The new block-based site editor for WordPress has revolutionised the way WordPress themes can be edited. Block-based WordPress themes are very beginner-friendly and highly customizable, making WordPress more versatile and appealing than before. Coming up with a site and the layout of your dreams doesn’t necessarily require coding skills, paid themes or separate page builders.
A block theme was also introduced to seravo.com over the course of summer of 2024. By using a block theme, we stay up to date with the latest developments and gain useful information for our customers.
Block Theme Enabled on seravo.com
The new theme for our site is based on the 2023 default WordPress theme, Twenty Twenty-Three. It is a versatile and sleek block theme, based on HTML5. Previously, standard WordPress themes have relied on PHP processing.
Simultaneously the WordPress core version and PHP version received upgrades. The new theme will require more work in terms of bug fixes and optimization, but that topic is so broad and interesting so it will earn a blog post of its own!
Update WordPress Safely
There’s always a looming risk when running updates on WordPress, as they may cause a conflict with the other components and plugins of the site. This will of course result in broken functionalities, or even worse – cause the entire site to break.
This is why Seravo’s approach to updates is always testing them first. While critical security patches are always enforced on the sites, thanks to Seravo’s tested updates, you won’t have to worry about forced WordPress or PHP updates that would result in a broken website and downtime for your business.
Staging Environments for WordPress
Seravo’s WordPress hosting environments also allow you to test site updates yourself by using staging environments (we like to call them “shadows”). For example, you can try out and change PHP versions without affecting your WordPress site’s production environment, as prudction and staging environments are completely separate from each other, with their own databases and all.
If you’re looking for instructions on how to use Seravo’s WordPress staging environments, we recommend heading over to Seravo’s knowledge base. The number of shadows allowed depends of the chosen WordPress hosting plan. If you wish to open a new shadow environment, please contact our customer service (help@seravo.com).
Site Redesign and Accessibility
When redesigning seravo.com, we’ve paid attention to accessibility, but also tried to keep things familiar to a certain degree, so that one would find what they’re looking for. We’ve also put some effort into making our documentation and instructions more visible – and also highlighting the status.seravo.com site, so that our users could easily find and check the current status of our services.
Site Accessibility and Colors
Seravo’s brand colors have also been updated to match the core features of our WordPress hosting service. The new color palette was also chosen with accessibility in mind.
To learn more about accessibility on WordPress websites, we recommend taking a look at the Accessibility Handbook by the WordPress Accessibility Team. Interested in website accessibility? Why not start contributing to WordPress today!
New Logo
The new brand colours are also reflected in the Seravo logo: previous logo on the left, and on the right Seravo’s updated logo with a new shade of blue, with better contrast.
All Done?
A website is never “finished”, and many things need active development, be it content or technical aspects.
Did you encounter an error on the site? Got an issue or feature in mind that you would like to see on seravo.com? Feel free to contact us with our contact form, or email us at help@seravo.com.
More on WordPress Design
Vineet Talwar’s presentation “Website Optimization: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” on WordCamp Porto 2024 offers insight into user experience (UX) and its significance on website user behavior.