Many years ago I was approached by Steve Shaw of Bishopsgate Copywriting. He wanted a simple website to help him promote his copywriting business and where he could share his articles on all aspects of copywriting. I put together a website that he was very pleased with, and away he went.
Ten years later and Steve got in touch again. He’d been busy working on a long-term contract but now wanted to resurrect his freelance copywriting business and wanted to make a few changes to his website. Could I help him out?
Of course I could!
Over the ten years since I built Steve’s website, web design has moved on and while his current site was serviceable and the content was still relevant, it just looked – well, a bit old-fashioned really. I suggested that I give the site a complete refresh to make it look more modern, and he agreed.
The first step was to update the WordPress installation. I knew the theme I’d used was not compatible with the latest version of WordPress, which uses “block editing” tools rather than the old “visual editor” system, so I first needed to switch to one of the default WP themes. Then I updated the PHP (the scripting language WordPress uses) – the site was running version 5.6, but the latest WordPress requires 7.0 to operate. Finally, I was able to update the WordPress installation itself, and also update all the plugins the site uses.
Then I looked around for a theme that would work well for Steve’s business. I’m a big fan of the themes created by Rara Themes, as they are very professional and modern, and offer enough flexibility to make your site unique. I chose a theme and then spent some time setting up the home page to give the site a fresh new feel.
A few tweaks later and the site was finished. Steve’s feedback?
Wow! Thanks so much. It looks completely different. I love it! Definitely looks more “2020”.
Steve Shaw, Bishopsgate Copy
Below you can see the homepage for the old “2010” website, and the new 2020 version. I hope you can see the difference!
2010 
2020
If you have an old WordPress website that you would like to have refreshed, find out more about my low cost WordPress websites service, or get in touch!
What are the advantages of WordPress? How to register it?
I wrote a blog post several years ago about WordPress – some parts might be out of date now but you might find it useful: https://www.theprooffairy.com/post/why-use-wordpress/
There are two versions of WordPress, one on the wordpress.com site which you can use for free, and the other is the self-hosted software which is also free but you will need webspace to use.