Freightwaves.

Project overview

FreightWaves was operating on a slow, fragile WordPress setup—burdened by an off-the-shelf theme and dozens of plugins—leading to poor SEO, substandard user experiences, and limited scalability. Recognizing the need for a complete overhaul, our team embarked on a rebuild that would eliminate bloat, retain mission-critical functionality, and integrate seamlessly with our digital ecosystem, all while ensuring zero downtime during the transition.

As one of the WordPress Developers, I led the rebuild of the FreightWaves website—from planning and scoping, to plugin reduction and performance tuning. My responsibilities included creating a custom theme, integrating external services, optimizing editorial workflows, and coordinating a seamless migration to WP Engine.

Goals & Challenges.

Replace a bloated theme and reduce the reliance on plugins without losing any vital features.

Guarantee zero downtime while migrating to a new hosting provider (WP Engine).

Integrate external services for video (Brightcove) and logistics data (SONAR), along with programmatic ad platforms.

Preserve the core look and feel of the site while vastly improving speed, SEO, and editorial tools.

Approach & Process.

Custom Theme Development: Built a lean, bespoke theme specifically tailored to FreightWaves’ needs, stripping out unnecessary code to enhance performance.

Plugin Optimization: Evaluated and removed plugins that duplicated functionality or were no longer necessary, cutting plugin usage by 50% without sacrificing key capabilities.

Editorial & UX Enhancements: Transitioned to Gutenberg blocks for homepage curation and content updates, making the back-end more intuitive and efficient for editors.

Migration Management: Planned and executed a zero-downtime migration to WP Engine, carefully testing integrations and performance before going live.

Key Deliverables.

A fully rebuilt WordPress platform with a custom theme, free of redundant code.

A 50% reduction in plugins, maintaining all core features and functionalities.

Full integration with external services such as Brightcove, SONAR, and programmatic advertising.

A successful, uninterrupted migration to WP Engine.

Results & Impact.

Immediate Performance Gains: Google’s performance scores rose by 266%. First Contentful Paint improved by 87%, Time to Interactive by 83%, and Speed Index by 81%.

Enhanced User Engagement: Pageviews increased by 35% and new users grew by 26%.

Optimized Editorial Workflow: A faster back-end and Gutenberg-based content management boosted efficiency, while preserving the existing front-end look.

Future-Ready Infrastructure: With a clean codebase and robust version control, FreightWaves’ internal team can now maintain and evolve the site with confidence.

Takeaways & Next Steps.

Through this process, we found that building lean, purpose-built solutions is critical to maintaining performance and reliability in complex WordPress environments. By eliminating superfluous code and reducing plugin bloat, we were able to achieve measurable improvements without sacrificing functionality. Rigorous planning and testing ensured a smooth, zero-downtime migration—even under complex conditions—while also establishing a solid foundation for future site enhancements. Finally, providing user-friendly editorial tools empowered our internal teams to efficiently manage content and drive sustainable growth well into the future.