Case Study - Wirral Website

🚀 Case Study: Geospatial Engineering Services

Future-Proofing a Legacy WordPress Site with a Modern Static Build
Keywords: Website Wirral, WordPress Upgrade, Tailwind Websites, Static Site Generator

At Vanilla Websites, we’re often approached for small website fixes—but sometimes, those simple jobs reveal a much bigger opportunity.

🛠️ The Initial Ask

We were contacted by the director of a geospatial surveying company based on the Wirral who needed a few minor updates to his existing WordPress site. The changes were straightforward, and we quickly provided a quote for the requested work.

However, once we peeked under the hood, it became clear that the website’s foundations were far from stable.

⚠️ A Theme Too Far

The site had been built using Avada v3, a once-popular WordPress theme that included its own proprietary builder, Fusion Builder. Unfortunately, Fusion Builder had been deprecated years ago and replaced with Avada Builder, meaning that upgrading the site to a more secure version of the theme (v7+) would break all the old shortcodes and likely render the site unusable.

We realised that even minor updates could accidentally trigger a cascade of problems—and we weren’t comfortable taking that risk for our client.

💡 A Better Solution

Rather than deliver bad news, we chose to delight our client instead.

Without taking any upfront payment, we spent the weekend rebuilding the website from scratch using modern tools:

• A clean, responsive layout built with Tailwind CSS
• Lightning-fast performance via a static site generator (Astro)
• SEO-optimised content architecture
• Zero reliance on outdated plugins or bloated WordPress themes

And the best part? The final price was only marginally more than the original quote to “fix” the WordPress site—except now our client had a completely future-proof website.

🎉 A Happy Ending

Once the rebuild was complete, we sent over a demo of the new site, clearly stating that there was no obligation to purchase—we could easily repurpose the framework for another client if needed.

To our delight, the client was thrilled with the new build. After a few quick changes, he gave us the green light, paid the invoice, and sent over some well-earned praise.

“This is miles better than what we had before. You’ve made it faster, cleaner, and I don’t have to worry about it breaking!” – Client testimonial (paraphrased)

✅ Why It Matters

This case study is a great example of what we do at Vanilla Websites:
We don’t just fix problems—we rethink solutions, always with long-term value in mind. Whether you’re a Wirral-based business or anywhere else in the UK, we specialise in turning legacy sites into high-performance, low-maintenance modern builds.

---

Looking for a future-proof, lightning-fast website on the Wirral?
Get in touch with Vanilla Websites and let’s build something brilliant together.

👉 Contact Us