Genesis Framework Starter Guide

The Genesis Framework Starter Guide aims to help the new user familiarize themselves with the framework. I was very lost when I first started to use the Genesis Framework and I’m hoping this guide clears up some of that confusion.

Customize Tags & Categories

The default Genesis child theme’s way of displaying tags was not up to my standards. Users will find their posts read ‘Tagged: cat, text, etc‘. The way categories are handled? Filed under: cat, text, etc. Slightly better. The answer? Simple Edits.

Genesis Simple Edits is a plugin created by StudioPress that does honor to its name. It just works. It integrates seamlessly into the Genesis settings found in your Dashboard. It allows the user to customize post, post-meta and footer information using text, shortcodes and html.

Navigate to Dashboard > Genesis > Simple Edits. The following codes are to be inserted in the white boxes.

Entry Meta (above content): Code placed here will show up before the post content. Entry Meta (below content): Code entered here will show at the end of the post. Footer Credits Text: Modify the footer copyright, information, etc.

What if we wanted post-meta (such as tags) to show after the date?

We would copy and paste October 18, 2018 under Entry Meta (above content) or below content (if that’s where you want it to show up. Insert Filed Under: tutorials for categories or both to have tags and categories shown together.

What about custom text in tags/categories?

If you are not fond of ‘ Filed Under‘ or ‘Tagged with‘, we’ve got you covered as well. If we were to switch out Filed under for topics, we would write for tags or Topics: tutorials for categories.

What if we don’t want any text to show up other than taxonomy?

Our shortcode would read for tags and tutorials for categories.

What about using a separator between shortcodes?

If I wanted my Entry Meta (below content) to read [Post date / Tags], I would write October 18, 2018 /

Modify the Genesis Footer Copyright Info.

Another big one. The answer is also simple enough. Simple Edits.

Make Simple Text Edits

For more advanced customization

Navigate to Dashboard > Genesis > Simple Edits and scroll down to Footer Output and put a check mark where it says ‘ Modify Entire Footer Text (including markup)? NOTE: Checking this option will use the content of the box below, and override the options above. ‘

Google Analytics Tracking Code

One of the first mistakes that I made was to try to inject the Google Analytics tracking code via means of a plugin. I tried popular options such as (Exometrics’ , Monster Insights’ Google Analytics) but none of them seemed to ‘stick’. The fix is rather simple and there’s no need for extra plugins unless you want specific functionality.

Navigate to Dashboard > Genesis > Theme Settings and scroll down until you reach the Header and Footer Scripts section.

Copy the website tracking code supplied by Google directly into the Header Scripts section and Save Changes.

It’s time to verify that the tracking code is working correctly. Without performing the steps above, this is where most plugins failed to deliver.

Google has a very simple method of verification. Navigate to your Google Analytics Account > Admin > Tracking Info > Tracking Code. Your Tracking ID is displayed here but more importantly, our means of verification. Click on Send Test Traffic and your site’s home page will launch in a new window. Under Status, you will see Receiving traffic in past 48 hours. 1 active users right now.

Once you have verified everything is working as it should, it is recommended to filter internal traffic in your Google Analytics account.