Gutenberg and small business websites

Gutenberg is coming (good grief do I sound like a broken record).

While developers still quibble about how this will or won’t help WordPress grow, there’s an effort to get regular users informed about the new editor. That’s important because in the end, the people that matter the most in all of this is you, the end user.

A lot of people use WordPress to power their small business’ website. Most of them aren’t developers and the thought of any big changes can be quite scary. The new editor is going to look a lot different than what you’re used to.

But, having written in Gutenberg for some time now, I can say that it’s not all too bad once you get passed the learning curve. There are some really cool things that you can do with it, and I think it’s going to benefit a lot of people.

So here are some more thoughts on Gutenberg geared towards small businesses.

It’s going to take some time

Like any sort of change, it’s going to take some time to get used to the new way of doing things. The new editor is miles different than the current editor we’re all so familiar with. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just the way it is.

So you’re going to need to take some time to get used to writing and editing process in Gutenberg. Like any important part of your business, you need to learn how to write and edit posts and pages with the new editor so that you don’t miss a beat with your site.

And I don’t think it’s going to take as long to adjust as you might think. I’ve been using Gutenberg since the start of the year, and it honestly took me just a couple of weeks to feel fully comfortable with the writing process. And actually, I feel better writing in the new editor over the current editor because of all of the space and layout of the entire thing.

So if you’re worried about the new editor and the writing and editing process, take some time to learn more about it and play with it at the Gutenberg testing site. Get as comfortable with it as you can. I think once you do that, you’ll feel much better and possibly much more excited about the new editor.

Level of control will go up

But for all of the worries and concerns about Gutenberg, there’s a lot to like about the new editor. One of the biggest aspects is the level of control you now have on the look of your posts and pages.

Gutenberg introduces a whole . Before you could add headings, block quotes, lists, preformatted text, images and videos and see what it would look like in the editor. Everything else required shortcodes, which wouldn’t necessarily show you what it would look like in the editor.

But that changes with Gutenberg. You can add in cover images that stretch across the entire page, buttons, columns, separators and so much more with no code for you. Don’t believe me (or just want some inspiration)? Take a look at this teaser video from GiveWP.

This all means that you have so much more control over the look of your posts and pages (and potentially homepage at some point) without having to run to a developer. You can add blocks to get the look that you want, similar to Wix or Squarespace, just in a better environment. It’ll be awesome.

Use Gutenberg responsibly

Now, that being said, it’s still important to be responsible when using Gutenberg. Just because you have the ability to add and change designs doesn’t mean that you should.

Don’t use too many cover photos on your site. Keep the colors readable and pleasant on the eyes.

In other words, continue to practice good design even though you have more control over the look of your posts and pages. If you don’t know design, consider checking out some resources to learn more about it. Even though you have more control, the rules of the web still apply.

But if you’re worried about Gutenberg and having to learn a new editor, don’t be. Yes, there will be challenges and rough times; that happens with any major change. But once you work through it all, you’ll find that it is so much better than what’s out there today.