Here are some reasons we don’t use the popular themes or page builders for WordPress, and how we keep things simple for our clients.
WordPress has it’s own core themes, and its own page builder called Gutenberg. It’s better than it was, but still overly complicated and leaning towards ‘full site editing’ which usually results in a mess. Various development companies have released themes and page builders that replace this functionality, while usually involving extra learning and yearly costs. The lines between themes and plugins are blurred and a lot of users are confused by the whole situation.
Too many options
As part of our WordPress maintenance service, we look after a lot of sites for clients. Some of these sites were built in-house or by other freelancers or agencies. Modern WordPress themes do very little apart from upsell other products. The big page builders like DIVI, Elementor etc include hundreds if not thousands of options.
Add in ‘cloud libraries’, ‘website packs’ and other clutter and it’s not clear what the software even is anymore. This is utterly overwhelming for anyone new to it, and has a steep learning curve. Even as a very experienced WordPress user & developer, I end up infuriated with the mess these themes make.
What we do: Develop custom themes that include site-wide styles to match your branding, so everything is consistent. We also developed an easy to use page builder that enables you to update your own content without hours of learning required.
Everything is a subscription
If you use ‘premium’ themes or page builders, there will often be a yearly cost involved. Companies are always being acquired, and prices always go up. Even if you are happy with the free plans, you’ll be peppered with upsell notifications every time you log in.
What we do: When we build you a site, it’s all yours when the final payment is made.
Breaking the WordPress interface
These page builders also use their own interfaces, that don’t match the WordPress style of doing things. That means learning their own terminology like ‘templates’, ‘widgets’ etc that often have the same name as core WordPress features.
On a recent client site there was a ‘premium’ theme from a horrible marketplace registered to the people that built it, that hadn’t been receiving updates for the last few years. There was no obvious sign it was out of date. We ended up re-buying the theme under their account so it could be updated, then had to jump through more hoops to get it to update.
It then broke the site as it had a clunky page builder on top of the theme, duplicating various site functionality. The site ran like a dog and was infuriating to edit. Unbelievably, the header area ‘template’ was actually a WordPress POST with page builder widgets in it, uselessly replicating the core WordPress menu system.
What a mess.
What we do: Develop the theme to almost be invisible in WordPress admin, and integrate the page builder into the WordPress edit screen so you are already familiar with how it works. We enter your content too, so when it’s time to edit, you can see where to change text or images.
Slowing your site down
All these options and the new interface means way more files being loaded, which slows down the front & back end of your site. If you’re spending money on marketing, you could be losing customers and wasting your marketing budget if your site takes too long to load.
Search engines are looking for fast sites that people engage with, so a slow site will do worse in the search engine results pages.
What we do: Develop lean, fast themes that only include what you need, then test it against Google Pagespeed to make sure it’s loading fast
Poor support
The docs for even the main themes are terrible, meaning opening a support ticket to get help. It can often take a while to receive a response, and levels of English vary between theme and page builder companies. Many ‘support’ teams are just there to fob you off.
What we do: It’s hopefully so simple you can just nip in and edit your content, but if it’s not, we can answer any questions you have via phone or email.
Keeping it simple (and fast..)
If you need a leaner, faster website we can often re-use designs and rebuild them into a fast, easy to use WordPress theme that reduces your frustration and yearly costs. Contact us today!