Behind the Scenes of a WordPress CRO Rebuild
Most Redesigns Don’t Fix the Real Problems
If your website feels outdated, slow, or hard to update, the default solution is obvious:
“Let’s redesign it.”
And that usually means:
New fonts. New photos. A slick homepage mockup. Maybe even a migration to a new theme.
But here’s the catch: most redesigns are cosmetic.
They treat the symptoms—while the real problems stay buried.
- Your CTAs are still generic and untracked
- Your marketing team still can’t test new offers easily
- Your site still loads slowly, especially on mobile
- Your backend is still a tangled mess of plugins and shortcodes
It looks better, sure.
But functionally? You’re stuck in the same place.
At CrowToes, we approach things differently.
We don’t just give you a facelift.
We rebuild your site from the ground up—with conversion, performance, and adaptability as the core pillars.
In this post, we’ll take you behind the scenes of what a real WordPress rebuild looks like when CRO is built in from the start.
Discovery: Strategy Before Aesthetics
Before we write a single line of code—or even open Figma—we start with understanding.
The discovery phase is where the future of the site is defined. It’s where we ask questions most agencies never bring up:
- What role does your site really play in your business?
- What are your highest-converting traffic sources?
- Which blog categories drive real engagement—and which fall flat?
- Are your CTAs visible? Targeted? Tracked?
- What are you trying to test, improve, or understand over the next 12 months?
We go deep. Because the problems we’re solving aren’t aesthetic—they’re strategic.
Stakeholder Interviews
We talk with marketing leads, tech teams, and decision-makers.
We want to know what’s frustrating, what’s working, and what no one has touched in years because it’s “too fragile.”
Tech Stack Audit
We dig into what powers your site and what slows it down.
Outdated themes, bloated page builders, 40+ plugins doing overlapping things? That’s common.
We map what to keep, what to upgrade, and what to replace.
Traffic & Conversion Review
We pull reports. We check your most-visited content.
We audit the CTAs on high-traffic pages.
Often we find posts getting thousands of views a month… with no CTA or a buried contact form.
That’s an opportunity gap. And we build your new site to close it.
Designing the System, Not Just the Pages
Once discovery is complete, we don’t jump straight into mockups—we map the system.
Because a site that looks good but can’t evolve is a trap.
We’re designing for scalability, flexibility, and testability.
Modular ACF Blocks
We build your entire site on a custom block system using Advanced Custom Fields.
Each section—hero banners, testimonials, feature grids, blog previews, CTAs—is its own block.
This lets you:
- Rearrange or reuse content without breaking the layout
- Maintain consistency while experimenting with structure
- Empower your internal team to make edits without a developer
CTA Zones Baked Into the Design
We don’t sprinkle in CTAs at the end.
We define where they live across your entire content architecture:
- Mid-post inline offers
- Timed or scroll-triggered popups
- Sidebar widgets by category
- Footer banners on strategic templates
Each is controllable, testable, and context-aware.
Category Logic and Funnel Mapping
We connect blog categories to intent.
A “Well Water” article isn’t treated the same as “Reverse Osmosis.”
Each can trigger its own offer set, visuals, and language.
This creates a dynamic system where offers adjust to the visitor’s interest—automatically.
Development With CRO in Mind
Once the strategy and system design are locked, we move into development—but this isn’t your typical theme install and plugin pile-on.
We build from scratch, with performance and conversion baked into the codebase—not patched on later.
No Page Builders. No Plugin Bloat.
Your new site isn’t cobbled together with shortcodes and third-party templates.
It’s a lean, purpose-built WordPress theme designed for:
- Sub-second load times
- Seamless admin workflows
- Long-term maintainability
We control everything from asset loading to markup structure, so nothing gets in the way of speed or scalability.
GA4 + CRM Tracking Built Into the Theme
Every CTA block, popup, and form is wired with event-level tracking from day one.
- We pass metadata like CTA type, blog category, placement, and variant into GA4
- Form interactions are tied to source offers
- CRM integrations (like ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, or Salesforce) are scoped and implemented to connect clicks to outcomes
This means you’re not just tracking activity—you’re understanding behavior.
Performance-Tuned, Dynamically Styled
We generate dynamic stylesheets based on active blocks and site settings, so you’re only loading what you use.
The result?
No unnecessary scripts. No theme bloat. No visual regressions.
Just blazing-fast load times—especially on mobile.
Custom Admin Experience
We build the back-end interface with your marketing team in mind.
You’ll be able to:
- Assign CTAs by category or post type
- Preview popups and modals before publishing
- Add new lead magnets to your global offer pool
- Push or pause experiments with minimal clicks
If your internal team wants to be hands-on, they can. If not, we manage it all for you.
Launch Isn’t the End—It’s the Beginning
Most web projects celebrate launch day like it’s the finish line.
At CrowToes, that’s just the starting line.
Because once the site is live, we don’t disappear—we activate your CRO engine.
Start Testing Immediately
Your new site is already wired for experimentation. We typically begin testing:
- Multiple CTA variants in the highest-traffic blog categories
- Different popup formats (exit intent vs. time delay)
- Offer type comparisons (free guide vs. quote vs. consultation)
We use your real traffic to generate real data—right away.
Monthly or Quarterly CRO Reviews
Depending on your traffic volume and package, we review performance regularly:
- Which offers are converting?
- Which headlines or visuals are underperforming?
- Where should we test next?
Our clients love these sessions because they turn “website maintenance” into marketing strategy.
You Get the System, We Manage the Experiments
You don’t need to become a CRO expert overnight.
We guide you. We handle implementation. You stay focused on the big picture.
This isn’t just a site you launch. It’s a site you learn from.
Final Thought: Rebuild Once. Then Evolve.
If your last website project left you with a prettier version of the same problems—you’re not alone.
Most agencies design for “done.”
We design for what happens next.
A CrowToes rebuild gives you:
- A modular, testable WordPress system
- CRO tracking and experimentation infrastructure
- A content strategy built to adapt
- The technical foundation to grow into—not out of
So you don’t have to start over again in two years.
You can just keep evolving.
