+++ 
draft = true
date = 2020-01-20T18:55:00Z
title = "Charles Stantham Legal Services"
description = ""
slug = "" 
tags = ["WordPress"]
categories = ["Portfolio"]
featured_image = "/images/stanthams/large-1.jpg"
externalLink = ""
series = []
+++

Charles Stantham are a firm of made up solicitors.

Done a while ago.

Their [website](https://stanthams.rayelliott.dev/).

Uses [Elementor](https://elementor.com/).
Was before Gutenberg update.

Nothing particularly special.
Some bits of minor customisation via CSS required and so a child theme, based on [OceanWP](https://oceanwp.org/), is used.

Reasons for choosing Elementor and OceanWP:

* Cuts development time considerably.
* Flexible.
* Free version can be enough for a lot of sites -- if need additional stuff can either purchase addon plugins or code manually.
* Relatively lightweight compared to other page builders.

Disadvantage is bloat required to cover many use cases, in which not many may be used.
Purpose built design elements will always be leaner and more efficient with cleaner code (if coded correctly of course).
This especially true if using very few components of the chosen parent theme / page builder.
Performance may not be so much of an issue for small sites with few users -- will become much more of an issue the bigger the site.
Can be harder to customise in ways that are not available in the interface -- e.g., CSS specificity problems.

Plugins used (with reasons, and what I would probably use now):

* [Contact Form 7](https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/).
* [Elementor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/elementor/).
* [Elementor Addon Elements](https://wordpress.org/plugins/addon-elements-for-elementor-page-builder/).  
  For Google Maps integration.
* [GDPR Cookie Compliance](https://wordpress.org/plugins/gdpr-cookie-compliance/).
* [iThemes Security](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/).
* [Ocean Extra](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ocean-extra/).
* [UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore](https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/).
* [WP Fastest Cache](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/).
* [WP Mail SMTP](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/).

Always a good idea to test speed of site after adding a plugin, especially if not used before.

Not much to say - a pretty basic brochure site.
The primary purpose is to allow users to discover/get more information about the firm.
Important that site is easy navigable and presents the information in a clean, uncluttered way.