Genesis Theme Framework – version 1.3 is now available! We’ve been working on this release for over a month, and we’re so excited to release it because there are so many great things about it. Below you will see a list of what’s new with Genesis…
Genesis v1.3 Security Audit
With all of the security issues that are occurring in the web publishing world these days, we knew it was crucial to ensure that Genesis was as secure as possible. So we contacted Mark Jaquith once again to perform an up-to-date security audit.
From Mark Jaquith, WordPress Lead Developer:
“StudioPress reached out to me to do a security review before Genesis was even released, and I did another review for Genesis 1.3. They were very responsive to my suggestions, and the result is a theme framework that follows all the WordPress security best practices. It’s clear StudioPress made security a priority when developing Genesis and from a security standpoint, Genesis 1.3 is at the top of its class.”Genesis v1.3 Enhanced SEO Options
Genesis 1.3 is all about the SEO (search engine optimization). In fact, it’s such a giant leap forward in this space that some things had to be entirely rewritten. Special thanks goes out to Greg Boser, one of the most well known and respected SEO experts in the field. When we approached him about doing an independent Genesis SEO audit, he was more than willing to help out. His input and feedback proved to be invaluable in taking Genesis SEO to the next level. We’re confident that his suggestions have made Genesis 1.3 into the best option in search engine optimized WordPress themes.
Below is a list of some of these enhancements: (a more detailed post with explanations will follow)
- More Doctitle Control
- Document Head Control
- Page Speed
- Robots Meta Control
- Canonical Control
- Archives and noindex
- Link nofollow Settings
- 3rd Party Feed Links
How to Update to Genesis v1.3
Assuming you haven’t made any changes to the core Genesis files, updating to the latest version of the Genesis Theme Framework is very easy. If you are running an earlier version of Genesis you will see a notification in your dashboard that there is a new version of Genesis available. Just follow the instructions and you will be able to update in seconds. This is the main reason we’ve encouraged everyone to make changes through the child theme, as updating the Genesis Theme Framework is THAT easy.
What’s New In Genesis v1.3
- Extensive SEO controls/flexibility added
- Complete security audit from Mark Jaquith, lead developer WordPress
- Fixed featured posts bug
- Fixed settings reset bug
- Fixed SEO problem. H1 isn’t used on homepage if AIOSEO is active
- Fixed Genesis menu icon issue
- Fixed a rare upgrade bug
- Allow author box title to be filtered
- Fixed bug in genesis_get_image()
- Abstracted the doctype and opening and
elements - Reduced linebreaks/indentations in various locations to cut load time
- Added .widget-area css class to sidebars
- Removed unnecessary rel code that WordPress adds to the
- Made index/follow logic function output nothing, unless we’re supposed to noindex or nofollow
- Discontinued “post tags” being used for META keywords
- Term SEO options now work automatically with custom taxonomies
- We now allow auto-updates to be disabled programmatically using remove_theme_support().
- Abstracted index.php. Created genesis() function to serve up the HTML framework.
- Added option to display breadcrumbs on the 404 page
- Genesis SEO and Layout can now easily be used with custom post types
- Add Genesis README menu item in dashboard for child themes with the README.txt content on that page
- User Profile widget now allows limited formatting HTML, while still filtering out potentially harmful code
- Localize the “Read More” text in the Featured Post widget