The short answer
WordPress website design by a Brisbane developer with 15 years' experience. Custom themes, lean plugins, WooCommerce, Australian hosting and handover training.
Who WordPress suits
WordPress is a great fit for service businesses and anyone who plans to publish regular content. It handles blogs and landing pages well, which makes it a strong base for SEO. If you mostly sell products, compare it with our Shopify builds or see the full platform table on our web design Brisbane page.
Fun fact
W3Techs data shows WordPress powers more than 40% of all websites. That popularity is a big reason it gets so much attention from developers and, unfortunately, hackers too.
Custom themes vs page builders
There are two common ways to build a WordPress site, and each has its place.
Custom themes are coded for your site only. They carry no extra baggage, so pages tend to load faster and the design matches your brand exactly. We usually recommend this for businesses that care about speed and plan to keep the site for years.
Page builders such as Elementor let you drag and drop layouts. They're handy if you want to build new pages yourself, though they can add weight to every page. When a client wants one, we set it up with a small library of approved blocks so the site stays consistent.
We'll talk you through both and recommend the one that suits how you'll use the site.
Plugin discipline
Plugins are where most WordPress sites go wrong. Every extra plugin adds code to load and another thing to update. We keep the list short, choose well-maintained plugins with a solid track record and avoid installing three plugins to do one job.
Security and updates
WordPress core, themes and plugins all need regular updates. On sites we manage, our team applies updates and runs daily backups. Every site also gets a firewall and login protection. If something breaks after an update, we roll back from a backup rather than leaving you with a broken page.
Speed that holds up
A fast WordPress site comes from good hosting, optimised images, caching and lean code. We test pages against Google's Core Web Vitals before launch and fix anything that drags. Speed matters for visitors on a patchy mobile connection, and Google takes page experience into account too.
WooCommerce stores
Need to sell online? WooCommerce turns WordPress into a store. We set up products, GST, shipping zones and payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal. It suits businesses that want their shop and content in one place. For larger catalogues, see our ecommerce website design page.
Hosting on our Australian server
We manage our own cPanel/WHM hosting server, which hosts 200+ client websites on Australian infrastructure. Your site sits close to your local visitors, and when something needs fixing you deal with us, not a support queue. Read more about our hosting and technology services.
Marketing tip
Log in to your WordPress dashboard this week and open the Plugins page. Deactivate and delete anything you no longer use, then run a speed test in PageSpeed Insights before and after. Fewer plugins often means a quicker site.
How we work
- Discovery. We talk about your goals and how often you'll update the site.
- Sitemap and wireframes. we plan pages around what people search for.
- Design. You approve the look on desktop and mobile.
- Build. Our team codes the theme and sets up plugins and forms.
- Launch. We test, go live and connect Google Search Console and GA4.
- Handover training. we show you how to edit pages and add blog posts, and you get a short guide to keep.
Moving from an old WordPress site or another platform? Our website redesign and migration service keeps your URLs and rankings safe.
Why work with us
- 15 years building WordPress websites and custom PHP systems
- In-house team at AR Digital Solutions, with nothing outsourced
- Built-in SEO basics, backed by our SEO Brisbane service
- Experience across trades, NDIS, migration and retail, including websites for tradies
- More than 800 websites built, many of them on WordPress
- Rated 4.8 stars from 86 Google reviews
- “Our old WordPress site was slow and broke every time we updated a plugin. The new one is fast, easy to edit, and we haven’t had a single issue since.” — Owner, cabinet making business, Logan
Ready for a WordPress site that's easy to run?
Tell us what you need and we'll send a clear plan and written quote.