WordPress development

WordPress websites built to last.

We build custom WordPress websites for associations, regulators, and non-profits: fast, accessible, easy for your team to run, and on a platform you own.

The Northern Lights College home page, with a graduate in a cap and gown and links to find the right program.

WordPress development

Your team runs your website every day. We build it that way.

Most websites look good on launch day. The real test comes a year later, when a new staff member publishes a page, a plugin needs an update, or your membership system changes. We build for that year, and the years after it, with a senior, in-house team writing every line.

Standards

What every website we build includes.

Whatever the size of the project, this is the standard we hold our work to.

Platform

The latest WordPress, a custom block theme. No page builders and no multipurpose themes.

Editing

Blocks, patterns, and templates for your content. The approved design is built into the editor, so new pages stay on brand.

Accessibility

WCAG 2.2 AA, tested by people. Semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, and screen reader testing. We don’t use overlays.

Performance

Fast on any device. Optimized assets, caching, and load testing against Core Web Vitals.

Search

Ready to be found. Semantic markup, structured data, metadata, sitemaps, and redirects from every changed address.

Integrations

Connected to your systems. Your AMS, CRM, learning platform, payments, and analytics, through supported APIs.

Security

Secure by default. Validated input, escaped output, role-based access, and only commercially supported plugins.

Quality

Reviewed and tested. Version control, code review, and testing across devices and browsers, guided by ISO 9001 principles.

Handover

Yours from day one. Training, documentation, and a three-month warranty on the code we write.

Process

Six phases, one senior team.

WordPress shapes every phase of our process, not only development. By the time we write code, you have approved the plan, the style book, and a prototype of the blocks your team will use. Every phase includes two rounds of revisions and ends with your approval, a dedicated project manager keeps you updated throughout, and every website we build includes a three-month warranty.

  1. Discovery

    We map your content types, integrations, and publishing workflow, then choose the plugins, APIs, and hosting your website needs.

    Deliverables
    • Website Development Plan
    • Technical requirements

  2. Experience Design

    Wireframes, and a digital style guide that becomes your theme’s style book: type, colour, and spacing defined once for every block.

    Deliverables
    • Wireframes
    • Style book

  3. Prototyping

    We prototype the blocks, patterns, and templates your team will use, so you can try the editing experience before it is built.

    Deliverables
    • Interactive prototype
    • Block and pattern inventory

  4. Development

    A custom block theme, blocks, and plugins, built in version control with code review and testing at every step.

    Deliverables
    • Custom block theme
    • Blocks and plugins

  5. Content

    Content migrated into real blocks, not pasted into one large box, with redirects from every old address.

    Deliverables
    • Content in blocks
    • Redirect map

  6. Launch & Training

    Training on your own blocks, a final review in the test environment, and a monitored go-live.

    Deliverables
    • Live website
    • Editor training
member-preferences.phpPHP
add_action( 'rest_api_init', function () {
  register_rest_route( 'members/v1', '/preferences', [
    'methods'             => WP_REST_Server::EDITABLE,
    'permission_callback' => 'is_user_logged_in',
    'args'                => [
      'topics' => [
        'type'              => 'array',
        'required'          => true,
        'items'             => [
          'type' => 'string',
          'enum' => [ 'events', 'advocacy', 'learning' ],
        ],
        'validate_callback' => 'rest_validate_request_arg',
        'sanitize_callback' => 'rest_sanitize_request_arg',
      ],
    ],
    'callback'            => function ( WP_REST_Request $request ) {
      update_user_meta(
        get_current_user_id(),
        'newsletter_topics',
        $request['topics']
      );
 
      return rest_ensure_response( [
        'message' => esc_html__( 'Your preferences are saved.', 'members' ),
      ] );
    },
  ] );
} );

Code quality

Code we would be happy to inherit.

Great WordPress development is mostly invisible. It lives in hundreds of small decisions about who can do what, what the website accepts, and what happens when something unexpected arrives. Every feature we build gets that same care.

  1. Line 2: We build with WordPress’s own tools, so updates don’t break your website and any WordPress developer can pick it up.
  2. Line 4: We decide who can do something before we decide what it does. Permission comes first, every time.
  3. Line 14: Nothing reaches your database until it has been checked and cleaned. If we didn’t plan for an answer, your website won’t accept it.
  4. Line 19: We plan for how things go wrong, not only how they go right. No member can ever change someone else’s account, by accident or on purpose.
  5. Line 25: We build for every visitor. What appears on screen is always safe to show and ready for French or any other language.

Capabilities

Themes, plugins, and integrations, built for you.

Custom development is where WordPress stops being a template and becomes your platform.

Custom themes

A block theme built around your brand, with your design system defined once and applied to every block, pattern, and template.

  • Custom blocks and patterns
  • Templates and style books
  • Editor styles that match the website

Custom plugins

Features that belong to your organization rather than your design, so they survive a redesign. We build our own, too, including Canopy, a membership platform for WordPress.

  • Custom content types and directories
  • Admin tools and workflows
  • Member and learning features

Integrations

WordPress connected to the systems you already run, so information is entered once and stays in sync everywhere.

  • AMS, CRM, and learning platforms
  • Payments and analytics
  • Single sign-on

Selected work

Development work we are proud of.

View our work

Questions

Fair questions about development.

WordPress is open source, widely supported, and flexible enough for complex organizations. You own your website and your content, and you are never tied to a single vendor.

Yes. That is the reason we build with blocks. We train your team before launch and provide documentation for the blocks on your website.

No. We build for the native block editor. Page builders add weight, make content harder to move, and make it easy to break the design. The block editor keeps your content portable and ready for future WordPress releases.

Often, yes. We start with a review of the theme, plugins, and hosting, then recommend what to keep, fix, or rebuild.

It depends on scope. A full website project, from discovery to launch, typically takes around six months, with time at the end of each phase for your review. We set specific dates at kickoff.

Every website includes a three-month warranty covering bugs or defects in our code and in how we integrated third-party tools. After that, our support and maintenance plans keep the website updated and secure.

Next step

Let’s talk about your WordPress website.

Tell us about your organization and what you would like to build. We’ll review your request and follow up about scope, fit, and next steps.

We value your privacy. Learn more in our privacy policy.