Case Study
| Development
How Custom WordPress Development Increased Mobile PageSpeed by 61% and Improved Core Web Vitals
By Alison Iddings
| Oct 30, 2025
Client Overview
Dragonboat is a leading product portfolio management platform that helps organizations prioritize and deliver strategic initiatives. As their digital presence expanded, their website’s performance deteriorated, negatively impacting user experience and search engine rankings.
- Industry: SaaS – Product Management Software
- Location: Global
- Website: dragonboat.io
- Project Type: Complete WordPress website rebuild and performance optimization
The Challenge: Critical Website Performance Issues
Dragonboat’s website was experiencing severe performance problems that threatened their online visibility and user engagement:
- Slow load times creating poor user experience, especially on mobile devices
- Limited scalability preventing the site from handling traffic growth effectively
- SEO concerns as Google’s Core Web Vitals became critical ranking factors in search algorithms
- Mobile PageSpeed Insights score of only 56, significantly below the industry benchmark of 90+
According to Google’s research on mobile page speed, 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Dragonboat’s 15.7-second Largest Contentful Paint was driving potential customers away.
The site required a complete technical overhaul while preserving the existing design that their audience recognized and trusted.
Our Approach: Strategic WordPress Performance Optimization
City of Oaks Marketing rebuilt the Dragonboat website from the ground up using a custom WordPress theme engineered for maximum performance, SEO optimization, and scalability. Our comprehensive strategy included:
- Preserving brand consistency while completely reengineering the technical foundation
- Implementing modern WordPress development best practices with clean, efficient code
- Optimizing all Core Web Vitals metrics (LCP, FID, CLS) for superior user experience
- Building a scalable architecture using WordPress coding standards to support future growth
- Ensuring mobile-first performance optimization aligned with Google’s mobile-first indexing
Technical Implementation
Our development process utilized:
- Custom PHP development optimized for WordPress performance
- Advanced caching strategies and database query optimization
- Image optimization and lazy loading implementation
- Minification of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
- Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration for global performance
The Results: Exceptional Performance Improvements
The website rebuild delivered measurable, dramatic improvements across all key performance metrics:
Mobile PageSpeed Insights Score
- Before: 56 (Poor)
- After: 90 (Good)
- Improvement: +61% (34-point increase)
Core Web Vitals – Mobile Performance
What These Numbers Mean for User Experience
- First Contentful Paint improved by 7.1 seconds: Users now see content almost immediately instead of waiting over 8 seconds, dramatically reducing bounce rates
- Largest Contentful Paint improved by 13.4 seconds: The main content loads in just 2.3 seconds, well within Google’s “good” threshold of 2.5 seconds
- Total Blocking Time eliminated completely: The site is now fully interactive with zero delays, creating a seamless, responsive user experience
- Speed Index improved by 6.2 seconds: Visual content appears 74% faster, keeping visitors engaged and reducing abandonment
Business Impact: Performance Translates to Results
These technical improvements deliver measurable business value:
SEO & Search Visibility
- Enhanced organic search rankings: Meeting Google’s Core Web Vitals standards improves search rankings and visibility
- Better crawl efficiency: Faster sites allow search engines to crawl more pages within their allocated budget
- Improved mobile rankings: With mobile-first indexing, mobile performance directly impacts all search rankings
User Experience & Conversion
- Reduced bounce rates: Studies show that faster load times significantly decrease bounce rates
- Higher engagement: Users spend more time on fast-loading sites
- Improved conversion rates: According to Portent research, site speed directly correlates with conversion rates
Technical & Competitive Advantages
- Mobile optimization: 90% of mobile users now experience lightning-fast performance
- Scalable foundation: The custom WordPress architecture supports future growth without performance degradation
- Competitive edge: Site performance now exceeds industry standards, setting Dragonboat apart in the SaaS marketplace
- Future-proof infrastructure: Built to adapt to evolving web performance standards
The City of Oaks Marketing Difference
This project showcases our unique approach to WordPress website development:
Custom Theme Development
Every site receives a purpose-built theme optimized for its specific performance, functionality, and business needs—not a generic template.
Performance-First Methodology
We architect sites for speed from the ground up, not as an afterthought. Performance is integrated into every development decision.
Technical Excellence
Our expertise in PHP, JavaScript, WordPress REST API, and modern development practices delivers measurable, data-driven results.
Design Preservation
We can dramatically improve performance while maintaining your brand identity and user experience—no compromises necessary.
Ongoing Support
We provide comprehensive WordPress maintenance plans to ensure your site maintains peak performance over time.
Ready to Transform Your Website Performance?
If your website is struggling with slow load times, poor mobile performance, failing Core Web Vitals, or scalability challenges, City of Oaks Marketing can help. We specialize in custom WordPress development that delivers exceptional performance improvements while maintaining your design vision and brand identity.
Our Services Include:
- Custom WordPress theme development
- Website performance optimization
- Core Web Vitals improvement
- Technical SEO optimization
- Mobile-first responsive design
- WordPress maintenance and support
