Our Custom WP theme.

Core functions and features of our custom WordPress theme.

Our theme is bare-bones and every site we build is fully customised for our clients objectives.

We don’t use off-the-shelf themes, Bootstrap or other pre-compiled themes; we start with the bare minimum and build what you need.

There are three main elements to a WordPress theme that should be a key consideration for all websites:

  1. Build quality: Technically, your theme should be optimised to be fast and score highly on page-speed tests.
  2. Responsiveness: Your site needs to work seamlessly across all devices and connections.
  3. Ease-of-use: There’s no point in having a website if you can’t use it quickly and easily.

Our custom WP theme is designed to meet all these criteria, and we never ship sites that don’t meet them.

As your theme is the core of your website, it makes sense to make it as good as it can possibly be.

Technical optimisation.

A slow site will hinder your SEO efforts, so our theme is optimised for search. As we build your site, we test and improve the speed and optimisation as we progress, and nothing goes live without achieving the best possible page speed scores.

We also recommend the market-leading caching and optimization plugins and the best hosting for your site.

Responsiveness.

Your audience will use all kinds of devices to browse your site, so we ensure it works seamlessly across all modern devices and browsers. We adopt a mobile-first approach where appropriate and consider the needs of all users.

We don’t overcomplicate this process with tonnes of additional code; we creatively build your site to work on every device.

Ease-of-use.

Sometimes, developers forget that normal people have to be able to manage their websites with a minimum of technical experience. Our process is unique because we spend as much time making it easy for you to manage your site as we do designing it.

Your new site is incredibly intuitive to use, with simple to-manage content blocks and no need to call us when managing all your content.

To save time and budget, we have pre-built skeleton blocks that ship with our theme ready for modification and styling.

Columns, accordions, video embeds and so on are core theme elements.

Our theme is pre-built with these elements, which are then customised to your branding and requirements.

This saves the project budget as we’ve already created some of the more generic blocks that we know your site is going to need,

Every part of the custom client sites we develop is designed, built and styled specifically for your content, so these initial content blocks are all repurposed for your needs – this approach saves costs without compromising your custom requirements.

The blocks below represent the starting blocks of the sites we create. Each goes through the full design process and is customised for your content.

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What are blocks?

Blocks are standalone content elements used to build your custom WP site.

Our blocks are different from standard Gutenberg blocks as they are customised and do a few things differently:

  • Our blocks only load the CSS and (any) Javascript when the block is used on the page: this keeps your page code lean and load speed fast.
  • No block remains as-is on our theme: every block is customized and modified to do exactly what you need.
  • We can modify everything to suit your requirements and build you new blocks as your content demands it.

Our sites are not about trying to make your content work for a WP theme; they are about making your website work for your content.

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Accordions

A handy block that allows text-heavy content to be condensed into accordions so as not to take up too much space.

More than just text content

Our accordions can be a simple single text box or hold any content you add to the WYSIWYG editor.

Add columns to your accordions

Content is often best organised over columns, so you can arrange text in more than one column in our theme.

This means you can have as many columns as you need in the accordion to arrange your content better.

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Our accordion block will accept images and other content, which makes them handy!

You can also include videos, tables and other content in the accordions.

They are, of course, designed for your site to be in line with your branding and creative preferences.

 

Post loops

Easily add lists of posts to your site anywhere. This is handy for related content blocks and encouraging visitors to click deeper into your site. This block lets you choose the posts you want to see rather than looping through automatically.

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Neglecting users on different devices not only loses you potential business but can also harm your search engine rankings.

Columns

The block that is most-used on websites we design and build. This simple block allows you to create rows of WYSIWYGs split across columns, arranged however you need.

Dynamic columns.

By default, the columns spread themselves equally across the row. If you have two columns, they will be 50% width; if you add three columns, they will be 33% each, and so on.

This is a three-column row.

In the admin, we’ve added three columns to this row and left all the settings as standard.

We’ve made the block you use the most the easiest to use.

Easy editing means that building pages is fast and simple, even for non-technical users.

Easily add pre-defined styles.

You can easily add on-brand styling to these columns so they can look exactly how you need them to look on each page.

Simple styling.

Using simple tools for each column, you can quickly and easily add styling elements from your website’s branding.

Vary your layouts and columns.

Don’t want everything in a uniform layout? No problem: you can easily change the layouts of the columns within a row.

Infinitely easy.

Using our columns block, you can create any amount of different layouts and column arrangements.

Your content, your way.

There is no need to call the dev team to take control of your content.

Flexible & easy.

Make blocks as simple as they need to be.

Everything on-brand.

As all the styling is pre-built, you don’t need to worry about the design going off-piste.

Calls to action.

These blocks are designed specifically for each site we build. There’s no default styling for a CTA; they are built custom for each client.

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A simple full-width image block.

Sometimes you just need a simple image to break up content that sits the full viewport width.

full-width-image-example

Image grids with modals.

A powerful image grid that triggers pop-up content. This is another example of a default block that is customised for each client.

Each block has an optional title.

And an optional sub title.

Edit the title.

Or subtitle in seconds.

Add colour overlays

To each block individually.

Columns with icons.

Like the columns block, this icon block allows FontAwesome icons to be added to each block. These are again styled up inline with the design of the site.

Choose from 1000s of different icons for your content.

Personalise your content to engage with visitors.

Add content via the WYSIWYG.

Add text content, images, videos and whatever your content requires.

Handy for all types of content.

Customise each block for your content with styling and colour controls.

Images with text boxes.

A simple column-based block that allows images to be added to columns.

Add text boxes to large images.

Perfect for diagrams or images that need some explanation.

Add more than one box.

Add single or multiple text content boxes as your content requires.

Stack or inline the boxes.

If you need the boxes in one row or over different columns, you can change this.

Control the colours and styling.

Mix up all the styling as you need it; it will follow your site’s brand style.

Logo slider.

A default block for showing off your clients, tools you use or whatever you need it for!

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WordPress menus.

Easily add any WP menu anywhere on your site to improve user navigation and internal linking.

Personalised calls-to-action

Make things more personal by showcasing your team members directly within calls-to-action.

Aaron Jones

Aaron Jones
Lead Developer

Make things more personal to increase CRO.

All too often, websites lack personality. Show off your team and increase conversions with personalised calls to action anywhere on your site.

Getting your team in front of your visitors helps visitors to engage wth the content and faces with names showcase your team and their opinions which can make your content more trustworthy

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Automatic post loops.

Loop through your post, page or CPT content anywhere on your site. Perfect for blog listings or related content on blogs and articles. This post loop is automatic, so it brings in your most recent posts.

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Quotes

Drop client quotes anywhere in your content to add social proof to posts, pages, and articles. This block is always styled and developed to match your content requirements.

Toast have been the very best partner. They have been patient and supremely helpful. Their team have responded to our brief and given us over and above what we asked…

Marie
Marketing and Comms, The Victorian Society

Icon tiles.

An alternative layout for content with icons, perfect for displaying facts, figures or other notable content.

Get your points across.

These blocks are perfect for displaying facts and bringing them to the visitor’s attention.

Display key points.

Use these blocks for datapoints or other key information.

Style each section.

Use your brand colours and default site styling to keep everything looking perfect.

Encourage click-throughs.

Lead your visitors to other important pages and content.

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Keep content organised.

Keep your content looking professional and organised.

Use icons as visual triggers.

Signpost your content visually with these quick-to-load and optimised icon sets.

Sliders.

Add sliding content to your site and add anything to the slider via the WYSIWYG editor.

Add simple text content.

Sliders are a good method of adding lots of content without increasing the page’s vertical height (reducing vertical scroll, increasing conversions).

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Add buttons and alternate on-brand styling.

Style the sliders as needed in line with your site’s branding.

Add as many as you need.

You can add as many slides as you need and control the display on different devices.

HTML tables.

Sometimes only a table will do, so our theme ships with a table block that can be crafted to your requirements.

Table Head One Table Head Two Table Head Three
Data A Data B Data C
Data E Data F Data G
Data H Data I Data J

Tabbed sections to condense content.

If you need to get a lot of content onto a page, tabs often make a good option, so these are included as standard.

Split your content
Into bitesize chunks
Add any content you need

Splitting content across tabs can help display more content on your site without taking up too much vertical space.

This helps to keep content more readable, and you can guide and sign-post content for your visitors.

Tabs are built using the WYSIWYG, so you can add any content to each tab, including images and tables, as required.

Tile siders.

Another slider option (everyone loves a slider). This slides tiles and is designed as an alternative to the other sliders.

custom-built-wordpress

Add content via the WYSIWYG: you can add anything that the editor accepts, including images, video and so on.

custom-wordpress-sites

Choose different images for each tile on the slider to give prominence to each piece of content.

bespoke-wordpress-sites

Optionally add buttons to each slide to act as calls-to-action and increase interaction and engagement.

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Simple content tiles.

A simple, customisable block for adding non-sliding tile content to your site.

Tiles add focus-points for your content.

Add as many as your content requires.

Use them as calls-to-action.

Add brand images to make them visually strong.

What this means for you.

It means you get a better site with content that’s easier to manage and which ranks higher.

It doesn’t matter how great your content is; if your website is slow and hard to manage, it will cause friction when publishing and optimising content.

Our theme and approach mean you get a website worthy of your business and your marketing efforts.

The sites we develop are easy to manage and optimised for the SERPs, so if you want a new website that actually works, get in touch.

Get a better website.

We can deliver a better website for your brand.

A better website means more new business leads from the search, more conversions and a boost to your bottom line.

We work with all types of client and we’re equally happy working on enterprise-level sites or sites for hungry startups.

We’re easy to work with and get the job done on time and in budget.

We also give a 10% discount to all charities and non-profits.

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