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Anyone have any recommendations for website builders? Briefly, at work I use Joomla and Sharepoint, and have used various other web platforms like Drupal. In my own time I help my wife with her website as a self-published author. Currently on Wordpress (with paid Astra theme), and frankly, I hate it. I find it really hard to sort out simple things like spacing, searching all over the editor for the right setting, which seems applies to some pages and not all. Even moving elements or trying to copy elements is ludicrously frustrating.
So, am I being thick, or is it as bad as I think? It's not a big website (currently only about 5 pages) so shouldn't be that difficult. Is it worth trying another platform? Feel like I must be doing something wrong. And no, I don't want to share the website right now as I've made a mess and would like to fix it first!
If you can't do a good job with Astra (which is one of the easiest-to-use and flexible WP themes out there apparently) then I doubt you will find anything better for you anywhere else.
You are probably trying to make Astra fit your way of thinking about designing the website rather than using Astra's preferred way.
This means you are fighting it constantly to make it do what you want. You are not being thick, you are just using the wrong approach.
The next bit of advice should be about how to use the Astra approach but I don't know that so I will let someone else take over from here.
I did this ages ago and it is very basic but was quick and works well enough for a lady to contact me for a painting commission yesterday via the website.
www.NicksArtStuff.com
Ok, so if the theme is acknowledged to be fine, what should I be using to actually build pages? Elementor? The WP blocks? Or something else?
You are probably trying to make Astra fit your way of thinking about designing the website rather than using Astra’s preferred way.
Almost certainly true.
Sounds like you just need more practice, when I first started using Bootstrap, I really struggled to get it to work, and spent ages fighting it. Then eventually you just figure out how it works and the easiest way to get what you want and it becomes simple. I'm not sure there is a way of skipping that painful learning curve whatever you use.
Squarespace is the obvious answer!
Can I be controversial and suggest using the Wordpress theme and then using the elements available in the editor? It has plenty going for it. I like laying out pages and posts first.
Squarespace is the obvious answer!
^ This.
We've built and now manage several hundred WordPress sites. In the right hands, it's excellent, smooth and easy to work with. In the wrong hands it ends up a mammoth hell of 3rd party plugins clashing with off-the-peg themes culminating in the birth of yet another Frakensite polluting the web.
For simple needs that look nice, don't have to adhere to strict brand guidelines and doesn't require anything hugely custom, Squarespace is a really solid bet. It's worth the fee they charge and some.
For simple needs that look nice, don’t have to adhere to strict brand guidelines and doesn’t require anything hugely custom, Squarespace is a really solid bet.
Doesn't that also apply to Wordpress if you just stick to a standard theme?
Squarespace or Wix unless you want to do something a little more different. They are more expensive but you don't need to keep up to date with security patches, worry about incompatible modules etc. If using WordPress life is easier if you stick to a 'managed' solution where they do the updates for you automatically. About 2% of our web traffic appears to be nasty stuff and of that the majority looks like people probing Wordpress vulnerabilities 🙁
I'm dreadfully biased (/ battle-scarred) about standard WP themes.
They can be good, some of them really so but our experience of them is similar to that of the friendly chap in the village that 'likes fixing bikes'. Off-the-peg WP theme sites that end up on our desk are the digital equivalent of the ALDI BSO with rusty chain, flat back tyre and all metal-ware made from cheese.
You can still make an arse of a SquareSpace site, but they've tightened the straps a bit to minimise the level of awful the site owner/builder can instil.
About 2% of our web traffic appears to be nasty stuff and of that the majority looks like people probing WordPress vulnerabilities 🙁
Yep WP vulnerabilities feature in the endless website probing, but there's 100s of other things they also seem to be looking for:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53286793672_67d289d8d4.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53286793672_67d289d8d4.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pbLKgW ]404s[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
I add the worst offenders to a blacklist, up to 112 sites so far.
Yep WP vulnerabilities feature in the endless website probing, but there’s 100s of other things they also seem to be looking for:
Without doubt but WordPress is right up there. I got caught out once on a Drupal site where it was 8 days between a vulnerability being announced and I patched it and in that time we got hacked. I'm not sure everyone is aware that this stuff isn't necessarily targeted, it's just bots out there hunting to see who hasn't patched and getting in while the going is good. Once they are in then patching can be too late. Looking after the security of the site is top of my list now and if you aren't willing to keep on top of updates then anything that does it for you the way to go.
Thanks for all the advice. I've made some progress today and got things looking a lot better.
a mammoth hell of 3rd party plugins clashing with off-the-peg themes
Yes, was well on my way to this. Think I've just about got everything on to one builder and will try and get rid of several plugins. It's really a very small site so I don't plan on changing platform but good to know that others are recommended if there's ever a next time.