Website Design Services

Splitpixel developers write custom WordPress themes by hand, developing custom content modules to work with the WordPress Gutenberg editor directly. This means we do not have to use any out-of-the-box pagebuilder platforms like Divi, Beaver Builder, WP Bakery or Elementor – we avoid using systems like this entirely and prefer to develop a theme for your project, tailored to your needs.

We also do not use AI code generation tools for production work – our themes have been created, updated and maintained by our very-much-human developers since we started working with WordPress over 15 years ago. We truly believe human-first coding is the way to go!

By developing our own bespoke code, we can make a website that is faster, leaner, more secure, and easier to maintain and develop over time – all without the bloat and vulnerabilities that can come from using third party code and tools that we don’t control.

We’re a people-first, human-centred web agency, and as such we do not use AI to make our websites. AI is used as part of our studio workflows for troubleshooting errors or assisting with prototyping of new features only. No AI is used to generate creative work or production code. AI is not a replacement for human creativity, or for investing in the future careers of junior designers, developers and content creators.

Every member of the Splitpixel team working on our web projects is a full-time, in-house employee. Absolutely nothing is outsourced, and we don’t use third party contractors, freelancers, or off-shore teams – we never have, and never will. We are committied to providing long-term, sustainable employment to talented people in our local area, and building a team that can always deliver the best.

While all of our projects have a dedicated project manager keeping things running smoothly, you will work directly with the team members doing the work – including our very human developers. We’re always available for catchup calls and meetings, as well as via email.

At Splitpixel, sustainability is one of our core pillars and values. As such, sustainable web development best practice is incorporated into all of our processes.

This starts with building bespoke, lean code, developed precisely to deliver the intended function – we don’t rely on bloated plugins or third party tools.

Within this code, we compress rich media using SVG and WebP formats and use smart page loading to reduce the load time of each individual page.

From a content point of view, we also work with our clients to optimise user journeys to reduce unnecessary page loads.

Our sites are launched and hosted on UK-based Cloudways infrastructure, of which we are a Platinum Agency Partner. The servers we use run on renewable energy.

Post launch, we optimise against Google PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals. A faster site uses less energy per page load, which also benefits SEO.

We are Ecologi members, participants in the Climate Literacy Project pilot, and factor carbon footprint into all of our technical and organisational decisions.

At Splitpixel, we take security very seriously. As a WordPress developer, we’re aware that the platform can have vulnerabilities – but only if it’s not correctly maintained and hosted. We make sure our WordPress sites meet the highest standards of security in every way.

To achieve this, we use a three layer security architecture across our websites and servers.

At the edge layer, Cloudflare Enterprise provides WAF (web application firewall), DDoS mitigation and performance filtering before requests reach the server.

At the server layer, we use server-level firewalls, bot protection and realtime malware detection via Imunify360.

At the application layer, WordPress core, themes and plugins are monitored continuously via Patchstack RapidMitigate, which applies virtual patches up to 48 hours ahead of public vulnerability disclosure.

We use HTTPS and TLS certificates, HttpOnly cookies, server-side validation and OWASP Top 10 protections. MFA and role-based permissions are enforced via Wordfence, and CAPTCHA is applied to all forms. Daily encrypted backups are stored to Amazon S3 with a two week rolling window, and sites are redeployable within one to two hours.

We hold annual cyber and all professional required insurances, and commission annual CREST-certified penetration testing through an NCSC-recognised provider. We are ICO registered and can provide all business policies during the briefing process to give clients full confidence.