Top 5 reasons I’ve chosen to use the Genesis Framework

Since I left ‘traditional’ employment about 6 months ago, I’ve been working furiously to increase my understanding of the web site needs for small business. Sure, I’ve been working ‘in web’ for the last 7 or so years, and yes, I know the process, but I’ve never set it front and center of my business offerings. Until now.

Creating websites for small business is something I really enjoy, but in order to offer my clients the best of my skill set, I really wanted to focus my business model on delivering awesome regularly. To me, this meant putting some systems in place, getting a great set of resources together, limiting my services and becoming and expert at them.

Enter the Genesis Framework by Studiopress. Having enjoyed working with WordPress on and off over the years, I felt the need to make at least some steps of my customer workflow a little more turn-key. This allows me to spend less time ‘working things out’ and more time making their sites, well, look awesome and exceed their expectations. By choosing to build my WordPress sites on the Genesis Framework, I can do just that.

Here are the top 5 reasons I’ve chosen to use the Genesis Framework:

1. The Genesis Framework provides me with a secure, robust foundation on which to build. With so many amazing theme designers out there, I was spoiled for choice as far as design and functionality went, but not every theme I chose had the backing of a development team with a future-proofing mandate. The Genesis Framework not only has good bones, it’s continually being tested and updated. It has a strong community following which means accountability and therefore commitment. Best practices are always evolving, and an open-source CMS such as WordPress, will always be updating to adapt to this. The team at Studiopress are on to it, ensuring sites built on the Genesis Framework will stand when others fall.
2. SEO optimised right out of the box. If you are anything like me, you would know that you can’t just ignore SEO. It’s not going to go away, and with the current climate of online businesses, not just websites, competition to rank and be seen is high. I’m not going to pretend I know everything on that subject, there are amazing resources available if you go digging. What I will say is that SEO IS important and is should be part of every must-have list when you spec your site. The Genesis Framework has built-in SEO integration and it’s good. WordPress is already a fantastic base for SEO but combined with the built-in SEO Genesis provides, you are already well on your way. With some careful planning, SEO doesn’t have to be a headache and using Genesis for my client sites gives me (and them) a head start.
3. 40+ awesome, flexible themes and growing. While I appreciate the opportunity to build a site from scratch, I am also aware that most small-businesses don’t have that kind of investment in mind. The Genesis Child Themes form a great starting point for most of the sites I produce. Genesis Child Themes allow me to help my clients identify the functionality they need and the user journey of their customers before we even get started. Studiopress have dedicated themselves to providing a high-quality, supported & extendible child themes, many of which are responsive. This is a great resource and an easy starting point for any website. I’m excited to have access to these themes – they are a pathway to my clients happiness.
4. The Genesis Framework carries the GNU General Public License v2.0 Say what? An obstacle all web designers and developers face is licensing on the 3rd-party products they use. Not really a problem if you are happy to add these costs in to each and every project, and renew them accordingly. But when you have a smaller budget, paying premium prices for restricted use functionality can become prohibitive. I was very interested in Genesis because of it’s community spirited licensing. I have bought the developers pack,  which means that I can chose to extend Genesis practically anyway possible using child themes. I can use the themes to develop full websites that can be sold, without restriction on modifications. This makes me happy because I don’t have to buy each component or theme over and over, and my clients happy, because they don’t HAVE to buy the license themselves unless they plan on accessing the help and support from Studiopress direct.
5. Less development time = lower costs to my clients. I’m a designer first, a producer second. I don’t dare call myself a developer, my husband is one of those, and I don’t even come close. But most of my clients don’t need a developer, and I wanted an environment where I could become an expert, learn enough, and produce 85% of my client sites myself. I know my limits and the Genesis Framework makes it easy for me to focus on design, usability, information architecture and user experience without being bogged down by things like ‘how do I add breadcrumbs to my site?’. Genesis is a bit unique like this, by design, most of my clients ‘must-have’ items are already considered and looked after by the framework. It’s highly-extendible (by way of WordPress plugin functionality) and saves me time and my clients cash. Win-win.

There are lots of other reasons to chose a framework, and many to chose from, but ultimately my decision has been based upon the testimonies of hundreds of other Genesis Framework users who have paved the way for me to embrace this new focused approach to my web design business.

I’m happy to answer any of your questions, and yes, I do work with other themes occasionally, but this site, along with many others in my folio, are firmly held in place by Genesis.

Disclosure: Because I’m so happy with their product, I have joined the Studiopress affiliate scheme, and I may earn a little compensation if you purchase via links provided on this page. I only align myself with products and services I use or am happy to endorse based on previous experience.