WordPress 5.5 update is a prime release of the year 2020. With over 450 new improvements, the latest update incorporates a few highly anticipated features that have made their breakthrough with this release. So, if you are yet in the decision making stage for your business website, by the end of this blog we are sure you’d choose WordPress development services.
Without further ado, let’s checkout what features you can explore after upgrading your websites to WordPress technology.
Lazy Loading for Images
Out of all the features released in the new “Eckstine” update, this one has to be our favourite — the native lazy loading. It is a built-in feature; thus, called native.
Lazy loading is a technique to delay uploading of images and videos that are not on the screen while a user is scrolling through your website. So, here the web page loads faster, and that is because the browser doesn’t have to wait to download everything all at once.
The images and videos are downloaded as a site visitor scrolls down the page when the visitor needs it.
What’s in it for you?
It makes your site perform better and faster. Fast loading websites are related to increased ad revenue and more number of sales.
Theme and Plugin Auto-update
With the new release, WordPress brings in a function which updates all the themes and plugins automatically.
This update is a boon for sites that don’t change a lot and don’t use plugins at all.
There are exceptional cases where an upgrade to a plugin may pose unintended problems. Therefore, some WordPress developers may prefer to choose which plugins to update and when, manually.
The auto-update plugin and the WordPress theme is switched off by default. To be benefitted out of this feature, developers need to allow it.
What’s in it for you?
It is a significant function as certain changes are necessary to deter hacker attacks. Often hackers will hijack a website due to obsolete plugins and themes. This new feature will protect this sort of event from occurring. This will help keep a web site free from hackers. It is a functionality that will prove valuable, especially for small business owners who usually have a static platform with very little plugins.
WordPress Sitemaps
Site map is a website’s map. It helps search engines to rank out new web pages. It is a way to tell the search engines about the whereabouts of web pages, specifically new web pages.
WordPress has released a functionality wherein a developer or a publisher can generate a built-in sitemap.
That being said, there are undoubtedly some significant shortcomings to the site map functionality. The most notable element absent is the image site map.
The image sitemap is a list of all the images that show on a website. Images help Google get to know what a web page is about. Often photos also rank in search results. So it’s important to be able to tell Google where all the images are.
So, this role may be considered as beneficial but with limitations.
What’s in it for you?
You need not install any free or paid third party plugins to generate the site map.
Bidding Adieu to Old Browsers
With the new update rolling out, WordPress 5.5 has dropped support for Internet Explorer 6 through 9.
What’s in it for you?
This means less coding, hence, a leaner and faster-performing website.
Outdated CSS Styles Removed
WordPress omitted CSS styling coding from WordPress 5.5 for Internet Explorer 6 – 8.
The reason behind is that a majority of web users don’t use these older browsers now. Most visitors with IE 6 – 8 on websites tend to be malicious bots pretending to use those browsers.
Visitors of the web platform don’t want to use obsolete browsers. So this is a pleasant change that will make the style sheet a bit smaller to download; thus faster website loading time.
Masonry-layout Support for Old Browsers Removed
The second deprecation applies to the maçonnery style library in WordPress. WordPress will drop the support for IE 8 and 9.
Users who still want to support the old browsers should take due note of this act and help appropriate code changes to continue supporting older browsers.
A New Way To Check Plug-ins
WordPress provides a way of checking if a plugin is malicious and prevents it from being upgraded.
As a leading WordPress development company, we are nothing but pleased with all the new functionality and updates that WordPress 5.5 offers in a single update.
It reveals the tremendous amount of work going on behind the scenes and we greatly admire all the contributions and dedication by each and every core member of this update. This update has made website development easier and faster!
So, if you are looking for a WordPress Business website, now is the perfect time to take action on it. Atlas SoftWeb is the leader when it comes to WordPress technology. Our team of dedicated WordPress developers have a huge experience and we have delivered some of the most fabulous working projects internationally. Contact us now to discuss more!
Source credit: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-5-5/377245/