Case Study: Migrating a WordPress Website to Cut Hosting & Maintenance Costs

James Winzar • December 17, 2024

Empowering Fulham Signs with a Lightweight CMS for Easier Updates & Better Control

At Vizability.io, we helped Fulham Signs transition away from a plugin-heavy WordPress setup to a cleaner, more manageable CMS. The goal? Lower costs, faster performance, and a site the team could easily update themselves, without sacrificing design or SEO visibility.

Objective

To refresh and simplify the Fulham Signs website in a way that:

Allowed the team to easily update photographs via the CMS.
Reduced hosting costs and eliminated reliance on WordPress plugins.
Retained the existing design style while improving visual presentation.

Challenge

The project’s main constraint was time—specifically, the effort required to migrate all existing content into a new CMS environment. The design and content strategy remained unchanged, but a full rebuild was required behind the scenes.

Approach

Vizability.io opted for a lightweight rebuild using a modern, easier-to-manage CMS—one that didn’t rely on plugin updates or ongoing WordPress maintenance.

Key principles:

Retain the original look and feel to maintain brand continuity.
Improve layout spacing and visual organisation, particularly around image galleries.
Set up a clean CMS interface so the Fulham Signs team could make regular content updates themselves.

What We Did

1. Rebuilt the site in a simpler, non-WordPress CMS

2. Optimised image handling and layout

3. Maintained the brand’s established visual identity

4. Enabled the internal team to update photo content with ease

5. Migrated all core content while reducing backend complexity

Results

Hosting cost savings due to a more efficient platform
Increased frequency of visual updates, keeping the site fresh
Better alignment between website images and Google Business Profile
A more self-sufficient web presence with less technical upkeep
Improved local SEO performance

Timeline

Project Duration: ~3 weeks
Type: Internal migration project (non-VMG client)

Before: WordPress-based site, heavy plugin use, difficult to maintain.
After: Streamlined CMS, easier updates, cleaner image display, lower overhead.

Team Insight

“We wanted to keep the design familiar while making the site more usable. Removing WordPress gave us more control, reduced hosting costs, and empowered the Fulham Signs team to manage content independently.”
— Vizability.io

Next Steps / Ongoing Work