A WordPress site nobody has touched in years
WordPress is a content management system. Its strength is that content can be changed without a developer. If nobody ever does that, the costs remain: updates, plugin upkeep, an admin login that gets attacked, and the load times a page builder brings along. For a site that barely changes, a lean server-rendered website is faster, safer and cheaper to run.
How it gets solved
First comes a check of what the site actually does: which content has changed in recent years, which plugins are active and why, and which forms bring in enquiries.
Then there are three honest options: clean WordPress up and maintain it, keep WordPress only as a content backend (headless), or rebuild the site without a CMS.
A rebuild keeps addresses and content intact, so existing search rankings aren’t lost.
What drives the effort
- The number of pages and whether content is carried over or rewritten
- Forms, bookings or shop features that need replacing
- Whether the site is meant to be edited after all
Every quote is preceded by a free conversation in which the scope gets cut back as far as it will go.
How billing worksWhen it isn’t worth it
If content changes weekly, several people edit it or a shop is attached, WordPress is often exactly right. Then maintenance beats a rebuild — or a headless setup, where the editors stay in the CMS and the site is still fast.
Common questions
- Do we lose our Google rankings in the switch?
- Not if it’s done carefully. Addresses stay the same or are redirected, and content and metadata are carried over. Shorter load times tend to help rather than hurt.
- Can we still change text ourselves afterwards?
- Small changes are handled on request. If you want to write regularly yourselves, you get a lean content backend — but then it’s no longer a site nobody touches.
More typical cases
Something similar on your desk?
Describe briefly what it is about. You get an honest assessment back.