Hire a US WordPress developer who tests every fix before and after
Builds, repairs, speed and email fixes for sites someone else left behind, with a fixed price on each fix and no hourly meter running.
You can hire us for one fix or a full rebuild. Send your URL and we reply within 4 hours, during waking hours Mountain Time, with a free audit: the test results and a written list of fixes, each with a fixed price.
Five stars on every Upwork review · Recent builds score 92–99 on mobileFree. You see every price before any work starts. Reply within 4 hours, Mountain Time, or call 801‑244‑5868.
A WooCommerce store we inherited
Layout shift: PageSpeed Insights, mobile, product pages, October 2026. Issue list: 24 items from the previous developers, finished in 2 days.
Five stars on every Upwork review
These are the clients’ own words, copied from our Upwork profile. The Work page shows the sites behind them, with their test scores.
“Steven is, without question, the best Upwork professional I have ever worked with.”
“I literally get butterflies in my stomach when I see my website! That’s how much I like it!”
“Steven built a fresh, modern, and secure new website for us that exceeded our expectations…”
“Steven did an amazing job. He fixed many of the problems I had from previous developers and did so in only 2 days.”
How do you vet a WordPress developer before you hire one?
To hire a WordPress developer you can trust, ask for three things before any work starts: a baseline test of your live site, a written list of fixes with a fixed price on each one, and a promise to run the same test when the work is done. A developer who can’t show you the before number can’t prove the after.
- 01
Test the live site
Mobile and desktop, throttled the way Google tests, plus a look at the theme, plugins and server. You keep the numbers.
- 02
Get the list in writing
Every problem in plain English, with a fixed price beside it. You choose what gets done.
- 03
Run the same test after
Same tool, same settings. If a number didn’t move, we tell you and show you why.
That’s how every job here runs, and step one is free. We test with Lighthouse, the lab tool behind PageSpeed Insights, and read the results against Google’s Core Web Vitals.
What does it cost to hire a WordPress developer?
What a WordPress developer costs depends on what’s wrong with the site, so we price the fix, not the hour. The free audit lists every problem we find with a fixed price beside each one, and you approve only the items you want.
Three things move the price most: how many plugins and custom pieces the site has, whether the host can run a current PHP version, and whether the job is a repair or a rebuild. When a site would cost more to repair than to replace, the audit says so.
WordPress builds and rebuilds on Bricks Builder
We build new WordPress sites, and rebuild old ones, in Bricks Builder. We use global variables, BEM classes and native elements, so whoever edits the site after us can see how it’s put together.
Every build ships with typed LocalBusiness schema, a service catalog, a correct canonical on every page, and a recorded walkthrough at handover.
- Mobile-first, tested on real phones
- Target: 85+ mobile and 90+ desktop in PageSpeed
- Bricks and ACPT licenses included, at no cost, and they stay with the site
- SEOPress Pro included
Recent builds, Lighthouse mobile on October 18, 2026: Woodinville Chiropractor 97, EDGE 2027 99, Bethesda Revive 94, ArborCare 92, SciTech 94.
Fixing a WordPress site someone else built
Yes, we take over WordPress sites other developers built, and most of our work starts that way. Those sites have a history: a theme nobody dares update, plugins patching other plugins, a contact form that stopped sending months ago.
ArborCare’s tree-care site had all of it. Its six-year-old theme broke whenever it updated, the server was stuck on PHP 7.4, and the site had just been hacked. We rebuilt it on PHP 8.3 with Turnstile on every form.
Every fix starts with a written list of what we find. Then we work through it in order of what’s costing you most.
- Elementor, Breakdance and Bricks
- WooCommerce and FluentCart stores
- Old PHP versions and abandoned themes
- Hacked sites, cleaned up and hardened
“He fixed many of the problems I had from previous developers and did so in only 2 days.” Anthony G., on Upwork
WordPress speed optimization and technical SEO
Speed work starts with the waterfall and ends with the score. We fix what’s actually in the way: render-blocking CSS, oversized images, late fonts and layout shift. Here’s what that looked like on three recent jobs.
| Site and fix | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| The Painting Company, total blocking time | 730 ms | 30 ms |
| The Painting Company, first paint on a phone | 3.3 s | 1.8–2.4 s |
| EVONOMY Energy, product-page layout shift (CLS) | 0.62–0.74 | 0.02 or less |
| SciTech, server response time | 1–2.7 s | about 0.25 s |
Blocking time and first paint: PageSpeed Insights, mobile. Layout shift: Lighthouse, mobile. Server response: time to first byte from the page cache. Measured during the work, September and October 2026.
How we test, why a score can swing 20 points, and the three jobs in detail: our WordPress speed optimization service.
On the SEO side we fix canonicals, schema, redirects and sitemaps, the plumbing that decides whether Google understands the site at all.
- Core Web Vitals: LCP, INP and CLS
- Schema: LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and Event
- Redirect maps that resolve in one hop
- Local SEO structure: service pages and city pages
“Steven did a great job with our website speed optimization.” Shawn S., on Upwork
Email, DNS and tracking that count every lead once
When the contact form stops sending or Outlook stops receiving, the cause is usually DNS. We set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC properly and move site mail to a sender that delivers.
Then we wire up GA4 and ad conversions so each lead counts once, not twice and not zero times.
- Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Amazon SES for site mail
- GA4, Google Ads and Microsoft Clarity
“Fixed an urgent email issue. Thank you for your hard work.” William F., on Upwork
v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; adkim=s; aspf=sStrict alignment that passes on DKIM, so mail from your site and your inbox both reach the inbox.
Freelancer, marketplace or agency: who should you hire?
The right WordPress developer depends on how much you want to manage yourself. A marketplace gives you choice and leaves the vetting to you. An agency gives you a team and a bigger bill. A small specialist team gives you the same people on the whole site, start to finish.
| Option | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Upwork or Fiverr | Small, clearly defined tasks at low rates | You do the vetting, and quality varies widely |
| Codeable or Toptal | Developers the platform has already screened | Platform fees on top of the developer’s rate |
| A local agency | In-person meetings and large, multi-team projects | Higher minimums, and you may never talk to the person doing the work |
| Vibeformance | Builds, fixes, speed and email work, priced per fix | We’re small, so multi-team enterprise projects aren’t a fit |
You can hire us directly or through our Upwork profile, whichever you prefer.
Before you ask
Do you work on sites you didn’t build?
Yes. Most of our work starts on someone else’s site. We’ll tell you plainly whether it’s worth fixing or cheaper to rebuild.
Is the audit really free?
Yes. You get the test results and a written list of fixes with a fixed price beside each one. You owe nothing unless you approve work.
How is the work priced?
Fixed prices, per project or per item on the audit list, agreed before we start. There’s no hourly meter and no monthly contract.
Do you only work in Bricks?
No. We build new sites in Bricks, and we fix sites built in Elementor, Breakdance and Bricks, plus WooCommerce and FluentCart stores.
Do I have to switch hosts?
No. We’ve worked on IONOS shared hosting, GoDaddy, Flywheel, WP Engine and Cloudways. If your host is the bottleneck, the audit will say so and show the numbers.
Can you work on a copy of my site first?
Yes, when your host offers a staging copy. We test the changes there, and they go live once you’ve seen them.
Do I own the site, the code and the logins?
Yes. Paid plugins and services are bought in your name. The Bricks and ACPT licenses we include stay with the site at no cost, with no ongoing contract needed.
How quickly do you reply?
Within 4 hours during waking hours, Mountain Time. Progress updates go out on a set schedule.
Get your free audit
Send your URL. We’ll test the site and reply within 4 hours during waking hours, Mountain Time.
- Your scores on a throttled phone, mobile and desktop
- A written list of what’s broken, costliest first
- A fixed price beside every fix
“Steven built a fresh, modern, and secure new website for us that exceeded our expectations…” Frank D., on Upwork