Top WordPress blog posts from April 2020
It’s been a long and - probably - very different month. We all have probably learned a lot and hopefully discovered some new opportunities; on one hand, a lot of companies have likely realized that they underestimated the power of digitalization, meanwhile on the other hand some companies identified where in the on-line process they could do even better.
No matter in which group of companies you belong to, maybe this inspiring recap of April’s WordPress blog posts will take you to the next level or at least give you an idea where to start in terms of digitalisation.
Should You Use a Gutenberg-Optimized Theme?
Guttenberg was by no doubt a game changer for WordPress: it changed the way we design and edit WordPress pages. However, although it is powerful and has changed the way we even “think” Wordpress now, if we compare it to popular page builders, it still lacks a certain flexibility. Despite that it still has a great potential and we’ll see what the future will bring.
But can you get around that basic Gutenberg editor if you choose a WordPress theme that is optimized for Gutenberg. With it you get custom blocks and styles (at least) that are developed and designed especially for the chosen theme. However, there are a few things you should consider, before choosing the editor (and theme) - it is, as Eric states in this post - a long term commitment.
Best Practices for Web Font Preloading + How It Works
One of the important things about website optimization is definitely fonts preloading. It can help you speed up your website and get better results in GTmetrix and similar tools. Above all that it offers a better user experience. But why is it so important? In the worst case scenario, you can have a situation where the user’s browser is ready to load the site’s text, but it will not be able to do it, because the font won’t be available.
What are best practices for font preloading and how can you do it - manually or with a plugin? Discover everything you need to know in this blog post on WP Rocket.
Wordpress SEO Checklist: 20 Tips to Improve Your Rankings
You can never get tired of SEO, it’s a continuous and never ending process. With constant algorithm changes and new trends, you can quickly lose your ranking, which of course is the last thing you need. WordPress as a CMS is SEO friendly by default, but this doesn’t mean that your WordPress website is optimized for search engines and that there is nothing more you can do about it.
Pay attention to SEO friendly URLs, do keyword research, use alt titles on images and try a few plugins that can help you with other SEO aspects, such as fast website loading.
What other things can you do for a better SEO optimization? Read everything you need to know in this post by Erika from SEMRush!
5 Plugins and Themes to Help Make Your WordPress Site More Accessible
We hear a lot about user experience, but we often forget that people with all kinds of disabilities use our website - users with visual impairments, for example. Even if the UX is great on first glance, maybe they don’t share the same experience, because accessibility was somehow forgotten in the process of (website) development and design. We live in a world where “digital first” is a fair expectation for all kinds of users. That’s why website accessibility should be a priority - not to mention it is demanded by law.
This post will give you a great and comprehensive guide on website accessibility. In addition,you’ll discover 5 great WordPress plugins that can help you make your WP website more accessible.
Building A Membership Site In 2020? Consider These Tools
No, it’s not too late to build a membership site - the current situation definitely proved that there is room for more and that even a lot of classic offline businesses could benefit from online membership solutions. As Chris Lema states, it’s important to know that the membership model is not the same as the subscription model, which is focused mostly on recurring revenue you get from subscribers.
On the other hand, membership websites are mostly focused on building community. How to do it the right way and which tools - WordPress plugins can help you with it? Find all the answers in this blog post from Chris Lema.
The Road Ahead: What’s in Store for WordPress for the Rest of 2020?
This year will bring us some exciting new features in WordPress; WordPress 5.5. will be published in August and version 5.6 is scheduled for early December this year. There are some major changes coming that will affect plugin and theme development. One of the bigger changes that will affect end users and back-end developers isprobably the full-site editing update. A peculiar update will definitely be a new global styles feature.
As author Justin Tadlock states, there are some things coming that will massively change our experience with WordPress and we could say at least that the Twenty Twenty-one theme will be a 100 % block-based theme.
What other notable changes are awaiting? Read more here.
We hope you enjoyed this month's selection and found some inspiration for your next projects!
