Smart teams know that a highly efficient process yields better results. When your daily tasks require interaction with your website, it’s important that it be incredibly responsive. Basically you want to be able to get your job done quickly and keep moving with your day.
Odds are, though, that during the initial build of your site there were restrictions due to technology, budget, or the developer skillset. This may mean your site doesn’t perform quite the way you’d like it. Or perhaps your requirements and expectations for your WordPress theme have changed in the past year or two. We see this quite a lot during our client interviews and initial audits. The good news is, there’s a solution that lies in between the arbitrary “rolling of the dice” with purchasing a premium theme, and having a fully rebranded website.
When Re-themeing Is the Answer
The solution is what we call ‘re-themeing’. One of the common reasons we’ll recommend a re-theme is because the overall design and aesthetics of the site are in reasonably good shape. The owners are happy with it and it performs generally okay for most of their visitors. However, the workflow in the admin is frustrating. While a lot of time and budget was spent in design, some corners were cut in development. Maybe some things are actually hard-coded — or some of the templates don’t quite work well together, or the theme is dependent on a plugin that is no longer supported and can’t be updated.
WordPress Re-theming v.s New Custom Design
Frankly, some themes out there are a mess. They combine an initial WordPress starter theme with another theme bolted on (for some critical function), and then tack on more custom code without any clear structure. These all-too-common scenarios are a total pain for WordPress site owners, but there’s good news. A WordPress re-themeing project is less expensive than a full custom design. Because the overall site design and layouts are already there, the front-end goals are often very similar (if not the same). Our developers come in and fine-tune the back-end experience, making your team more efficient and removing the daily headaches and uncertainty of the patched-together solution.
Huge Benefits of WordPress Re-Themeing
A huge benefit to WordPress re-themeing is we also have the ability to refactor your code in the process. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that a few of our team members have a special place in their heart for well-formatted, clean code. Well-structured, easy-to-read code has significant advantages for you in ongoing support. Not only will your site perform more reliably, it’s easier to diagnose and trouble-shoot. When an issue arises or a component needs to be updated, you’ll save time and money because the solutions are readily available.
More than a Fresh Face: Rise in Rankings
More and more, we’re seeing how site performance and speed are critical to ranking in search engines. Google heavily emphasizes the impact a site’s pageload has on SEO. A re-theme gives you the opportunity to really hone in on a speed performance budget. Leveraging newer technology and modern coding practices gives a WordPress business owner a step up from the competition. Getting your site speed down to 4secs or less (a reasonable goal for many clients) can mean the difference between a visitor making a purchase or abandoning the site. In some cases, a full redesign or overhaul is needed — generally we recommend businesses to do this every 3-4 years.
If you’re tired of hitting the same frustrations each day, or are unable to update a section of your site due to constant breakage and incompatible plugins, a re-themeing project may be exactly what you need to consider.