HireInfluence
Marketing agency website design, rebuilt for speed
7Fridays rebuilt the website of HireInfluence, an influencer marketing agency that has run Instagram, TikTok and YouTube programs for Fortune 1000 brands since 2011. The brief was speed: pass Google’s Core Web Vitals without changing how the site looked.
Starting in November 2022, in about 120 hours over two months, we rebuilt the theme on reusable blocks made with ACF PRO flexible content, kept the same design and the same animations, cleaned up the plugins and the theme code, and updated the framework underneath. The site reached 90+ in Google’s speed test and passed Core Web Vitals, and we supported it for half a year after launch.
In August 2023 we handed it over. Since then the client’s team has added a new homepage template outside the theme, while the rest of the site still runs on the blocks we built. That taught us the most: speed is something a site keeps, not something it gets once.
Website: hireinfluence.com
- Client
- HireInfluence
- Industry
- Influencer marketing agency
- Year
- 2022 to 2023
- What we did
- Theme rebuild for speed, then six months of support
- Built with
- WordPress, ACF PRO
What the rebuild changed
Same site, faster underneath
The brief came as a list: rebuild for Core Web Vitals, clean up the plugins and the theme code, update the framework. One rule held it together: visitors should not see a different site.
Same design, same animation
Every page was rebuilt on reusable blocks made with ACF PRO flexible content, matching the existing design and its animations.
Why it matters
The brand and its visitors saw the same site, only faster.
Plugins and code cleaned up
We cleaned up the plugins and the theme code and updated the framework underneath, so each page loads only what it uses.
Why it matters
Fewer scripts on every page, and fewer updates that can break something.
Core Web Vitals passed
The rebuilt site reached 90+ in Google’s speed test and passed Core Web Vitals, Google’s measures of how pages feel to real visitors.
Why it matters
An agency that sells to Fortune 1000 brands is judged by its own site first.
The rebuild in numbers
Built in two months, supported for six
- 90+
- score in Google's speed test
- Passed
- Core Web Vitals
- ~120 h
- for the rebuild, same design
- 5.0 ★
- client rating on Upwork
[7Fridays] did an excellent job.
Speed is kept, not delivered
What happened after handover
We handed HireInfluence a fast site in August 2023. Since then the client’s team has added a new homepage template outside the theme, with its own styles written into the page. The rest of the site still runs on the blocks we built.
This happens on most sites, and it is nobody’s fault: a team needs a new page this week, and the quickest way is around the system. Each addition brings its own code, and speed slips a little at a time.
That is why we now build every new site with Fabrement. The team changes the site through its own AI agent, and the agent works with the same blocks and design system we built, with every change checked and versioned. New pages stay inside the system instead of bringing their own code.
Marketing agency website design
Questions, answered from this project
Can you make a site faster without changing its design?
Yes. On HireInfluence we rebuilt the theme and kept the same design and the same animations. Visitors saw the same site; it reached 90+ in Google's speed test and passed Core Web Vitals.
Why rebuild the theme instead of adding a speed plugin?
Because the slowness came from the code itself: plugins and theme code that every page loaded. The brief asked us to clean both up and update the framework, and rebuilding the theme on reusable blocks let each page load only what it uses.
How long did the rebuild take?
About 120 hours over two months, from November 2022. After launch we supported the site for half a year, until August 2023.
How do you keep a site fast after launch?
By keeping new pages inside the system. On HireInfluence the client's team later added a homepage template outside the theme. Today we build with Fabrement, so the team changes the site through its AI agent against the same blocks, and new pages do not bring their own code.
What did you build it with?
WordPress with reusable blocks made with ACF PRO flexible content, our standard at the time. Today our standard is native Gutenberg blocks, built with Fabrement, our own AI workplace for WordPress.
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