If you're thinking about moving your website over to one of our Care Plans for hosting and ongoing suppert, there's one important step first: a technical audit.
We know — it sounds technical (because it is). But it's not about making things complicated. It's about protecting your website, your data, and your investment before we take over management and maintenance.
We want to get familiar with your website and how it was built. During the audit, we'll run through our checklist and make suggestions for improvements (if needed) or whether your site needs a rebuild, before we bring it onto one of our monthly Care Plans.
Here's what a technical audit is, what we look for, and why it matters.
What is a technical audit?
A technical audit is a full health check of your website.
Before we maintain or manage a site we didn't build, we need to know how it's built. We want to see what theme it uses, what page builder it runs on, whether it's custom-coded, which plugins are installed, and whether everything is up to date.
Think of it like hiring a mechanic to look under the hood before a long road trip. We're checking for red flags that could cause problems down the road.
What we look for during the audit
Every audit includes a review of the following:
WordPress version – Is it current and supported? Outdated versions can lead to compatibility issues, security risks, and major headaches.
Theme and child theme setup – We check whether your theme is well-known, supported, and updated. Some themes can't be updated without a current (paid) license. This is especially true for random themes found off sites like ThemeForest. Older themes may not work correctly, or may even break the moment you try to update WordPress or a plugin.
Page builder or editor – This one makes a huge difference in what we'll recommend.
- If you're on Divi: Great. We work with Divi almost exclusively and can support it fully. We'll use our license key, with no additional cost to you.
- If you're on Elementor: Usually fine, but we'll check plugin versions and templates. You'll need to maintain your own license if you don't already have one.
- If you're on WPBakery/Visual Composer: We'll recommend a rebuild. Sorry! It's outdated, bloated, and incompatible with modern WordPress environments.
Plugins – We review what's installed, what it does, and whether it's safe and supported. Too many plugins (or the wrong ones) can slow your site and create security risks. If you have 10 or fewer, you're probably fine. If you have 142 (yes, we've seen it), we've got some cleaning to do before we will migrate the site to our hosting environment.
Hosting environment – Even if you're moving away from your old host, we review your current setup to plan a clean migration to our managed server. Older PHP versions, poor configurations, or missing SSL can cause issues that need to be fixed before the switch.
Speed, SEO, and structure – We run quick performance checks, look for broken links, missing SSL certificates, and other technical issues.
By the end of the technical audit, we have a clear picture of what your site's made of and what needs attention before moving it onto one of our Care Plans.
What we will and won't take on
We love helping clients move their sites into a stable, secure, and well-maintained environment. But we also have some standards to make sure your site runs smoothly once it's under our care.
We typically accept:
- Websites built with Divi (our preferred builder)
- Well-built Elementor or Gutenberg sites
We usually won't take on:
- Sites built with WPBakery/Visual Composer (requires a rebuild)
- Sites using outdated or abandoned themes
- Heavily customized sites running on old WordPress or unsupported PHP versions
- Sites with multiple page builders or stacked plugins trying to "fix" each other
It's not about being picky — it's about keeping your website fast, secure, and functional long-term. It's also about efficiency for us. When we're familiar and knowledgeable in the stack, it means we can do things faster for you.
When a rebuild makes more sense
Sometimes it's better to start fresh than keep patching a site that's already falling apart. We know—it's an investment and probably not what you wanted to hear, but sometimes it really is necessary.
Here are a few signs we'll recommend a rebuild instead of migration:
- The site is more than 5 years old and has never had a proper redesign
- It was built with outdated builders or unsupported themes
- It's slow or scores poorly on speed tests even after cleanup
- It's not mobile-friendly or uses outdated layout methods
- The backend is cluttered with unnecessary plugins that make updates risky
Rebuilding gives you a clean slate, better performance, and easier maintenance. In many cases, rebuilding takes less time and money than trying to fix an old, fragile site.
Why we require the audit
We don't do technical audits to make things harder. We do them to make sure your site runs smoothly and stays stable once it's on one of our Care Plans.
If we migrate a broken or outdated site, we inherit all its issues — which usually means downtime, errors, or unexpected costs later. The audit identifies those issues before they become a problem.
It also protects you. If we find serious issues, we'll show you exactly what's wrong and outline your options clearly.
What happens after the audit
After reviewing everything, we'll send you a summary with:
- A list of what we found
- Any issues or risks
- Our recommendations for fixing them
- Next steps to move forward
If your site passes, we'll handle the migration. If not, we'll outline what needs to be done first — from removing bad plugins to a full site rebuild.
The bottom line
A technical audit isn't just a checklist. It's how we make sure your site is healthy, efficient, and ready to grow.
If your site is built on solid frameworks like Divi or a modern theme, great — we'll help you move it over safely. If it's running on older software like WPBakery or an unsupported theme, we'll guide you through rebuilding it the right way.
Request a technical audit to get started. We'll take a look under the hood, explain exactly what's going on, and help you make the right next move for your business website.
