06 Mar WordPress in 2021: Features & Changes to Watch Out

WordPress has shown a tremendous growth over the last few years. It has evolved into a full-grown content management system for developing interactive and professional looking websites. The platform has successfully launched several official releases alone in 2021 and we are hoping for more releases, news features and other tweaks in this year as well.

In the past few years, the core development team of WordPress introduced many advanced features such as one-page themes, hamburger menus, the video background layouts, responsive and mobile- friendly layouts to give their end users a great web development experience. And the best part is that people are looking forward to see more calibrating features in 2020. In fact, the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg had made it clear that 2020 has something special for all WordPress users and webmasters. All the features that are expected to surge this year will take the user experience to the new level in terms of accessibility and usability.

Here, in this blog post, we will explore the latest WordPress trends, features and changes that every WordPress user should watch out in 2020.

1. Augmentation of WordPress REST API

The WordPress REST API servers API endpoints for WP data types to let developers interact with the sites on the go by sending and receiving JavaScript Object Notion. This makes it easy for developers to create, access, read and update WordPress content from client-side JavaScript, even if they are written in other than PHP language.

In 2016, WordPress had made some modifications in REST API to let users enjoy flexibility, scalability and usability while developing the sites. This tweak has taken the entire WordPress development experience to the next level and we are expecting more enhancements in 2020 as well.

You might witness a more enhanced and well-utilized WordPress REST API this year. The interface would become more friendly and accessible for those who love sprouting their developing skills on this particular CMS platform.

2. More of mobile-first WordPress themes

Since the mobile Internet usage has completely outstripped the desktop usage in 2019, you would see more of mobile-first themes in official WordPress theme repository.

According to the survey, mobile devices retains over 50 % of market share while the desktop usage have decreased to 48.74 percent in the last year. This clearly states that more and more people are browsing web through their mobile devices – be it a smartphone or iphone. In fact, Google is also considering mobile-first websites while prioritizing the ranking on SERPs. And this influencing WordPress theme developers to design more mobile-first websites for their end users, and site owners. They are more focused on creating responsive themes that can work smoothly on different devices and screen sizes.

3. The rise of clean, user-friendly and minimalist one-page designing

With an extend to mobile-first themes, WordPress is gonna create more appealing, intriguing, user-friendly and minimalist one-page design to let you enhance the user experience of your website.

This particular feature is ideal for those who want to give rich browsing and scrolling experience to their mobile visitors. The one-page design will make your content more accessible, enhance your web design and give your potential visitors a hassle-free experience on your WordPress site.

To achieve that, WordPress designers and developers are working on enhancing the minimalist touch standards, set by Google material design. On the other site, they will incorporate more visible call to action buttons, larger icons, simple and inviting homepage to drive more potential web visitors.

4. Focus on encryptions and HTTPS websites

Security is always been a major concern for WordPress site owners. Since it is an open source platform, there is a great chance of security vulnerabilities and hacking attacks. In order to combat these issues and to strengthen the security of a site, WordPress has strictly moved their users to make more secured site using HTTPS encryptions.

In fact the self-hosted WordPress websites have already using HTTPS to protect their site from suspicious elements, and security attacks. This means you will see more secured and protected websites on WordPress in 2020.

5. Video Headers

Video headers are not new in web development industry. You might have seen some great examples of it in many websites other than WordPress sites. So, the core development team of WordPress has decided to create video header themes to give richer experience and enhanced web design feature to their end users. More and more WordPress users are expected to add video headers on their website to boost the entire look and feel of their site and give long-lasting experience to their web visitors.

6. JavaScript experts in WordPress community

There is a good chance that you will see a professional team of JavaScript experts in WordPress community to help you create WordPress website from the scratch with ease. This means you will become a part of more diverse and professional WordPress community under the hood.

7. Future of WordPress with SAAS Plugins

There is great chance that we will see more SaaS plugins in 2020. WordPress developers are focused on developing SaaS plugins to enhance their inbuilt security. Although, this trend is not new in WordPress, it will get better with each passing year.

The best part is that most of the existing WordPress plugins are using SaaS to take the security to the next level. This clearly shows that SaaS-driven WordPress plugin development is expected to luster in the WordPress market for 2021.

Conclusion

WordPress is an amazing content management system that keeps on introducing new and advanced features every year. You should watch out all the latest features and trends mentioned above in this post for 2021. This year, you will see a complete range of fresh features and functionalities that will take your WordPress development experience to the new heights.

Author Bio:

Lucy Barret is working for a WordPress Development Company and handling a team of experienced developers. She is also a keen blogger and loves to share her knowledge through guest articles.