WordPress

Why custom WordPress instead of a theme or page builder?

A pre-built theme is designed for the average customer of a theme company. A custom WordPress theme is designed for one business, with one set of content, one audience, and one set of goals. The practical differences show up in three places: speed (no unused code loading on every page), flexibility (the site can do exactly what the business needs, not what the template allows), and longevity (the theme is maintained by the developer who built it, not by a stranger who may stop updating).

What custom WordPress development includes

• Custom theme development — built from scratch, no parent theme, no framework bloat
• Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) — structured content editing that gives you control without code
• Custom post types and taxonomies — team directories, product catalogs, project portfolios, event calendars, and any other content structure the business needs
• Performance optimization — image compression, lazy loading, minimal CSS/JS, and a target of 90+ on Google PageSpeed
• Accessibility — semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, ARIA attributes, and WCAG compliance
• Content management training — documentation and a walkthrough so the client can manage their own site

WordPress projects for Santa Fe businesses and nonprofits

The work below was built for organizations here in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. Every one of them is live, and every one links to a full write-up of what the build actually involved.

• Interfaith Community Services (The ROCk) — a block-based WordPress build for a new Santa Fe homelessness-response campus: four custom post types, a bespoke Leaflet property map, an events calendar, a Spanish translation toggle, a domain migration with full 301 redirect mapping, and a WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility audit and remediation.
• Weka Biosciences — a custom WordPress site for a Santa Fe biotech developing tailored enzymes and biopolymers, built in collaboration with Monsoon Design, who handled the visual identity.
• W Department — an ongoing engagement with a Santa Fe boutique of curated designer clothing and art: logo and visual identity, seasonal advertising, and a heavily customized WooCommerce store with LightSpeed Retail POS inventory sync, HubSpot, and server-side performance tuning.
• St. Elizabeth Shelter & Supportive Housing — a mobile-first custom WordPress site for a Santa Fe shelter and supportive housing nonprofit, with an interactive facility map, an organization timeline, full Spanish translation, and custom routed contact forms.
• Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited — a content-rich custom WordPress site for a Northern New Mexico conservation chapter, covering an events calendar, membership and volunteer signup, donor acknowledgment, and an annual fund donation flow.

A WordPress developer you can actually meet

I am based in Santa Fe. If you want to sit down and go through your content, your inventory, or the site you already have, we can do that in person instead of over a screen share. For clients in Española, Los Alamos, Taos, and the rest of Northern New Mexico, that is a drive, not a flight.

Most of the work still happens remotely, and plenty of clients are outside New Mexico. But some things go better in the room: a kickoff workshop, a content session with a board, a training walkthrough with the staff who will run the site once it launches. Being in the same town helps.

How much does a custom WordPress site cost?

A custom WordPress website typically costs between $5,000 and $25,000. A straightforward five-page service site sits at the lower end. A site with custom post types, a product catalog, membership features, or complex filtering sits toward the upper end. Every project is scoped to the specific business — no templates, no generic packages. The deliverable is a theme built for you, with documentation, and a developer who answers the phone after launch.

If your business has outgrown its current WordPress site — or if you are starting fresh and want to build on a platform that will grow with you — ask me to scope the project. Patrick Iverson has been building custom WordPress sites for businesses across New Mexico and the rest of the country for over twenty years, and I am happy to talk through what the work would look like for your specific project.

Selected WordPress projects

Patrick Iverson has been building custom WordPress websites from Santa Fe, New Mexico since 2003 — over twenty years of bespoke themes, custom post types, and content architectures built for the way real businesses actually work. Below is a selection of recent WordPress projects.

Do you meet with Santa Fe clients in person?

Yes. Patrick Iverson is based in Santa Fe, and in-person kickoff meetings, content sessions, and training walkthroughs are a normal part of how local projects run. Clients elsewhere in New Mexico and around the country work with me remotely, and that works well. The difference is that local clients get the choice.

How long have you been building WordPress sites in Santa Fe?

The practice has been independent and based in Santa Fe since 2001. WordPress launched in May 2003, and 2003 is the year I adopted it, so I have been building on the platform for essentially its entire life. That shows up most on older sites, where knowing why something was built a certain way is half of knowing how to fix it.

Can you take over a WordPress site another developer built?

Often, yes. The first step is a look at the theme, the plugins, and how the content is structured, because that determines whether the site is worth extending or worth rebuilding. Migrations are part of the work too. The ROCk moved to a new domain with a full 301 redirect map so existing links and search rankings carried over.

Do you build websites that meet accessibility standards?

Yes, and it is part of the build rather than a cleanup pass at the end. Semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, ARIA attributes, and color contrast get handled as the site is built. The ROCk site went through a full WCAG 2.1 AA audit and remediation before launch, which matters for nonprofits and for any organization serving the public.

Do you work with design studios as their WordPress developer?

Yes. A good share of the portfolio is white-label development for design studios that own the identity and hand off the build. Weka Biosciences and Two Baroque Girls were both built in collaboration with Monsoon Design, who owned the visual system while I owned the web design and the WordPress development. If you are a studio without a developer on staff, that arrangement works.

If you are in Santa Fe and want to talk through a WordPress project, get in touch. In person is fine.