SeoIs Your WordPress Website Ready For Gutenberg Editor?

Is Your WordPress Website Ready For Gutenberg Editor?

Gutenberg is a WordPress rollout that will integrate the Gutenberg editor into WordPress websites.

This update could benefit many sites, but it could also cause a number of issues for business owners and website managers around the world.

According to WordPress, “Gutenberg is a big change, and there will be ways to ensure that existing functionality (like shortcodes and meta-boxes) continue to work while allowing developers the time and paths to transition effectively.”

To date, Gutenberg has been touted as a savior to many issues WP users have had in the past.

Even though it has been praised, there are a large number of people within the WordPress community that are not too excited about the update. Let’s dive a little deeper into Gutenberg and how you can mitigate your risk.

Who’s At Risk After Gutenberg?

Mainly small businesses, freelancers, and freelance website managers, like SEOs may experience growing pains after the Gutenberg launch.

In many cases, traffic could be lost, as well as conversions (money). The update is also going to be automatic, causing a surprising stir among WordPress content management system (CMS) users.

The larger companies with expert SEOs, developers, and site managers at the helm, the update may not be so impactful. Issues may arise in the Gutenberg WordPress website design space as well.

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Become A Gutenberg Editor Prepper

To mitigate the potential Gutenberg editor apocalypse, begin prepping now. Like any update, whether via WordPress or not, being proactive is best practice.

If you are not ready for the WP update, your website and business could plummet to disaster, taking months to repair. 

For example, there are tens of thousands of WordPress plugins that will not be compatible with the update. If your website is using one or more of these plugins, problems will surely arise after update launch.

Your website could even crash! To potentially mitigate a site crash, you could upload a traditional editor plugin to restore your site and make it work again.

What If You Don’t Update Your Website To Gutenberg?

For some developers and website managers, using the update could simply be not on the schedule of tasks — ever. This is a personal choice, but could be costly.

For instance, the Gutenberg editor will require Javascript, React, PHP, and HTML. If an update is not implemented, there could be security issues, like cyber attacks. Essentially, more holes for hackers to creep into are created.

This is why most WordPress updates are automatic, ensuring all sites are protected from cyber attacks, and to keep user information, like credit card numbers and personal information safe. But there is a silver lining to all this update doom and gloom.

The WordPress Gutenberg Editor Has Benefits

Gutenberg Will Be Here For Awhile

One good thing about the Gutenberg update is that it will be here to stay for quite some time. A bit of short-term annoyance will be worth it in the long run.

After all, the update can improve the way you use WordPress, and improve user experience for your target audience. It essentially gives businesses a competitive edge.

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You Have Time To Get Comfortable With It

Interestingly, the Gutenberg plugin is available prior to the full-on update launch. If you choose to take a proactive approach, you can integrate the plugin into your site now and get good at navigating your site with it.

This can also give you time to identify problems with existing plugins that may not be compatible. Testing plugins over time is important, and you can even take a proactive approach by messaging plugin providers to ensure they will be compatible by the time the update is live.

Begin Your Research Now

Another bonus about the upcoming WP update is that you can begin researching and learning all about it now.

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There are a number of affordable, if not free, videos and courses available online that explain everything Gutenberg. These courses and videos will teach you the basics and pitfalls to avoid prior to update.

In Conclusion

There is definitely no avoiding the Gutenberg editor update. There are 75 million WordPress websites online, taking up 25 percent of the Internet.

Your main goal should be a proactive mission to learn as much as you can before the new WP update goes live, and potentially automatically.

The pitfalls for website owners, managers, designers, developers, and SEOs are certainly present, but mitigating risk can ensure long-term benefits. Start learning more about Gutenberg today and ensure your website will stay up without issue. Are you ready for Gutenberg?

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