The worlds most popular Blog, CMS and eCommerce system if under going one of its biggest shake ups in recent years, WordPress 5.0 is due to be released on the 19th of November 2018.
Since May 2003 WordPress has been under constant development to become one of the platforms of choice that it is today with version 4.0 being released way back in 2014 and having dozens of sub versions being released over the last 4 years until now.
So… whats the big deal?
The most exciting new addition to WordPress is its brand new Gutenberg editor replacing the text based WYSIWYG editor that worked a bit like a really limited word processor, instead now you will be able to edit your content in blocks. This is by no means a new idea indeed there are many extensions such as WP Bakery and Visual composer that already provide this functionality.
This new editor allows you to add columns to a page and edit them in an easy to use environment,WordPres.org have a demo that allows you to make changes to a page with out needing to contact developers to create complex templates, it also allows you to edit content inline with the page meaning you know what your page will look like during editing as opposed to having to continuously preview your changes.
It also allows you to put widgets such as counters, tables, text, images and videos any where on your page giving content managers a much easier ride when it comes to making engaging web pages for their customers to view.
Mobile optimisation
All the tools provided will pack down on to smaller screens meaning your content will look great on desktop and readable on mobile, with search engines such as google checking for mobile content first means your site will be more easily indexed and potentially raise higher in the search rankings.
More security
Well lets face it you can never have enough security, more plugins have been added to work with WordPress 5 to make it more secure and help us all sleep better at night.
Well great with great new features come headaches as well.
The process to upgrade is a simple click of a mouse and your site will be upgraded however there are so many plugins and themes that will simply not work with the new editor and conflicts between even the most modern themes have been identified that will completely break websites or at the very least make them look broken or hideous.
As a result plugins to revert WordPress 5 to use the old classic editor have already been created meaning you can get the latest security and functionality offered in other areas of the new version with out ruining your website.
Should you wish to use the new editor it is likely you may have to re-jig /recreate some/all of your pages to work under the new system so as with all major upgrades you need to proceed with care.
Being trustworthy implies that people feel safe visiting your website especially when it comes to entering in private information such as credit card numbers or email addresses, one easy way to improve trustworthiness is to implement SSL encryption so your website is delivered over HTTPS as opposed to HTTP.
Other factors can include…
- Having a privacy policy
- Informative about us page(s)
- Having an active social media account
- Having an older domain, don’t EVER change your domain unless you have to
Whilst some of the steps above may not be possible or at least not possible yet anything and everything you can do will make a difference and in some cases are simple.
Don’t think that these changes will make any difference over night as building your website up to the top of the natural search results takes time and requires patience.
The most important points to remember is that your content has to be interesting, your site needs to be secure and vistiors need to engage with your content in order for it to meet the EAT criteria.
At AME WebTech we have been testing the early releases of the new editor and the testing (beta) versions of WordPress 5 and can really see the benefits of upgrading or re-building older sites to the latest version.
The most important thing to note like all online systems they need periodic maintenance to be secure, whilst you may be happy with an older version there are vulnerabilities that re not easy to fix with out upgrading and keeping up with the curve means you can be more confident that your website will not fall victim to hackers or malicious bots.
