WPBakery — keep it, fix it, or leave it. We'll be honest.
Senior WPBakery work for brands inheriting legacy WPBakery sites. We modernize where it's worth keeping, migrate where it's not, and harden the performance and editor experience either way.
Audit
Modernize
Migrate
Care
What is WPBakery development?
WPBakery development covers building, modernizing, and migrating sites that use the legacy WPBakery page builder. Most engagements rescue WPBakery sites trapped in shortcode debt — either tightening what exists or migrating cleanly to Gutenberg, Elementor, or a custom theme.
Why this exists
WPBakery sites are inherited more than they are chosen.
Most teams arriving at us with WPBakery did not pick it — they inherited a build from a previous agency or a theme purchase. The honest conversation is whether to modernize or migrate. We do both, and we'll tell you which is the better long-term move based on the site you have today and the team running it.
What we hear most
Common WPBakery pains.
Pages render slowly
WPBakery generates heavy markup and ships sitewide CSS/JS. LCP creeps past 3 seconds. Performance ceiling is real.
Editor experience is dated
The classic backend editor and the front-end builder both feel a generation behind. Marketing avoids the builder.
Shortcode-heavy content
Migrating away is hard because the content is full of WPBakery shortcodes. Off-platform, the content reads as raw shortcode markup.
Theme + builder coupling
The premium theme and WPBakery are tightly coupled. Updating one risks the other. Maintenance is fragile.
Brand has moved past the build
The site looks like the company three iterations ago. WPBakery's templates can't carry the new brand.
What we deliver
What we ship for WPBakery clients.
Three engagement shapes — modernize, migrate, or maintain.
Modernization
- Performance overhaul: render path, image policy, JS hygiene
- Custom WPBakery elements to replace heavy plugin shortcodes
- Editor restructuring: scoped controls, named patterns
- Schema and SEO hygiene applied to templates
- 30-day CWV stabilization post-launch
Migration
- Content extraction with shortcode unwinding
- Replatform to Bricks, Elementor, custom theme, or headless
- Redirect map authored URL by URL
- Schema parity across templates
- 30-day SEO watch with weekly reporting
Maintenance
- Care plans for live WPBakery sites
- Monthly updates with staging discipline
- Performance and security monitoring
- Editor-side support for the marketing team
- Quarterly reviews with a clear migrate-or-stay recommendation
Audit
- Codebase audit: theme + builder + plugin debt
- Performance audit: real-user CWV per template
- Editor experience audit
- Migration cost-benefit analysis
- Auditor-ready written report
Process
How this service runs end to end
The same six-step shape we use across every Haxtiv project — adapted to the specifics of this scope.
01
Discover
Audit, intent, and the part nobody is saying out loud
We open with a working session — not a deck. We pull analytics, crawl the existing site, audit the brand, and interview the people closest to revenue. We surface the friction inside the team, not just the friction on the screen.
02
Define
Sitemap, story, and the metrics that actually matter
We define the audience journeys, the commercial pages we are willing to defend, the SEO architecture, and the measurable outcomes. You get a shape of the project that survives feedback because it was built on evidence.
03
Design
Editorial system, art-directed, never templated
Type, grid, motion, and tone built as a system. We design the hero, the long pages, the unloved corners, and the empty states. Every screen looks like it belongs to the same studio. Nothing is parked for later.
04
Build
Production code your team can keep
WordPress, Shopify, or page builder — we build clean, accessible, performant, and documented. Component-led, naming you'll recognize next year, and a changelog your in-house team can read.
05
Launch
Migration without losing rankings or sleep
Pre-launch crawl, redirect map, schema and metadata cutover, performance baseline, and a launch playbook. We run the deploy with you, not at you.
06
Grow
Care plan, CRO sprints, and quiet improvements
We stay involved. Monthly performance reports, security and core updates, and CRO sprints that compound. The site gets better the longer you keep us.
What this looks like in production
Numbers we earn, not numbers we round up.
Sites shipped
across 27 countries
Studio hours
delivered since 2019
Avg conversion lift
post-redesign clients
Client retention
into year two
In their words
Senior teams who chose us.
Haxtiv replatformed our marketing site without losing a single ranking. We saw organic leads up 38% inside the first quarter and the editorial team finally has a layout system they don't fight.
Mara Iglesias
VP Marketing · Lumenwave Health
Headless WordPress redesign
Our previous Shopify build was a Frankenstein of apps. The Haxtiv team simplified the stack, rebuilt the PDP and CRO patterns, and our store is faster and more profitable than it has ever been.
Daniel Korver
Founder · Northbound Goods
Shopify Plus rebuild
Frequently asked
Answers worth asking for.
Don't see the question you're holding? Send it to [email protected] and we'll answer the same day.
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Where to go next
WordPress migration
Migrate without losing rankings.
Page builder experts
Cross-builder expertise.
Elementor development
Common migration target.
Bricks builder
Leaner builder migration target.
Custom WordPress development
Hand-coded option.
WordPress redesign
Editorial redesigns.
WordPress speed optimization
Real-world CWV.
WordPress maintenance
Care plans.
Start here
Brief us on the inherited WPBakery site — we'll tell you what's worth doing.
30-minute call. We'll audit the site and share an honest recommendation.