Creating a WordPress Custom Theme from Scratch

Building a custom WordPress theme can be a complex and time-consuming process, often overwhelming agencies that aim to deliver high-quality websites for their clients. The challenge lies in managing project scopes, preparing assets, and ensuring seamless development while integrating essential features and plugins.

At White Label Agency, we simplify this process with our proven expertise. With over a decade of experience and a team of skilled developers, we specialize in creating lightweight and efficient custom WordPress themes. Our detailed approach ensures that every project will meet your client’s needs efficiently and effectively by delivering high-performing websites.

In this blog, we will guide you through the website development process and the necessary steps for creating a WordPress custom theme from scratch.

How to Quote a Project?

Before starting development, agencies need to provide their client with a fixed-price quote for the project based on their design files and specifications. First, as an agency you have to understand what you are creating and provide a detailed document of services and pricing for the website project that the client will sign.

Set up a call or a meeting with clients to clarify their needs. Do they want a simple landing page or a multi-page site with complex development requirements? Answering these questions will help you build an accurate quote. The process begins when the client provides designs for their new website, asking agencies to build these as a WordPress custom theme. Review the design files and specifications to estimate the cost and time required for development.

Generally, the project scope of design development includes page templates, which are the layouts for different pages (e.g. homepage, about us, services). Next comes custom animation – the unique animations that enhance user experience. Then it’s time for custom mobile designs, which are optimized layouts for mobile devices. After that, pixel-perfect accuracy comes in to ensure the website matches the design files precisely. The last step is custom navigation – tailored navigation menus for easy user access. 

Additional scope may include customized integration – for example, integrating Instagram feeds, and special unique animations for services overview and navigation.

Preparation

After the project quote, you need to gather all the necessary assets to begin WordPress custom theme development. The assets include design files, project briefs, media assets, and plugin credentials. 

• Design files are sketch files for desktop and mobile views, including navigation elements.
• Project briefs are documents with general instructions and project details. 
• Media assets include videos, photos, and premium fonts. 
• As for plugin credentials, they refer to the access details for premium plugins that have been purchased in advance. 

For simpler projects, layered design files and basic instructions may be enough.

Always clear up any uncertainties early on. For instance, whether project pages should include only images or also have videos and text elements. Ensure every aspect is well-understood to avoid confusion later.

Development Highlights

After preparations, the development process begins. This phase ensures that all design elements are implemented correctly and the website functions smoothly.

Custom Post Types for Portfolio Projects

Use custom post types to showcase portfolio items effectively. Create individual pages for each project with an overview section that includes a thumbnail, title, and short description. This makes it easy to manage and display projects. 

Advanced Custom Fields for Social Profiles

Set up social media profiles in the global settings using custom fields. This centralizes the updates and ensures changes are reflected across the site automatically.

Theme Features

In the custom themes, agencies incorporate various features to enhance functionality:

• Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) and Custom Post Types: These tools are essential for building flexible and dynamic content structures.
• Slick Slider: This is used for creating responsive sliders, including video support.
• Side-By-Side Blocks and Contact Page Template: These are included to streamline the design and development process.
• Gutenberg Optimization: A version of the theme is optimized for the default WordPress block editor, Gutenberg, to ensure smooth and efficient performance. 
• CSS Framework: You can use the foundation framework primarily, with Bootstrap available as a reserve option for specific partner requests. 
• Elementor Integration: Some agencies offer a lightweight version of the theme optimized for Elementor, stripped of unnecessary elements to ensure better performance.

Plugins Used

When building a website it is important to implement essential and additional plugins to enhance website functionality. They can optimize SEO, bolster security, simplify contact forms, manage media assets, and more. Here are some essential plugins we recommend for every business website:

Yoast SEO

With this WordPress custom theme, you can optimize posts for search engines effortlessly. It helps to improve content’s visibility and ranking.

Elementor

With Elementor you can transform the page editor into a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that makes design adjustments simple and intuitive.

Advanced Custom Fields PRO

ACF PRO includes extra fields and features to better develop websites including PHP blocks, repeatable fields, page-building tools, media galleries, and custom options pages.

AJAX Thumbnail Rebuild

This plugin allows you to rebuild all thumbnails on your site. Rebuilding thumbnails is essential when changing their size to match a new theme. WordPress only resizes new uploads, leaving old thumbnails unchanged. This plugin rebuilds these thumbnails sequentially, preventing server overload.

Google Analytics by MonsterInsights

With over 3 million active installs, MonsterInsights is the leading Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It helps you understand how people find and use the website, providing crucial analytics and stats. This insight makes it easier to double your client’s traffic and sales.

Login LockDown

This plugin secures the site by recording IP addresses and timestamps of failed login attempts. If multiple failed attempts are detected from the same IP within a set period, access is disabled, preventing brute force attacks and password discovery.

Intuitive Custom Post Order

This is a WordPress plugin that lets you easily order items using drag-and-drop functionality.

SVG Support

Safely upload and use SVG files with optional sanitization. SVG Support allows easy CSS styling of SVG elements and embeds full SVG code using an IMG tag. Add the “style-svg” class to dynamically replace IMG elements with inline SVGs, enabling better styling and animation.

Custom Post Type UI

This plugin offers an easy interface for registering and managing custom post types and taxonomies. To display this content, use Custom Post Type UI Extended, which provides layout examples to showcase your client’s custom content effectively.

Internal QA

You can conduct thorough internal quality assurance (QA) to ensure the website meets all requirements. Check for pixel-perfect accuracy, adherence to instructions, and cross-browser compatibility. This step is vital to delivering a high-quality product.

Late Changes

Sometimes new requirements emerge during the feedback stage. These changes may require a separate quote if they exceed the initial scope. However, some changes might be accommodated within the existing scope if they align with the original design.

Delivery 

Once the site is approved, migrate it to the staging area of the hosting provider. This allows for any final touches before making the site live. Ensure everything functions correctly and meets the client’s expectations.

WLA’s Proven Approach to WordPress Themes

Building a WordPress custom theme involves several detailed steps, from quoting and preparation to development and delivery. By following these steps, agencies can efficiently create beautiful, high-performing websites that meet their clients’ needs. 

At White Label Agency, our expertise in creating lightweight and efficient themes ensures that every project incorporates all the necessary elements needed to create a quality website.  With over a decade of experience and a team of skilled developers, we deliver optimized and visually stunning websites. Contact us today to help you deliver high-quality websites for your clients.