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As a web developer, I see a lot of websites that look great from the outside, but behind the scenes, they’re a complete mess.
If you’re happy with how a website looks and it’s providing a good user experience, but you aren’t happy with how it works or how it’s performing, or you are finding it difficult to edit and maintain your website, it might be a sign that your website needs to be rebuilt.
The website might not need a complete redesign if you are already happy with how it looks, however, changing the way a website is built behind the scenes can have a massive influence on factors such as speed, SEO, user experience, accessibility and security.
In this post, I’m going to share 5 signs that a WordPress website may benefit from being rebuilt using a better theme, better plugins and a better structure.
The website is slow to load (and hosting is the problem)
There are two main factors that influence the loading time of a WordPress website is how it’s built (i.e. the theme, plugins and custom code that is used to power the website) and where it’s hosted.
If someone comes to me with a slow website, the first thing I do is check whether the website hosting is having a negative impact on the speed of the website. If it is, we can look at moving the website to a different hosting provider (I personally use and recommend Krystal) or a different type of hosting (e.g. shared hosting to virtual private servers).
However, if the website hosting isn’t an issue, then it’s most likely an issue with the way the website is built.
It could be that the website is built with a bloated pre-made theme (i.e. lots of extra, unnecessary code), or it is relying on many heavy, poorly coded plugins. If speed tests results are suggesting a long initial server response time, a long JavaScript execution time or enormous network payloads, it could mean that the theme and plugins are the issue.
Not every slow website requires a rebuild. In some cases, optimisations can be made to the existing website to improve the loading time, such as installing and configuring a caching plugin like WP Rocket. But usually, if you don’t get the foundations of the website right with a lighter theme and thoughtfully selected plugins, a caching plugin won’t make much of a difference!
The website is difficult (or impossible) to edit
There is nothing worse than owning a website that you cannot edit yourself!
In this era of websites, there is absolutely no good reason to have a website that doesn’t have an easy to use interface that allows website owners to edit the content of their websites themselves without needing to touch a single line of code.
However, I regularly receive enquiries from business owners who cannot or do not want to edit their own websites. This might be because the person who built the website hard-coded a lot of the content, meaning you’d need to edit the code that powers the website to make changes. Or it might be because it uses a clunky page builder (looking at you, Divi and Elementor!) that isn’t as easy as it should be to use.
If you are struggling to edit the content on a WordPress website (I’m talking text, images, videos, menus, footer elements, etc) and you find that you have to outsource every change to a web developer, it might be time for the website to rebuilt in a way that makes it easy for someone with no coding knowledge to make changes to.
It was built before the WordPress block editor was introduced
The block editor is a familiar sight on WordPress websites these days. But prior to the introduction of the block editor in 2018, WordPress didn’t have a built-in, user-friendly page builder.
Instead, if we wanted a page builder, we had to use a third-party plugin or theme, like Divi, Elementor, WPBakery, Visual Composer or Beaver Builder, or we had to create our own editing system using something like Advanced Custom Fields.
And while these tools were helpful for creating websites that could be edited and maintained by clients, there are now better approaches to building WordPress websites that give our clients more control over their websites without sacrificing the performance of the website.
WordPress websites that were built prior to the introduction of the block editor, or even in its first few years out in the wild, may benefit from being rebuilt using the WordPress block editor in order to give the website owner more control over their websites.
The pre-made theme it’s built with is old and no longer maintained
Some WordPress websites are built using pre-made themes. These are themes that are built to be used on multiple websites, and are usually maintained by the original developer who will release updates to the theme overtime with new features, security patches and fixes to ensure that it works with the latest versions of WordPress and PHP.
Developers of pre-made themes are under no obligation to provide life-time updates to pre-made themes, and they might stop supporting or releasing updates to their theme at any point. And if they do stop maintaining the theme, this can lead to issues with the website as time goes on and as WordPress evolves.
If a pre-made theme stops being supported by it’s original developer, over time it might start encountering issues that require another developer to step in and resolve. And in some cases, it might be best to have the website completely rebuilt.
You’re struggling to find a developer to provide support for your website
If you’ve ever reached out to a web developer for support with a WordPress website and they’ve turned you down, it could be because of the way the website is built.
The truth is, taking on a website that is poorly built can turn into a real headache for web developers. Even the simplest of requests that should take a few minutes can turn into hours of extra work if there are issues with the way the website is set up.
Yes, it could be that the web developer you’ve reached out to doesn’t have the experience or knowledge to support a website with a particular set up, and maybe a different developer will be happy to take on the website. However, if you repeatedly find yourself struggling to find a developer who can provide support for the website, this might be a sign that the website need to be rebuilt.
Think your existing WordPress needs to be rebuilt?
If you’re looking for a WordPress developer who can rebuild your existing website for you to make it more attractive to search engines, load quicker and easier for you to maintain and edit, you’re in the right place.
I now offer a WordPress Website Rebuild service where I will rebuild an existing WordPress website. From the frontend, the website will look exactly the same, but behind the scenes it will be powered by the WordPress block editor, resulting in a highly optimised website that is straightforward to use.
Click the links below to contact me to find out more about this new service I am offering, or to view my portfolio.
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