Innovation always comes with a risk. This is no exception.
If you really love Gutenberg, go for it! It’s a bold move. Gutenberg is built on the idea of placing blocks on a page. No coding is required, making it easy for everyone.If you’re not sure, there is a plugin called “Wordpress Classic Editor Plugin” to help you until you figure out how to use it. Install this plugin before updating.
If you really love Gutenberg, go for it! It’s a bold move. Gutenberg is built on the idea of placing blocks on a page. No coding is required, making it easy for everyone.If you’re not sure, there is a plugin called “Wordpress Classic Editor Plugin” to help you until you figure out how to use it. Install this plugin before updating.
IMPORTANT: First, always make a backup of your entire site before updating to WordPress 5. We use the plugin “BackWPup” but there are many out there to choose from.
Check your theme and list of plugins before you update. Many are just being abandoned instead of updating to work on the new WordPress. If they won’t work, you’ll need a similar alternative. Visit woirdpress.org and click on the plugin area.
PHP version
Do you know what versions your hosting company is running? Some only go up to 5.6.
WordPress recommends PHP version 7.3 or higher.
If you update and don’t have PHP 7.3+, you WILL get error messages from something – WordPress, a theme, a plugin – something will have an issue.
MySQL
This is the language of your database talking to WordPress. Do you have an old version? Can you update it? WordPress now recommends version 5.6 or greater (or MariaDB version 10.0 or greater).
HTTPS
WordPress also recommends you use SSL certificates for WordPress websites (That’s HTTPS at the beginning got the URL) It’s a good idea to get anyway since it helps with Google rankings. Most SSL certificates are less than $10. Get a better one if you plan on selling products on your site.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
We can’t stress this enough – always make a backup of your entire site before updating to WordPress 5.
Make a staging site such as: new.mydomain.ca. This leaves your existing website up and running until you’ve worked out any bugs or issues on the new 5.X site. A WordPress expert can set you up in minutes with access to your hosting package.
If you decide not to update to WordPress 5.X, at least get your site up to WordPress 4.9.8 . This way you’ll continue to receive security updates.
If you want to discuss your WordPress website, contact us.
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