Post Status Cache Up With Miriam Schwab

In this episode of Cache Up, host Michelle Frechette chats with Miriam Schwab, Head of WordPress at Elementor, about the company’s latest innovations. They discuss new products like the Image Optimizer, Site Mailer, Ally accessibility plugin, and Angie, Elementor’s AI assistant. Miriam shares insights on Elementor’s codebase revamp for better performance, the company’s commitment to accessibility, and the growing role of AI in WordPress. The conversation also highlights Elementor’s community involvement, especially at WordCamp US, and the expanding availability of their tools beyond just Elementor users.Top Takeaways:Elementor Expands Beyond Page Building: Elementor is rapidly evolving beyond its roots as a page builder, expanding into a full suite of standalone tools that serve broader WordPress needs. These include utilities like Site Mailer for email deliverability, Image Optimizer for performance, Ally for accessibility, and the soon-to-launch AI assistant Angie. Importantly, many of these tools work independently of Elementor, making them accessible to all WordPress users regardless of their chosen builder.AI Integration is Shaping the Future of Elementor: A major focus for Elementor is integrating AI to streamline website creation and management. From Site Planner, which generates a full website structure from a prompt, to Ally’s AI-powered accessibility fixes, and Angie’s promise of automating time-consuming tasks, Elementor is positioning AI as a core part of the WordPress user experience. This not only increases efficiency but helps WordPress remain competitive and user-friendly in an AI-driven era.Performance and Speed Take Center Stage with Version 4: Elementor is addressing long-standing concerns about performance by refactoring its aging codebase. Version 4 (V4) of the page builder brings improvements in speed, cleaner code, and better development workflows. This overhaul is designed to benefit both end users, who will see faster websites, and developers, who will gain the ability to deploy new features more quickly and cleanly.Mentioned in the Show:ElementorW3TechsImage OptimizerAllySite Planner AngieWP Accessibility DayUnderrepresented in Tech🙏 Sponsor: WordPress.comBuild and manage professional sites with secure managed hosting on WordPress.com. Beautiful themes, built-in SEO, and payment tools, and access to over 50,000 plugins. Everything you need for your business, plus 24/7 support from WordPress experts. 🐦 You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:Miriam Schwab (Head of WordPress, Elementor)Michelle Frechette (Director of Community Relations, Post Status)Olivia Bisset (Intern, Post Status)The Post Status  podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. 📝Browse our archives, and don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, Simplecast, or RSS. 🎧