Case study
Two rebuilds for a St. Charles County nonprofit, and every old link kept working
This is a small charitable foundation in St. Charles County that runs fundraising events. Its website is where sponsors look up sponsorship levels and attendees find the next event, so it has to keep working for anyone who arrives from an old link or a Google result.
Why it left WordPress
The foundation started on WordPress, which meant plugin and core updates and the security exposure that comes with them. A small nonprofit had no reason to pay for that upkeep, or to worry about it, on a site that mostly lists events and sponsors.
Move one, 2022
We moved the site off WordPress onto hand-built static HTML. With no plugins and no database, there was nothing left sitting there waiting for an update.
Move two, 2026
In 2026 we rebuilt it in Astro. It's still a fast static site, but it's quicker for us to update, and changes go live automatically.
Rebuilds are where links tend to break: a page address someone bookmarked years ago, or a Google result pointing at a page that's gone. So we redirected the old .html addresses to their new pages, which kept existing links and search results working.
Before switching over we audited the old site and wrote 73 automated tests from that audit, screenshot comparisons included, so the new version could be checked against the site it replaced. Analytics came last, so the foundation can finally see how people use its site.
Where the site stands now
No address a visitor could reach broke in either move. The scores below are from the live site in August 2026.
| Measurement | Result |
|---|---|
| Lighthouse performance, desktop | 99 |
| Lighthouse performance, mobile | 83 |
| Lighthouse accessibility, desktop and mobile | 100 |
| Lighthouse best practices | 100 |
| Security score | 100 |
| TLS grade | A+ |
| Security headers grade | A+ |
Scores shift a little from one run to the next.
If your site is on WordPress
Leaving WordPress doesn't have to cost you the links and search results that already point at your site. Redirects carry them across, and that's how the foundation's links survived two moves. Our post Friends Don't Let Friends Use WordPress covers the upkeep side.
Questions about this project
Will moving my website off WordPress hurt my Google rankings?
It can, if old page addresses stop working, because links and search results still point at them. Redirecting each old address to its new page avoids that. We did this for a St. Charles County foundation in 2022 and again in 2026, and no visitor-facing address broke in either move.
Why would a small nonprofit move off WordPress?
Mostly to stop paying for upkeep it doesn't need. A WordPress site needs plugin and core updates on a regular basis, and a login page to keep safe. A static site like the foundation's has no plugins or database, so that upkeep goes away.
How fast is the foundation's website?
In Lighthouse tests in August 2026 it scored 99 for performance on desktop and 83 on mobile. It also scored 100 for accessibility and 100 for best practices.
Why isn't the client named?
We keep clients anonymous in our case studies. The scores come from Lighthouse tests and security scans we ran on the live site.
Thinking about leaving WordPress?
Call +1 (636) 362-6221 or write to us, and you'll talk to the people who did these rebuilds. Customer reviews are on our Google listing, and the rest of our work is on the work page.