A few weeks ago, I felt lost in the variety of WordPress themes and page builders. There just are so many to choose from…

It’s tough to find out which functions you actually need, without getting overwhelmed by the advertising for Elementor, Divi, Thrive and so many others.

Since WP Mastery was long overdue for a redesign, I took a couple of days off to analyze how I’d rebuild the website.

It currently is built with The Ken by Artbees, which I still think is a great theme. However, I was ready for something new.

For the new website, I had the following criteria (in order):

1. The fastest loading speed possible.
2. A flexible page builder to build landing pages and sales pages that drive conversions (email opt-ins, chatbot opt-ins, sales).
3. The site needs to be easy to maintain.
4. I don’t want to do a lot of custom coding (time always is an issue)

With those features in mind, I set out to find a combination of theme and page builder that met my needs.

I ended up with the Genesis Framework for the theme, and Thrive Architect for the page builder. You can find both on my Resources page.

Below is a screenshot of a speed test for my new landing page. 1.9s loading speed isn’t bad for a page with full-width background images, opt-in forms, and testimonials.

I tested multiple times and loading speed varied from 1.7s to 2.1s. My goal is to decrease it to below 1.5s on average once the site is finished.

If your site is loading slowly or you’re not sure what themes to use when building client websites, I can highly recommend this combination.

Of course, other factors as hosting also influence the loading speed. Simply hit reply if you want to chat about making your site faster, maybe I can help!