Question

I need my website redesigned. Any thoughts on using Divi? I've asked around and most people are happy with it but others complain about code bloat. Any idea how bad this is? Whatever I choose needs to be good for SEO

Answer 1

Code bloat comes with ANYTHING now a days. All that matters is what the speed test show. You can use WP+Divi, Joomla, Drupal, etc it doesn't matter if you don't know how to optimize for speed.  

Answer 2

Divi is a pain to optimise and I found it to be a bit restrictive. I'd rather go with beaver or elementor if I had to pick a pagebuilder.  

Answer 3

Use astra with elementor

Answer 4

Look into Oxygen Builder if you’re going to be using a page builder for Wordpress. By far the least bloated builder I’ve come across.  

Answer 5

I just find Divi to be pretty restrictive, boring and bloated

Answer 6

@mantellone139 you can go for elementor, and then optimise it as per SEO .  

Answer 7

I only use Beaver Builder now. Fast and easy to use.  

Answer 8

Beaver Builder or Elementor with GeneratePress or Astra or OceanWP

Answer 9

I think it's bizarre to see people claiming that Divi is bloated yet use other themes then add 5 plugin to get the same functionality Divi can offer all in one. Highly recommend Divi, we build and optimise on Divi and not had a single issue with ranking well.  

Answer 10

Elementor with Astra is an upgrade on Divi in my opinion . I've never seen anyone switch to Divi from Elementor, put it that way, but plenty moving from Divi to Elementor! You'll also get people saying that Elementor is bloated too but working with Elementor Pro and Astra Pro, I get the vast majority of my websites to load in 2 seconds or less.  

Answer 11

Use oxygen or go for astra+elementor+rank math and avoid using extra plugins

Answer 12

+1 Oxygen

Answer 13

Use Oxygen - it's amazing.  

Answer 14

Imo - contract a developer and skip the builders all together. Stick to what you do well, your business. Outsource the rest.  

Answer 15

Used Divi for years, bought a lifetime licence even. It sucks. Now use Elementor Plus. I love it.  

Answer 16

Oxygen all the way. Nothing even compares.  

Answer 17

Beaver Builder offers the best balance of lean code and ease of use IMHO.  

Answer 18

Weird seeing all these comments I think divi > elementor

Comments

Just wrapping up  on divi and I have no complaints
https://www.g4lux.com/

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Not bad! GTMetrix dinged you for un-optimized images on the homepage, but I'd imagine that's in the works. Also noticed that the site isn't on HTTPS, but again, I figure that's on the to-do list. :) ()
https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.g4...6KnEX

Answer 19

Divi rulers (don’t hate me for this), but it really makes bloat, but that can be sorted. oxygen builder is a movie star regarding weight, and you can do way more than in divi. it’s up to you. (of course there is so many other options)

Answer 20

They all have some bloat (that can be fixed). Divi

Answer 21

Wordpress is code bloat.  

Comments

To an extent. But without involving a more modern professional, WP is probably the best option.  

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@stinker282 agreed I am moving away from WordPress all together. Trying appdrag

Answer 22

I tried Div4, asked for refund as it was way too slow for my liking. I did read good stuff on beaver but ended up using WP Builder which fitted my purpose. I did read a bit about Div4 using too many shortcodes and then trying to change design would be a night mare.  

Answer 23

Divi is good, but if you are looking for customization then avoid divi, I have seen sites loading slow when they use divi, code bloting can be there but you need tech knowledge to rectify it. I'll suggest to do custom theme development as it will give you exactly what you need and will not be loaded with unnecessary codes and functionality.  

Comments

You do not need tech knowledge with certain plug-ins. If you want to go wp total cache and fiddle around with gzipping via htaccess, then you do, but modern caching plug-ins do all you ever need at the click of two buttons to make any wp theme load in under 2 seconds and hit solid green marks on googles page speed test.  

Answer 24

Personally I'd avoid Divi and look at elementor if you want a page builder.  

Answer 25

Oxygen has the cleanest code by far.  

Answer 26

I've tried both Divi and Elementor, and I've found that Divi is a LOT easier to use and optimize. As long as you compress your images, use a CDN, and host the website on a decent server, you should be fine. If you have specific questions, hit me up. :)

Answer 27

Avoid Divi if you don't want to deal with maintaining it. With each new update comes new problems. I used to love Divi until it started creating so many headaches with each of its updates.  

Answer 28

Divi is absolutely terrible. Its code is shit. It's bloated as hell. Its editor is a pain in the ass to work with and is a buggy mess. And if you create any larger pages, it's a nightmare to work with. If Divi was free, it would be overpriced.  

Comments

@boatload I hate it.  

Answer 29

Use Astra + Elementor and can make any site you want. Astra is a bit bloaty as well but not even half the fat nor complications of Divi. If want a leaner theme can use Hello by elementor but u gotta customize a bit if building landing pages

Comments

Even better, I would just use Elementor's Hello theme. It's pretty much stripped down to nothing.  

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@boatload I would agree except Hello is SO basic that to a noob it's almost unusable. Because of this I use OceanWP which is a bit bloaty but really easy to use. I wish there were a version of Hello with just a tiny bit of basic styling, menu slots, default CSS, but nothing more.  

Answer 30

Hi @mantellone139 If you are looking for the best way to design your website to maintain the highest standard of SEO, I always recommend building it with custom code, not with ANY builders. But if you're really looking at the builders, then Oxygen is the best you can ever get.  

Comments

I like Oxygen a lot, but you need to know at least some basic HTML/CSS to use it effectively. For those of us that do, it's awesome. For others, not so much.  

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@boatload So TRUE! I took it for granted that she knew HTML & CSS. My Bad!  

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@boatload What does one need to know HTML/CSS in order to do, with Oxygen?  

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@rapp You don't absolutely need to, but it will make your life a lot easier. It doesn't have quite all the same point and drop functionality of something like Elementor, but it is largely on purpose to give us more control and make the code less bloated.  

Answer 31

If you’re serious about seo and one of Google’s top factors, speed. use Oxygen builder

Comments

Not one of their top factors, or even close.  

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@eightieth Shhh. let people keep spending hours and hours to reduce their page load time by 0. 05 seconds. lol.  

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@eightieth page load speed = Visitors staying on your site, = lower bounce rate. which is a factor

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@latvian Bounce rate is absolutely not a ranking factor. Not one bit.  

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@boatload I feel sorry for your clients, if you have any ‍♂️

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@latvian But that's not what you said. Direct does not equal indirect. Can there are indirect consequences to a "slow" website? Sure. But "slow" is subjective. Is it better to have a "fast" site? Sure. Is Google going to give you bonus Google points for being a second or two quicker than your competition? No. Not at all.  

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If your target audience is on a 3G / 4G connection, the extra 200-300ms loading time makes a massive difference. Must don’t sit and wait watching the white screen for your page to load.  

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@latvian Sure. Hurl all the insults you want. Why in the world would any search engine look at bounce rate? It's not a good indicator of the user experience. If my sink is leaking and I search for a plumber on Google, find one, click on their listing, go to their home page and pick up the phone to call them without visiting any other pages on their site, that will register as a bounce. Why should they be punished for that? I found exactly what I wanted. If I want to do some research on The Battle of Waterloo, search for it, click on a Wikipedia page, spend twenty minutes reading the page without visiting another page, that will also be a bounce. Again, I found exactly what I was looking for though.  

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@latvian there’s way to little volume of data on most queries to infer anything from things like bounce rate. Of course it affects user conversion but Seo isn’t UC.  

Answer 32

Avoid Divi, it's slow AF - better to use Thrive Architect

Comments

How do you feel about thrive compared to Oxygen, Elementor or Beaver?  

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Honestly haven't tried those, but heard really good things about Elementor specifically

Answer 33

Yep, dont use divi. It sucks

Answer 34

I have over 100 Divi sites and I can tell you with absolute certainty that Divi depends heavily on proper hosting setup. I have never had a Divi site crash. Not at updates or any other time. People try to use Divi on cheap hosting with 87 shady plugins and get frustrated and blame Divi. Its not Divi. I have Divi sites that are screaming fast. It’s just a matter of php version and settings and not using some of Divis transform settings and things that require a ton of css rendering. A Divi site is what you make it, so anyone complaining about it just didn’t do it right. That said, Divi does have downfalls but is easy to use for non techies. All builders do. Code bloat is a thing with builders but if your hosting is proper, you really shouldn’t have any problems. SEO is SEO. Divi doesn’t have much to do with anything there.  

Answer 35

I'm an SEO agency that specialize in local. Divi is perfectly fine. Make sure you use something like WPRocket to get speed.  

Answer 36

Use Astra theme with Elementor page builder. You get fast and beautiful.  

Answer 37

Personally, I dislike Divi very much. My favorite team of web designers is experimenting with Webflow and they're getting great results. WordPress-wise, we prefer Oxygen. Lastly, if the budget allows for it, just hire a professional developer and a professional designer, best results ever.  

Answer 38

I'm going to try Brizy. it's a good looking theme, that is seo friendly. It was highly recommended on one of my other seo groups

Answer 39

Divi is just fine. If you are used to it then use it. If not give the new wordpress layout a try.  

Answer 40

Generate Press is a beautiful and fast theme too. The thing I like about it is you can turn side bars on and off at a page level. Ie: two sidebars, plus content, one sidebar/content, no sidebars/just content.  

Answer 41

Thank you everyone for your comments. much appreciated

Comments

Hi @mantellone139, please check your inbox. Thanks!  

Answer 42

I have worked with Divi & it's awful (at best). I recently worked with a client on a site together (I do some 1-1 build training) started in Astra but then moved to OceanWP as the client struggled a bit Astra. OceanWP + elementor + a great caching plugin is a good combo

Answer 43

I have used Divi, Elementor, Thrive Architect. Elementor is by far the BEST.  

Answer 44

I have been developing websites for over 14 years. And I have used many web applications. I also used Divi till a few years ago yes my problem had been with the code that will leave should you want to switch a theme! Now I use Elementor page builder and Crockblock plugins, and I am happy including my clients. YES it's Elementor the winner it's free, also comes with pro. If you need more info you can DM me. All the best.  

Answer 45

I prefer elementor.  

Comments

@angeliqueangelis agreed

Answer 46

In my opinion, there are better themes but Divi works just fine. I know many websites doing very well on this theme. I don’t know why people feel the need to criticize themes that they don’t personally use.  

Comments

@allina7861 I have used it. I wouldn’t criticize it for no reason. It’s so bad, that I will no longer take on clients using Divi unless they have a strong web designer that is responsive to our requests for updates. I won’t touch that POS anymore.  

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@boatload you win

Answer 47

Divi 4 is way better than previous version.  

Answer 48

Elementor generates extremely bloated code. But people like it. And it's the most mature tool on the market.  

Answer 49

My preference is Gutenberg. Reasonably clean code and native support by WordPress.  

Answer 50

Oxygen is worth consideration if you are into page builders. That's all.  

Answer 51

Are you talking about the divi builder or theme (which incorporates the builder). Because if you use the builder with a bloated theme, then you have double trouble.  

Answer 52

Oxygen is the least bloated of all the WP page builders. And if I compare my Elementor sites with Oxygen and the load speed is just leagues ahead with oxygen. Here is a useful demonstration  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmI...9Wd0U

Answer 53

I use both Divi and Oxygen. I agree with @anthropophagy8058 Oxygen is by far the best builder. It's hard to make a page load slow using oxygen. On the other hand. Divi is very user-friendly but making a page load fast is like pulling teeth.  

Answer 54

I've been building in Divi for 4 years. If you know how it works, you can make it work really fast and make it super pretty.  

Comments

@crinkumcrankum it’s not that you can’t make it fast. It’s more that if you build the same thing in another builder, it will be even faster.  

Answer 55

If you're OK with spending an extra $30/month for premium hosting to make it load faster, then Divi is great!  

Answer 56

Divi works fine for me, ranked many sites with it. A bit of a pain in some aspects but nothing majorly wrong with it

Answer 57

Id go with elementor. There are definitely better options out there than divi.  

Answer 58

We use Divi a lot and focus on Web Accessibility. If you would like to make sure your site works for everyone.  

Answer 59

One word: Oxygen.  

Answer 60

I chose elementor. Any good WP dev can optimize a decent page builder. Divi is fairly popular in the WP community.  

Answer 61

Your theme won't make or break your SEO. Unless, that is, if you don't go out of your way to pick some obscure one that has no traction and no solid support community. Divi is fine. We use it in just about all of our projects. But using the theme alone doesn't solve the SEO issue. Granted, it doesn't create extra SEO problems, but using the theme alone won't make your site rank on top of Google. I hear this conversation over and over again that one theme is this or that. If you don't set it up properly, and don't use proper speed, SEO, security settings, you won't have a fast, secure, top taking website. Period. In the past few years my team has migrated dozens of sites, with over 100. 000 pages total. These sites generate over 1m pageviews per month. We've had custom themes load ridiculously slow. We've had Divi load ridiculously slow. We even had a case of Genesis theme website loading for over 17 seconds off of a vps. It's not the tools. It's how you use them. If you like Divi because it's easy to use, go for it. it's a solid platform. But don't forget that there's a set of tweaks to make it run fast, that aren't built in because the theme out of the box is set for flexibility, not speed. And that goes for any other theme out there. Hope this helps.  

Answer 62

Take a look at Elementor.  

Answer 63

All people that are talking about Divi being bloated, have either no idea what they are talking about or just didnt even try to use divi. My page loads in less than 2secs on shared hosting and has 95%+ on gtmetrix. com.  

Comments

@beaumont7610 i had a divi site that was great

Answer 64

I don’t like Divi. Used to use it. Too much bloat in the code. The guy above saying that he has his site loading in 2. 3 seconds is great but its a fact that Divi has a lot of bloat in their code. Astra Pro is like Divi with all the different features and flexibility but much cleaner code and much faster load times by a country mile. The Astra agency package is phenomenal. I have a default and standardized installation with plugins and child theme loading in . 9 seconds. Many people like Divi, I don’t and it’s just an opinion and now you know why and what we use  

Comments

@kristikristian7061 Astra pro premade templates take forever to load.  

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Not for us. 9 secs on our default install with WP plugins and dummy content.  

Answer 65

Super happy with Divi, yes the code is somewhat bloated, but the pro's outweigh the cons bigtime in that perspective :). We are ranking countless projects on Divi sites, and page speed is more or less a skill that is independent of themes in my opinion. So if you want a theme with loads of customization options, freedom and still want it to work for SEO. Go for it. i love Divi.  

Answer 66

I like mobirise, not a lot of bloat and pages still load fast, use the AMP templates to load on mobile even faster

Answer 67

I am building with elementor and Astra!  

Answer 68

I f*** hate Divi with the passion of a million suns.  

Answer 69

My developers hate divi too

Answer 70

Divi does some things well, others not so well. And yeah, code bloat is definitely an issue. There are usually ways to work around Divi's quirks, but it can be a pain in the ass. Luckily, there's a fairly good community on reddit. But if you're not already using Divi, maybe find something a little friendlier.  

Answer 71

You can use Divi because it is a good theme. But it is better to use custom theme for your business purposes.  

Answer 72

Astra and elementor anyday, superb load times and options

Answer 73

Go for Elementor. It's much faster than Divi. I have been using Divi for 5 years and a great fan. Now I myself moving over to Elementor. Many suggested Asta and Elementor

Answer 74

Moved from Divi to Elementor. Divi’s code bloat drove me crazy when I needed to do some custom coding.  

Answer 75

I’m a huge fan of Generate Press with elementor. Super lightweight and insanely fast, easy to setup, and tons of customizations. Only $29 too! I also really like Avada, it’s a lot larger but still makes fast loading sites.