If you haven’t had a chance to interact with WordPress so far, here is a quick introduction for you. WordPress (WP) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.
To explain it in simple terms — it is a PHP-based weblogging software. But don’t get confused. You can use WordPress not only for blogging purposes. We find WP an utterly good solution for small businesses — you can get a basic small-business website up and running in just a few easy steps.
Have something more complicated in mind? Here comes the magic. Over 50 thousand of plugins are at your disposal. Use them wisely to extend the functionality of your website and turn any your ideas into reality.
Another tweak: WordPress has a web template system, which uses a template processor. You are free to choose what works best for you: pick and buy a ready-made design template or create a custom design. Visual representation is of an uttermost importance. Make your design unique and tailor it to your specific needs. Find the way to better illustrate and reflect the feeling/idea of your business. Let the design speak for you.
This tool really simplifies the process of website creation. As mentioned previously, WordPress is a content management system first of all. Its specific feature set enables you to publish posts quickly and easily: just put a context of your post in a form and press ‘publish’. The system will format your content and make it prettier and better laid out. Of course, you are always encouraged to make any changes you want to.
Staying up-to-date
Security is a big concern for anyone running business sites of all shapes and sizes. WordPress is good at tracking newest vulnerabilities appearing on the Internet and discovering ways to protect you and your business against them. Security and Maintenance updates are released every now and then.
New releases are good with love them! Let’s jump into new WordPress releases and see what is new there.
Most recent release has been published on January 16, 2018. It is a security and maintenance release for all versions since WordPress 3.7. (this version became available in October 2013. Thus, any website or blog published since then can be updated to the newest WordPress 4.9.2 version).
Sounds good, huh?
Being a business owner, you can imagine the importance of keeping all your information secure. Therefore, this is an essential release indeed. And we do encourage you to update your WordPress sites immediately if you have already had one. If you are only considering starting your first WP website, maybe this is just a perfect time to start off?
Let’s focus a bit more on WordPress 4.9 “Tipton” version.
What can we say about it? Simplicity in its purest form! A bunch of new excellent features for your better WordPress experience. Below are just a few of them:
- The New Gallery Widget
Great option to add a gallery via this new widget. Want to add media to your text widget? Embed images, video, and audio directly into the widget along with your text, with our simple step — by using Add Media button. Love it!
- Multiple Coding Enhancements
Highlighting and error checking for CSS editing and the Custom HTML widget introduced in WordPress 4.8.1, helps to track and fix bugs more efficiently.
Tips for a more safe route: when you edit themes and plugins directly, WordPress 4.9 will politely warn you that this is a dangerous practice and will recommend that you draft and test changes first before updating your file.
- Improved UX
Better menu instruction to help you enjoy the process of menu creation.
Find and Preview the Perfect Theme. By using Customizer, you can search, browse, and preview over 2600 themes before deploying changes to your site.
WordPress 5.0 is coming
Big news! WordPress 5.0 is predicted to be released in the first half of 2018. Everyone is talking about a new text editing plugin Gutenberg. Although it is still partially under development, you are already encouraged to play with its beta version available here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/
Among other updates and new features are a new view admin panel and a new React + WP library. But these are just talks. Let’s wait a bit and enjoy the big things coming our way.
We are thrilled to use all these new features. And you?