Blog - Marlow FIVE-0

Creating Usable Websites

A new mobile responsive WordPress CMS for Reclaiming Our Greatness, to replace its previous website powered by Webflow, which ROG found difficult to maintain. The project’s main objectives included providing a more intuitive editing experience, improving page load speed on mobile, and modernizing the visual look and feel of the site thru improved typography and updated imagery – including unique illustrations.

ROG assists those affected by housing instability. Its trauma-informed care is designed to help BIPOC communities in King County, WA navigate complex housing, education, and justice systems with dignity and support. 

Scope of Work

Performance Optimization
Search Engine Optimization
Security Hardening
Visual Layout & Design
WordPress Theme Development

Page load speed was significantly improved, particularly for mobile devices, by reducing file size 87% (1/3 the median size) and decreasing web server requests 75%.

Performance Metric	Old Webflow Website	New WordPress Site
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility	88/100	96/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices	82/100	93/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed	86/100	980/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed	96/100	99/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization	100/100	85/100
WebPageTest Speed Index	6.122	2.325
Total Homepage File Size	5.575 Mb (4.6 Mb Images + 873 Kb Scripts + 171 Kb Fonts)	715 Kb (679 Kb Images + 101 Kb Scripts + 189 Kb CSS + 175 Kb Fonts + 19 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests	77 (38images + 22 scripts + 2 CSS files + 12 Fonts + 1 Other + 3 HTML)	19(6 Images + 5 Scripts + 6 CSS + 1 Font + 1 HTML)
Estimated Homepage Mobile Load Time	~6.1 seconds	~2.3 seconds

WebPage Test Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2024, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

Visual Design: Terri Nakamura
WordPress Theme Development: Scott Marlow

Posted on March 25, 2025April 8, 2025

WordPress Training, Education, and Support

An accessible, performance-optimized site rebuild for Forefront Suicide Prevention, a program of the University of Washington School of Social Work.

Forefront website screenshot — Forefront Suicide Prevention offers training, education and program support for suicide prevention – using a public health approach to support community-based suicide prevention work.

Forefront needed to update its outdated WordPress site, which was running PHP version 7.4 (deprecated in November 2022). Unfortunately, the site had not been properly maintained for years, so Plugins and WordPress software could no longer be updated. As a result, significant bugs were impacting site features and visitor usability, as well as content editing.

Scope of Work

Accessibility consulting, training and remediation
Performance Optimization
Security Hardening
Visual Layout & Design
WordPress Theme Development
WordPress CMS training

Performance

The new homepage size, at 889 Kb, is 62% below the median industry size of ~2.4 Mb, and web server requests have been reduced 51%, from 80 to 39.

Accessibility

To conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA – site features include keyboard-navigable navigation; skip-to-content links; form field labels; semantic HTML; mobile-friendly ‘click-to-call’ phone numbers; and a high color contrast palette.

Performance Metric	Old WordPress Website	New WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility	80/100	100/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices	96/100	96/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed	67/100	81/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed	65/100	81/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization	92/100	85/100
WebPageTest Speed Index	3.442	2.960
Total Homepage File Size	3.246 Mb ( 1.6 Mb Images + 1.1 Mb Scripts + 130 Kb CSS + + 320 Kb Fonts + 129 Kb HTML)	889 Kb (357 Kb Images + 161 Kb Scripts + 106 Kb CSS + 270 Kb Fonts + 16 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests	80 (23 Images + 37 Scripts + 9 CSS + 3 Fonts + 4 Other + 4 HTML)	39 (10 Images + 14 Scripts + 12 CSS + 4 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time	~3.4 seconds	~2.9 seconds

Site Credits

Visual Design: Joan van den Berg
WordPress Development: Scott Marlow

Posted on December 18, 2024April 9, 2025

Discover. Develop. Differentiate.

A new mobile responsive WordPress CMS for NIIOH, to replace their non-mobile friendly Drupal site.

NIIOH provides convenings, tools and resources for thousands of educators, health professionals and other organizations to eradicate dental disease.

New site features include an e-newsletter signup, site search, custom 404 error page, and a modern visual refresh.

Scope of Work

Search Engine Optimization
Security Hardening
Visual Layout & Design
WordPress Theme Development

Performance Metric	Old Drupal Website	New WordPress Site
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility	45/100	89/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices	67/100	96/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed	90/100	70/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed	100/100	96/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization	54/100	85/100
WebPageTest Speed Index	4.283	4.786
Total Homepage File Size	252 Kb (153 Kb Images + 54 Kb Scripts + 26 Kb CSS + 15 Kb Other + 4 Kb HTML)	1.136 Mb (679 Kb Images + 101 Kb Scripts + 189 Kb CSS + 175 Kb Fonts + 19 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests	52 (11 images + 2 scripts + 37 CSS files + 1 Other + 1 HTML)	52 (31 Images + 9 Scripts + 9 CSS + 2 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Homepage Mobile Load Time	~4.3 seconds	~4.8 seconds

WebPage Test Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2023, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

Visual Design: David Owen Hastings
WordPress Design + Development: Scott Marlow

Posted on November 19, 2024November 19, 2024

WordPress Website Rebuild for Dermatology Clinic

A rebuilt website for Advanced Dermatology and Laser Institute of Seattle.

Dr. Greene’s dermatology clinic contracted with me to regain full administrative access to their WordPress site, which a marcom agency would not provide. After content was successfully migrated, I cloned the site into a new open source Theme, _S. Usability was improved by increasing font sizes and color contrast.

Scope of Work

Accessibility
Performance Optimization
Search Engine Optimization
Security Hardening
Visual Layout & Design
WordPress Theme Development

Performance

To optimize performance, overall page size, at 802 Kb, is 67% below the median industry homepage size of ~2.4 Mb, and server requests have been reduced 42%, from 69 to 40. Accessibility benchmarks are also excellent, with a 38% improvement in Google Lighthouse’s automated accessibility metrics.

Before & After Performance Comparison

Performance Metric	Old Website	New Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility	60/100	96/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices	95/100	100/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed	72/100	73/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed	91/100	91/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization	82/100	91/100
WebPageTest Speed Index	1.805	2.251
Total Homepage File Size	1.047 Mb (230 Kb Images + 421 Kb Scripts + 117 Kb CSS + 271 Kb Fonts + 32 Kb HTML)	802 Kb (416 Kb Images + 193 Kb Scripts + 87 Kb CSS + 106 Kb Fonts + 106 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests	69 (15 Images + 16 Scripts + 28 CSS + 7 Fonts + 1 Other + 2 HTML)	40 (14 Images + 13 Scripts + 8 CSS + 3 Fonts + 1 Other + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time	~11.4 seconds	~3.4 seconds

WebPageTest Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2022, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.