A New Year always brings new opportunities with itself. For those who develop websites, 2021 introduced new WordPress Development Best Practices. By adhering to these practices, developers can make the best websites yet. Whether it’s about taking the time required to update simple plug-ins or planning a full-fledged blog redesign using the Gutenberg editor, there are several ways for you to focus your efforts on building the best WordPress websites in 2021. If you have enough time to spare between handling projects and clients, then you should go through this write-up. It will teach you a few things about augmenting your existing websites.
- Test environment updating: Before doing anything else, you must remember to analyze the results of every update in a test environment. When you change something directly on your site, you have to deal with the risks of website crashing. There will always be something that will contribute to this problem. The best way to eliminate this unnecessary risk is to resort to a test environment for updating your WordPress site.
- Learn more: If you want to make use of the WordPress development latest tips, you’ll need the newest version of WordPress. Version 5.0 appeared at the end of 2018, which also introduced the Gutenberg editor. Those who are planning to keep using the Classic Editor Plug-in for some time should consider exploring the Gutenberg editor this year. Experts recommend setting up a local website using WordPress version 5.0 so that you can experiment with the new editor safely while avoiding risks to the real site.
- Change your plug-ins and themes: There’s nothing new about this particular tip. Nevertheless, it’s important enough to include in every list enumerating the best practices to follow during WordPress development. You should audit your plug-ins and themes right now to make sure they’re up to date and performing the way they should. It may seem tedious to go through all the sites managed by you just to change these things, but it’s of the utmost importance. After all, it can bolster website security and speed.
- Mobile-friendly websites: Just like the previous point, there isn’t anything new about this one, and just like the last one, it’s indescribably important. Your website has to be entirely responsive and mobile-friendly if not anything else. Do you use properly maintained and updated plug-ins and themes? If you do, then you have a decent chance of having a website that will automatically perform well on small screens. However, if you have a custom site design, you need to be a bit more intentional regarding making it mobile-friendly.
- SSL certification: There was a time when SSL certificates were mandatory only for specific types of websites, such as an e-commerce platform or an online baking portal. These sites dealt with sensitive client information, after all. Today, however, the presence of an SSL certificate on any website is a sign that the developer adheres to the best practices, even if it’s just a personal blog page. Furthermore, Google flags the websites that lack SSL certification as “not secure.” If you don’t want it to appear on your website, you should include SSL certification at the earliest.
To conclude
Professional providers of WordPress Development Services believe that if you use your favorite tools, you can be much more productive and efficient in the development of sites for your clients. One of the best ways to do it is to simplify the number of themes, add-ons, plug-ins, extensions, apps, etc.
