The project
This project was a full rebuild of the Construction Executive website. This is a large media website with approximately 80,000 monthly visitors, thousands of blog articles, multiple custom post types, extensive custom fields, advertising integrations, and many custom-built features.
Moving from Sanity CMS to WordPress
The website was previously built in Sanity CMS. While the existing site was technically modern and performed well, the editorial team struggled to use the Sanity CMS because they felt it was too technical for non-developers. The client wanted to migrate the entire site to WordPress and redesign several sections to improve usability and editorial workflow. We rebuilt the site using the Divi theme along with extensive custom development.
The monthly digital magazine
One of the biggest issues was their monthly digital magazine. Each month they had to manually assemble a collection of articles, and the process was time-consuming and missing important layout and content features. I worked with the client to define requirements and then built a custom solution using Advanced Custom Fields Pro. I created a system where editors could simply select articles from different categories using dropdown relationship fields, and the magazine layout would automatically generate using custom queries and template loops. Instead of showing standard post titles and excerpts, the lists displayed custom fields tailored to their magazine format. This significantly simplified their workflow and reduced production time each month. I also trained their editorial staff on how to use the new system.
Advertising system overhaul
Another major issue involved their advertising system, which was connected to a custom ad server. Ads were not appearing in the correct locations and did not behave properly across screen sizes. I designed a custom ad management system using custom fields on categories and posts that allowed the client to assign ad zone IDs per category, with child categories overriding parent categories and post-level overrides available as well. This allowed highly flexible ad placement across posts, category archives, sidebars, and within content. I also built functionality to insert ads mid-content and after a specified number of posts on archive pages. Additionally, I implemented custom layout and breakpoint logic so ads would not shrink below required sizes on smaller screens.
Flexible featured images
Additionally, we added functionality for featured images to optionally display at a reduced size within the content area instead of full width. I implemented this using a custom field that added a class to the body, allowing alternate styling to be applied to the featured image when selected.
Custom queries throughout
Because the site relied heavily on custom fields rather than standard WordPress titles and excerpts, nearly all post listing pages required custom queries and loops to display the correct information. I wrote custom WordPress query functions for a variety of areas throughout the site to generate article lists, category pages, magazine layouts, homepage sections and more.
The result
Overall, this project involved a full CMS migration, page and template redesign, custom functionality development, editorial workflow improvements, advertising system overhaul, and extensive custom WordPress development. I handled this project on my own. I was responsible for defining the technical solutions, performing the design and development work, managing the project and handling client communication regarding the project. The end result was a much more user-friendly system for the editorial team and a highly customized WordPress site tailored to the client’s publishing and advertising needs, which I trained their editorial team to use.
