Keeping it simple on my website

posted in: Design, Web

Images missing from my posts

I recently noticed some of my older blog posts had display problems with images, and have just gone through all my web posts updating entries where images had stopped displaying correctly. This makes me want to share my newfound conviction that the best way to manage a website is to keep things simple, and use the built in functionality of your website builder (CMS).

Using WordPress

I have used WordPress as my go-to website building environment for many years now, they have constantly adapted and changed to keep up with online developments. This is great and a reason why I’m so loyal. However, updates sometimes have their downside when they cause problems on your site.

I’ve used a robust and adaptable Virtue website design theme from Kadence Themes for the last few years, and have used plugins to enhance the visual appearance of my site as well as back end functionality, and it is the plugins that can cause problems.

Those familiar with WordPress know that it has more recently migrated to a block editor system for building online posts and pages.
As an artist with an image heavy site I wanted this type of functionality long ago,and found that a plugin module (software with extra functions that can be added to a WordPress site) from Site Origin worked well for my image and gallery placement needs.

The problem with removing plugins

With the advent of the built in WordPress block editor I no longer needed this plugin and in the spirit of good housekeeping (plus a few display conflicts) I removed the module. I checked some posts but didn’t right through my catalogue until recently, and found every post with a Site Origin gallery widget had lost all of its images, now it was only a couple of hours work, but still a job I could have done without.

WordPress image gallery blocks

I replaced the images using the built in image or gallery block from WordPress, and hopefully future updates will work fine. Any other display widgets or plugins that I use are from my theme provider – Kadence Themes, so again (hopefully) their updates will cover those issues. By keeping things simple in the back end of my site, I hope to keep my site maintenance to a minimum.

Its only over the last few years that I have been comfortable to use ‘out of the box’ design themes on websites, as an avid customizer and  ‘pixel pusher’, my earlier website designs consisted of lengthy sessions where I would laboriously change and alter the on screen layout and design of a site.

Embracing themes designs

As my personal website needs have changed, and in essence become more simple (it’s basically a big gallery!), and theme design and flexibility has improved, I’m happy to recognize and welcome the graphic design capabilities of theme developers, and just go with their original designs, rather than stress over the little details that bug me (and nobody else!)