries. A component is a code that encapsulates a specific functionality and presentation. Components in front-end applications have a similar function: building reusable user interfaces. However, their implementations are different.

Web — or “framework-agnostic” — components are standard web technologies for building reusable, self-sustained HTML elements. They consist of Custom Elements, Shadow DOM, and HTML template elements. On the other hand, framework components are reusable UIs explicitly tailored to the framework in which they are created. Unlike Web Components, which can be used in any framework, framework components are useless outside their frameworks.

Some critics question the agnostic nature of Web Components and even go so far as to state that they are not real components because they do not conform to the agreed-upon nature of components. This article comprehensively compares web and framework components, examines the arguments regarding Web Components agnosticism, and considers the performance aspects of Web and framework components.

What Makes A Component?

Several criteria could be satisfied for a piece of code to be called a component, but only a few are essential:

• Reusability,
• Props and data handling,
• Encapsulation.

Reusability is the primary purpose of a component, as it emphasizes the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principle. A component should be designed to be reused in different parts of an application or across multiple applications. Also, a component should be able to accept data (in the form of props) from its parent components and optionally pass data back through callbacks or events. Components are regarded as self-contained units; therefore, they should encapsulate their logic, styles, and state.

If there’s one thing we are certain of, framework components capture these criteria well, but what about their counterparts, Web Components?

Understanding Web Components

Web Components are a set of web APIs that allow developers to create custom, reusable HTML tags that serve a specific function. Based on existing web standards, they permit developers to extend HTML with new elements, custom behaviour, and encapsulated styling.

Web Components are built based on three web specifications:

• Custom Elements,
• Shadow DOM,
• HTML templates.

Each specification can exist independently, but when combined, they produce a web component.

Custom Element

The Custom Elements API makes provision for defining and using new types of DOM elements that can be reused.

// Define a Custom Element
class MyCustomElement extends HTMLElement {
  constructor() {
    super();
  }

  connectedCallback() {
    this.innerHTML = `
      <p>Hello from MyCustomElement!</p>
    `;
  }
}

// Register the Custom Element
customElements.define('my-custom-element', MyCustomElement);

Shadow DOM

The Shadow DOM has been around since before the concept of web components. Browsers have used a nonstandard version for years for default browser controls that are not regular DOM nodes. It is a part of the DOM that is at least less reachable than typical light DOM elements as far as JavaScript and CSS go. These things are more encapsulated as standalone elements.

// Create a Custom Element with Shadow DOM
class MyShadowElement extends HTMLElement {
  constructor() {
    super();
    this.attachShadow({ mode: 'open' });
  }

  connectedCallback() {
    this.shadowRoot.innerHTML = `
      <style>
        p {
          color: green;
        }
      </style>
      <p>Content in Shadow DOM</p>
    `;
  }
}

// Register the Custom Element
customElements.define('my-shadow-element', MyShadowElement);

HTML Templates

HTML Templates API enables developers to write markup templates that are not loaded at the start of the app but can be called at runtime with JavaScript. HTML templates define the structure of Custom Elements in Web Components.

// my-component.js
export class MyComponent extends HTMLElement {
  constructor() {
    super();
    this.attachShadow({ mode: 'open' });
  }

  connectedCallback() {
    this.shadowRoot.innerHTML = `
      <style>
        p {
          color: red;
        }
      </style>
      <p>Hello from ES Module!</p>
    `;
  }
}

// Register the Custom Element
customElements.define('my-component', MyComponent);

<!-- Import the ES Module -->
<script type="module">
  import { MyComponent } from './my-component.js';
</script>

Web Components are often described as framework-agnostic because they rely on native browser APIs rather than being tied to any specific JavaScript framework or library. This means that Web Components can be used in any web application, regardless of whether it is built with React, Angular, Vue, or even vanilla JavaScript. Due to their supposed framework-agnostic nature, they can be created and integrated into any modern front-end framework and still function with little to no modifications. But are they actually framework-agnostic?

The Reality Of Framework-Agnosticism In Web Components

Framework-agnosticism is a term describing self-sufficient software — an element in this case — that can be integrated into any framework with minimal or no modifications and still operate efficiently, as expected.

Web Components can be integrated into any framework, but not without changes that can range from minimal to complex, especially the styles and HTML arrangement. Another change Web Components might experience during integration includes additional configuration or polyfills for full browser support. This drawback is why some developers do not consider Web Components to be framework-agnostic. Notwithstanding, besides these configurations and edits, Web Components can easily fit into any front-end framework, including but not limited to React, Angular, and Vue.

Framework Components: Strengths And Limitations

Framework components are framework-specific reusable bits of code. They are regarded as the building blocks of the framework on which they are built and possess several benefits over Web Components, including the following:

• An established ecosystem and community support,
• Developer-friendly integrations and tools,
• Comprehensive documentation and resources,
• Core functionality,
• Tested code,
• Fast development,
• Cross-browser support, and
• Performance optimizations.

Examples of commonly employed front-end framework elements include React components, Vue components, and Angular directives. React supports a virtual DOM and one-way data binding, which allows for efficient updates and a component-based model. Vue is a lightweight framework with a flexible and easy-to-learn component system. Angular, unlike React, offers a two-way data binding component model with a TypeScript focus. Other front-end framework components include Svelte components, SolidJS components, and more.

Framework layer components are designed to operate under a specific JavaScript framework such as React, Vue, or Angular and, therefore, reside almost on top of the framework architecture, APIs, and conventions. For instance, React components use JSX and state management by React, while Angular components leverage Angular template syntax and dependency injection. As far as benefits, it has excellent developer experience performance, but as far as drawbacks are concerned, they are not flexible or reusable outside the framework.

In addition, a state known as vendor lock-in is created when developers become so reliant on some framework or library that they are unable to switch to another. This is possible with framework components because they are developed to be operational only in the framework environment.

Comparative Analysis

Framework and Web Components have their respective strengths and weaknesses and are appropriate to different scenarios. However, a comparative analysis based on several criteria can help deduce the distinction between both.

Encapsulation And Styling: Scoped Vs. Isolated

Encapsulation is a trademark of components, but Web Components and framework components handle it differently. Web Components provide isolated encapsulation with the Shadow DOM, which creates a separate DOM tree that shields a component’s styles and structure from external manipulation. That ensures a Web Component will look and behave the same wherever it is used.

However, this isolation can make it difficult for developers who need to customize styles, as external CSS cannot cross the Shadow DOM without explicit workarounds (e.g., CSS custom properties). Scoped styling is used by most frameworks, which limit CSS to a component using class names, CSS-in-JS, or module systems. While this dissuades styles from leaking outwards, it does not entirely prevent external styles from leaking in, with the possibility of conflicts. Libraries like Vue and Svelte support scoped CSS by default, while React often falls back to libraries like styled-components.

Reusability And Interoperability

Web Components are better for reusable components that are useful for multiple frameworks or vanilla JavaScript applications. In addition, they are useful when the encapsulation and isolation of styles and behavior must be strict or when you want to leverage native browser APIs without too much reliance on other libraries.

Framework components are, however, helpful when you need to leverage some of the features and optimisations provided by the framework (e.g., React reconciliation algorithm, Angular change detection) or take advantage of the mature ecosystem and tools available. You can also use framework components if your team is already familiar with the framework and conventions since it will make your development process easier.

Performance Considerations

Another critical factor in determining web vs. framework components is performance. While both can be extremely performant, there are instances where one will be quicker than the other.

For Web Components, implementation in the native browser can lead to optimised rendering and reduced overhead, but older browsers may require polyfills, which add to the initial load. While React and Angular provide specific optimisations (e.g., virtual DOM, change detection) that will make performance improvements on high-flow, dynamic applications, they add overhead due to the framework runtime and additional libraries.

Developer Experience

Developer experience is another fundamental consideration regarding Web Components versus framework components. Ease of use and learning curve can play a large role in determining development time and manageability. Availability of tooling and community support can influence developer experience, too.

Web Components use native browser APIs and, therefore, are comfortable to developers who know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript but have a steeper learning curve due to additional concepts like the Shadow DOM, custom elements, and templates that have a learning curve attached to them. Also, Web Components have a smaller community and less community documentation compared to famous frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.

Side-by-Side Comparison

To summarize, the choice between Web Components and framework components depends on the specific need of your project or team, which can include cross-framework reusability, performance, and developer experience.

Conclusion

Web Components are the new standard for agnostic, interoperable, and reusable components. Although they need further upgrades and modifications in terms of their base technologies to meet framework components standards, they are entitled to the title “components.” Through a detailed comparative analysis, we’ve explored the strengths and weaknesses of Web Components and framework components, gaining insight into their differences. Along the way, we also uncovered useful workarounds for integrating web components into front-end frameworks for those interested in that approach.

References

• What are Web Components? (WebComponents.org)
• Web Components Specifications (WebComponents.org)
• Web Components (MDN)
• Using Shadow DOM (MDN)
• “Web Components Aren’t Components”, Keith J. Grant

Google Search is increasingly dominated by excessive ads and AI-driven results, making it harder for users to find organic, relevant content. As a result, the search engine is losing its original value, with many turning to social media and alternative platforms for discovery.

Did you know that your WordPress site could be a target for hackers right now? That’s right! Today, WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet. That kind of public news makes WordPress sites a big target for hackers.

One of the most harmful ways they attack is through an SQL injection. A SQL injection may break your website, steal data, and destroy your content. More than that, they can lock you out of your website! Sounds scary, right? But don’t worry, you can protect your site. That is what this article is about.

What Is SQL?

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is a way to talk to databases, which store and organize a lot of data, such as user details, posts, or comments on a website. SQL helps us ask the database for information or give it new data to store.

When writing an SQL query, you ask the database a question or give it a task. For example, if you want to see all users on your site, an SQL query can retrieve that list.

SQL is powerful and vital since all WordPress sites use databases to store content.

What Is An SQL Injection Attack?

WordPress SQL injection attacks try to gain access to your site’s database. An SQL injection (SQLi) lets hackers exploit a vulnerable SQL query to run a query they made. The attack occurs when a hacker tricks a database into running harmful SQL commands.

Hackers can send these commands via input fields on your site, such as those in login forms or search bars. If the website does not check input carefully, a command can grant access to the database. Imagine a hacker typing an SQL command instead of typing a username. It may fool the database and show private data such as passwords and emails. The attacker could use it to change or delete database data.

Your database holds all your user-generated data and content. It stores pages, posts, links, comments, and users. For the “bad” guys, it is a goldmine of valuable data.

SQL injections are dangerous as they let hackers steal data or take control of a website. A WordPress firewall prevents SQL injection attacks. Those attacks can compromise and hack sites very fast.

SQL Injections: Three Main Types

There are three main kinds of SQL injection attacks. Every type works in various ways, but they all try to fool the database. We’re going to look at every single type.

In-Band SQLi

This is perhaps the most common type of attack. A hacker sends the command and gets the results using the same communication method. It is to make a request and get the answer right away.

There are two types of In-band SQLi injection attacks:

• Error-based SQLi,
• Union-based SQLi.

With error-based SQLi, the hacker causes the database to give an error message. This message may reveal crucial data, such as database structure and settings.

What about union-based SQLi attacks? The hacker uses the SQL UNION statement to combine their request with a standard query. It can give them access to other data stored in the database.

Inferential SQLi

With inferential SQLi, the hacker will not see the results at once. Instead, they ask for database queries that give “yes” and “no” answers. Hackers can reveal the database structure or data by how the site responds.

They do that in two common ways:

• Boolean-based SQLi,
• Time-based SQLi.

Through Boolean-based SQLi, the hacker sends queries that can only be “true” or “false.” For example, is this user ID more than 100? This allows hackers to gather more data about the site based on how it reacts.

In time-based SQLi, the hacker asks a query that makes the database take longer to reply if the answer is “yes.” They can figure out what they need to know due to the delay.

Out-of-band SQLi

Out-of-band SQLi is a less common but equally dangerous type of attack. Hackers use various ways to get results. Usually, they connect the database to a server they control.

The hacker does not see the results all at once. However, they can get the data sent somewhere else via email or a network connection. This method applies when the site blocks ordinary SQL injection methods.

Why Preventing SQL Injection Is Crucial

SQL injections are a giant risk for websites. They can lead to various harms — stolen data, website damage, legal issues, loss of trust, and more.

Hackers can steal data like usernames, passwords, and emails. They may cause damage by deleting and changing your data. Besides, it messes up your site structure, making it unusable.

Is your user data stolen? You might face legal troubles if your site treats sensitive data. People may lose trust in you if they see that your site gets hacked. As a result, the reputation of your site can suffer.

Thus, it is so vital to prevent SQL injections before they occur.

11 Ways To Prevent WordPress SQL Injection Attacks

OK, so we know what SQL is and that WordPress relies on it. We also know that attackers take advantage of SQL vulnerabilities. I’ve collected 11 tips for keeping your WordPress site free of SQL injections. The tips limit your vulnerability and secure your site from SQL injection attacks.

1. Validate User Input

SQL injection attacks usually occur via forms or input fields on your site. It could be inside a login form, a search box, a contact form, or a comment section. Does a hacker enter bad SQL commands into one of these fields? They may fool your site, giving them access to your database by running those commands.

Hence, always sanitize and validate all input data on your site. Users should not be able to submit data if it does not follow a specific format. The easiest way to avoid this is to use a plugin like Formidable Forms, an advanced builder for adding forms. That said, WordPress has many built-in functions to sanitize and validate input on your own. It includes sanitize_text_field(), sanitize_email(), and sanitize_url().

The validation cleans up user inputs before they get sent to your database. These functions strip out unwanted characters and ensure the data is safe to store.

2. Avoid Dynamic SQL

Dynamic SQL allows you to create SQL statements on the fly at runtime. How does dynamic SQL work compared to static SQL? You can create flexible and general SQL queries adjusted to various conditions. As a result, dynamic SQL is typically slower than static SQL, as it demands runtime parsing.

Dynamic SQL can be more vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. It occurs when the bad guy alters a query by injecting evil SQL code. The database may respond and run this harmful code. As a result, the attacker can access data, corrupt it, or even hack your entire database.

How do you keep your WordPress site safe? Use prepared statements, stored procedures or parameterized queries.

3. Regularly Update WordPress Themes And Plugins

Keeping WordPress and all plugins updated is the first step in keeping your site safe. Hackers often look for old software versions with known security issues.

There are regular security updates for WordPress, themes, and plugins. They fix security issues. You leave your site open to attacks as you ignore these updates.

To stay safe, set up automatic updates for minor WordPress versions. Check for theme and plugin updates often. Only use trusted plugins from the official WordPress source or well-known developers.

By updating often, you close many ways hackers could attack.

4. Add A WordPress Firewall

A firewall is one of the best ways to keep your WordPress website safe. It is a shield for your WordPress site and a security guard that checks all incoming traffic. The firewall decides who can enter your site and who gets blocked.

There are five main types of WordPress firewalls:

• Plugin-based firewalls,
• Web application firewalls,
• Cloud-based firewalls,
• DNS-level firewalls,
• Application-level firewalls.

Plugin-based firewalls you install on your WordPress site. They work from within your website to block the bad traffic. Web application firewalls filter, check and block the traffic to and from a web service. They detect and defend against risky security flaws that are most common in web traffic. Cloud-based firewalls work from outside your site. They block the bad traffic before it even reaches your site. DNS-level firewalls send your site traffic via their cloud proxy servers, only letting them direct real traffic to your web server. Finally, application-level firewalls check the traffic as it reaches your server. That means before loading most of the WordPress scripts.

Stable security plugins like Sucuri and Wordfence can also act as firewalls.

5. Hide Your WordPress Version

Older WordPress versions display the WordPress version in the admin footer. It’s not always a bad thing to show your version of WordPress. But revealing it does provide virtual ammo to hackers. They want to exploit vulnerabilities in outdated WordPress versions.

Are you using an older WordPress version? You can still hide your WordPress version:

• With a security plugin such as Sucuri or Wordfence to clear the version number or
• By adding a little bit of code to your functions.php file.

function hide_wordpress_version() {
  return '';
}
add_filter('the_generator', 'hide_wordpress_version');

This code stops your WordPress version number from showing in the theme’s header.php file and RSS feeds. It adds a small but helpful layer of security. Thus, it becomes more difficult for hackers to detect.

6. Make Custom Database Error Notices

Bad guys can see how your database is set up via error notices. Ensure creating a custom database error notice that users see to stop it. Hackers will find it harder to detect weak spots in your site when you hide error details. The site will stay much safer when you show less data on the front end.

To do that, copy and paste the code into a new db-error.php file. Jeff Starr has a classic article on the topic from 2009 with an example:

<?php // Custom WordPress Database Error Page
  header('HTTP/1.1 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable');
  header('Status: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable');
  header('Retry-After: 600'); // 1 hour = 3600 seconds

// If you want to send an email to yourself upon an error
// mail("your@email.com", "Database Error", "There is a problem with the database!", "From: Db Error Watching");
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Database Error</title>
    <style>
      body { padding: 50px; background: #04A9EA; color: #fff; font-size: 30px; }
      .box { display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; }
    </style>
</head>

  <body>
    <div class="box">
      <h1>Something went wrong</h1>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Now save the file in the root of your /wp-content/ folder for it to take effect.

7. Set Access And Permission Limits For User Roles

Assign only the permissions that each role demands to do its tasks. For example, Editors may not need access to the WordPress database or plugin settings. Improve site security by giving only the admin role full dashboard access. Limiting access to features for fewer roles reduces the odds of an SQL injection attack.

8. Enable Two-factor Authentication

A great way to protect your WordPress site is to apply two-factor authentication (2FA). Why? Since it adds an extra layer of security to your login page. Even if a hacker cracks your password, they still won’t be able to log in without getting access to the 2FA code.

Setting up 2FA on WordPress goes like this:

1. Install a two-factor authentication plugin.
   Google Authenticator by miniOrange, Two-Factor, and WP 2FA by Melapress are good options.
2. Pick your authentication method.
   The plugins often have three choices: SMS codes, authentication apps, or security keys.
3. Link your account.
   Are you using Google Authenticator? Start and scan the QR code inside the plugin settings to connect it. If you use SMS, enter your phone number and get codes via text.
4. Test it.
   Log out of WordPress and try to log in again. First, enter your username and password as always. Second, you complete the 2FA step and type in the code you receive via SMS or email.
5. Enable backup codes (optional).
   Some plugins let you generate backup codes. Save these in a safe spot in case you lose access to your phone or email.

9. Delete All Unneeded Database Functions

Assure erasing tables you no longer use and delete junk or unapproved comments. Your database will be more resistant to hackers who try to exploit sensitive data.

10. Monitor Your Site For Unusual Activity

Watch for unusual activity on your site. You can check for actions like many failed login attempts or strange traffic spikes. Security plugins such as Wordfence or Sucuri alert you when something seems odd. That helps to catch issues before they get worse.

11. Backup Your Site Regularly

Running regular backups is crucial. With a backup, you can quickly restore your site to its original state if it gets hacked. You want to do this anytime you execute a significant update on your site. Also, it regards updating your theme and plugins.

Begin to create a plan for your backups so it suits your needs. For example, if you publish new content every day, then it may be a good idea to back up your database and files daily.

Many security plugins offer automated backups. Of course, you can also use backup plugins like UpdraftPlus or Solid Security. You should store backup copies in various locations, such as Dropbox and Google Drive. It will give you peace of mind.

How To Remove SQL Injection From Your Site

Let’s say you are already under attack and are dealing with an active SQL injection on your site. It’s not like any of the preventative measures we’ve covered will help all that much. Here’s what you can do to fight back and defend your site:

• Check your database for changes. Look for strange entries in user accounts, content, or plugin settings.
• Erase evil code. Scan your site with a security plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri to find and erase harmful code.
• Restore a clean backup. Is the damage vast? Restoring your site from an existing backup could be the best option.
• Change all passwords. Alter your passwords for the WordPress admin, the database, and the hosting account.
• Harden your site security. After cleaning your site, take the 11 steps we covered earlier to prevent future attacks.

Conclusion

Hackers love weak sites. They look for easy ways to break in, steal data, and cause harm. One of the tricks they often use is SQL injection. If they find a way in, they can steal private data, alter your content, or even take over your site. That’s bad news both for you and your visitors.

But here is the good news: You can stop them! It is possible to block these attacks before they happen by taking the correct steps. And you don’t need to be a tech freak.

Many people ignore website security until it’s too late. They think, “Why would a hacker target my site?” But hackers don’t attack only big sites. They attack any site with weak security. So, even small blogs and new websites are in danger. Once a hacker gets in, this person can cause you lots of damage. Fixing a hacked site takes time, effort, and money. But stopping an attack before it happens? That’s much easier.

Hackers don’t sit and wait, so why should you? Thousands of sites get attacked daily, so don’t let yours be the next one. Update your site, add a firewall, enable 2FA, and check your security settings. These small steps can help prevent giant issues in the future.

Your site needs protection against the bad guys. You have worked hard to build it. Never neglect to update and protect it. After that, your site will be safer and sounder.