What to Expect from WordPress 6.8: Speed, Security & Smarter Features

What to Expect from WordPress 6.8: Speed, Security & Smarter Features

Big news for website owners, developers and digital marketers—WordPress 6.8 is set to launch on April 15^th 2025, and it’s bringing exciting new features. Among the most talked about updates is the introduction of speculative loading, a performance enhancement designed to significantly improve page load times.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s coming in this release, and why it’s more than just the usual routine update.

Speculative Loading for Enhanced Performance (and SEO!)

A standout feature in WordPress 6.8 is the integration of speculative loading, a technique designed to significantly improve page load times. Using the new Speculation Rules API, WordPress can now anticipate where a user might navigate next and preload that content in the background. For example, if someone hovers over a link, the system might begin preloading the next page before the user even clicks it—might being the key word here, as this is a predictive action and not guaranteed to happen every time.

This creates a noticeably smoother, near-instant browsing experience. But the benefits go beyond user satisfaction—this speed increase also comes with SEO advantages.

Why does page speed matter for SEO?

Search engines like Google use page speed as a ranking factor. A quicker loading website means lower bounce rates, improved engagement and a better overall user experience—all of which can positively influence your search engine rankings. With speculative loading built into the core, WordPress sites now have a new advantage when it comes to both speed and visibility.

Developers can also customise the preloading behaviour to better match how users typically navigate their site, ensuring optimal performance.

Security Strengthened with bcrypt

Security is another area getting serious attention in WordPress 6.8. This release introduces a major enhancement with the switch to bcrypt for password hashing. Bcrypt is a modern, industry standard algorithm that helps protect user passwords by making them significantly harder to crack—even if data is compromised.

This change is part of WordPress’s ongoing efforts to keep user data safe and ensure that the platform meets evolving security standards.

A Developer’s Take: John’s Thoughts on WordPress 6.8

We spoke with John, our Head of Web Development, to get his take on the upcoming release. He’s particularly excited about what speculative loading means for real world performance:

More Features to Look Forward To

While performance and security are front and centre in this release, WordPress 6.8 also includes several smaller enhancements across the board:

• Improvements to the block editor for a smoother editing experience
• Tweaks to accessibility and usability that make the dashboard feel more intuitive
• General bug fixes and background updates that increase stability

All of these contribute to a more polished, user-friendly experience—whether you’re a developer, designer or content creator.

What You Should Do After Updating to WordPress 6.8

Once you’ve updated to WordPress 6.8, it’s a good idea to check that everything on your site is running as expected—especially if you use custom themes or third-party plugins. Testing key site functions in a staging environment or backup version can help catch any unexpected issues before they impact your live site.

Now’s also a great time to explore the new features, like speculative loading and enhanced password protection with bcrypt, to see how they can benefit your performance, security and user experience.

If you’d rather leave the testing to the professionals, our WordPress Support & Maintenance service is here to help. We’ll run thorough tests to ensure that your site is fully optimised, and everything works seamlessly with the latest WordPress 6.8 features.

Final Thoughts

WordPress 6.8 isn’t just a maintenance update—it’s a significant step forward. With speculative loading for faster pages, bcrypt for better security and a handful of User experience improvements across the CMS, this release reflects WordPress’s continued focus on performance, user experience and modern web standards.

If you’re running a WordPress site, mark your calendar for April 15, 2025—this is one update you won’t want to miss.