WPPS eBook

8 WORDPRESS
BEST PRACTICES DIGITAL PUBLISHERS SHOULD KNOW

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1 PLAN FROM THE BEGINNING
Pointers publishers need to keep in mind when planning from thebeginning:Needs assessment: Be clear about the problem you are looking to solve, and the outcomes you expect when expanding your tech stack.Keep in mind that adding new plugins or integrations can also have unexpected unintended consequences and benefits. For instance, a monetization solution can impact editorial workflows and/or end user experience in both positive and negative ways. Be as clear about these potential impacts as possible to avoid surprises later on.Collecting baseline data: Baselines are important for measuring progress. Baseline data includes metrics such as active engagement time, search traffic, recirculation rate, conversion rate, etc. Start collecting baseline data from the planning stage itself rather than waiting till the launch or integration of the proposed change to the website. This helps with getting a clearer picture of the before and after situations.Research: This includes taking in the opinions of all the related stakeholders involved – end users, readers, customers, etc. The advantage here is that it highlights the areas on which the proposed project will have an impact.Set goals and outcomes: Set measurable goals before the start of the project. While doing this, it is vital to understand that not all outcomes will move up or increase in a desired direction. For instance, a change implemented to improve page speed may have no change on newsletter signups. It is still important to set down this “no change” goal at the outset to ensure that even if newsletter signups are not increasing, they’re not being negatively impacted either.

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2 TOOLS AND EXECUTION Three things publishers need to focus on:Evaluate current tools: Talk to your partners and team members to assess the current state of tools you’re using. Software gets updated fast, and it is easy to miss an update that could do the job but which you aren’t aware of.Create a plan: Create a plan on how to achieve your goals. Set timelines and assign tasks to relevant stakeholders.Execute, measure, iterate: Remember that the task is not done once the project is launched. You need to continuously evaluate the impact of what you’ve achieved, then iterate till the desired outcome is achieved.3 EDITORIAL WORKFLOWSHighly technical projects have impacts across the organization and it is important to be mindful of this. For content-based websites, editorial is at the heart of the publishing process, and is often the department with the least familiarity with tech. For this reason, ease the transition for those departments and users who may not have much exposure to the new tech. This can be done using the following means:Provide context for the new changes that have been implemented along with the expected outcomes.
Provide continuous training.
Implement new solutions to tech stacks that users are already familiar with to avoid abrupt transitions.

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1 RECOMMENDED OPTIMIZATIONS FOR IMPROVING CWVSEnsure the LCP resource is discoverable from the HTML source. This can be done by preloading images instead of lazy loading them, or using <img> tags instead of <img src> which is loaded using Javascript.Ensure the LCP resource is prioritized. In versions of WordPress 6.2.5 or older, this can be done by using the “fetchpriority” element in the HTML code and setting its value to “high”. However, starting from version 6.3, WordPress automatically sets the fetchpriority attribute to high for the image it determines to be the LCP image.Use a CDNSet explicit sizes on any content loaded from the page. This can be done by adding attributes such as “width”, “height”, “aspect ratio” etc, in the page’s HTML code.Avoid or break up long tasks. This can be using ChromeDevTools which highlights long tasks ( of over 50 milliseconds) in red in the performance panel.Avoid unnecessary Javascript.2 TOOLS TO CHECK WEBSITE PERFORMANCE
The two most commonly used tools to measure website performance are:Page speed insights (PSI): PSI is a free tool from Google that assigns a single score between 0 to 100 for a webpage’s user experience.Google search console (GSC): GSC is also a free tool which differs from PSI in that it offers separate scores for each of the three CWVs.

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The drawback, however, is an impact on website performance and security as eventually, these third-party add-ons become another addition to already heavy tech stacksThe flow becomes even more important for news publishers who deal with time-sensitive content. For them, it is critical to figure out how teams can collaborate in real time to get a trending story done in a shorter period of time — from sourcing to templatization to going live.Three editorial best practices that you can use to achieve better editorial collaboration are:Internal linking
Leveraging open graph tags for better headline optimization Using Google Trends for insightsFinally, knowledge sharing is important to improve editorial collaboration and reduce friction for adoption. Constant workshops to repeat and address issues are a strategy to deploy to this end. It also helps to designate dedicated internal resources to manage internal knowledge centers.

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GUTENBERG PHASE 3: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Gutenberg Phase 3 will allow Google Docs-style collaborating editing capabilities within WordPress. However, it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Here’s how Gutenberg Phase 3 will revolutionize publisher workflows: 1.Reduced dependency on third-party tools
2.Ease of managing permissions even for a large number of

collaborators
3.Simultaneous review of dynamic content including image

carousels, videos and call to action (CTA) blocks.
4.Shorter review cycles
5.Better organizational data security as publishers will be able to

restrict access and manage permissions for members external to the organization.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR PUBLISHERS

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WHAT LIES AHEAD

WordPress is constantly evolving and expanding. While the publishing industry is excited about Gutenberg Phase 3, WordPress is already planning out the roadmap to roll out Gutenberg Phase 4 by 2025 which would support multilingual sites.

In fact, according to Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, the company’s vision for Gutenberg is to become a solution independent of WordPress, eventually overshadowing WordPress itself as a platform agnostic, multilingual collaboration tool.

Whatever the future, the best strategy for digital publishers to stay prepared is staying abreast of the latest trends, and quickly adapting to technological shifts. We hope this ebook has been a small step forward in this direction.

WPPS eBook

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