Robert Lodi

Are you and your WordPress site ready for 2023?

If you are still relying on the Classic Editor plugin, you may not be.

When WordPress 5.0 (also known as Gutenberg or block editor) launched in late 2018, the Classic Editor plugin became one of the most popular plugins available.

This plugin let you ignore the new weirdness and weird newness that was early Gutenberg, and simply pretend that it hadn’t happened. It was awesome.

In late 2020, WordPress announced that support for Classic Editor would end by 2021. In early 2021, they extended support “until 2022” but they haven’t really said until when.

As of today, the plugin hasn’t been updated in a year and hasn’t been tested with current WordPress versions.

All of this means – if your site relies on Classic Editor and you see it installed in your site’s plugins, it may be time to think about some updates.

The good news is – we can help.

Much like fixing a leaking roof – it is much cheaper to stop the leak, than to let it leak, and rot, and have to rebuild the rafters and walls and the sills (ask me about the barn project some day).

Taking action now, to make sure your site will last and work well for years to come, will be more cost effective and easier than having a crisis should something go wrong with older, incompatible plugins.

Have you ever had an older phone and the operating system updated (intentionally or accidentally) and things started not working quite right or not working at all? 

That’s similar to what can happen with an older or outdated WordPress website when updated without care. 

Wonkiness.

From pages not loading properly to missing styles to no site at all – it can sometimes be catastrophic to force new updates on vintage sites – which include many sites built before late 2018.

As important as it is to keep your WordPress site updated and current – there are some questions that are worth answering before hitting “update” an older site.

• Are the plugins many versions out of date?
• Was this site built before late 2018?
• Does the WordPress version start with a 4? Or 5.0.x?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions – for safety and security, your site should get updated today.

You have a few options. You can hold your breath and update it yourself, and call me if there’s a problem. Or contact us first and save yourself some heartache. We can recommend next steps to safely get your site updated, rebuilt, or recovered.

So last week I talked about having too much stuff.

This week – let’s talk about keeping your stuff updated.

There are three parts to keeping WordPress updated. WordPress core, any themes, and any plugins you are using. 

If these updates aren’t done regularly, you can easily get a few versions out of date – which can cause both security issues and functionality problems. 

For example, a friend updated a plugin and accidentally took his site down, because he waited so long between site launch and updating things, and the updated plugin no longer worked the same way. That’s really bad.

Another time, a site I inherited hadn’t been kept updated, and the theme was so out of date, that no edits could be made to the home page (or any other page) and we had to start over, in a last-minute crisis. Which is also bad.

These days, there are WordPress core updates often. Sometimes every month. And with each WordPress update comes a storm of plugin updates. 

And sometimes, there are extra plugin updates to address a potential issue. As many clients forwarded to me this week.

If you’ve had it with the notifications and red update alerts and need help keeping your site updated, safely, let me know. We’re here to fix your stuff. 

Old themes, old plugins, giant images, even entire old site versions can all be taking up too much space on your website’s server, and that server can become a hoarder if you’re not careful.

And after a while, this can become a problem in a couple ways. 

First – sheer volume of files can put you over the space allocation your hosting company gives you. This can mean increased annual hosting costs, to store old or oversized things you don’t need.

More importantly – old themes and plugins can be a security risk. Even if they aren’t active – old files on the server can still provide entry points for hackers to add malicious code. 

How would you even know? When your site is hacked or you start getting billing alerts from your hosting company?

If you’re afraid your website might be a hoarder and you’d like a hand with a site cleanout – let me know. Maintenance is an important part of a fast, healthy website, and Rock Pixel Scissors is here to help.