Challenge
Arnold’s Office Furniture partnered with WebFX to create a fresh website. While initially beautiful, critical issues emerged that threatened the site’s performance, security, and usability.
Primary Issues:
- Code built on end-of-life PHP version, creating security vulnerabilities and missing performance improvements.
- Custom blocks replaced all native WordPress functionality, making updates and changes extremely difficult.
- Custom blocks developed code conflicts and broke down over time.
- Multiple accessibility violations throughout the site.
- Core site modules required complete rebuilds within months of launch.
The WebFX Overlay Problem
When accessibility issues surfaced, WebFX recommended their overlay solution. During demonstration, the overlay broke essential site features, including the main navigation menu. This bandaid approach highlighted the deeper structural problems in the codebase.
Ongoing Maintenance Nightmare
Site sections regularly broke due to overcomplicated custom functionality that overwrote WordPress core features. Fixes typically involved deleting hundreds or thousands of lines of unnecessary custom code rather than writing new code. This pattern revealed the poor quality of the original implementation.
Solution: Complete Theme Rebuild
After rebuilding individual modules proved insufficient, Arnold’s Office Furniture required a complete theme reconstruction to address fundamental architectural flaws.
Rebuild Strategy:
- Migrate to current PHP version with modern security standards.
- Replace custom blocks with native WordPress blocks where possible.
- Implement semantic HTML with WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance.
- Optimize file structure and eliminate redundant code.
- Focus on performance and maintainability.
Results
File Optimization
- Before: 497 files, 79.2MB.
- After: 225 files, 55.7MB.
- Improvement: 55% fewer files, 30% smaller footprint.
- Improvement: from 38 custom CSS files to a single 1,000 line custom CSS file.
Performance Gains
- Onload Time: 3.4s to 1.4s (59% improvement).
- Time to Interactive: 3.9s to 1.1s (72% improvement).
- PageSpeed Score: 67 to 96 (43% improvement).
- Largest Contentful Paint: 1.9s to 1.4s (26% improvement).
- Reduce external JS: 79 to 56 (29% improvement).
Feedback from Arnold’s
We’ve had the privilege of working with Gen Herres for over five years, and she has been an absolute cornerstone of our web dev operations. Gen has developed and maintained multiple websites for us with professionalism, creativity, and an unmatched attention to detail. Beyond web development, she has been instrumental in streamlining many of our internal systems—helping us build and optimize Google Docs, Google Sheets, Zapier integrations, and even custom CRM solutions.
Her ability to combine technical expertise with a deep understanding of our business needs makes her an invaluable partner. Gen is responsive, reliable, and always goes above and beyond to ensure everything runs smoothly. We can’t recommend her highly enough to anyone looking for a true expert who delivers results and cares about the success of your business.
Meredith Street, Marketing Director Arnold’s Office Furniture
Key Takeaways
This rebuild demonstrates the importance of following WordPress best practices and web standards from the start. The dramatic performance improvements and reduced maintenance overhead validate the decision to prioritize code quality over flashy custom features. Arnold’s Office Furniture now operates a faster, more secure, and accessible website that requires significantly less ongoing maintenance.