WordPress migration

Legacy WordPress migration

A legacy page-builder website rebuilt as a custom Gutenberg block theme, with responsive behavior, accessibility and rollback coverage verified before release.

Context: Professional services business
Date / status: Client work
Work: WordPress migration

Professional services website section rebuilt with native Gutenberg blocks — The rebuilt services section turns a long practice-area list into structured, responsive content managed with native blocks.

The problem

The existing homepage depended on a legacy theme and page builder. The migration needed to preserve the public experience while removing those runtime dependencies and keeping the content editable.

Scope and architecture

My responsibilities

Legacy implementation audit
Custom Gutenberg theme development
Responsive and accessibility QA
Release plan, backup and rollback preparation

System

Custom PHP block theme
Core Gutenberg content blocks
Small theme-owned JavaScript behaviors
Playwright visual comparison at three viewports

Key decisions

01
Rebuild content with native blocks.
The new homepage uses core Gutenberg structures instead of carrying the old page builder into the new theme, keeping everyday edits inside WordPress.
02
Verify absence as well as appearance.
The audit checked that Bridge, WPBakery, Slider and Qode assets no longer loaded on the frontend, not only that the rebuilt page looked similar.
03
Make the migration reversible.
Reference captures, backups and a documented rollback path reduced deployment risk while visual checks covered desktop, tablet and mobile widths.

What I built

I rebuilt the homepage as a custom block theme using 88 native Gutenberg blocks, including 14 core Details blocks, then removed the legacy Bridge, WPBakery, Slider and Qode front-end assets. I verified navigation, parallax, scroll behavior and responsive layouts across three viewports with 63 comparison screenshots and maintained a rollback path.

WordPress
PHP
Gutenberg
Custom theme
Playwright

Result

88 native blocks with legacy front-end dependencies removed

Legacy theme and page-builder assets removed from the frontend
Responsive behavior verified from 320px through 1440px
Accessible mobile navigation and native editable content

The problem

Scope and architecture

My responsibilities

System

Key decisions

Rebuild content with native blocks.

Verify absence as well as appearance.

Make the migration reversible.

What I built

Result

Have a project in mind?