WordPress Page Builders, Free Photos, and Quitting

Caring for your WordPress website

Website Education

If you’re considering one of the many WordPress page builders to create or update your website, you might consider using WordPress’s built-in site editor, Gutenberg.

You can read about some differences between WordPress page builders and Gutenberg in this article.

Personally, I’ve used and experimented with various page builders. Some are elegant and some are clunky. I’ve worked on some client websites that really did not need a page builder. Gutenberg did everything the page builder can do.

When it comes to building or updating a WordPress website, my advice is to start with your specific business or organization’s needs (and what your customers need). Don’t start with which WordPress page builder you’ll use.

You might discover that the native Gutenberg editor is sufficient. In fact, Gutenberg is only getting better.

Why is this important?

Adding a WordPress page builder means adding a large (sometimes bloated) plugin (and sometimes supporting plugins). When you do that, your website performance suffers. And when that happens, you risk losing impatient website visitors (aka potential customers or supporters).

Additionally, search engines like Google will penalize you with poor search ranking. That means people will find it harder to find your website.

Caring for Your Business

WordPress ToolBox

Speaking of website building tools, WordPress has a free photo directory with thousands of photos you can use on your website.

Anyone can submit their photos, which are reviewed by a team of volunteers. Of course, that means they’re not likely studio quality. But they might be all you need for certain applications.

Granted, there are limitations (e.g. no people’s faces) but if you need some generic images that suit your website content, this is a great resource.

Photo attribution is not necessary, but appreciated. Here’s an example:

Caring for Yourself

Inspiration

I’ve been re-watching one of my favorite Apple TV+ series, Ted Lasso, recently. Without spoiling anything (I hope), Ted claims one of his personal values is “I never quit.”

For many of us, never giving up is something we strive for. Like Coach Lasso, we wear it like a badge of honor.

To give up is shameful.

But is it?

As this article on quitting reminds us, sometimes quitting a bad work environment, unhealthy relationship, or habit is the best option.

It’s a good practice to sit in honest reflection sometimes to re-evaluate something in your life that you might need to quit.

As the author notes, “If we quit something that’s no longer worth pursuing, that’s not failure. That’s success.”

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