One opaque theme, every page paying for all of it.
The old theme shipped a 152 KB stylesheet and a 244 KB script to every page whatever the page needed, and served full-size photography straight from the media library. Its field definitions lived only in the database: nothing about the content model was in the repository, reviewable in a diff or reproducible on a second environment. Not one page carried a meta description.
- Photography
- ~1.7 MB
- JavaScript
- 244 KB
- Stylesheet
- 152 KB
- HTML and fonts
- ~110 KB
From one theme to eleven blocks.
Fifteen field groups as JSON in the repository, eleven composable blocks, a stylesheet and a script loaded only when their block is on the page. Four post types with one job each instead of seven taxonomies. The bars show the homepage weight left after each step.
Nine tenths lighter, and it says what it is.
The home page went from 2,208 KB to 151 KB, the practice index from 10 MB to 150 KB. Every page carries a title and a description written for search. The firm publishes an article, and the newsletter drafts itself; a partner approves with a single signed link. Delivered under the studio’s name: the client never saw mine.