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Hello! A developer said since Lifestyle isn't being updated anymore and my mobile speed is slow, I should use a new theme. I thought the whole purpose of Genesis is that I wouldn't have this problem but I guess it was bound to happen eventually.
So if I have to buy a new theme I am not sure if I should stick with Genesis.
The child themes i see now are either 'blogger personality/influencer' sites designed more for people who do sponsored posts or seem designed to have sales or services page as the landing page.
While I do need to make sales pages less of an afterthought i want to also highlight the evergreen editorial features to keep users on the page.
Since the website is my full-time gig I am a bit nervous about this change.
Does anyone have suggestions for a new child theme? What do people charge to install and customize a new theme? I used to do it all myself but it can takes a lot of time and concentration. Thanks!
http://wander-argentina.comHi @wanderer that's a really great question. I'm not sure why they told you that. Did they say why? You have Lifestyle Pro which is responsive, seems to be functioning properly. What reasons did they give you?
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
Hi Anita!
He comes highly recommended and he said, "Your theme is very old from what I can tell. Not up to date on the Genesis coding standards or really setup for Gutenberg either. Might be worth updating.I would recommend updating the theme. Lifestyle isn't updated anymore with Genesis so that isn't a great idea to use it again. I would choose something else."
Plus the best speed I can get on mobile is 22.
Thank you for your suggestions!
@wanderer here are my thoughts.
1) Yes, it hasn't been updated since 6/28/17, but Genesis is being constantly updated.
2) No it hasn't been updated to include Gutenberg, but... Genesis is. So there are some features and functions of the block editor that can still be used. Robin Cornett has a plugin you can install to add some of that GB functionality.
3) Lifestyle Pro as it is, is Genesis coding standards. Not sure what he/she is using as a measuring tool to say it isn't.
4) Your page speed has a lot to do with other things besides the theme itself, most notably all the ads and scripts running inside your website - https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwander-argentina.com%2F. If you look at the Red area under Diagnostics, click it to open - a lot of that is coming from the third party ads from Mediavine.I say all of this because I read your inquiry as if you may not want to change. But if you do switch, make sure you are very careful about doing it, do it on a staging platform and make sure your ads are still in the same places so you do not lose any revenue on a theme switch.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
Thank you so much Anita! Could it be that my 'blog Gutenberg' plugin is causing problems?
Mediavine keeps the lights on at least so I have to keep that but yes 20 seconds to interact is atrocious.
You are right, I don't really want to change, firstly because of the $400 price tag for a new theme and installation. Secondly, because he suggested Navigation Pro Theme but I sized all my feature photos, logo and banners and in-house ads specifically for Lifestyle Pro. Navigation Pro has a huge feature photo for instance. Am I going to have to replace all feature photos?
I don't understand how people switch themes when they have ten years of content made specifically optimized to fit another theme. Is there an easy way to do it?
Personally, and I don't mean to step on the other developers' toes, but when you are involved in ad programs like the one you are on, you have to be really careful in how you select themes with those home pages. If you came to me for a switch, I'd recommend more of a Daily Dish - https://demo.studiopress.com/daily-dish/ or Magazine Pro - https://demo.studiopress.com/magazine/ because the layout is similar. Daily Dish is still "widget" based. Magazine Pro uses the "block" editor. I had someone back in October switch to a theme that wasn't similar to the one they were using and they lost some revenue and switched themes again to one that was more like their old theme. The home page was large like that. Just my two cents.
In regard to the images, I think if you went with one of these, I think you could still use the images you have. You wouldn't need to add any others. Maybe need to regenerate the thumbnail images but that's about it.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
Hey Anita,
Just wanted to come back and say thanks a lot! I just signed in again and still have to make a change at some point.
I really don't want to switch! And losing revenue to a theme switch would be unwelcome now! Magazine Pro looks good but the photos are larger than the optimized sizes I have saved. I guess I will sit on the fence a little longer. I really appreciate your input!
Hi @wanderer,
I want to add a couple of notes to complement what Anita said.- I don't think you need to change theme because it's not being "updated" or it's not Gutenberg-ready. Primarily because Gutenberg only introduces a "new way" to edit your site. I believe the developer suggested a new theme more on the aesthetic side than functionality.
- Changing theme will not improve your PageSpeed scores. The scores you are getting are "normal" when you display ads. From my experience optimizing sites running Mediavine ads, you can configure the script to load Async (more: https://help.mediavine.com/en/articles/425160-updating-to-the-async-script-wrapper)
- I highly recommend ensuring your site loads on HTTPS as it's a ranking factor from some time ago
Hope this helps!
Website: wpallied.com | Twitter: @lopwalj
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