When most people decide to build a WordPress site, picking a theme feels like the obvious first step. Browse a marketplace, find something that looks close enough, and start customising. It’s how WordPress has worked for years, and for a long time, it was a reasonable approach.
A slow website doesn’t just frustrate visitors. It quietly costs you rankings, enquiries, and sales, often before you even know there’s a problem. Google has used site speed as a ranking factor since 2010, but the way it’s measured has changed significantly. Speed is one factor among many.
You built your website, launched it, and moved on. Now someone’s mentioned you should be “maintaining” it, and you’re not sure if that’s a real thing or just an upsell. It’s a real thing, and this post explains exactly what it involves and whether it makes sense for you.
Most web agencies will tell you they use “the best tool for the job.” That’s true for us too, but it’s also a bit of a non-answer. Here’s the honest version: what we actually build on, why we chose it, and the handful of situations where we’d point you somewhere else.
You want a website. Someone tells you to “register a domain.” You nod, open a new tab, and realise you’re not entirely sure what that means or where to start. Domain name registration doesn’t need to be complicated.
Your website could be hosted on the same server as thousands of other businesses, managed by your agency through a cPanel account they acquired for a few dollars a month. You’d have no way of knowing. And in many cases, it wouldn’t even be their fault.