What you need to know about the WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg update
If you’ve been using WordPress for a long time to create, edit and publish your web content, get ready to have to change your ways very soon! Since June 2017, the WordPress content management system has put online a beta version of its new editor, Gutenberg. Its official release should arrive in the coming weeks, with the WordPress 5.0 update.
Are you ready? If the answer is no, then reading this article may help.
Hang in there, because while the Gutenberg editor won’t revolutionize the world as much as the printer, this WordPress 5.0 update is a complete overhaul of the user experience. The content editor you may already be using, the MCE editor, is likely to turn into a nostalgic memory. Thus, some of your themes or extensions risk losing their compatibility which is far from unanimous in the industry.
What is Gutenberg and how does it work?
The concept of creating content with Gutenberg is based on generating blocks.
With Gutenberg, the goal of the WordPress 5.0 update is to modernize the user interface and make it easier to create, edit, and publish content. This aims to make the platform accessible to less experienced or newbie users.
Gutenberg: what does it change?
You may be wondering:
Gutenberg, that’s fine, but what does that actually change?
The writing interface will be much more refined than the current classic editor. The goal of WordPress 5.0 is to promote “writing first”. This also aims to improve writing from mobile devices. In this regard, it is essential to ensure that your website is perfectly adapted to mobile, especially in the era of “Mobile first indexing”.
Copy and paste, add numbered lists etc … it will all be different with Gutenberg. Concretely, if you want to modify the content of an article, you will have to independently modify your different blocks.
To overcome this use of independent blocks, Gutenberg provides a “table of contents” section, which allows you to view and navigate through the structure of your text blocks, as the example of Kinsta shows.
Adding images can be done with a “drag & drop” feature and will automatically add your file to the media library of your WordPress 5.0. This update will please you if, like us, you add an average of 5-6 images to your blog posts!
When you add text in HTML, a “preview” button will allow you to view the result without having to leave the editor. A definite time saver.
Column tables will be part of the basic editor. In principle, you will no longer need extensions or widgets to insert tables into your page.
The word counter will be dynamic and searchable during writing. Without leaving the compose window, you will therefore know if your content is long enough to optimize your chances of appearing on the first page of Google.
Gutenberg: what does it change?
What are the risks for my website?
Do the points mentioned above seem rather positive to you? So let’s talk about the negative!
The main risk of switching from the MCE editor to Gutenberg lies in the incompatibility between the custom themes of your site and Gutenberg.
What does it mean?
If you or your web developer have customized the look of your website to differentiate it from the WordPress theme you have chosen, these changes may not be supported by Gutenberg.
Other items such as some of your extensions (plugins) and other microdata could also suffer from compatibility issues.
How to prepare for the WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg update?
Don’t stress! No need to send a panicked voicemail message to your web developer (he never responds anyway).
These three points should allow you to prepare for the arrival of WordPress 5.0 and avoid any unpleasant surprises.
1. Test your compatibility with Gutenberg!
And we are not talking about a taste compatibility test with the Montreal micro-brewery of the same name. If you want to test the new interface, know that Gutenberg is currently available in your WordPress in the extensions category.
STOP:
Don’t install it on your current site right away!
Use what is called in English a Test Site. A test website will allow you to study if the risks mentioned above would affect your website, so that you can prepare the changes to foresee without impacting your current site.
2. Familiarize yourself with Gutenberg
You have the option to install the plugin before the WordPress 5.0 update. So take the opportunity to get ahead and get your hands dirty! The opportunity to put into practice what you have discovered in this article, if you have read us so far.
3. Install the Classic Editor extension
Vous avez appliqué le point 1 et votre site web test ressemble à un château de cartes après le passage d’un ouragan de force 7?
Pas de panique :
Même après la mise à jour WordPress 5.0, vous aurez la possibilité de conserver l’éditeur actuel de WordPress. Vous pouvez trouver cette extension ici.
3. How do you get inbound links (backlinks)?
It is essential to emphasize this point because it is of the utmost importance in offsite SEO.
Why?
Because the acquisition of links is recognized as the most important SEO indexing criterion for Google. A site with many quality inbound links (or backlinks) will be greatly favoured by Google. So much so that it could even position itself before certain websites with better optimized content! While the benefits of netlinking are large and numerous, a bad strategy for getting inbound links is nonetheless harmful for your SEO.
A knowledgeable SEO manager avoids certain pitfalls, such as filling blog comment sections with links to your site. Or, buy links at low cost through various web platforms. As blogger Harsh Agrawal explains, this strategy, which he put to the test, can drop website traffic by up to 70% in just a week!
Quality inbound links don’t just happen magically – they require effort, patience, and minimal monetary investment. Watch out for cheap and quick fixes: Google will quickly find out and penalize you. Consider the quality of your content as your first intake of inbound links.
Who should I trust with my WordPress site if I don't want (or don't know) to take care of it?
Want the help of certified WordPress experts to manage your website and ensure an optimal transition to WordPress 5.0? Our website management specialists will be able to assist you (and in addition they answer the phone!). Contact us today!
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