We’ve seen websites use advanced techniques and tools to keep their sites optimized, secure, and user-friendly.
Their secret?
Adopting the latest best practices tailored to the ever-changing WordPress landscape.
To help you get the most out of your WordPress website as well, we’ll show you several best practices that are often implemented by WordPress development services providers in 2024.
Let’s get started!
WordPress Development Best Practices in 2024
Ready to take your WordPress site to the next level?
Let’s follow these best practices:
1. Implement Headless WordPress
Headless WordPress is a modern approach where WordPress is used solely as a content management system (CMS) without its traditional front-end.
In a headless setup, WordPress handles the backend tasks of creating and managing content, while the front-end is built using modern JavaScript frameworks such as React, Vue.js, or Angular.
By decoupling the backend and front-end, you can optimize the front-end for faster load times and smoother interactions, which might lead to a better user experience.
Sounds too complicated?
Don’t worry, a custom WordPress development service can help you implement this practice with ease.
2. Optimize Core Web Vitals
When creating a website with WordPress, make sure that the user experience is always top-notch.
To do so, you need to optimize core web vitals.
They are a set of specific factors that Google considers crucial for a webpage’s overall user experience.
These factors consist of three main metrics:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance. It marks the point in the page load timeline when the main content has likely loaded.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Measures overall responsiveness. INP assesses how quickly your site responds to user interactions by looking at the time between an interaction and the next visual update.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability. It quantifies how often users experience unexpected layout shifts during the lifetime of the page.
3. Use Block-Based Themes
Unlike traditional themes that rely heavily on PHP templates and customizers, block-based themes use the block editor to create and manage the entire site layout, including headers, footers, sidebars, and content areas.
With the entire site being editable through blocks, changes can be made quickly and previewed in real-time, which makes the development process more efficient.
Furthermore, blocks can be reused across different parts of the site, ensuring a consistent design and user experience.
Whether you’re creating a personal blog or business website on WordPress, using block-based themes is a good choice.
Try picking popular block-based themes like Blocksy, Tove, Bricksy, or Neve.
4. Do Voice Search Optimization
You can adjust your site’s content and structure to be easily discoverable and usable by voice-activated search assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana.
Why is it important?
Because the use of voice search is on the rise, with more users relying on virtual assistants for quick and convenient information retrieval.
So, optimizing for voice search ensures your content is accessible to this growing audience.
To implement this practice, you can use tools like Answer the Public, Google’s People Also Ask, or SEMrush to find popular question-based queries related to your content.
5. Integrate AI Features
One of the main benefits of using WordPress is the ease of integrating new functionalities, including AI features.
Features like chatbots and personalized product recommendations are some of the best WordPress e-commerce solutions.
Because it can improve customer satisfaction while saving a lot of time and resources.
Moreover, implementing AI features can differentiate your website from competitors who are slower to adopt these technologies.
Some of the most popular AI tools for WordPress are Tidio for chatbots and Algolia for recommendation engines.
6. Create Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are web applications that offer a native app-like experience on the web.
Before creating PWA, you need to evaluate your current WordPress site to determine what features and content will be included in the PWA.
Also, identify areas where a PWA can enhance user experience, such as offline access and push notifications.
While building PWA isn’t mandatory, you might want to do it to provide a superior user experience in both web and mobile platforms.
7. Focus on Mobile Usability
With the majority of internet users accessing websites through mobile devices, optimizing your WordPress site’s mobile usability can help you reach a larger audience.
So, what should you do?
Basically, you need to design a responsive layout, ensure fast load times, and make sure that all content is accessible and easy to interact with on smaller screens.
Choose WordPress themes and plugins that are optimized for mobile devices.
For example, look for themes labeled as “responsive” or “mobile-friendly”.
Also, update your themes and plugins regularly to ensure compatibility with the latest mobile standards and practices.
Conclusion
Keeping up with WordPress development best practices in 2024 might seem like a lot, but it’s totally worth it.
They can make your website faster, more engaging, and easier to find.
But let’s be real: implementing all these changes can be a bit overwhelming.
That’s where teaming up with a reliable WordPress web development company like Intelivita comes in handy.
We can take the heavy lifting off your shoulders by ensuring your site not only looks great but also performs at its best.
