The Genesis Framework was created by Copyblogger Media’s StudioPress to empower people to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Genesis provides a secure and search-engine-optimized foundation for anyone looking to build a great website, from WordPress beginners to advanced developers.

Popular blogs and business websites such as Pro Blogger, CopyBlogger, Blog World, WP Beginner and over 52,000 others rely on the Genesis Framework to power their websites. While the main Genesis theme is designed for blogs, StudioPress has developed around 40 great child themes for the framework, including themes for real estate websites, magazine sites, corporate business websites and more. The child themes let you radically change the look of your site without hurting your search engine rankings, because the design is kept completely separate from the core code.

The Genesis Framework was developed with state of the art code and smart design architecture, helping it rank very well with search engines, letting readers, customers, and clients find you before your competitors. The framework features automatic updates, keeping your code always up to date and always search engine optimized. StudioPress also provides tutorials and recommendations, so you can achieve even better search engine placement results.

A great, and probably overlooked, feature of Genesis is the built-in security. The framework was developed using WordPress’ security best practices, which should keep you from having to install numerous security plugins and constantly worry about your site. Genesis also includes unlimited support and updates, and you can use it on as many websites as you wish without having to pay for a separate ‘developer’s option’.

All of those great features aside, what many people really want in a WordPress framework is the ability to easily configure your site through the WordPress backend. One thing I really like about Genesis is that almost everything (except for SEO and Import/Export options) is handled on one page (pictured below).

Let’s look at some of the important options provided on the Genesis backend:

• Custom Feeds – fields that let you enter your RSS feed and custom comments feed URIs.
• Default Layout – you have 6 layouts to choose from, including sidebar on the left & right, 2 sidebars, full-width and others. A great thing about the layout options is that you can actually ‘mix & match’ them, meaning you can choose any of the 6 layout options for each individual page or post.
• Header Settings – lets you easily upload your logo or text.
• Navigation Settings – You can enable Primary & Secondary Menus, Fancy Dropdown and other extras.
• Breadcrumbs – You can choose to display the breadcrumb trail by page type.
• Blog Page – You can select certain categories to display as blog posts (useful for business websites that include a blog, for example).
• Header/Footer Scripts – These fields can be used to add code from applications like Google Analytics and Website Optimizer.

Changes to things like fonts, colors, borders, hover options, links and more are generally handled under each child theme. and give you the flexibility to customize your site to your liking.

Genesis was developed for localization, meaning the themes can easily be translated to your native language. Most of the child themes are advertising and widget ready, and include several custom WordPress widgets, such as ‘My Tweets’, ‘User Profile’, ‘eNews & Updates’ and ‘Featured Posts’.

There is always a lot of chatter in the WordPress community comparing Genesis vs. the Thesis framework, as they are generally viewed as 2 of the best WordPress frameworks, especially for bloggers. While I’m a fan of both of them, and they each offer their own benefits, the available child themes and the price of Genesis help set it apart. While websites of bloggers using the Thesis framework often look very similar to one another, the child themes available for Genesis can help give your site a more original look. When you take into account the fact that Genesis can be used on as many websites as you want, and includes unlimited updates and support, it is an outstanding value. StudioPress offers a 30-day guarantee for their framework and all their child themes, so you can be refunded in full if you’re not completely happy with your purchase.

StudioPress also offers a Pro-Plus All-Theme Package which gives you access to all of their child themes currently available, as well as every child theme they create in the future — at no additional cost, all for $299.95.

Genesis Backend Settings Screenshot: