Dance With the Dolly With The Hole In Her Sock

See that holey sock? It's mine. Or at least it was mine. Half of a pair of my favorites. Well, boo-hoo ... I no longer have a red-and-blue striped pair of socks because of that hole. It's too big to fix, so I'm going to toss it and its mate. But for the future, I'm asking for advice on avoiding holes in the heels of my socks.

One suggestion I received was to switch to smaller needles when I do the heels.

Another was:

Right side - slip the first stitch as if to purl, with the yarn in back, then knit 1, slip 1 across the row;

Wrong side - slip first stitch as if to purl, but with yarn in front, and then purl across row.

I'm actually thinking of combining those two methods. Switch to smaller needles and follow the right side/wrong side pattern.

You know what's coming next. What are your suggestions for keeping the heels of your socks hole-free?