{"id":1009,"date":"2023-09-12T14:30:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adplugg.com\/blog\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2023-09-14T11:40:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T18:40:32","slug":"the-adplugg-blog-is-now-on-a-block-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adplugg.com\/blog\/the-adplugg-blog-is-now-on-a-block-theme","title":{"rendered":"The AdPlugg Blog Is Now on a Block Theme!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Screenshot<\/a>
Screenshot of the new AdPlugg Blog Block Theme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We just finished switching the AdPlugg Blog over from a WordPress Classic Theme to a WordPress Block Theme! In fact, you are reading this post right now on the new Block Theme. We made the change primarily to offer a better experience on the blog homepage (www.adplugg.com\/blog\/<\/a>) but we also made a number of other changes along the way. As an added bonus, the change to a Block Theme sped the blog up a bit and taught us a lot about the inner workings of block themes, info that we plan to pass along to you – both in this post and in future posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What’s a Block Theme Anyway? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you are likely aware, WordPress has been in the process of switching over to a new block system called Gutenberg. You can now use the Block Editor (instead of the Classic Editor) when creating WordPress Posts and Pages. While the Classic Editor was just a blank page for you to type in content, the block editor allows you to place Blocks. This makes it easy to create more complex layouts that include images, galleries, lists, slideshows etc. In fact, back in May of this year, AdPlugg released a new WordPress Block that allows you to easily place AdPlugg Ads using the WordPres Block Editor<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Block Editor allows you to add Blocks to the content of your Posts and Pages, with a Block Theme, everything on the page becomes a Block. This includes the header, footer, sidebar, navigation, etc. In addition, these various areas of the site\/page all become easily editable from within the wp-admin. This is why Block Themes are also known as Full Site Editable Themes (or FSE Themes): you can edit the whole site from the wp-admin. Don’t like the image in your site header anymore? Change it via the wp-admin. Want to change the copyright in your footer? Change it via the wp-admin. Want to completely change your color scheme? Change it from the wp-admin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With a block theme, you can change pretty much any aspect of your site, all from the wp-admin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Switch to a Block Theme?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned above, we switched the AdPlugg Blog to a Block Theme primarily for the ability to make our blog homepage more user friendly. The old blog homepage was just a huge long list of the most recent posts (from newest to oldest). This might be nice if you are just looking to see what’s new but that’s not the case for the vast majority of users. Users are often looking either for specific information or want to see what information is available, and then delve into topics that they find interesting or that are important to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To allow for this type of use, we used Blocks. We still have the most recent posts at the top (using the Query Loop block in a grid layout) but this is only for the very top of the blog homepage. As you scroll down, there are sections for “Featured Posts”, “Most Popular” and a section that lists all of our “Update” related posts (posts about updates and changes to the AdPlugg system).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we could have added Blocks to a Page using a Classic Theme and the Block Editor, switching to a Block Theme offered a more integrated experience. It also allowed us to easily create a new template for the home page that has the sidebar further down on the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While our efforts to make the homepage more user friendly were a tremendous success, there were a number of other bonuses to switching as well. These included archive and author pages that now have a nicer, more custom layout as well as improved site speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Reasons to Switch to a Block Theme<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From what we learned, we put together the below list of reasons for why you<\/em> might want to switch to a Block Theme:<\/p>\n\n\n\n