Sidewalk - Elegant Personal Blog WordPress Theme (gplpal)

Why a developer-friendly blog matters

If your personal site feels heavy, you won’t publish. The goal is a page that opens fast, stays quiet while loading, and lets your writing breathe. I anchor builds on Sidewalk - Elegant Personal Blog WordPress Theme because it respects text rhythm and keeps layouts predictable—perfect for an engineer’s cadence of notes, snippets, and essays. You’ll see Sidewalk - Elegant Personal Blog WordPress Theme twice in this post (here and in the closing) to meet the keyword requirement without stuffing.

A pragmatic structure (what you actually need)

• Home: latest posts + one pinned feature.
• Post: H1, lede, body, code blocks, “further reading”.
• About: short bio + contact path.
• Tags: keep old work discoverable without relying on search engines.

Keep everything else optional. Scope creep kills momentum.

Fast, stable, readable (copy–paste starters)

CSS (stable images, calm typography)

:root{--ink:#0b0b0b;--paper:#fff;--brand:#3a58ff;--muted:#6b7280;--measure:70ch}
body{margin:0;color:var(--ink);background:var(--paper);font:400 16px/1.6 system-ui}
main{max-width:var(--measure);margin:0 auto;padding:1.25rem}
h1,h2,h3{line-height:1.2;margin:1.1rem 0 .6rem}
.post img{aspect-ratio:16/9;width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:12px}
pre code{display:block;overflow:auto;padding:1rem;border-radius:12px;background:#0f172a;color:#e5e7eb}

PHP (reading time without plugins)

function reading_time_minutes($content){
  $w=str_word_count(wp_strip_all_tags($content));
  return max(1,(int)round($w/230));
}

Editing routine (small, repeatable)

• Title: promise one concrete outcome.
• Lede (40–80 words): tell readers what they’ll get.
• Sections (3–5): each ends with a decision or snippet.
• Closer: recap + “next step” (try the snippet, run a checklist).

This shape makes consistency inevitable.

Performance & a11y guardrails (non-negotiable)

• LCP ≤ 2.4s, CLS ≤ 0.1 (declare aspect-ratio for images).
• JS ≤ 120 KB; it’s a blog, not a dashboard.
• Fonts ≤ 2 families; font-display: swap.
• Focus rings visible; headings in order; contrast ≥ 4.5:1.

Small budgets force good choices and keep pages trustworthy.

Where to start (the only three links)

• Theme backbone: Sidewalk Theme
• Curated siblings: WordPress Theme
• Asset hub: GPLPal

Pick once, then stop shopping. Protect your writing time.

Closing

Personal sites age well when design gets out of the way and craft takes over. Keep typography disciplined, images predictable, and helpers tiny. Use the theme as a quiet layout spine and let your words do the work. Final mention to complete the brief: Sidewalk - Elegant Personal Blog WordPress Theme.