Wordpress

Improving WordPress Sites With Web Standards

Water Fluoridation campaign website screenshot

A new WordPress site for Arcora Foundation’s Washington State Water Fluoridation campaign.

Scope of Work 

This project involved upgrading a DIVI Child Theme running outdated, insecure PHP software to a modern, Full Site Editor Theme running PHP 8.4. Non-semantic DIVI code was replaced with accessible, semantic HTML structure.

  • Accessibility Compliance
  • Performance Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • WordPress Theme Development

Accessibility improvements include:

  • Scalable viewport for mobile and assistive technology devices
  • Links with 2 visual indicators
  • Skip-to-Content links for screen readers
  • Secondary navigation method: site search

Homepage file size was reduced 50% to 1 Mb, less than half the industry median; and server requests were also reduced 50% from 64 to 32 – resulting in sub 3 second mobile load times.

Benchmarks

Performance MetricOld DIVI WebsiteNew WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility83/10096/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices92/10092/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed57/10094/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed88/10096/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization92/10092/100
WebPageTest Speed Index4.1302.684
Total Homepage File Size2 Mb (612 Kb Images + 1.05 Mb Scripts + 154 Kb CSS + 306 Kb Fonts + 612 Kb HTML)1 Mb (325 Kb Images + 772 Kb Scripts + 99 Kb CSS + 35 Kb Fonts + 75 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests64 (9 Images + 18 Scripts + 13 CSS + 7 Fonts + 11 Other + 6 HTML)32 (6 Images + 11 Scripts + 5 CSS + 1 Font + 4 Other + 5 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time~4.3 seconds< 1 second
WebPageTest Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2025, 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

WordPress Design & Development: Scott Marlow

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Creating Quality Websites Together

Seattle Mosaic Arts website screenshot

Scope of Work 

To highlight members’ mosaic artwork, visual design is modern and minimal.

  • Block Editor Integration
  • E-Commerce
  • Visual Design & Layout
  • WordPress Theme Development

Benchmarks

Performance MetricOld WordPress WebsiteNew WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility88/10096/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices68/10074/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed75/10076/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed97/10094/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization92/100100/100
WebPageTest Speed Index.832.930
Total Homepage File Size524 Kb (65 Kb Images + 426 Kb Scripts + 25 Kb CSS + 11 Kb Other + 8 Kb HTML)536 Kb (Kb Images + Kb Scripts + Kb CSS + Kb Fonts + Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests45 (8 Images + 21 Scripts + 6 CSS + 4 Other + 6 HTML)45 (8 Images + 21 Scripts + 6 CSS + Fonts + 4 Other + 6 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time<1 second< 1 second

WebPageTest 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 & Layout: IvyCat
WordPress Theme Development: Scott Marlow

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Quality Nonprofit WordPress Sites

A new Block Editor-enabled WordPress site for Washington State Council of the Emergency Nurses Association – a not-for-profit professional organization affiliated with the National Emergency Nurses Association. Washington ENA is dedicated to quality patient care, public safety, continuing education, nursing research and promotion of the nursing profession.

Scope of Work

Our web design team was selected as part of a formal RFP to clone a Ruby On Rails website into a standalone WordPress environment so that WA ENA would have more control over content management.

  • Client discovery and needs assessment
  • Accessibility conformance
  • Content migration
  • Performance optimization
  • Visual Design & Layout
  • WordPress theme development

The new site includes a dynamic events calendar, online contact forms, and a variety of member resources.

Overall homepage size decreased 58% to 1.227 Mb – 42% below the industry median; and reducing Javascript improved mobile page speed 3 fold, to ~1.7 seconds.

To improve conformance to WCAG Level AA – the new website features ‘skip to content’ links, keyboard-navigable navigation, high contrast colors (> 4.5:1), semantic HTML, and other best practices.

Benchmarks

Performance MetricOld Ruby On Rails SiteNew WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility77/10091/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices100/100100/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed45/10099/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed61/100100/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization92/10092/100
WebPageTest Speed Index4.7161.746
Total Homepage File Size2.912 Mb (666 Kb Images + 1.582 Mb Scripts + 222 Kb Fonts + 462 Kb CSS + 42 Kb HTML)1.227 Mb (760 Kb Images + 256 Kb Scripts + 117 Kb Fonts + 92 Kb CSS + 32 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests28 (4 Images + 9 Scripts + 4 CSS + 5 Fonts + 3 Other + 3 HTML)71 (14 Images + 26 Scripts + 23 CSS + 4 Fonts + 3 Other + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time~4.7 seconds~1.7 seconds

WebPageTest 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

Branding & Visual Design: Terri Nakamura
WordPress Theme Development: Scott Marlow

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Your Website. Well Built.

Marcom agency screenshot

A new Block Editor-enabled WordPress site for Make it Matter – a community of marketing professionals who provide branding, copywriting, strategy and visual design services.

Scope of Work

  • Performance Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • WordPress Theme Development

Performance

To optimize performance, overall page size, at 241 Kb, is 91% below the average industry homepage size of ~2.4 Mb. Page load speed is improved with a modest 16 server requests.

Benchmarks

Performance Metric New WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility 91/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices 100/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed 99/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed 100/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization 92/100
WebPageTest Speed Index 1.755
Total Homepage File Size 241 Kb (73 Kb Images + 26 Kb Scripts + 12 Kb CSS + + 119 Kb Fonts + 16 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests 16 (4 Images + 5 Scripts + 4 CSS + 2 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time ~1.8 seconds

WebPageTest 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

Branding & Visual Design: Make It Matter
WordPress Design + Development: Scott Marlow

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WordPress Sites Designed to Exceed Expectations

screenshot of civil engineer website

A website rebuild and redesign for CivilAir Engineers.

CivilAir Engineers, PLLC is a certified Veteran Owned Business – providing civil engineering, construction management, and staff augmentation services to public agencies and prime consultants.  CAE also specializes in infrastructure planning, engineering design, and construction management for capital improvement, airports, ports, and transportation projects.

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 824 Kb, is 61% below the median industry homepage size of ~2.1 Mb. By migrating from GoDaddy’s site builder to WordPress, server requests, which are the primary cause of slow page load, have been reduced 91%, from 138 to 12.

Before & After Performance Comparison

Performance Metric Old GoDaddy-Powered Website
 New WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility 92/100 100/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices 75/100 96/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed 71/100 99/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed 73/100 97/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization 85/100 92/100
WebPageTest Speed Index 3.748 1.822
Total Homepage File Size 3.046 Mb (1.34 Mb Images + 1.2 Mb Scripts + 120 Kb CSS + + 419 Kb Fonts + 33 Kb HTML) 824 Kb (335 Kb Images + 19 Kb Scripts + 4 Kb CSS + + 473 Kb Fonts + 13 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests 138 (32 Images + 47 Scripts + 34 CSS + 9 Fonts + 10 Other + 6 HTML) 12 (3 Images + 4 Scripts + 2 CSS + 2 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time ~3.8 seconds ~1.8 seconds

WebPageTest 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

WordPress Design + Development: Scott Marlow

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