Should you update to WordPress 5.0? • Yoast

WordPress 5.0 is coming out December 6th, or, as I’m writing this, the day after tomorrow. This came as a surprise to us, as this release date has only been communicated to the community today. Given this short notice, we thought it would be wise to give you advice on what you should do. Note that Yoast SEO has been ready for this release for a few weeks.

Update January 21, 2019: We’re happy to announce we feel it’s safe to update to WordPress 5.0 now! Always make sure to test, though.

There are several decisions you should make before updating to WordPress 5.0:

Is now the right time to update?

If you have a holiday coming up, or if this is a busy time in your company’s or site’s yearly calendar: postpone updating. Everything in this release will still be there in January. In fact, as multiple patch releases are being planned already, it’s probably going to be more stable in January.

Can your site work with Gutenberg?

WordPress 5.0 introduces Gutenberg. Gutenberg changes the way the editor works in WordPress, read this post if you don’t know what it is. Overall, we think it’s an improvement.

But not all plugins are ready, and it’s important to know if the plugins you are using are ready before you hit update. If you only run Yoast SEO, you’re fine. If you run other plugins that integrate with the editing experience, make sure to check (either by testing or checking the plugins documentation) that they’re ready for, or at least “work with” Gutenberg. If they don’t, install and activate the Classic editor plugin before updating.

Do you need WordPress 5.0?

If there is no compelling reason for you to update, our suggestion is going to be: wait. WordPress 5.0 will probably be more stable in January than it is now. Let’s be clear: we absolutely love Gutenberg and what Yoast SEO looks like in Gutenberg. The Schema blocks we’ve added are very cool. Yoast SEO is ready. We don’t think WordPress 5.0 is as stable as it should be.

So our advice boils down to: if you can wait, wait.

When you upgrade to WordPress 5.0

When you upgrade, please, as always: make a backup. If you have a staging environment, please use it. If you don’t have one, and your site is critical to your business, get one. This goes for every major software release though, not just this one.

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Joost de Valk

Joost is an internet entrepreneur and the founder of Yoast. He has a long history in WordPress and digital marketing. On our blog, he has written a lot about SEO in general, technical SEO and important topics related to SEO.

Discussion (153)

  1. kenneth65Dec. 18, 2018

I don’t know if the mistake is coming from my end, but i could use Yoast when i installed Disable Gutenberg By Jeff Starr. But when i deactivate the plugin, the active functions of Yoast cease, it just keeps showing the red sign, but in classic editor, i tend to see that my page is optimized with green sign on Readability and SEO. What could the problem? I have also deactivated all plugins temporarily.

  1. Kathy VothDec. 17, 2018

I hate WordPress 5.0. I’m building a brand new site in Gutenberg and the new editing system is clunky and painful to work with. No, I DON’T want to have a new section for a title. It was so much easier to just highlight the words I wanted to turn into a title and change them. NO – I DON’T want a new section for each paragraph. Just let me hit return and add a paragraph. Adding images has become painful. Before all I had to do was click where I wanted the picture to be and add it in. Now I have to add a new section, put the image in, click up and up and up to position the image, and then click some more to get it to right, left or center justify, and then drag it to the size I need. What a waste of my time!

  1. janDec. 16, 2018

I updated to WordPress 5.01 yesterday. Since then i was not able to update my pages anymore. The Editor was not working. I cant switch to visual or text version of editor…just whitescreen inside page content. I found out that yoast Plugin seemed to cause the issue. As Yoast answered in some comments below here there is a conflict between yoast and other plugins. Yoast by itself works great with wordpress 5.0 or 5.01. At my place it was a conflict with the Typeform Plugin. When i disable Typeform Plugin i can use yoast with wordpress 5.0 again and everything works fine.

  1. GasTheSmallDec. 15, 2018

Thanks for the post m8s, thank to my self too for search and read this.

With all these comments i ll hold my horse who was in hurry to update and i ll go for it at 2020… at least…lol

I had lots of accidents with wordpress and always i have a ready backup not only before a major update but even for a simple plugin update!

  1. Stuart BrownDec. 14, 2018

Tried the Gutenberg plug-in a while back, had to uninstall it because I just couldn’t my head around it, found the site became un-editable.

I’m going to take your advice and wait until after the holiday period, then update and install the classic editor plug-in. Gutenberg may be great for website developers but for anyone like myself just wanting to operate a website, it feels like an unnecessary distraction.

Thanks for another great post.

  1. Natalie HornyakDec. 13, 2018

Thank you for the guidance. I’ve been wary about the 5.0 update myself, not just because I find the Gutenberg experience to be lacking in terms of UX, but also because WP seemed like they rushed this version out the door. I’m usually aggressive about keeping my software up-to-date for security reasons, but I’m definitely on the side of “Wait for further patches” right now.

  1. LaurenDec. 12, 2018

It is SO SLOW! It is taking me forever just to do something as simple as changing paragraph text to header text??!??

Yeah it can be excruciatingly slow. If you install and activate the Gutenberg plugin, version 4.7, you should have a way better experience already. The code in that version will be shipped in WordPress 5.0.2.

  1. Nancy VaughnDec. 12, 2018

I am a retired person and just going to start learning WordPress to create a website for a non-profit organization. It will have very little blogging on it and be more of a website displaying information about the organization.

I have read through all your great posts and my question is would you suggest I jump right in and learn Gutenberg or install the Classic Version and learn it instead?

Thank you for any advice you might provide.

Nancy,

If you are a novice at website development you’ll want to look into a theme that does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Something with a drag-and-drop interface. Then it’s just a matter of placement and content development.

Just a couple of days ago I created a post on this topic “How to Make a Charity Website”.

It’s good that you’re doing this site for your nonprofit. Best luck to you.

Gutenberg! It’s the way of the future :)

  1. Lee-AnneDec. 12, 2018

If you rely on Yoast SEO don’t upgrade to 5.0, wait until they release ‘fixes’ versions. I only started my WordPress site 2 weeks ago so Gutenberg is all I know. Yoast came highly recommended so I installed the plugin. The Yoast SEO plugin doesn’t work with Gutenberg. All my posts are in Gutenberg and switching to classic editor at this stage causes more problems than good.

I have to say this surprises me. Yoast SEO really does work very well with Gutenberg, if it doesn’t, another plugin is preventing it from working well.

  1. AdeyemiDec. 11, 2018

I should have read this article before updating to WordPress 5.0. Now yoast seo isn’t working for me.

Yoast SEO should work just fine, if it’s broken that’s because of another plugin interacting with it.

  1. ShelleyDec. 11, 2018

I was having problems with Yoast BEFORE I updated. In the “Readability Analysis” and “Focus Keyword” sections there is a green loading circle that keeps swirling but doesn’t stop. I am not able to change anything in that area. Also, my photo sizes can’t be changed either and when I try to add a link at the bottom of my post, the task bar does not show up unless I scroll up to the top. Usually, the task bar is seen near where I am trying to add the link.

This was happening yesterday before I upgraded to WordPress 5. I thought maybe that was the problem so I upgraded (keeping the classic style) and it still shows this way. Help!

Hi Shelley,

I’m sorry to hear that. There might be a conflict with another plugin or theme. I’d suggest performing a conflict check with other plugins and your theme. You can use our guide here if you don’t know how: https://yoast.com/help/how-to-check-for-plugin-conflicts/.

If you need further support, I’d like to refer you to https://yoa.st/support. Good luck!

  1. ChristineDec. 11, 2018

I just updated to the new version of WordPress, and decided to use the classic editor plugin. Yoast is the only plugin that is no longer working for me…super frustrating.

Hi Christine,

I’m sorry to hear that. There is probably a conflict with another plugin (we had similar reports with older versions of WPML and Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields). Update them, and if you aren’t using either, I’d suggest performing a conflict check with other plugins and your theme. You can use our guide here if you don’t know how: https://yoast.com/help/how-to-check-for-plugin-conflicts/.

And for further support, I’d like to refer you to https://yoa.st/support. Good luck!

Same issue with multiple sites, Yoast is conflicting with WP5.0 or and Page editor.

I am using DIVI and DIVI editor is conflicting with yoast, even the normal classic editor is not working.

  1. Hema MageshDec. 10, 2018

Thanks for the timely write up.I did not update, though I have the classic editor installed.But I have a lot of plugins on my site, and most of them have released updates with gutenberg compatibility. Without any second thoughts, I have updated them all.Waiting for updates for the remaining plugins as well.So far no problem.But suddenly having a feel that when gutenberg itself is not activated, what will become of the plugins which are updated with gutenberg in mind.Am I doing right? Should I continue to update my plugins, even though I have not activated gutenberg? Or should the plugins also not be updated? Pl guide.

We, as Yoast, support both classic and Gutenberg. I think that’ll go for most major plugins for a while.

Same here, updated all the plugs but am cautious with 5.0 WP and now the site seems slower than it was.. Should have waited with all the new updates i guess, lesson learned.

  1. EscayDec. 09, 2018

Well, luckily for me am coming to WordPress from Joomla! and i landed on WP 4.9.8, which had Gutenberg already. I tried it and loved right way. I only used the classic editor once and the rest of my WordPress time (3 weeks) has been with Gutenberg. And for plugins, they are very few for me and are all alreday compatible. If I delay my upgrade its only because i want the CMS to be more stable. Other wise, i love Gutenberg.

  1. Tunde Sanusi (Tuham)Dec. 09, 2018

WordPress 5.0 i believe is going to pretty cool except that only the Gutenberg..

Hopefully one can switch to the Classis editor

You can switch back to the classic editor by using the classic editor plugin:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/

  1. SteveDec. 09, 2018

I had to use a plugin called “Disable Gutenberg” to my site back the way it was. Boy was I freaking out.

  1. MediadiseDec. 09, 2018

i updated already — and so far, it’s been complicated to make a post.

As a matter of fact I cant — not because i cant try… but because its so uninspiring (I mean its scattered!).

I’m searching for how to revert to the previous version.

  1. Masud PilotDec. 09, 2018

Thank you for your informative opinion. I think they aren’t genius except their business. They hadn’t thought what will happen to millions of websites if they publish this major update, though some events are coming near. There’s nothing do to except wait until it’s gonna be stable.

  1. StevenDec. 09, 2018

I just updated to 5.0 and it destroyed everything. All the Microsoft office word docs. the cells, text don’t line up now. Everything is jumbled up on the website but in the wordpress work area is all one narrow scrunched up margin. I’m unable to use those MS word docs now.

  1. CharleneDec. 08, 2018

My site updated automatically and it really screwed things up. I was almost done preparing for a big Launch and was almost done uploading all my products and new blogs when this happened. Now I have to restore to my site to where it was over a week ago to reload my old version of WordPress (and disable the automatic updates!!!). Then start over reloading all my products again. And re-writing my blogs. Not happy at all. You can tell these techie idiots don’t have to run a business. To do this right before Christmas was unconscionable. I am looking at a very long weekend of work to correct this. :-( I hate WordPress 5.0. I hate the format too and had already installed the Classic Edit plugin. Unfortunately, it didn’t solve the other conflict issues.

  1. SUMANTA SAHUDec. 08, 2018

Waoo! Gutenberg brought the new modern life to my site.

  1. Jan JansenDec. 08, 2018

WordPress 5.0 doesn’t work for me (yet). The nice thing of the WordPress to me is WYSIWYG. Now what you see in the editor is not the same when you publish it. The layout is also too narrow. For instance in the editor you can see 2 images besides each other, whereas when I publish it I see 3 images besides each other.

And yeah you can you a classic editor but till 2021. Hopefully by then this problem will be resolved.

  1. Amit AbhishekDec. 08, 2018

I just updated my wordpress to 5.0 and guess what it is way more slow to use specially the editor on my web browser. I don’t know how to revert to the old one. I hope i could have read the blog before and skip the update but the damage is done. Any help would be very welcome.

  1. Elvis GragDec. 08, 2018

Thank you so much! That was really, really helpful!

  1. JoostDec. 07, 2018

Thanks, I’ll hold my horse as they say and wait for the new year.

  1. SusanDec. 07, 2018

My hosting company did an automatic update to 5.0 and now I can’t edit any posts. Reverted successfully to 4.9.8. Frustrating. So, NO, you should not update to 5.9

  1. SamDec. 07, 2018

I am not sure why they release such an update just before a busy period for a lot of sites. Not sure if they thought this true. We updated only on our staging site and there are some weird things going on. Luckily, not on the live sit.

  1. alibzDec. 07, 2018

Yes, I updated, and now I have a very weird problem

Added a CSS file to the site that has 404 : style.min-rtl.css?ver=5.0

i have the same problem

if any one can help us in this prob

i’ll be very grateful really

  1. Nepal PyramidsDec. 07, 2018

Thank you so much that was really really helpful — though i have already downloaded and activated the classical editor plugin yet im not updating to 5.0 — id rather wait —

once gain thanks

  1. RmaanDec. 07, 2018

i was using gutenberg for while and wrote some article with that

but when update to wp5.0 all my style that gutenberg made to my blocks gone , i activate gutenberg again on wordpress 5.0 !

  1. Muhammad SajjadDec. 07, 2018

Very good advice… we should wait a bit and let all the installed plugins be updated.

  1. Ryan WhitleyDec. 06, 2018

So many people complaining bout this update…boggles my mind a bit why people are freaking out so much. They’ve made the entire process 100% optional for us. They even threw in the tool of the classic editor plugin so that if we don’t enjoy the new setup, we can jump back to the old version with a click of a button. If it was a case of being forced to update to 5.0 then i’d agree with all the negative comments, but if you don’t enjoy the update- rather than “snapping” at the dev team- just install the classic editor plugin and “walla” everything back to the way you like it…

That’s the problem – it is not “walla” and back to normal…

I think that most people dislike the way the Gutenberg editor was introduced. The new editor just came with WP 5.0 even if there are so many open issues and so many plugins/themes that are not compatible. The better way to introduce Gutenberg would be to opt-in and keep the old editor too. So now the users don’t have a choice and were forced if you want so…

  1. AlexDec. 06, 2018

It is likely really early to upgrade major sites, probably wiser to wait for the next set of releases. Some site authors will be completely confused about the experience as well.

  1. RoxDec. 06, 2018

Thanks for the advice. It’s the first time for me to update wordpress and I really appreciate your sincere opinion. I thought about waiting anyway

  1. Susanta Kumar SahooDec. 06, 2018

Thanks for the post, Joost! I don’t understand why Matt and his team would be in such a hurry to release “the BIG update” when Christmas is around the corner. Thankfully, I have installed the classic editor plugin but I guess I still need to wait until Jan, 2019.

  1. zaffyDec. 06, 2018

Who are the Geniuses who decided to bring a major update that will affect millions of sites before Christmas?

Who are the Geniuses who believe such big change will be easily applied to millions of small business that will suddenly have to face not only extra costs but also try and explain/teach the new “editor” to their users?

Who are the geniuses who didn’t set a timeframe for a smooth transition from one version to another?

I will tell you, they are not geniuses, just self absorbed people who have no clue or do not give a dime how much their actions affect literally millions of people’s jobs.

Very very disappointed with WordPress and I am glad I do not use it for big projects.

I agree with you 100%. They didn’t think, they just did it.

However there is simple plugin “Classic Editor” instal it and u have no problems.

You will only be affected if you update … don’t update this year and you won’t be affected…

What about people who are not as prepared or tech savvy as us?

YOu think every owner of WordPress site knows what the new update brings or how to deal with it?

Wordpress is popular because it makes users’s life easy.

This is not making your users life’s easy, is about imposing what you think is good in an impossible timeframe while basically forcing your millions of users to extra costs.

What if a site is not compatible with new wordpress? What about the cost of changing it?

Not all sites are just blogs.

When you try to pass WordPress as the ultimate CMS suitable for every kind of site, you also have to treat your users professionally and think the consequences of your actions to their businesses. - DavidDec. 06, 2018

AMEN! I could not have phrased it better do they not realise that some of us even work on Christmas Day!

  1. Jasmine TrailsDec. 06, 2018

Joost, thank you very much for sharing this info and more importantly your wise suggestion to wait for a more stable version on WP 5.

Considering the Gutenberg plugin has 700,000 installs, with a two and a half star rating based on 1634 reviews [ 5 Stars= 349 only, 4 Stars = 87, 3 Stars = 80, 2 Stars = 142 and 1 Star = a staggering 931!! ]

Given the scary reviews, needless to say most of us were wondering what to do next. Now thanks your wise counsel , we have some direction on the way forward. Thank you once again.

  1. Ashish VermaDec. 06, 2018

Thanks Joost. Your post is a balanced one but mostly I have read negative comments. Negativity to a point, it sounds, their bread and butter is in danger. Gutenberg seems to be ready, they are not. Why most of the developers out there vehemently opposing it? I am just a blogger, a simple user of wordpress, I just have a feeling that this editor is better than the previous one. Why not contribute to it in a positive way?

  1. Kevin McClellanDec. 06, 2018

Great article with solid advice. Thanks :-)

I think the Gutenberg/WP 5.0 has been the most heavily tested WordPress update in history. Gutenberg is a great update. I agree the timing is a bit of a putoff but if people already have WP 4.9.8 and ave Gutenberg installed there will be very little else that has changed other than possibly some bug fixes.

If you install and activate classic editor plugin then it will be just like 4.9.8 without Gutenberg.

As with any WP update, I suggest taking full file/database backup prior to updating, just in case something happens.

Comes down to personal preferences. I have been testing Gutenberg for months, and been running WP 5.0RC versions for a little while now so am confident everything will work, but still taking backups. Anything can change last minute.

  1. manni de manDec. 05, 2018

I hope that version 4.x will be maintained – at least with security updates. I’ve developed a site based on 4.x and now am a little worried that the site will “crash and burn” when WP 5.0 is rolled out

So far security patches have been backported as far as WP 3.7, so you’re good for a while longer. I would suggest upgrading though as soon as it’s stable.

  1. JordyDec. 05, 2018

So if i activite the Classic editor first and after hit update tomorow to 5.0 everything Will be fine?

I can’t guarantee that. I’d wait a bit to be honest.

  1. Jyoti RaghuvanshiDec. 05, 2018

Thanks for sharing such a valuable information. We all know that WordPress 5.0 will be the big update and many themes/plugin developers working hard to make things as smooth as possible.

  1. BennyDec. 05, 2018

I trust nothing wrong in waiting for a couple of updates, say 5.1 or 5.0.1 or even 5.2.

  1. YanglishDec. 05, 2018

Thanks for valuable recommendations.

  1. Fiorenza TemmelDec. 05, 2018

Thank you for sharing that Joost! Very helpful!

  1. NarmadatechDec. 05, 2018

Thank you for sharing this useful information. I have a question which is the best plugin for WordPress site backup.

  1. Gents spa DubaiDec. 05, 2018

Better to wait until it’s more stable, some of my plugins and Newspaper theme.

  1. AxencyDec. 05, 2018

Hello and good night,

Thanks for all the information and recommendations.

I have a few questions:

I have 6 posts acceptable and optimized (not Gutenberg)

And I do have 12 posts without keyword (most of them are Gutenberg)

I write a keyword target in Gutenberg post but it can not save the snippet or keyword.

Are you on the latest version of Gutenberg and Yoast SEO? Because… Well. Stable is not the word we’re using for these things.

  1. Neo A.Dec. 05, 2018

Honestly, Gutenburg is not very friendly for a nerd who likes typing and having a simple workspace. It’s a cheesy downgrade and the annoying HTML comments after each block don’t help uncluttering in the slightest.

However, it is definitely a useful tool, just not one I feel that I’m ready to use. The classic editor will probably still my go-to tool.

I honestly kinda like the way it auto parses my markdown writing and does a lot of cool stuff :P

  1. MartinDec. 05, 2018

Many thanks for this review and advice – great to have a balanced, pragmatic view after all the rabid pro and con posts on Gutenberg that you see everywhere.

I’ve installed the Classic Editor on all client sites, but I won’t be updating them until 5.0 has settled down and I’ve had a good look at it on my development sites. There’s going to be a client education process to go through before I spring it on them, and then a process of changing the Classic Editor settings to allow selective use of Gutenberg before going full on once the clients are comfortable.

Sounds like a good process.

  1. Nikhil SharmaDec. 05, 2018

I also think best to wait. Maybe just try a test platform as end of year, and roll out to new customers after new year. Most themes and plugins my customers take are free, so it will be time before they are updated or changed.

Some are ready, some will soon be, some will never be. You’ll have to test them all :)

  1. Tom BeekDec. 04, 2018

Great service, thanks

Glad you appreciate it Tom!

  1. Jon HillDec. 04, 2018

I appreciate this post very much, Joost. Your advice not to take unnecessary chances during the holidays makes very good sense, and it means more coming from someone like yourself who is well-informed regarding the background of this release. And the post comments explained how to be sure that our sites won’t auto-update. Thank you!

Whatever we can do to make sure everyone can enjoy their holiday of choice :)

  1. Victor Miller, Sr.Dec. 04, 2018

How do I switch from automatic updates to manual before 5.0 goes in effect?

You probably don’t need to switch anything. Automatic updates are only for minor releases, for versions with number updated after the second dot (like x.x.0 to x.x.1). I don’t remember how it is for updates on numbers after the first dot, but for sure updates for “first” numbers (4.x.x to 5.x.x) must be done manually.

Hi Victor,

Easy way:

Use a plug in to do so

https://wordpress.org/plugins/stops-core-theme-and-plugin-updates/

or

You can disable automatic updates in WordPress by adding this line of code in your wp-config.php file:

define( ‘WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE’, false );

Hope this helps…

Thanks for the info. I’ve installed the plugin and will configure it shortly - macangeloDec. 04, 2018

One way would be: add the following line of code to your wp-config.php

define( ‘AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED’, true );

I support several clients’ websites and have installed the Easy Updates Manager in order to disable auto updates. I did have one site that wouldn’t respond to this plugin supposedly due to an issue presented by another installed plugin, so I installed the WP Disables Updates plugin.

  1. NanDec. 04, 2018

I have a WordPress new site and am only vaguely familiar with Gutenberg-certainly not ready to change over. Plus, I’ve been considering changing themes and hosts in the not-too-distant future. That’s a lot of change. I’m currently using Bluehost, which has an option in the control panel for turning off core WordPress updates, with plug-in and theme updates to continue. I’m not a techie and would prefer not to deal with WordPress Configuration file if possible. Will the control panel option suffice for now?

Yes it will. Bluehost won’t even auto push the update to people in December, they’ll wait till January.

Bluehost just auto pushed the update to 2 of my sites for 5.0

Same here. I woke up and noticed all of my sites with BlueHost were auto-updated to 5.0. Still waiting to observe any likely side-effects.

  1. Mark KasiskeDec. 04, 2018

Is there an advantage of using Guttenberg over DIVI, when it comes to Yoast, that is?

I hope all page builder plugins will work on the data API that Gutenberg comes with and allow for more easy interoperability between page builders and plugins like ours. That being said, we quite actively work with the Divi team to make interoperability between our plugins a constant thing.

  1. Bill PeschelDec. 04, 2018

I hate Gutenberg with a passion. It degrades my experience and the way I like to write my posts, which is to write in Word and include all my HTML. The explanations I’ve seen here for its advantages are directed at the more expert WP users and not the end users who are writers first.

Even now, despite my longtime experience with websites — building pages in Dreamweaver, building my first site in pmachine and now — I still don’t see the advantages. I’d have to put everything on hold and spend a day at least to delve into the documentation. But I run a business that demands more of my time than dealing with this nonsense.

You are absolutely right Bill. The online interface is not a good writing tool. A good writing tool has much more functionality. Also, writers don’ t view each paragraph as a separate unit. Might make sense for SEO or html rendering, but not for writing.

In my workflow, I write posts in Emacs (text editor) and then upload them to the website with a script.

Treating each paragraph as a separate entity is the write way to write markup for the web. If users won’t write markup sensibly, it’s best for everybody that Gutenberg will force them to do so.

Nobody is forcing you to use Gutenberg, so if you don’t like it, please don’t :)

  1. PeterDec. 04, 2018

I’ve updated and used Gutenberg months ago, however, I must rollback to classic editor due to the missed feature which I think it’s one of the most necessary features. That’s is: “importing the image from URL”. Don’t know if it has this feature on this release.

I do see an “Insert from URL” option in the image block, isn’t that what you meant?

  1. Maxime BouetDec. 04, 2018

All our existing clients will stay with Classic Editor on 4.9 branch or with the plugin, the learning curve for Gutenberg would be too steep for most, who often don’t know anything at all about computers, they just follow their years long same same steps written on a piece of paper to publish a new post or change their weekly menu page or similar. They have no need to change anything, and mostly no budget either.

For new new clients we tried to consider Gutenberg since a few months, but as it still is far from ready, each test results in most obvious bugs and editor still feels way too slow in browser until today, we can not recommend Gutenberg for now as well. Maybe we will reconsider this mid 2019, not sure yet though.

So currently also new projects are done with Classic Editor, and will stay in WordPress 4.9 branch for a while, to allow easy migration to Classic Press or similar, if the Gutenberg ship won’t float as expected…

I would suggest updating to 5.0 after a while, just because it’s going to be the better version of WordPress, with or without the classic editor plugin.

  1. Lauren JDec. 04, 2018

Wait, did you just say Schema blocks? :3

This happens to be my next big SEO task – is it on the free or premium version?

In free. We’re going to be building a lot more of them.

  1. ElaineDec. 04, 2018

Thank you for the reassurance that it is OK to wait. As I am the Christmas Fairy in our house I have to wave my wand and make it magically happen, while managing two blogs and a “real life” job :)

Happy holidays! And have fun playing with Gutenberg after that :)

  1. Doug "Bear" HazardDec. 04, 2018

As someone that manages over 200 WP sites, we’ve actually modified one of our own plugins (a security plugin) and put an alert up for our customers, advising them to hold off on updating to WP 5.0.

As Joost noted, there are too many unknowns between plugins and themes that may come into play here. While I’m excited to see movement forward with 5.0; I, too, share the same concerns that this might have been rushed a little too quickly. While the WP team has to save face (after all, they did promise 5.0 would be released this year, though many of us were anticipating it much earlier in the year), I’m concerned that not enough due diligence was performed.

We’re going to do the updates, on a case by case basis, and absolutely making sure backups are performed for every site beforehand.

The WP team is all of us. I would urge you though, after a few weeks maybe even a few months of waiting, to update :) I don’t like putting out notices like this, I normally urge everyone to update as that is the best thing for the web in general.

  1. Daniel C. BoswellDec. 04, 2018

Seriously, no share buttons Yoast? I think this is really important to get out to the community.

I think I will be holding off for me and my clients until January at least.

Our share buttons got like 10 clicks a month. Turns out people have learned how to copy and paste URLs :)

mic drop

Does it give a better page speed, removing the share buttons? :)

Share buttons, especially native ones from twitter and facebook etc, are slow, so: yes. - J-P De ClerckDec. 04, 2018

Hear, hear, same finding :) Sharing it. Thanks Matt for your unexpected announcement. Nice additional to do tasks just before the end of the year.

  1. AndrewDec. 04, 2018

Great advice. I love the new editor and have been anticipating this upgrade for a while. I’ll definitely upgrade some of my sites as soon as the new release is available. And I’ll definitely wait a while before I upgrade others. I also really like the way Yoast has integrated with Guttenberg. You guys continue to impress. Thanks

Good to hear Andrew, curious to know how your sites will do!

  1. FelixDec. 04, 2018

Thanks for your advice. However I have one question: Currently I am using the Gutenberg Plugin and (apart from some known bugs) it works just fine with my other plugins. Can I count on that or will it be totally different when the release is out? I have no staging environment, and for I’m just writing a blog I would like to avoid the effort.

Thanks once again!

It won’t be totally different, if you’re already using it you should be totally fine (and I’m honestly glad to hear that!).

Totally!

  1. CiskaDec. 04, 2018

Thank you for this confirmation. I think I will also wait until Gutenburg is more stable before plunging into this update

  1. Corrinda CampbellDec. 04, 2018

Thanks Yoast! The rollout of Gutenberg from start to launch has been utterly hideous. Your posts, comments and videos have been extremely helpful.

Glad to hear that Corrinda!

I have used Gutenberg. It’s nice

  1. Dave HoeDec. 04, 2018

Hi Guys

Good advice. I only use premium themes and plugins, which should all be WordPress 5.0 and Guttenberg ready. however i won’t be updating clients sites until after Christmas. Just not worth the risk. Will install and have a gander on a test site though

Regards

Dave

That’s probably the most sensible approach for many.

  1. JaniceDec. 04, 2018

Is it a code thing only? Can I turn off the automatic update without going to my developer?

If it wasn’t enabled specifically, you won’t update to 5.0 automatically.

  1. vicky999Dec. 04, 2018

Thanks for the news. I will update for some business sites with a few posts. Unfortunately when it comes to news sites I will postpone and definitely disable Gutenberg. Our writers don’t want to touch it.

I would urge them to give it another go soonish, as it really has progressed a lot and I do think it’s a great new experience.

It’s not good for writers though, the people who actually create content and just want to publish it and get on with their day. Nobody writes in discrete blocks, like this. Gutenberg was created by graphic designers, not actual writers. All we want is a blank screen and software which won’t screw up our formatting. Thank heavens there’s a plug-in we can use to disable it.

I have to manage a site for my neighbor who has written a books. He is a writer, not an editor and it has been a chore helping him.

To center his book titles, he went to each one and pressed SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE… I even had to reformat his book for him.

Not everyone is going to like change for the sake of change.

This reminds me of the guy who buys a car and loves it, only to find out that overnight the dealer spray painted it and moved the steering wheel to the other side.

  1. Monique MartensDec. 04, 2018

Thank you for your valuable and ongoing information on WP 5.0 and Gutenberg. It is very much appreciated!

We try hard Monique! Glad to see it’s appreciated.

  1. Pamir KicimanDec. 04, 2018

My WordPress updates automatically. How do I stop that?

check your WP-config and find this line:

define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true );

I would suggest changing it to ‘minor’:

define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', 'minor' );

So you do get auto-updated to security updates but nothing else.

For the life of me I can’t see that in my wp-config. This is the one that’s created during install correct? Can’t see on wp admin. File access from my host to wp-config doesn’t show this line. In wp admin under updates it says: Future security updates will be applied automatically. I don’t remember if that’s minor. I wake up to emails that WP updated but I think those are patches and not new version of all of WP.

Any updates are never automatic on my sites. I have to authenticate the FTP update. That way i get no nasty surprises and i can check each one as i do it. This is with all WP updates and plugins. I do not know why people allow auto updates. It could do one through the night and you may not notice a crash on the system until it is to late. My advice Never Allow Auto Update of anything.

P

My WP-config contains nothing about WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE?

  1. EmmyDec. 04, 2018

Should I do anything to prevent auto-update, or are major updates like this excluded from auto-updating?

If you’ve not explicitly opted in to auto-updates, they don’t happen normally.

Some hosting platforms like Blue host and Siteground implement auto updates from the server so you must check and disable them on the server itself.

  1. Andrea GabrielDec. 04, 2018

I agree. This is hard for those of us who manage sites. When it didn’t roll out on the Nov date, we were told that meant reprieve until January. Springing it on people now with 2 days’ notice, after they’ve assumed a Jan date, is just hard, as we’ve now rearranged our schedules assuming a later date.

Yeah same here and in a lot of other places. I would suggest just making sure sites don’t auto update and doing it at your date and time of choice. I’ve already seen some managed hosts say they will also not roll this out until January.

  1. Steven HornDec. 04, 2018

Thanks for the information and the authoritative “permission” so I can relay this to those who believe Joost more than myself.

Question for those who have tested Gutenberg in the core: is it basically the same as using the Gutenberg plugin with 4.8?

  1. Jagdish Pal BhatiaDec. 04, 2018

Thank you for information.

I tried it as plugin but was not working with adsense.

Let’s see how this upgrade works.

  1. ClintDec. 04, 2018

Thanks for the quick turn on this post and for your recommendation. I plan to wait until it’s more stable. Although, I am looking forward to the new editor and new Yoast functionality.

We’re looking forward to it too! If your site isn’t very critical, you should be OK to update at any given time, and you can already play :)

  1. IstvanDec. 04, 2018

Hi, it’s good enough to insert this line into the wp-config.php?

define( ‘AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED’, true );

Thanks,

Istvan

5.0 is a major update, unless you’ve specifically opted in to major updates updating automatically, it won’t update automatically.

Note: Some “Managed WordPress” hosting plans include autoupdate also for major releases.

  1. Mathukutty P. V.Dec. 04, 2018

I have created 2/3 posts in Gutenberg in WordPress dot com blog. Let us see what is the result in self-hosted blogs

The editor itself is a good improvement. We can debate about “ready”, but it’s definitely an improvement over the current editor in many ways.

  1. Jeroen RottyDec. 04, 2018

Completely agree with Joost here. Announcing it 2 days early, just before #WCUS and during the busy December month is just bad practice.

From a project management perspective you could say it is negligent.

Upgrade? Am not feeling home anymore. The editor has changed. Just updated my blog right now, and am no longer welcome to my home!

Hi Guys, it feels really strange to use the Gutenberg editor/platform, all plugin icons/buttons that often show in the classic editor mode seem to vanish from the screen. I guess the learning curve will be really steep for most.