Last Updated on June 27, 2022
When you design a WordPress page, you have to think about maintenance.
If you build websites for clients, your ability to provide support is a key reason why they should work with you.
Building your own websites? You’d want to minimize future intervention required. If a page has to be updated, this should be a quick and painless process so you can get back to serving your clients.
Future-proofing your site involves a variety of factors. This time, we’re focusing on the design aspect.
Let’s look at ways to keep your WordPress designs easy to maintain…
Thinking Twice About WordPress?
Before going further, you might be deliberating your platform of choice. Your confidence in the foundation allows you to build on top of it.
If you’re looking to use WordPress, let’s see what you can expect.
Consider that this platform has been around since 2003. Being an open source project, a large community has been actively contributing to this CMS (Content Management System).
To give you an idea, in 2015, it was the foundation of 23.3% of all sites. Its popularity didn’t stop there. In 2021, WordPress powers 39% of all websites, garnering even more support.
Now, as websites are more vital for businesses, we have other compelling alternatives. Shopify is popular for e-commerce sites. Ghost is becoming popular for blogs. Wix boasts its ease of use.
However, WordPress remains to be the safe bet that you can use for various niches and purposes. It grows as your business does.
Your WordPress site could start out as a blog. As the situation evolves, you could introduce e-commerce or social networking features without having to migrate to another platform.
In other words, you should trust that this platform will be a reliable foundation for your site. You can invest in perfecting your WordPress landing pages, knowing that the bedrock is here to stay.
Design Pages With Gutenberg, the New WordPress Block Editor
As we look at future-proofing your WordPress site, we have to go through Gutenberg.
Being a large ecosystem, WordPress gives you an abundance of ways to design your pages.
Through the years, 3rd party developers came up with their own page building platforms on top of WordPress.
To simplify and standardize, WordPress introduced its own modern page building solution called Gutenberg.
Built for the future, it introduces powerful ways to design your pages. Being a native part of WordPress, you’d be more comfortable about the portability of your designs.
Select Themes That Will Stand the Test of Time
Choosing the right theme plays a major role in future-proofing your page designs.
Depending on your WordPress theme of choice, designs can break as you switch from one theme to another.
To avoid switching in the first place, you’ll want to choose a theme that demonstrates longevity. See how long the vendor has been around, their ability to support, and if they’re continually updating with the times.
Consider a theme like Blocksy. Created by a seasoned team, it’s built on the latest web technologies to last for many years. Also, it works great with Gutenberg!
Work With People Who Will Help You Maintain
It’s not enough to see a web designer’s beautiful portfolio.
Whether you’ll work with in-house talent or a freelancer/agency, choose web designers based on their ability to keep your site on tip top shape.
A common issue is having to remake landing pages (or full websites) from scratch when you switch from one vendor to another.
Now, regardless of their ability to provide future support, it also helps to work with folks who are comfortable with universal tools and standards. This makes it easier for you to update the website yourself or with other providers.
Separate Words From Pictures
Accessibility and SEO fundamentals allow designs to scale.
For instance, you’d rather keep text out of images. If words are separate from pictures, you can style your text without modifying the images and vice versa.
Keeping words independent from pictures is just a start. With Advanced Columns, you could easily modify background colors without touching icons, photos, or words.
These practices are good for SEO, performance, and making your site easier to maintain.
Use Timeless Designs
These days, we’re fortunate that the modern style tends to be simpler and easier to maintain.
At any rate, consider your choice of stock photos, button styling, and visual effects.
For instance, some stock photos will turn out to be overused or politically incorrect. Certain aesthetic choices might appear trendy for a moment but later look like the previous era’s fad.
Assess your ability to update your designs and how they’d stand the test of time. Make design choices based on when you plan to refresh.
Pick Sustainable Add-Ons
Aside from your theme provider, consider other plug-ins and embeds.
Your choice of a video hosting service is a great example. If you put videos up using YouTube embeds, you could trust that the service will stay online. The same can’t be said for unproven video hosting services.
Apply the same principle when deciding to use a 3rd party commenting system. Before adding Facebook Comments or Disqus to your posts, be mindful of how this affects your strategies down the line.
You could design your pages in a way that they won’t appear broken if you eventually turn these add-ons off.
Over to You
The next time that you’re designing a page, consider changes around technologies, popular design styles, and your own strategies.
Building your site with WordPress gives you a sustainable platform, making it easy to invest in perfecting your pages.
If you haven’t already, take a close look at Gutenberg. Design your pages with this modern foundation.
Ready to build with Gutenberg? Extend its capabilities with Stackable. Download the free plugin here.
Disclaimer: We may earn a commission from the services and tools mentioned above
