WordPress 5 is not a bad word, in fact, I have found it really helps with building a blog page but you need to find your way around
First of all, you don’t need to be all in or all out. WordPress comes with an optional plug-in called Classic Editor. You will need this to modify your old posts and pages and if you are a scary cat about the new page builder.
You load the plugin to your site and then just turn it on or off.
Pretty simple stuff
Little boxes all in a row.
Just like the old song WP 5 is all about little boxes. You choose a box using the little + symbol and then follow the prompts. This allows the correct separation and aligns the work for you.
This really is a great time saver because it takes a lot of the manual work away from you and becomes second nature after a couple of runs.
The boxes start at headings and move to paragraphs then every element you want to include.
Yoast can help you
Having the Yoast SEO plugin installed still comments on both your writing and your SEO either at the end or along the way.
A quick check and I am told my sentences are too long so trim them back for easy reading.
I will also start to be more positive along the way.
Using Yoast as you go helps your structure.
Now the (i) button
You are going to just love this new addition.
It gives you a count of words, paragraphs, headings and blocks as you go.
Your headings should always flow down as your page builds.
Just yesterday I checked a blog and I had inserted a couple of H2 headings when I needed H3. Under the traditional system, this would never have been noticed and affected my SEO
I upgraded to WP5
I had tried Gutenberg and became disillusioned for some reason so trying 5.1 was an experience that I shared here
So I don’t want to go line by line because you will learn that on your own.
I want you to go in the deep end with a few things to help write your blog
The sidebar control section
This takes a bit of getting used to as you go to the different section.
One is the current block you are working on where you have text, colour and advanced settings. This drop cap is an example.
Then the document settings showing information on the Post, then your categories, tags and picture header
In the old version, the feature image would not download unless 200 pixels deep. Now it matters not. I don’t know whether this will affect your SEO so to be a safe stay at 200 deep where possible. You can only crop down in the image window not up.
Writing or placing code
You can write in code or use a block. Here I have used a block
Here I have used code using a formatting block and what is difficult is the ability to place it on the page.
While you are looking at the right panel and changing the size etc You need to go back to the top panel to position the block and insert your link.
This was a bit confusing at first but
In general, you have the ability to build a better post more quickly and far more accurate than before
I dropped this link in because your Keywords are still the most important item on the page. People search for Keywords. not good writing or nice pictures so do your research before you start. You will notice that this is an interactive block with just search regularly changing. When you insert your HTML code right-click the block and go to the top left and alt between HTML and preview
Another quirk in WP 5
When you pick a heading box it automatically selects H2 and you need to change each one to the size you want. You should work down as you complete the page. Fortunately, when you click the Info (i) it tells you what you have done and you can change it easily by just clicking on the box and picking the size you want
In conclusion
I can only find benefits in this new WordPress 5 product. There will be issues I have not communicated but you can gather those as you use the product. Remember you can always go back but I dare you, never!