WordPress Development Services in Wellington
Wellington WordPress development for government agencies and creative organisations held to strict accessibility standards. Compliance is not optional in this market, so we build to those standards from the outset and document the decisions properly.
Real Mojo Dojo clients, on the record.
Accessible, well-documented WordPress for the capital.
Professional, scientific and technical services is the region's largest industry by GDP, followed by public administration and then finance and insurance. That mix sets a high bar for websites. Policy consultancies, law firms, engineering practices and the suppliers that sell into government are judged by people who read carefully, expect plain English and check whether a site meets accessibility standards before they trust it. A WordPress build here has to be easy to navigate with a keyboard or screen reader, clear about who is behind the organisation, and documented well enough that decisions can be explained later.
The market has also changed quickly. An economist's compilation reported by RNZ in December 2024 found the city had lost 19,430 jobs, or 11.6%, in a year as public sector roles were cut. Infometrics estimated 62,442 business units in the region in February 2025, down 2.2%. Firms that relied on government contracts or CBD office workers now need websites that win new kinds of customers, often in the private sector or overseas, and they need them without a large budget.
We build for that with lean custom themes, a small maintained plugin set and editing tools that make it simple to add case studies, services and news. Every template is tested for WCAG conformance, Māori place names and macrons are handled correctly in content, URLs and search, and hand-over notes explain how the site works so nobody is locked in.
This page covers Wellington; for the national picture see WordPress Development New Zealand. We also cover Auckland. Related Wellington services include Web Design, SEO and Copywriting. For the full list, see our Wellington services.
WordPress development in Wellington: a small region with high value.
Regional economic figures from parliamentary, Infometrics and MBIE sources, named on each item.
Industries we help in Wellington.
The sectors that shape the regional economy, and the WordPress work each one needs most.
Policy, consulting and professional services
Expertise-led sites with people, publication and project libraries, accessible by default, so advisory firms can show evidence of their work to public and private clients.
Government suppliers and contractors
Capability pages, panel and procurement details and document downloads, built to the accessibility and security expectations of public sector buyers.
Finance and insurance
Governed publishing with roles, approvals and revision history for regulated content, plus secure forms and calculators that load quickly.
Technology and software
Marketing and documentation sites for digital firms selling beyond the region, with integrations into CRM, product analytics and trial sign-up flows.
Screen and creative businesses
Portfolio-heavy WordPress with fast video and image handling, showreels and crew pages for studios around Miramar selling to international clients.
Hospitality and events
Menus, bookings and event pages that owners update themselves, ready for WOW in spring and Wellington On a Plate in August.
Plan an accessible WordPress build for your organisation
Tell us what your site needs to do and who has to use it. We will send an honest scope, a timeline and a fixed price, with accessibility and documentation included.
Why WordPress, and why us.
Platform share from W3Techs (28 September 2026). Build history from Mojo Dojo.
What a custom WordPress build gives you that a template does not.
A theme built from your design
We convert your approved design into a bespoke theme, with no unused layouts, no page builder bloat and no licence fees tied to a theme vendor.
Editing your team can use
Custom post types, custom fields and reusable blocks mean staff update services, team pages and case studies without touching code or breaking the layout.
Speed built in, not bolted on
Lean templates, optimised images, sensible caching and Core Web Vitals targets set before we write code, not patched in at the end.
Security and updates handled
Hardened configuration, minimal plugins from maintained sources, backups and a clear update process, so the site is not the easy target it is when left to drift.
SEO structure from day one
Clean URLs, heading hierarchy, schema markup, redirects and analytics tracking are part of the build, so the site launches ready to be found.
Code you own and can hand on
Documented, standards-based code in your repository or hosting account. You are never locked in to us, and any competent WordPress developer can pick it up.
Get your free Wellington WordPress audit.
Send us your website and within 48 hours we will review its WordPress accessibility, speed, plugins and search setup, and tell you where the biggest risk lies. No calls, no obligations.
WordPress development services we offer.
Everything a build needs from design to support. Accessibility testing and documentation are included by default, not charged as extras.
Custom theme development. Design to WordPress theme, fully responsive and mobile first.
WooCommerce stores. Product, checkout, shipping and payment setup for ecommerce on WordPress.
Plugin selection and custom plugins. Audit of what you have, the right plugins for what you need, and custom code where none exist.
Custom post types and fields. Structured content models so your site scales past a handful of pages.
Redesign and reskin. A new look on your existing WordPress site without losing content or rankings.
Migration to WordPress. Move from another CMS or host, with redirects mapped and domain authority preserved.
Multisite and multi-language. WordPress Multisite networks and multi-language setups, kept safe and maintainable.
Rescue of abandoned projects. Technical assessment, an honest scope and a plan to finish what a previous developer left.
Speed and Core Web Vitals. Performance tuning, image and script control, and website speed optimisation on live sites.
Security hardening. Login protection, file permissions, malware scanning and backup routines.
Analytics, tagging and tracking. GA4, tag management, conversion events and form tracking set up and tested.
Maintenance and support. Monthly updates, monitoring, uptime checks and priority access to developers.
Built for search, AI answers and speed.
A WordPress site that cannot be found is an expensive brochure. We build with search in mind: crawlable templates, structured data, tidy internal linking and a redirect plan for every URL that changes. If you want specialist help after launch, our WordPress SEO team works directly inside the sites we build.
Search is also moving towards AI answers, so we mark up your services, people and content so assistants can read and cite them. Read more on AI SEO. For stores, our WooCommerce SEO service covers product and category pages once the build is live.
Speed decides whether visitors stay. We test against Core Web Vitals before launch and keep tuning afterwards, and we can host the finished site on managed WordPress hosting if you want one team responsible for both.
Accessible sites tend to rank better too. Clear headings, descriptive links, alt text and fast pages help screen reader users and search engines in the same way, so the standards public sector buyers expect also strengthen your organic visibility.
How we work with you.
Three ways to engage. Cost-conscious teams often start with a rescue audit to see what their current site can still carry.
Project build
A fixed-scope, fixed-price build from brief to launch, with milestone dates agreed up front so you can plan around them.
Ongoing retainer
Monthly maintenance, updates, monitoring and a pool of development hours for changes, with a named account manager who knows your site.
Rescue and takeover
Already have a WordPress site that is slow, broken or abandoned? We audit it, tell you honestly whether to fix or rebuild, then do the work.
Get your free Wellington WordPress audit.
Send us your website and within 48 hours we will review its WordPress accessibility, speed, plugins and search setup, and tell you where the biggest risk lies. No calls, no obligations.
The WordPress development process we follow.
Six stages, each with a documented sign-off, delivered remotely through video calls, a shared staging site and written decision logs.
Discovery and scoping
We define your audience, goals, content and required features, and map the site structure and integrations before any design starts.
UX and UI design
High-fidelity designs built around your brand and conversion goals. You approve every template before a line of code is written.
Development
We build the custom theme, content structures and integrations on a staging site you can review as it takes shape.
Content and SEO migration
Content is loaded, redirects are mapped, metadata and schema are implemented and existing rankings are protected.
Testing and quality assurance
Cross-browser and device testing, speed and accessibility checks, form and tracking tests and a full security review.
Launch and handover
We take the site live, monitor the first weeks closely, train your team and hand over documentation.
Areas we serve in Wellington.
We work remotely with organisations across the region, through video calls, a shared staging site and regular written updates. In the city that includes Wellington Central, Te Aro, Thorndon, Kelburn, Newtown, Kilbirnie, Miramar, Island Bay and Karori, and the northern suburbs of Johnsonville, Khandallah and Tawa.
Beyond the city we build for businesses in Lower Hutt, Petone, Eastbourne and Upper Hutt, in Porirua, up the coast in Paraparaumu and over the hill in Masterton. Harbour and hills split the region into distinct catchments, and people search by the place they want, so we often plan a page for each area a business covers.
Results from sites we build and grow.
Two published case studies from our wider client portfolio where we worked on the site and its search performance. They show how we work, not results for organisations in this region.
WordPress, Shopify or something else?
WordPress is the right choice when content matters as much as the sale: services businesses, publishers, membership sites, B2B sites with a lot of pages, and stores that need deep content alongside the catalogue. It is also the most flexible option when you need unusual functionality or want full ownership of your code and data.
For a straightforward retail catalogue where hosting, checkout and payments should just work, Shopify is often the better fit. We build on both and give you an honest recommendation based on your requirements, not on what we would prefer to sell. If you are weighing a wider redesign, see our web design and development service.
Organisations working with government often ask about data location and control. WordPress lets you choose where the site and its data are hosted, which plugins process form submissions and who can publish. Hosted platforms trade some of that control for convenience, which suits some businesses and not others.
“Their team understood our business before we even had to explain it. Enquiries are up 250% and the quality is better than ever.”
How a website sells, not just how it looks.
Most websites are built by people who think about how they look. The Website Playbook is about how they sell: the funnel, the proposition, and the landing page, in the order you should work on them.
Send me the Website Playbook →
Free. 14 pages. 18-minute read. In your inbox. Magic-link delivery, it arrives in about two minutes, and there's no sales call attached to reading it.
WordPress development questions.
The standard questions, plus a few we hear from public sector suppliers and advisory firms. Contact us →
What does a WordPress developer actually do?
A WordPress developer builds and maintains the code behind a WordPress site: the custom theme, the content structures, plugin configuration and custom plugins, integrations with other tools, and the performance and security setup. They turn a design into a site your team can edit and keep running.
How long does a WordPress project take from brief to launch?
A standard WordPress website typically takes 4 to 8 weeks from design sign-off to launch. Larger projects with WooCommerce, custom plugins or significant content migration take 8 to 14 weeks. The main variable is how quickly feedback comes back during design. Your quote includes a project plan with milestone dates.
Should I use a template or a custom WordPress theme?
A template is quicker and cheaper at the start, but it carries code and layouts you do not need, is harder to speed up and often limits what you can change. A custom theme costs more up front and gives you a faster site, editing tools shaped around your content and no dependence on a theme vendor. For a site that has to earn revenue, custom usually pays back.
Can you take over a WordPress project another developer abandoned?
Yes, and we do this regularly. We start with a technical assessment of what exists, what can be kept and what needs rebuilding, then give you an honest evaluation and a realistic scope. Sometimes fixing an inherited site costs more than starting fresh, and we will tell you when that is the case.
Will my Google rankings survive a WordPress migration or redesign?
They can, if the migration is planned for it. We crawl the existing site, map every URL to its new location with 301 redirects, carry over titles, descriptions and structured data, and monitor Search Console after launch. Rankings can dip briefly on any migration, and our process is designed to keep that short and small.
Is WordPress or Shopify better for ecommerce?
For a standard retail catalogue, Shopify is usually the better choice because it handles hosting, security and payments natively. WooCommerce on WordPress wins when you need deep content alongside ecommerce, complex pricing rules, unusual product setups or B2B features. We build both and recommend based on your requirements.
Is WordPress secure?
WordPress core is actively maintained and regularly patched. Most compromised sites are hacked through outdated plugins, weak passwords or poor hosting. We reduce that risk with a minimal plugin set from maintained sources, hardened configuration, backups, malware scanning and a regular update routine.
Do you provide ongoing WordPress maintenance after launch?
Yes. Our maintenance retainer covers monthly updates, backups, uptime monitoring, security scanning and priority access to our developers for changes. Clients get a named account manager and a monthly report on load times, Core Web Vitals and any issues found.
Can you make my existing WordPress site faster?
Usually, yes. Slow WordPress sites are most often caused by heavy themes, too many plugins, uncompressed images and poor hosting. We audit the site, fix what is causing the delay and measure the result against Core Web Vitals. See our website speed optimisation service for details.
Do you work with Wellington businesses?
Yes. We work with Wellington organisations remotely, as we do with every client. Discovery, design reviews and training happen over video calls, the build sits on a shared staging site you can review at any time, and after launch you get shared reporting and written notes on every decision.
Can you build a WordPress site that meets accessibility requirements?
Yes. We design and build to WCAG 2.2 AA, test with keyboard navigation and screen readers, check colour contrast and form labels, and give you a report of what was tested. We also train editors so new content keeps the same standard after launch.
Can WordPress handle te reo Māori content properly?
It can. We make sure fonts, URLs, search and sorting handle macrons correctly, set the right language attributes on te reo Māori passages so screen readers pronounce them properly, and can build a full bilingual site with a language switcher when your audience needs it.
Get your free Wellington WordPress audit.
Send us your website and within 48 hours we will review its WordPress accessibility, speed, plugins and search setup, and tell you where the biggest risk lies. No calls, no obligations.