University of Chichester
A university website rebuilt for speed, stability and long-term flexibility
A WordPress rebuild for the University of Chichester, creating a faster, easier-to-manage website.
University website platform rebuild
Visit the site
Smaller site size
Fewer active plugins
Faster Speed Index
Lighthouse performance score
The project retained the established visual design and main navigation, while replacing the layered CMS setup behind the site. The rebuild improves performance, reduces technical complexity and gives the university team a more practical way to manage courses, campaign content and day-to-day updates.
Our work combined bespoke WordPress development, CMS architecture, performance optimisation and ongoing technical support for a large higher education website.
Improving a university’s
CMS performance
The University of Chichester required a website rebuild to address performance issues and improve the systems supporting day-to-day content management.
The challenge sat behind the scenes. The CMS had become harder for the team to work with, and the layered setup was starting to slow down everyday content updates and affect performance in places.
Student journeys
and internal workflows
The website supports several important journeys at once. Prospective students use it to explore courses and move towards application, while current students, staff and internal teams rely on it for key information.
The marketing team also manages frequent updates, multiple editors and a large amount of structured content, so the CMS needs to stay practical in day-to-day use.
Our approach
We focused on the parts of the platform that would make the biggest difference to day-to-day use: content structure, editorial workflows, performance and the logic behind key content areas.
Rather than redesigning the site, we rebuilt its foundations. The new platform gave the university team a more practical CMS while improving speed, stability and maintainability.
A bespoke WordPress rebuild for the
University of Chichester
A more flexible and consistent CMS
We built a bespoke Gutenberg-based editor that provides a structured, visual approach to content creation.
Reusable content types, such as FAQs and testimonials, help improve consistency across the site and reduce duplication.
Custom blocks give the marketing team a controlled set of components for building more complex layouts, while keeping pages on-brand and easier to manage.
Supporting course search, filtering and structured content
A clearer taxonomy and improved content logic now support more efficient filtering, search and content relationships.
The new WordPress setup also makes course content and related information easier to manage, with a simpler structure and improved query performance.
Reducing plugin reliance and improving site speed
The old site depended on 47 active plugins. We brought some plugin features directly into the bespoke theme, simplifying how the new WordPress setup handled those tasks.
Reducing the number of active plugins to 9 made the site easier to maintain and improved overall performance.
Search and filtering now respond faster across course and news areas, helping users find relevant content with less waiting.
A stronger platform for ongoing university marketing
The CMS gives the marketing team more flexibility to add tracking, scripts, chat tools, data-capture forms and time-sensitive messaging where needed.
Campaign messages and key event information can be managed in one place, then reused across relevant pages.
Accessibility, performance and ongoing support
Accessibility and performance remained part of the rebuild throughout the project. The site now works more reliably across devices and supports the standards expected of a modern university website.
The university team manages the website internally, while we continue to support maintenance, development and future improvements.
A trusted partner
It has been an absolute joy to work with Feel Created. This was a technically complex project, but the solutions were well thought out and clearly communicated. Their responsiveness resulted in a deep sense of trust, and we are looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together in the future.
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