The most common problem with many WordPress themes is that they are designed as throw away code. They consist of a couple cute looking templates that are tailored for one specific purpose. Once the design of that template goes out of style, the developer stops supporting the theme and you are forced to move to a new one. Using outdated themes on your site can generate errors and makes your site much more susceptible to getting hacked.
GeneratePress Theme
GeneratePress, on the other hand, is an extremely versatile and well supported WordPress Theme designed to be sustainable for the long haul. The developers are not restricting you to a specific design template, instead they spent their resources on creating a solid, well documented and maintained theme. GeneratePress is a block based theme and has a solid track record of being there for the customers. As a result, the WordPress community has great confidence that GeneratePress will be here for many years to come.
But what if you are looking for a ready made design template to get your site started to save on development costs? The versatility of GeneratePress allows for a “blank page” block. Here is where the GeneratePress Site Library comes into play. The library is available to “GeneratePress Premium” subscribers but anyone can view the library catalog. There are 3 major categories:
- Business – with examples for contractors, professionals, medical practices, law firms, etc.
- E-commerce – with example of WooCommerce stores
- Blogs – for news, travel, events and many more
Using the Site Library
The GeneratePress Site Library can be installed with just one click. Once installed, all your existing site content is still accessible and new page templates are added. To customize your newly installed template you can replace the color pallet, images, logos and page copy. Design elements can be duplicated, moved around and customized for your specific site.
Once you have completed the transformation, follow the steps below for final “cleanup”:
- Remove all pages, posts and post categories generated by the template that you are not using. Many sites come with example posts and pages, a page with style details etc.
- Ensure that the slugs (page urls) on your site are correct. For example, if you have a contact page on your website the GeneratePress template will move your page from /contact to /contact-1 and create a new page under /contact/. You want to make sure that all pages and posts on your website have the correct “slug”.
- Check for broken links and dead links. The site templates do not link pages. All the links on the templates are set to “#” which keeps you on the current page. You will want to review your entire site to make sure there are no broken links and that all the buttons are linked to the appropriate content.
Is your site ready for a theme update? Let us know and our team of developers will be happy to assist you with the process.
Photo by Karolina Kaboompics: https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-young-craftswoman-drawing-on-paper-sheet-4219217/
