Dee Valley Locksmiths

Dee Valley Locksmiths already had an established website, but managing it day to day was harder than it needed to be. Important content was spread across different settings, some publishing tools were no longer active in the recovered installation, and parts of the site relied on a separate hosted dashboard that was not included in the WordPress backup. Simon wanted to update the website himself without depending on a developer for routine changes.

I started with the original hosting backup and audited the existing WordPress setup rather than immediately proposing a rebuild. The website’s core pages, designs, media and content were present, and several normal editing screens already worked. The challenge was to preserve those working parts while recovering useful features and making the less accessible content easier to maintain. The investigation also helped separate what could be restored locally from features that depended on external systems.

I restored the Job Stories publishing workflow and removed its former external approval step, so completed jobs could be managed directly in WordPress. I introduced a central Reviews area for 69 imported customer reviews, with controls for where each review appears. The homepage gained a clearer editing interface, alongside improved controls for services, local areas, featured images, FAQs and shared business details.

Pricing information previously lived in a data file with a time-based rule that could hide price-related FAQs when its check date became stale. I added a WordPress pricing screen and removed that expiry behaviour, while keeping checks for invalid or missing prices. I also brought SEO and tracking settings into clearer editing screens, preserving the relevant existing search metadata and structured-data behaviour rather than replacing them unnecessarily.

After testing the restored site, I migrated the changes to production while preserving a copy of the previous WordPress files and keeping the previous database available for rollback. I also prepared a handover covering everyday editing, SEO considerations and the technical setup, so Simon or a future developer has a reference for how the site works.

The website keeps its familiar design, but the main day-to-day content is much easier for Simon to manage himself. Page layouts still use custom WordPress templates rather than a drag-and-drop builder, which means a developer is still needed for structural redesigns. The aim of the project was more practical: recover what was available, remove unnecessary friction and leave the business with a clearer, more maintainable website.