SiteGround

What Would WordPress Do?

City of Gig Harbor parks website

WordPress is the most popular Content Management System in the world. WordPress powers 42% of all websites; and 62% of CMS-powered sites.

But not all WordPress sites are created equal.

One of my favorite tasks is showing clients the benefits of open source technology. In particular, I enjoy demonstrating Core Web Vitals for open source WordPress Themes vs. cheap, popular paid commercial themes from vendors like ThemeForest. I primarily use Google Lighthouse to evaluate sites, but I also rely on Pingdom, WebPageTest and other benchmarking tools.

This latest nonprofit project for PenMet Parks in Gig Harbor involved rebuilding a commercial theme-powered WordPress site with my favorite Theme, _Underscores.

The client’s previous page load speed was atrocious, and the website crashed on a regular basis. Worse, content contributors could not even use the CMS to make the most basic content edits due to bloated Theme and Plugin features.

By following better WordPress and web standards, web server requests were reduced 69% and page size was reduced 73%. As a result of better web development practices, page load speed improved 78%. And the parks organization can now easily, intuitively edit all of their site content.

Scope of Work

accessibility testing
brand discovery
project management
content migration
copywriting
creative strategy
art direction
color palette development
front-end web development
performance optimization
security hardening
search engine optimization
visual design
WordPress training and consulting

Site Statistics

Performance Metric Old Website New Website
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Performance 3/100 67/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Performance 12/100 92/100
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility 97/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices 93/100
WebPageTest Speed Index 7.176 1.831
Total Homepage File Size
(In 2020, average page size was ~2.4 Mb; median size was ~2.1 Mb)		 4.5 Mb 1.2 Mb
Total Web Server Requests 194 61
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time ~7 seconds ~1.8 seconds

Team

Photography by Chrisy Dorsey
Visual Design by Heidi Grace
WordPress Theme Development by Scott Marlow

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Weebly to WordPress Website Work

Family Voices of Washington screenshot

A redesigned website for The Family-to-Family Health Information Center – a nonprofit organization that helps families of children and youth with special health care needs, and the professionals who serve them, to find healthcare funding.

The 1.6 Mb Weebly homepage has been converted to a 625 Kb WordPress landing page (a 61% page size reduction), with 30% fewer web server requests, which results in better mobile performance.

ADA accessibility improvements included color contrast, ARIA elements, a keyboard-navigable menu with a site search option, reduced line widths for easier readability, and a Google Translate feature.

Scope of Work

  • ADA (WCAG AA) accessibility improvements
  • Mobile responsive theming
  • Performance optimization
  • Security hardening

Google Lighthouse benchmarks
Accessibility: 98/100
Best Practices: 98/100
Desktop Performance: 98/100
Mobile Performance: 70/100
Search Engine Optimization: 100/100

WordPress Theme Development by: Scott Marlow

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Beautiful WordPress Websites

screenshot Seattle home consignment store website

Visual Design by Joan van den Berg
WordPress Theme Development by Scott Marlow

A fine visual refresh for a fine Seattle furniture consignment store.

Trish Wills’ new mobile-friendly website features easy-to-update product Posts that customers can browse by category. A modern, minimalist design draws visitors eyes to product details, with descriptions in a readable, classic serif/sans-serif typeface.

The previous non-mobile responsive site had been developed with a custom database that store employees could no longer update in-house. The new WordPress site allows any staff member to publish and edit new inventory as it arrives.

With a homepage size of 223 Kb, and only 23 web server requests – this store site scores in Google’s 90th percentile for page load speed.

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Inclusive Websites for Inclusive Communities

screenshot Silver Glen senior cooperative website

Visual Design by Peg Ogle
WordPress Theme Development by Scott Marlow

A bright mobile-first website refresh for Silver Glen – the only cooperative community for senior independent living in King County.

The new site features a video of facility stills; an image gallery; and a community events calendar. System operating fonts were chosen to optimize site performance, with a minimum font-size of 18 pixels to improve readability for older audiences. A sitewide sidebar can promote units for sale, as needed.

 

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