Scaling page builders and pitfalls

Your page builder works just fine at this stage. But what happens when you have 20 more components, 100 more pages, and 10 more users? This chapter covers those questions and the pitfalls ahead.

The pitfalls

Don't include too many variations

If your block has too many variations, you're going to run into a lot of edge cases. It's also difficult to manage because you will have to pick a thumbnail as the main image for the block. If your variation is different from the main image it becomes confusing for the content team to differentiate between the variations.

Here's a good rule of thumb: if you have more than two variations of a page builder block, you should consider splitting them into individual blocks.

Is it a page builder or a document?

Think carefully about modeling your content as a page builder or a document type. If you want your content to be more rigid and you want to be able to reuse the same block in multiple places, then you should use a document type.

Alternatively, if you want your content to be reordered, have different layouts, or have different components, then you should use a page builder.

Paradox of choice for marketers

To help your marketing team create pages efficiently, limit the number of block options available. Too many choices can confuse and overwhelm, leading to mistakes and delays in content creation.

For example, if a features block is unnecessary for a case study, remove it from the options for that document type. This streamlines the process and makes it easier for new team members to navigate.

Use references sparingly

This is the number one mistake I see in the wild.

Avoid making your entire page builder an array of references; it's a nightmare to scale. The reason is that often, you won't want to use the same referenced block in multiple places.

One of the few exceptions is repeatable CTAs, where the call to action text is identical or you might have two different versions that appear on 100 different pages. This is a good use case for references. Otherwise, just use a block.

Remember to prune

As you scale your website and your page builder, you will naturally have blocks that you no longer use. You should prune them regularly to eliminate technical debt.

If you are looking to remove any blocks, there's a great lesson about this here: Handling schema changes confidently (opens in a new tab)

You've made it

You've made it to the end of the course. You're now fully equipped to start building your own page builders with confidence. We hope this structured approach to page building will make content management simpler and more efficient for your team.

We'd love to see the page builders that you create, so please tag us with any projects you create on X (opens in a new tab)