Are You Ready for Gutenberg?

Gutenberg, the new version of the WordPress editor, will be released as part of WordPress Core soon and users are already being encouraged to try the new editor in the latest release. When WordPress 5.0 comes out, the Gutenberg editor will be the default editing experience. If you use WordPress powered site in any capacity for your business you need to ask yourself, “How will Gutenberg effect my site?”

Alpha Particle is pleased to offer a ‘Gutenberg Audit’, where we take an in-depth look at your site and determine potential conflicts and breakage when you enable the new editor.

This service is available for an all-in price of $999. Fill out the form below to get started and we will be in touch, usually within the same business day. Still have more questions? Read on.

    How does the process work?

    First we’ll jump on a call to talk through anything that you are particularly concerned about. We will create a live testing site where you can test out the new editor and how it interacts with your site. Then Alpha Particle will dive in and evaluate your current theme and set of plugins for any conflicts with the new editor and any areas where your site might break post-upgrade. We will compile all these findings into a written report with suggested timelines and recommendations for how you should move forward to get your site ready for WordPress 5.0. This will include how urgent each fix is and resources where you can learn more about each suggestion.

    At this time, you will be able to review this report and decide if you would like to deliver it to a freelancer, an internal development team, or even retain Alpha Particle to achieve the outlined objectives.

    Finally, we’ll have a wrap-up call which goes over this report in detail and answers any last questions you may have. This package will also include a 30 minute recorded video walkthrough which shows how to write and publish content using the new editor.

    This comprehensive offering is just what site owners need to get ready for WordPress 5.0. With this upgrade happening on November 19th, it’s important to start this process soon.

    Will Gutenberg break my site?

    Probably not, but there are likely portions of your site that will not fully function until they are properly updated or modified.  There are hundreds (thousands?) of plugins and third-party integrations that are in common use with WordPress sites across the internet.  Your organization likely uses more than a few of these with your site without even realizing it.  Only a few of these plugins have been able to say for sure that they will function as before once Gutenberg is released.

    In addition to plugins and third-party integrations, any custom development or purchased themes must also be evaluated.  Much of WordPress that exists today was never built with the changes coming in mind.  Most of the the time, if changes need to be made to become compatible with Gutenberg, they can be quickly fixed.  However, if these issues are not corrected, it could cause serious issues for your organization.

    Why is this update important?

    Even though the WordPress project has set a date for the release of Gutenberg, many site owners are still confused as to what this actually means and what it will do to their site.

    It’s important to keep your site updated to the latest version of WordPress for security and performance reasons, but it’s also important that your site won’t break with the inclusion of the new editor in WordPress 5.0. If your site is not ready for the new editor, you will always be behind the latest version of WordPress and unable to take advantage of the new features that will be added in the coming months.

    The good news is that if you’ve ever published content on platforms like Medium or Squarespace, the new, block-based editor will feel very familiar. Common consensus is that the new editor will be a huge step forward for WordPress. However, an upgrade this extensive has the potential to negatively affect many sites as well, especially if you have done a lot of custom work on your site.

    Gutenberg has been extensively tested with WordPress core and has been shown to work very well. The piece that the core team can’t fully test is how Gutenberg interacts with the millions of combinations of plugins and themes that site owners have enabled on their site. That’s where we come in.

    Ready to get started?

    Great! Use the form below and give us a bit more information about you and your site and we’ll be in touch, usually within the same business day.
    Still on the fence? Just to recap, for $999 you get:

    • An initial call to go over your needs and concerns with this upgrade
    • A full audit of your current theme and plugins to identify an incompatibilities with the new editor
    • A live testing copy of your site where you can explore the new editor and how it interacts with your site
    • A written report detailing out findings and laying out recommendations as well as suggested timelines for remedying these. This can be taken and accomplished by any developer or Alpha Particle can be retained to complete the recommendations.
    • A set of resources for further research that can help you make the necessary changes to your site.
    • A final call to review the provided report and answer any last questions
    • A recorded video walkthrough of the new editor to help you get familiar

      More questions that we didn’t answer here?

      Use our contact form below or email keanan@alphaparticle.com to get all your questions answered.


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