Creator Theme Feature Fest starts January 22nd
Block themes initially seemed tough to use. Marketers, SEO experts, and users alike were worried about instability, increased costs, and loss of control. Now, block themes are a game-changer that makes theme customization easier and more affordable for sites of all sizes.
At first, Lauren (my dev partner) was reluctant to complete the transition due to potential difficulties in using Full Site Editing. After testing and launching clients on block themes, we’ve both found them surprisingly user-friendly.
Issues we considered (and debunked)
instability
I feared instability, recalling Gutenberg’s rough start. Yet, block themes proved stable with minor issues easily fixable by my team of developers. Small glitches don’t overshadow the benefits that we can provide.
Ongoing costs to clients
Worries about increased development costs vanished. Block themes shift the focus to content edits, reducing the need for ongoing, costly development work. They also make it possible to supplement your theme with plugins that provide custom functionality without affecting your site’s performance.
It’s a huge win for smaller businesses and a massive pivot for the company that Lauren and I have built in the last decade. Hey, change is the only thing you can count on in life. This one feels worthwhile.
Image optimizations
Concerns about image optimizations initially wrecked Lauren. Our custom themes have used a fancy schmancy image optimization process that improves site speed and leverages major success for our bloggers on OC custom themes. However, block themes relying on tools like ShortPixel Adaptive Images proved comparable. Sometimes leaning into the latest in tech beats trying to do everything with elbow grease & years of experience.
Just… ew.
Early block themes seemed ugly and restrictive. Yet, combining them with custom styling resulted in beautiful, customizable designs.
It’s all about creativity and customization. I won’t claim to have the best design eye to make your most gorgeous site happen. I will promise that Creator Theme offers more design customizations and control than any other ad, SEO or UX-optimized theme currently on the market.
losing control
I’ll be honest, we feared losing control over the client experience which I think is something a lot of developers, account managers, and marketing experts are still battling. We’ve spent years building custom themes to be unbreakable (by clients) to “just” plug & play the content that their readers are looking for. Block themes are a level of client control that was pretty unsettling at first, from a customer service approach.
Block themes proved the opposite by making it easy to build, restore changes, and empower our clients without breaking sites. As a content creator myself, who’s not so strong on the technological or code side of things, I could not personally roll back to a templated or custom theme after having made the transition to a block theme.
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