WordPress is an excellent content management system (CMS).
Slowly, and steadily, it has grown from a simple blog management system to a CMS which can be used by anyone, especially when it comes to managing business online.
Its growth is continuing at a frantic speed. If you are following the news lately, you might have already heard about WordPress 5.0. It is named as Gutenberg.
Gutenberg will completely transform how you edit and manage your WordPress website. The main focus of the release is the changes to the editing experience. This is a game changer for online businesses. However, before we discuss how it impacts your business, let’s learn more about Gutenberg itself.
A] What is Gutenberg?
Gutenberg is the new major release of WordPress that brings to you a new post editor. The new editor has a modern feel and looks attached to it. So, be ready for a learning curve. To get a better perspective, let’s look at the editors below.
Current WordPress Editor
How it looks in Gutenberg
As you might have guessed it, there is plenty of user interface(UI) changes. It also introduces the concept of “Blocks.”According to WordPress, blocks are defined as a bunch of markup code that can be used to create a unit on a web page. You can read more about it here.
The new release is focused on bringing a unique experience to the users. Every new block has a responsive design and will meet the standards set by WordPress until now. In short, its all about creating rich post layouts.
B] How WordPress 5.0 will Help Your Online Business Grow?
Now that we have completely understood what Gutenberg is let’s understand how it makes your business grow. Let’s discuss the points one-by-one.
1. More Customization and Control
Online businesses which are currently using Wix, Squarespace and similar kind of platform can benefit massively from the new release.
Until now, small businesses with a limited budget always choose Squarespace or Wix like platforms because of its ease-of-use. These platforms offer great customizability without the need for editing code. However, they are limited when it comes to plugins or control over your own website. Squarespace, for example, maintains their own set of plugin repository. This means you cannot add custom functionality, even if you want to. All they need to do is choose a hosting platform to get started.
With Gutenberg, online businesses will have more freedom in what they do. Initially, they can set up the WordPress website using the powerful new editor. Once they grow, they can further customize their website to cater to their audience, making it grow in the future.
2. You Won’t Be Needing 3rd – Party Plugins
Drag and drop builders are an integral part of the WordPress ecosystem. If you go to the WordPress plugin marketplace, you will find a lot of similar drag and drop page builder plugins. Some of them are free, whereas others are paid.
With Gutenberg release, you will be able to do almost everything from the editor itself. It will render the 3rd party plugins useless slowly as the editor gets more features in the future. This means that you won’t have to spend on 3rd party plugins or related services, saving you a good amount of resources. Not only that, but this will also eliminate the compatibility issues as Gutenberg will be deeply integrated into core WordPress.
3. eCommerce
With the new Gutenberg release, it will become easy for businesses to do eCommerce integration. The use of blocks will enable product drag and drop feature. This means you can add products instantly. Overall, product management will become easier. As an eCommerce owner, you will also be able to handle your main page content easily. The overall impact will lower the total costs including development and maintenance.
#Preparing Yourself For The Change
Change is necessary. For business, change can be scary as well. WordPress framework evolves almost every year. To ensure that your business adapts well to change, you need to train your in-house team and make them ready for the new release.
To get started, we recommend trying out the Gutenberg beta version. It can be installed as a plugin. We also recommend not to install it on your main website, but a local WordPress copy. If you don’t want to go through all the hassle, you can always try out the live demo. The demo will give you a basic familiarity.
However, if you want to update your site to WordPress 5.0, then read this step by step WordPress 5.0 tutorial for a safe and secure transition.
The new block based site building can also have an impact on SEO. According to this article by BSO Digital, SEO can later be focused on a block level. However, we need to wait and see how Google reacts to the whole change, especially when we can manage the different elements individually.
What’s Next?
Guttenberg will change how businesses use WordPress. The release will also bring some additions to the core and security. With the new version, WordPress is simply taking on its competition in a better way.
As a business, your overall expenditure will become less. You will also have better control over your eCommerce products, and bring your design philosophy without writing a single line of code. Combining all these factors, you should not ignore the next release.
Meanwhile, you should start learning the new editor. Maybe hire a trainer to make your in-house team familiar with it. One more thing that we recommend is to test the beta. It will give you a better idea of what to expect in the near future.
So, what do you think about WordPress 5.0? Are you going to transit now or wait for a more stable version? Comment below and let us know.
