Google says that a website’s load time is an important ranking factor. Their studies show a direct correlation between PageSpeed and online conversion rates. This is the one ranking factor that every major SEO can agree upon. With this in mind, I set out to find if WordPress Gutenberg or SiteOrigin Page Builder is faster.

Gutenberg is WordPress’ response to page builder plugins like SiteOrigin. It offers a lot of the same functionality and better integration. Even so, it will not be easy to overthrow the existing players. Oxygen, Elementor and Divi are full-featured, easy to use and keep getting better. But it comes at a price: the page builders are bloated and slow.

Results: Gutenberg is capable of faster speeds than SiteOrigin

• The Mobile score rose by 42%, from 30% to 72%
• The Desktop score rose by 38%, from 52% to 90%

Case Study: Infinity Salon, Spa and Barbershop

A local hair salon needed its website to go faster. It used the SiteOrigin page builder on WordPress. Its design was simple enough to work in Gutenberg, so I gave it a go.

Configuration: before and after

Important Factors

• We can turn off features in the block plugins and make them faster than the plugins they replaced
• The Kadence theme does not have any required plugins and Phlox Pro does
• The website achieved 2-second load times without a caching plugin
• Neither SiteOrigin nor Gutenberg is a true WYSIWYG editor

Conclusion

I was able to increase the website load times by switching from SiteOrigin to Gutenberg. Part of that success came from the new Gutenberg-optimized theme and plugins. Gutenberg is not as feature-rich as its page builder cousins but there are plugins that help. It was well worth switching this website over.