Local WordPress Sites

I regularly build custom WordPress websites, focusing on clean design, clear messaging, and practical functionality that reflects the needs of the client—or, in this case, mock projects designed to simulate real-world small business scenarios.

As part of my portfolio, I created five different mock sites locally, each with unique branding and content goals, and then hosted them to showcase fully functional, end-to-end development. This process gave me hands-on experience with custom theme development, including structuring templates, building reusable components, and managing dynamic content through ACF layouts.

Working on these mock sites reinforced my existing experience with custom ACF layouts and helped me deepen my understanding of how themes are built from scratch, including:

Creating clean, organized template files for various page types
Structuring custom fields to make content management intuitive
Designing responsive layouts with practical UX for different devices
Implementing styling and scripts in a way that supports both flexibility and maintainability

Takeaways

                            Each mock project allowed me to experiment with real-world considerations, such as navigation hierarchy, mobile-first design, and content update workflows. By hosting them, I ensured they weren’t just static mockups — they were fully functioning sites that demonstrate both front-end presentation and back-end management capabilities.

This process not only strengthened my custom theme development skills but also reinforced my ability to create practical, scalable solutions for real clients while leveraging the flexibility of WordPress and ACF to meet specific content and design needs.                        