WordPress Development

WordPress That Stays Maintainable

WordPress runs a large share of the web, which is exactly why so much of it is badly built. Sites accumulate a dozen overlapping plugins, a page builder fighting the theme, and eventually nobody left who understands how it fits together. The owner finds out when something breaks and the person who built it has moved on.

I build in WordPress deliberately and sparingly. As few plugins as the job needs, a clear structure, and documentation you can actually follow.

What I Take On

New Builds

Custom Elementor sites built from scratch around your business rather than a purchased template. This is most of my work — see the web design page for how a build runs from first call to handover.

WooCommerce Stores

Selling online adds a layer that a brochure site doesn't have: product data, payment processing, tax and shipping rules, stock, and a checkout that has to work every single time. I handle product setup and import, payment gateway configuration, shipping zones and rates, and a checkout flow built to convert rather than merely function. You get a walkthrough of the admin so you can add products and process orders yourself.

Migrations

Moving a site to better hosting, or off a platform you've outgrown, without losing your search rankings. The part people get wrong is redirects: every old URL needs to point at its new equivalent, or you hand back years of accumulated ranking. I map those before the move, not after, and check them once it's live.

Rescue Work

Inheriting a site that's slow, broken, or abandoned. Usually that means auditing what's actually installed, removing what isn't earning its place, fixing whatever stopped working, and documenting what's left so the next person isn't in the same position.

How I Keep A Build Clean

• Plugins are chosen for a reason and documented, not stacked up until something works.
• Content lives in Elementor where you can reach it, not hardcoded into a theme file.
• Images are compressed and correctly sized before upload, not left to a plugin to paper over.
• Updates are applied against a backup, so anything can be rolled back.
• You get the admin credentials and full ownership at handover. No hostage arrangements.

On Page Builders

Elementor gets criticised for producing bloated markup, and that criticism is fair of careless builds. Drop in every widget, nest sections three levels deep, upload 4000px photos straight off a phone, and you'll get a slow site. That's a discipline problem, not a tool problem.

Used with restraint it produces sites that load fast and that the owner can actually maintain. The alternative — a hand-coded site where every text change is a developer request — solves a performance problem most small businesses don't have, and creates a dependency problem they definitely do.

Security And Updates

WordPress core, themes and plugins all release security patches, and an unpatched site is the single most common way small business sites get compromised. Every build ships hardened: login protection, sensible file permissions, and no unused plugins sitting there as an attack surface. Keeping it that way is ongoing, which is what a care plan is for.

What It Costs

WordPress builds are quoted per project on the same packages as everything else, from $530 for a five page site. WooCommerce work is scoped separately because product count, payment setup and shipping rules vary so much — tell me what you're selling and I'll quote it. See pricing for the standard packages.