Why we don’t use page builders

Elementor and Divi exist so that anyone can build any kind of website. That sounds like a plus until you see what it means for your site. You get the code for every feature the builder offers, loaded on every page, including the hundreds you will never turn on. Your site only needs to do one thing, sell what you sell.

The typical build

Commercial theme + page builder

  • Ships the code for every feature it has, whether your site uses it or not
  • Twenty to forty plugins, each updating on its own schedule
  • Fixed layouts. Adding two columns to a page means hiring a developer.
  • When the design feels old in three years, the answer is a new site
  • Leave the builder and your content is stuck inside it
How we build

Hand-coded on the WordPress core

  • We wrote every line for your site, so there is nothing extra to load
  • A handful of plugins, each one chosen and each one justified
  • Standard WordPress blocks, nothing proprietary, and any developer can pick it up
  • A documented library of sections your team builds new pages from, with no design round
  • Point ChatGPT or Claude at that library and it builds from your parts, not generic ones

wordpress web design 1

Every plugin is someone
else’s code

A plugin is code somebody else wrote, updates when they feel like it, and might abandon next year. Every one you install is a small bet on a stranger.

We would rather write the feature ourselves. When we rebuild a site, we usually bring it down from somewhere between twenty and forty plugins to about five.

Fewer plugins is not a style preference. It’s less code to load, fewer doors to lock, and fewer things that can break while you sleep.

You won’t need us for the small stuff

Come to us for the complex things. Don’t pay us to change a phone number.

This is the part people don’t believe until they see it, and it’s the direct result of building on the core instead of on a builder. Here’s exactly what you get to do yourself.

wordpress web design 2
  • Every section is a block you can copy
    Build a new service page out of the parts that already exist. Select a section on one page, paste it onto another, change the words. No developer, no code.
  • Save a block as a pattern
    A testimonial layout, a comparison table, a call-to-action band — save it once and it’s in your library. We hand over a starter set of layouts built for your site, not generic ones.
  • Change a global block once, it changes everywhere
    A promo bar, a contact strip, a sitewide CTA. Edit it in one place and every page that uses it updates on save. No hunting through forty pages.
  • New page types come with templates
    A new location, a new course, a new practice area — add it, fill in the fields, publish. The layout, the schema and the internal links come with the template.
  • A theme options panel for the sitewide things
    Header and footer scripts, social icons, the sitewide call to action, your 404 text, breadcrumb toggles. The settings people normally have to email an agency about.
Your Website Your Asset

You should not have to call an agency to change a phone number

We will show you exactly what your team can do without us, on your screen, before you commit to anything.

See it on a call

Speed Isn’t an Accident. It’s Engineered.

Nothing clever happens here. The sites are fast because there is less of everything, less code, fewer plugins, no builder framework. After that we just do the normal things properly.

Less code to begin with

A hand written theme and few plugins. The builder framework that slows most WordPress sites down was never installed.

Images compressed and sized

Modern formats, correct dimensions, lazy loading below the fold. On most sites we take over, this one fix buys more speed than everything else combined.

Caching that doesn’t fight itself

Page caching plus a CDN. Host level conflicts get sorted before launch, because finding them after is how sites get mysteriously slow.

Every build gets checked against Core Web Vitals before launch. One that fails does not go live.

“Doesn’t WordPress have security problems?”

The security concern comes up on almost every call. The platform is fine. What gets WordPress sites hacked is old plugins and abandoned themes, code nobody is watching anymore.

We install very little and write the rest, so most of the usual ways in simply do not exist on our builds. What is installed stays updated, by a person, with eyes on the site afterward.

Build it by writing code instead of borrowing it, and most of the attack surface simply isn’t there.

See WordPress Support Packages →

What’s actually in place

  • A small plugin set we have vetted, nothing installed out of convenience
  • Daily backups, stored away from the server the site runs on
  • A firewall and malware scanning on hosted sites
  • Two factor login and brute force protection
  • W3C standards, WCAG accessibility guidelines, OWASP practices
  • Updates applied by a person who then checks the site

It’s Your Website. You Should Be Able to Manage It. OR WordPress Should Make Your Life Easier, Not Harder.

About half the calls we take include some version of this. The stories differ. The cause rarely does.

“We can’t upgrade to the newest WordPress version because it’ll collapse everything.”

Usually a theme built on shortcodes. It holds together until the platform moves, and every skipped upgrade makes the next one scarier.

“Every service page is laid out the same and I can’t change it.”

Builder templates wired into raw custom fields. Flexible on launch day, frozen ever since.

“They told me parts of it are proprietary and can’t be touched.”

Nine times out of ten it is an ordinary plugin with a brand name on it. We will open it up and tell you what it does.

Whether yours needs a cleanup or a rebuild depends on what is under the hood, and we do not guess at that. Send the URL over and we will tell you which it is. Sometimes the answer is that you do not need us at all.

Get Started Today

What a WordPress build includes

Every project gets all of this, whatever the size. Anything outside the list gets named and priced before you sign.

Architecture and URL map

Every page goes in a spreadsheet before design starts, each with one job and one target query. You sign off on the sheet.

A custom theme, written for you

Built from your design on the WordPress core. Not a commercial theme with your logo swapped in.

Editable blocks and templates

A starter library of layouts built for your site, plus templates for the page types you’ll add later.

Schema and on-page SEO

Organisation, service, location and FAQ markup, semantic headings, titles and descriptions written per page.

Speed and Core Web Vitals

Image compression, caching, CDN and a pre-launch check. We don’t launch a site that fails.

Forms, tracking and integrations

Forms that route where they should, analytics and conversion tracking wired and tested before launch.

Accessibility and standards

W3C-valid markup and WCAG guidelines applied as the site is built, not bolted on afterwards.

Training and 30 days of support

Recorded walkthroughs of your own site, then a month of support on the schedule as its own line.

Your Website Your Asset

Content migration, handled on our side

Moving from an existing site is our work, not your team’s. Pages, posts, products, images, and documents come across with their formatting, every URL that earns traffic keeps its address, and large sites get scripted and then checked page by page. Nobody on your side exports spreadsheets or spends a month pasting content into a new CMS.

Get Started Today

How Long Does It Really Take to Build a WordPress Website?

Plan on eight to fourteen weeks for most business sites. Here is the breakdown, because some of those weeks belong to us and some belong to you.

wordpress web design 3

What makes it faster

Your content being ready at kickoff. Copy, photos, and logins in hand before week one means nothing sits waiting. Fast feedback does the rest, a few days on each round instead of a few weeks. Team size has nothing to do with it.

wordpress web design 4

What makes it slower

Size, mostly. A small site with a handful of pages sits at the bottom of that range. A large one with custom templates and a CRM connection sits at the top. All of it gets planned and priced during architecture, so a bigger site means a longer schedule, never a surprise one.

Hosting, backups and updates

We host the sites we build, on our own server behind Cloudflare. Nobody is required to. It is just the fastest way to run a site we are responsible for.

01

Daily backups

Taken every day and kept off the server the site runs on, so a bad day is an hour of work rather than a rebuild.

02

Updates, applied and checked

Core, theme and plugin updates run by someone who then looks at the site. Automatic updates are how sites quietly break.

03

Monitoring and a person to call

Uptime and malware monitoring, plus one point of contact who already knows your site.

Hosting with us doesn’t mean we own your site

You keep your domain, full admin on the CMS and access to your files. If you ever decide to leave, we hand the site over and you take it with you. We want you to work with us. We don’t want you stuck with us.

For pricing and more information please visit our website maintenance page.

Does WordPress help or hurt you in AI search?

An AI reading your site and quoting it has nothing to do with the site running WordPress. It has to do with how the site is put together. Before anything gets designed, we map what the site needs to say. What you sell, who buys it, what those buyers search before they are ready to call, and which of those searches end in a sale rather than a browse. All of it goes into a spreadsheet you sign off on, page by page, before a single layout exists.

From there the mechanics are simple. Each page needs one clear job. Headings need to say what sits under them. The schema needs to spell out what the business is. And somewhere on the site, the answer to a real question needs to exist as a passage that makes sense on its own. The platform is not the variable. The build is.

What we ship on every build

  • One job and one target query per page, settled in the architecture sheet
  • Schema for the organization, the services, the locations and the FAQs
  • Semantic headings that describe the content, not the design
  • Answers written as passages that stand on their own out of context
  • Server-rendered HTML a crawler can read without executing JavaScript

WordPress sites we’ve built

Three with a number attached, matching what we show everywhere else on the site.

Law firm web design and migration for Attorney Guss | Pixelchefs
Personal injury law

Attorney Guss

  • 1,000+

pages migrated onto WordPress with every ranking URL preserved

Read the case study
Restaurant and ecommerce web design for Hogs Breath Saloon | Pixelchefs
Hospitality & ecommerce

Hog’s Breath Saloon

  • 300,000

visits a month on WordPress and WooCommerce

Read the case study

Our Best Work

Westgate Events

View case study
Westgate Events
Westgate Events
Westgate Events
Westgate Events
Westgate Events
Westgate Events

The Longevity Center

The Longevity Center
The Longevity Center
The Longevity Center
The Longevity Center
The Longevity Center
The Longevity Center

Rosallie Le French Café

Rosallie Le French Café
Rosallie Le French Café
Rosallie Le French Café
Rosallie Le French Café
Rosallie Le French Café
Rosallie Le French Café

Winnisquam Marine

Winnisquam Marine
Winnisquam Marine
Winnisquam Marine
Winnisquam Marine
Winnisquam Marine
Winnisquam Marine

the biostation

the biostation
the biostation
the biostation
the biostation
the biostation
the biostation

Gallo M.D

Gallo M.D
Gallo M.D
Gallo M.D
Gallo M.D
Gallo M.D
Gallo M.D

Get Justin

Get Justin
Get Justin
Get Justin
Get Justin
Get Justin
Get Justin

Gray Broughton

Gray Broughton
Gray Broughton
Gray Broughton
Gray Broughton
Gray Broughton
Gray Broughton

Kavas Tacos

Kavas Tacos
Kavas Tacos
Kavas Tacos
Kavas Tacos
Kavas Tacos
Kavas Tacos

Dorado Graphix

Dorado Graphix
Dorado Graphix
Dorado Graphix
Dorado Graphix
Dorado Graphix
Dorado Graphix

LetsBuild

LetsBuild
LetsBuild
LetsBuild
LetsBuild
LetsBuild
LetsBuild

Feedback That Fuels Us

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Neil Nahoum profile picture
Neil Nahoum
Google star 1Google star 2Google star 3Google star 4Google star 5
If you want someone who actually understands how to grow a business online, call Alex. Alex reviewed our entire website, identified opportunities we were missing, helped improve our SEO, and completely sharpened our Google Ads strategy. What impressed me most was that he didn’t just throw around marketing buzzwords—he gave us clear, practical recommendations that actually made sense for our business. He’s knowledgeable, responsive, strategic, and genuinely invested in helping his clients succeed. And just as importantly, Alex is an absolute pleasure to work with. There are plenty of people who claim to understand SEO and Google Ads. Alex actually does. Five stars without hesitation. Highly recommend.
IMPOWER profile picture
IMPOWER
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Working with the PixelChefs team was an absolute pleasure. From the start, they took the time to understand IMPOWER’s mission and translated that into a website that truly reflects who we are as a nonprofit. The entire process was smooth, organized, and collaborative — their communication was always clear, and they made thoughtful recommendations that helped us elevate both design and functionality. One of the biggest highlights was how seamless the handoff felt. PixelChefs empowered our team to easily manage updates on our end, and they were quick to respond to any questions along the way. It’s refreshing to work with a team that genuinely cares about the impact of their work. We’re thrilled with the final site and highly recommend PixelChefs to any organization looking for a partner who combines creativity, professionalism, and heart. - Anna Kesic, President/CEO, IMPOWER
Bob Powell profile picture
Bob Powell
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I recently made the decision to work with Alex, Sameed and the team at Pixel Chefs. Their team was very informative and helpful throughout the process and I couldn't be happier with the final result. They took the vision I created for our company and put it to life on our website. They communicated very well throughout the process and hit deadlines without issue. I highly recommend working with this team if you want an incredible outcome.
Joe Blandi profile picture
Joe Blandi
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Top notch company!! highly recommended everything website, design, management and marketing.
Scott Schrader profile picture
Scott Schrader
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PixelChefs has been our go-to for web development work for years! Needing a total website rebuild, we wanted to find a website designer that would work with us to put together exactly what we wanted and that would perform flawlessly, they did that perfectly! We continue to work with them for additional projects or anytime something comes up that requires expert web developers.
Daniel Sweet profile picture
Daniel Sweet
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We are an educational website and needed some guidance on how to restructure our site. We were aiming for better performance to help increase our leads and site traffic. I booked a website consultation session with Alex and walked through my questions and issues. I was able to walk away with a solid list of tasks and a clear mapping on how to better our site for growth. Lots of actionable insights to go on and keep us busy! Thanks for your help Alex!
Hillary Small profile picture
Hillary Small
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Alex and his Website Design & Development team at PixelChefs know what they're doing when it comes to building Websites that not only elevate the brand of a business, but also accomplish the businesses goals. If looking for a Website Developer that actually delivers and goes above and beyond, contact PixelChefs.
Aimee Mars profile picture
Aimee Mars
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From my first encounter with the crew at PixelChefs I was impressed. They came highly recommend and not only delivered a beautiful website but far exceeded my expectations. I can't recommend them enough!
Andrea D'Ambrosio profile picture
Andrea D'Ambrosio
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Would highly recommend the team at Pixel Chefs. I’ve had an amazing experience with Alex and his talented team who are dedicated to producing beautiful, user friendly and converting websites. Thanks so much! 🙌🙌
Speakt profile picture
Speakt
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Great company for SEO
Kiki Tsilimigkra profile picture
Kiki Tsilimigkra
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This company took our little company site and managed in a short period of time, only 4 months, to get us great results in site SEO and google rankings. We increased our sales and started investing more in digital marketing.
Casey Bjorkdahl profile picture
Casey Bjorkdahl
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Alex, always provides the best guidance when it comes to on page SEO. I highly recommend to anyone.
Anita Wilson profile picture
Anita Wilson
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I was referred to Pixel Chefs by another marketing firm. I had a very specific request that I needed done for my company and they went above and beyond to help me. Alex has a very high level of expertise in the marketing world. He knows how to do things that most other companies have never even heard of. I am very grateful I was referred to him.
Emily Kil profile picture
Emily Kil
Google star 1Google star 2Google star 3Google star 4Google star 5
Alex helped us with the complete redesign of our family business' website. His team not only did a great job with the aesthetics of the website but what I loved most about Alex is that he really understands how to design a beautiful website that also converts customers. He took the time to teach me why he was doing the things he was doing to my website which I loved. I feel like I got a crash course on website design from him. :D
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1% Guys
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Alex took our site that was a mess and fixed it to be slim and fast. Helped me tremendously and would recommend him to anyone. You have to be careful with who you use for SEO! 5 stars from the 1% Guys!
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Antoine Anchovy
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I contacted them for a little information I needed for a website and the SEO consultation was full of insights. They gave me great ideas that I can use not only once but each time I'm facing a problem. I highly recommend their services!
Theme Squared profile picture
Theme Squared
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Alex and his PixelChefs team are extremely professional, on time and always available, by phone or email. We work on multiple projects together nationwide, I would recommend Alex for web design and SEO services.
Chris Messeroff profile picture
Chris Messeroff
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My website wasn't ranking and my traffic was low. Pixel Chefs and Alex helped us develop a comprehensive SEO strategy and our website is doing better than ever. I would recommend them to anybody!
J Cohen profile picture
J Cohen
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Excellent quick service. We're not a big customer, but we're treated like we are. Highly recommended.
Jeff Murry profile picture
Jeff Murry
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Pixel Chefs is extremely professional.The work is expertly performed and the customer service is unquestionably the best. I highly recommend their services.

WordPress design FAQs

Eight to fourteen weeks for most business sites. One to two weeks of architecture, one to two of wireframes, two to four of design and approval, four to six of build, then QA and launch. A custom plugin or CRM integration pushes toward the top of that range. Anyone quoting four weeks for a custom site is quoting you a template.

Most business sites land between $10,000 and $25,000 depending on page count and complexity. Multi location, franchise, and ecommerce builds run $30,000 to $50,000. Payment is staged, 30 percent to start, 40 percent when you can see the site in WordPress, 30 percent at launch. A template site costs a fraction of this, and there is nothing wrong with one. It is a different product. Full detail on the pricing page.

Yes. That is most of the reason we build this way. Sections copy between pages, sitewide blocks update everywhere from one edit, and new locations or service pages come with templates you fill in. Training is recorded on your own site, not pulled from a generic WordPress course.

A builder loads the code for every feature it offers on every page, used or not, and in three years a new look means a new build instead of a restyle. That said, if your builder site is working and you are happy, keep it. We would rather say that than sell a rebuild you do not need.

Not by itself. The sites that get hacked almost always get in through an abandoned plugin or an unmaintained theme. Our builds carry about five plugins, we write the rest of the functionality ourselves, and updates get applied by a person instead of running unattended.

Usually, yes. Sometimes the answer is a cleanup of what you have, sometimes it is a rebuild on cleaner foundations. We audit it first and tell you which, with the reasoning in writing, before you spend anything on either.

No. Every ranking URL stays exactly where it is, and anything that must move gets a one to one redirect. We have moved sites with over 1,000 pages without losing positions, and the crawl happens before design, not after launch.

Fully. Domain, hosting, and every account sit in your name from day one. If you leave, we move the site to your own account. There is no mandatory maintenance fee and nothing proprietary holding you here.

Yes. Audits, fixes, speed work, and facelifts on existing WordPress sites are a steady part of the workload, including sites other agencies built. You do not need a full rebuild to work with us.

Yes, on WooCommerce. Catalogs in the thousands of SKUs, product feeds, and checkout flows, hand coded the same way as everything else. If your situation points to Shopify instead, we are a Shopify Partner and we will say so.

Send us your URL. We’ll tell you what your WordPress site is carrying.

How many plugins, what’s slowing it down, what’s stopping you editing it yourself. On a call, on your screen. If it doesn’t need a rebuild, we’ll say so.