## **Project Title: Senior WordPress Performance Engineer – WPresidence Theme Optimization** ### **Project Overview** We are seeking a highly skilled WordPress Performance Specialist to optimize a real estate website built on the **WPresidence theme**, hosted on **WP Engine**, and utilizing **Cloudflare**. Our primary challenge is a high **Time to First Byte (TTFB)** and sub-optimal mobile performance. We are looking for deep, manual optimization—not just the installation of "all-in-one" speed plugins. You must be comfortable working within the restricted environment of WP Engine (where many caching plugins are disallowed) and configuring Cloudflare for maximum edge performance. --- ### **Technical Environment** * **Theme:** WPresidence (Heavy real estate theme with AJAX and Map integrations). * **Hosting:** WP Engine (Managed hosting with EverCache and Object Caching). * **DNS/CDN:** Cloudflare. * **Current Issue:** High TTFB (>5s at times) and poor Core Web Vitals (LCP/TBT) on mobile. --- ### **Scope of Work & Milestones** #### **Milestone 1: Audit, Cleanup & Environment Setup** * **Setup:** Create a Staging/Development environment on WP Engine. **No work is to be done on the live site initially.** * **Cleanup:** Conduct a full plugin audit. Identify and remove redundant or conflicting plugins. * **Diagnosis:** Use Query Monitor or New Relic to identify slow database queries specifically tied to WPresidence property filters and AJAX handlers. * **Deliverable:** A stable staging site with a **TTFB under 1 second** and all primary real estate functions (Search/Maps) verified. #### **Milestone 2: Deep Technical Optimization (Staging Phase)** * **Code Optimization:** Manually minify/defer CSS and JS. Implement **Critical CSS** specifically for property listings and search result templates. * **Media Strategy:** Convert the media library to **WebP/AVIF**. Ensure Hero images use `fetchpriority="high"` and are excluded from lazy loading. * **Database Tuning:** Clean up orphan metadata and optimize the WPresidence "read from file" pin management for maps. * **Deliverable:** Significant improvement in PageSpeed scores on the Staging environment while maintaining 100% functionality. #### **Milestone 3: Live Deployment & Final Validation** * **Migration:** Safely push all optimizations from Staging to Production. * **Cloudflare Configuration:** Optimize Cloudflare settings (Brotli, Polish, and custom Page Rules for edge caching). * **Validation:** Final testing of property search, AJAX loading, and lead forms. * **Deliverable:** Final PageSpeed reports meeting our agreed targets (Aiming for 80-90+ Desktop) and passing **Core Web Vitals**. --- ### **What We Are NOT Looking For** * **Plugin "Masking":** We do not want Nitropack or aggressive "Delay JS" tricks that break the user experience for a "fake" high score. * **Live-Site Testing:** Do not bid if you plan on testing optimizations on our live production environment. * **Broken Functionality:** Performance is second to functionality. Maps and filters must remain 100% operational. ### **How to Apply** Please start your proposal with the word **"ENGINEER"** so I know you’ve read this brief. Briefly explain your experience with **WPresidence** or other heavy real estate themes and how you handle the specific caching limitations of **WP Engine**.