Why I (finally) Chose Genesis by StudioPress

Photo from StudioPress site. Hope they don’t mind!

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I was very attached to my previous CMS, but a couple of the main developers left in 2014 so I started my search for something else. It took me a long time  and a lot of research to settle on Genesis. (I interrupt this post with a shameless affiliate links are being used in this article notice. I figure that if you’re not familiar with Genesis, and I’m convincing you that you should buy it, it’s cool to make some bread, right?) I am VERY happy with my decision. Simply put: the Genesis Framework built for WordPress provides me with secure and search-engine-optimized architecture for the websites I build. Genesis is a powerful WordPress theme but it’s more like an engine. I start with Genesis and I create a child theme which has all the power of the Genesis engine/theme, but the child theme appears completely different due to my own styles, scripts and other functions.

Let’s go back in history a bit…

I’ve been designing web sites for a long time so I know a good design when I see it. Client restraints sometimes prevent me from delivering what I want (it’s what they want and the budget), but no one has complained. But that’s a different story. In 2011, I noticed that one of my favorite nutrition writers, ChrisKresser.com, had a new site design. I loved it. I also liked how the images in the loop were on the right. I want images on the right too, since it looks better when there is no featured image. Anyway, a few years later, I came across Bill Erickson’s site and saw Kresser’s site in the case studies. I also read that Bill recommends Genesis — that pretty much sold me before I actually bought the developer’s package.

Stability, security, support, and flexibility

This foundation is what anyone wants when they choose a platform to base their living on and it’s what any business owner wants behind their online presence. I tested other frameworks and tried the support of other themes, they came up short. One very popular theme maker takes a long time to reply and still didn’t not fix a bug. Free and cheap sells a lot, but support always lacking and the people who work these other companies have zero entrepenural zest. StudioPress wins for all my technical requirements, but besides the code, the people behind Genesis and in the community are the main reasons I chose it. I am there for my clients and StudioPress and the Genesis community is there for me.

Going forward…

After reading the StudioPress documentation and/or tutorials in the wild from the excellent Genesis community, I can create any design precisely how I see it in my head. I know that my design won’t break when Genesis updates or when WordPress updates (this is a huge deal). This allows me to focus on what I do best: design and organization, while Genesis is working behind the scenes. One big thing is that Genesis keeps up with best practices so that any site using Genesis as their foundation has all the Schema.org code and it’s easy to add Google Authorship identification. It’s also easy to add commonly asked for control with a few clicks, such as archive content control (and SEO fields for the archive pages), breadcrumb navigation, the ability to change layouts, numbered pagination, and more. Plus it has excellent security — StudioPress collaborated with security expert and core WordPress developer Mark Jaquith to make sure that the Genesis Framework uses the best security possible.

So, to quote the quote on the StudioPress site: Mashable calls Genesis “the ‘best of the best’ among WordPress premium frameworks.” This is no small triumph. Over 177,000 website owners and/or developers choose Genesis. I’m one of them.