WordPress 5.8 is Here and Why We Are Excited!

WordPress released a highly anticipated update today (7/20), WordPress 5.8. This update includes a variety of exciting enhancements to the already robust WordPress platform. This update will be rigorously tested by our team of developers before we launch on client sites. If you would like more information on the details of this update, click on the link below.

 https://ithemes.com/wordpress-5-8/

We are excited that WordPress 5.8 is now capable of handling WebP images. This is a cutting edge image type that allows images to be compressed to a smaller size, which therefore improves website speed. We are thankful that WebP images are able to be hosted with our hosting partner, Flywheel. Additional hosting companies have not yet announced their capability to host WebP images due to the newness of the technology. Stay tuned for more information on WebP images, and the process to convert your current website images to WebP. Our team is currently exploring the most cost effective way to convert PNG and JPEG files to WebP.

WebP images are an image type originally introduced by Google. We are excited to roll this brand new image type out on our client sites for several key reasons. According to Google, WebP images are 25-34% smaller than a comparable JPEG image, and 26% smaller than a comparable PNG image. Why does this matter? Reducing the size of an image file has a positive impact on improving website speed. While WebP images will reduce the file size of images, the quality of the image will not suffer. Prior to the introduction of WebP images, specific image plug-ins were used to compress the file size of images in order to reduce website load times.

If you are currently using Internet Explorer as your primary browser, support will no longer be available to you. We recommend using Chrome or Safari to make the most out of your online experience.