WordPress development

Who it is for

WordPress runs a large share of small business websites in Suffolk, as it does everywhere. We work with three kinds of client. The first wants a new site and needs to publish regularly: news, case studies, jobs, events. The second already has a WordPress site that has become slow, fragile or impossible to edit, usually after years of plugins added by different people. The third is another agency or freelancer who needs a developer for a specific piece of work.

Typical examples are estate agents and solicitors who publish often, schools and charities with several editors, manufacturers adding a news and case study section, and hospitality businesses in Woodbridge, Southwold or Bury St Edmunds that update menus and events every week.

When WordPress is the right choice

Situation	Our view
Several people publish news, jobs or case studies	WordPress is a good fit
You already use WordPress and staff know it	Usually keep it and clean it up
A small brochure site that changes twice a year	A static build is faster, cheaper to run and safer
An online shop	Often Shopify; WooCommerce if content matters more than the shop
Bookings, memberships or complex data	Depends on the system; we compare options first

We build both WordPress and static sites, so there is no reason for us to push one over the other.

What is included

• A custom block theme built for your design, not a page builder layered on a multipurpose theme.
• Custom blocks and patterns so editors can build pages that stay on brand.
• Custom post types where they help: projects, case studies, vacancies, locations.
• A short, justified plugin list: forms, SEO, backups, security, caching. Each one is documented.
• Locked-down user roles so editors cannot break the layout or install plugins.
• Image handling that serves modern formats at the right sizes.
• Staging site, deployment process and automated backups.
• A written editing guide and a training session for your team.

Step by step

1. Audit or brief. For an existing site, we review the theme, plugins, hosting and speed. For a new site, we agree the page plan and content types.
2. Design. Layouts in the browser, mobile first.
3. Theme and blocks. We build the theme and editor blocks, then test them by building real pages.
4. Content. We migrate or load content, set up redirects for any changed URLs and check every page.
5. Testing. Speed, accessibility, forms, backups and restore, user permissions.
6. Training and launch. Your team edits real pages on staging before launch, then we go live.

How long it takes

A new WordPress site with custom theme typically takes six to ten weeks. Rescue work on a slow or broken site is often one to three weeks, depending on what we find. Small fixes are hours or days.

What drives the cost

• Number of templates and custom blocks. Each distinct layout needs building and testing.
• Content types and fields. Projects with filters, vacancies with application forms, events with dates.
• Migration. Moving years of posts, media and users from an old site.
• Integrations. CRM, email marketing, booking systems.
• Hosting quality. Cheap shared hosting is the most common reason WordPress feels slow. Good managed hosting costs more each month and saves money in fixes.

Common mistakes

• Plugin for everything. Each plugin adds code, risk and update work. Many sites we see have dozens doing jobs a few lines of code would handle.
• Heavy page builders. They make editing feel easy but often produce slow pages and lock you into the builder.
• Everyone is an administrator. Give editors the editor role.
• No updates. Out-of-date plugins are the most common way WordPress sites are compromised.
• Backups never tested. A backup you have not restored is a hope, not a plan.

Rescuing a slow WordPress site

Rescue work is a large part of our WordPress development. The pattern is familiar: a site built some years ago, extended by several people, now slow and nervous to update. A rescue usually runs like this:

1. Take a full backup and set up a staging copy so nothing is tested on the live site.
2. Measure page speed and Core Web Vitals on key pages, on mobile, before changing anything.
3. List every plugin, what it does, whether it is still maintained and whether anything else on the site does the same job.
4. Check hosting: PHP version, server response time, caching and whether the plan is adequate.
5. Fix in order of impact: hosting and caching, oversized images, unused plugins, then theme code.
6. Update safely: core, theme and plugins updated on staging, tested, then pushed live.
7. Report before and after figures, and what still needs attention.

Sometimes the honest answer is that the site is beyond economic repair, usually when it depends on an abandoned theme or page builder. In that case we explain why and quote a redesign that keeps your content and search history. We would rather tell you that early than spend your budget patching something that will fail again.

How we measure it

For rescue work we record page speed, Core Web Vitals, plugin count and error logs before and after. For new builds we track speed on mobile, uptime, how long editors take to publish a page, and the search and enquiry figures that matter to the business.

If your WordPress site is slow, start with hosting, image sizes and plugins. Those three account for most of the problems we fix.