A lighter news website with fewer dependencies and lower hosting costs. For Radio Estación, we rebuilt the WordPress foundation to reduce server work and deliver a faster, more welcoming reading experience, while preserving the news archive, article URLs and advertising placements.
Radio Estación 102.5 is a media outlet in San Francisco, Córdoba, Argentina, covering local news alongside live radio and television. The goal was to improve everyday operations: keep publishing straightforward, serve news with fewer resources and make the website easier for readers to explore.
Before and after: measured results
- PageSpeed · desktop, out of 100
- 65 → 98
- PageSpeed · mobile, out of 100
- 58 → 82
In these tests, the homepage's main content appeared in 1.0 second on desktop, down from 6.6 seconds. On mobile, that time fell from 26.6 to 4.5 seconds: an approximately 83% reduction in Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
Performance score: 65; LCP: 6.6 s.
Performance score: 98; LCP: 1.0 s.
Real screenshots of the same homepage on October 15, 2026: before at 5:14 pm and after at 11:15 pm (GMT−3). One Lighthouse 13.5.0 run per device at each stage. These are lab results and may vary; mobile LCP of 4.5 s still leaves room for improvement. Select either screenshot to enlarge it. View the later PageSpeed report.
Fewer resources for the same work
| What we optimized | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| External JavaScript and CSS files at the homepage migration checkpoint | 59 | 15 · about 75% fewer |
| Combined size of all 11 banners | 7.09 MB | 5.39 MB · 24% less |
| Requests for the five popularity rankings | 5 on page load | 1 when approaching the section |
| Homepage time to first byte (TTFB) | 1,750 ms | 76 ms with a warm cache |
Implementation records from October 15, 2026. CSS/JS counts were recorded at migration, before subsequent improvements. Banner savings cover all 11 files after converting seven GIFs to lossless animated WebP. TTFB is the median of three anonymous requests per stage to the same URL; it measures the start of the response, not full page load or CPU use.
We coordinated Cloudflare, LiteSpeed and object caching to reuse content that had already been generated. The rankings now share a single request, loaded only when the reader approaches their section. Readers who never reach it do not trigger that request.
Reducing this repeated work allowed the client to lower their hosting costs. The optimization addressed both what visitors download and the work needed to prepare each page.
A simpler foundation to maintain
We replaced the previous theme and Elementor layouts with templates built using native WordPress blocks and a custom child theme. Elementor, Elementor Pro and the previous theme's companion plugin were no longer needed.
The homepage updates as new stories are published. The team retains its WordPress editorial workflow with fewer design dependencies. We also reviewed categories, links, titles and descriptions while preserving article URLs.
A better experience for readers
- Clearer navigation and reading: a reorganized menu, consistent text widths and mobile layouts.
- Light, dark or automatic appearance: the website remembers the visitor's choice.
- Lighter images and advertising: responsive sizes, lazy loading where appropriate and banners that retain their animations and links.
- More stories to discover: four related articles integrated without additional AJAX requests or JavaScript for that section.
The result combines simpler website operations, less work for the hosting platform and a refreshed experience for visitors.
Does your news website need more hosting resources every time it grows?
We can investigate what is consuming those resources and plan an optimization that preserves the content and features your team relies on.