Many organizations find themselves in an unexpected and challenging situation soon after launching a new WordPress website: their beautiful new site has turned into an unruly, seemingly untamable beast.
WordPress is a fantastic tool for creating and launching websites quickly and cost efficiently. What many companies don’t realize, though, is that in order to ensure a WordPress site continues to perform, constant updates and maintenance are required. This usually comes with the need for specialized expertise - and, often, a price tag.
So, if that feeling of elation and pride you had when your new WordPress site first launched has since turned to frustration, know that you’re not alone and help is available!
Office Furniture Resources
That’s the exact situation Office Furniture Resources (OFR), a leader in the used commercial furniture industry and a full-service preowned and new furniture dealer, found itself in with its WordPress website. The site utilized WooCommerce and more than 40 different plugins to provide additional functionality.
Being in a competitive industry with many options available to companies seeking furniture solutions, having a comprehensive, easy-to-use website is an absolute necessity.
“(Unfortunately), we inherited a poorly constructed website and an unreliable vendor …,” says Kate Mikkelson, VP Sales and Marketing – Milwaukee, at OFR.
Lacking in-house expertise and a responsive vendor, the OFR team quickly realized that without continuous updates to its WordPress core, PHP, WooCommerce theme and many plugins, the site would become a liability. On top of concerns about security vulnerabilities due to lack of regular updates, the site was experiencing performance issues such as slow page speeds and delivering a poor user experience.
OFR officially had a WordPress mess on its hands.
Thankfully, OFR found Northwoods.
“I shopped for a competitively priced and positioned new vendor and selected Northwoods after six months of research and meeting with multiple companies,” Mikkelson says.
Northwoods’ WordPress experts stepped in and quickly began to turn things around. Our team:
- Migrated OFR’s website to a new host that included a staging and production environment for greater ease of maintenance.
- Audited existing theme and plugins to recommend solutions that would create a more manageable platform.
- Provided a review of OFR’s catalog efforts and made recommendations to improve page layouts and product information.
- Began monthly maintenance to update the WordPress core, theme, PHP and plugins.
Now, OFR has a fully updated and regularly maintained website, which allows the marketing team to focus on creating new efforts to reach a broader audience – instead of focusing on their website performance.
Since the new site launched, the OFR team has also implemented new tactics recommended by Northwoods to create a more repeatable process for cataloging products. Northwoods continues to provide monthly updates and expert support to maintain OFR’s website.
We’re pleased to say that OFR’s WordPress mess is now officially a WordPress success!
Final Thoughts
OFR’s situation is just one example of many similar ones that our team has encountered. We talk with companies every day that weren’t adequately educated about the time and effort required to manage and maintain a WordPress website – or whose original vendor has gone missing in action. But the good news is that, no matter the scope of the mess you have on your hands, with the right partner and the right expertise, it can be turned around.
Have a WordPress mess on your hands? Let’s connect and work together to turn your mess into a success. Contact us today!