Website Development Standards and Guidelines for Developers – Help Center

Purpose

This document outlines essential development practices and audit requirements to ensure websites are accessible, performant, maintainable, and aligned with established best practices. Developers must adhere to these standards to deliver high-quality, future-proof websites.

Audit Requirements

The completed website must pass the following audits:

ADA Accessibility Audit

Tool: Accessibility Checker
Reason: Ensures compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and provides an inclusive experience for all users, including those with disabilities.

SEO On-Page Audit

Tool: The Hoth SEO Report Tool
Reason: Optimizes on-page content and structure for better search engine visibility, improving organic traffic and site rankings.

Performance Audit

Tool: GTmetrix
Reason: Identifies bottlenecks that impact loading speed and overall performance, ensuring a fast and efficient user experience.

Best Practices

Codebase and Theme Integrity

No modifications to parent theme files.

Reason: Keeps updates safe and prevents overwriting customizations during theme updates.

No modifications to WordPress core files except wp-config.php and .htaccess.

Reason: Avoids breaking WordPress functionality and ensures compatibility with future updates.

No hard-coded URLs or file paths.

Reason: Facilitates seamless migrations and prevents issues with staging/production environments.

Must work with PHP 8.1 or better.

Reason: Ensures compatibility with current and future hosting environments.

Use the latest version of WordPress.

Reason: Ensures security and access to the latest features and bug fixes.

If using a child theme, use the enqueue method instead of the @import method for loading stylesheets.

Reason: Reduces load times and avoids deprecation warnings.

The website must be “upgrade safe.”

Reason: Ensures that theme, plugin, and WordPress core updates will not break functionality or design.

Security and Cleanup

Delete backups and backup files immediately after they are no longer needed.

Reason: Minimizes security risks and saves server space.

File and Path Naming

Images should have dashes (-) instead of underscores (_).

Reason: Dashes improve readability and follow SEO best practices.

Ensure all filenames (images, attachments, etc.) are lowercase.

Reason: Linux servers are case-sensitive, and inconsistent casing causes broken links.

Avoid WordPress slugs with numbers (e.g., /contact-us-2/).

Reason: Numbers in slugs indicate poor cleanup and confuse users/SEO crawlers.

Domain and Link Structure

Use www in domain URLs instead of “naked” domains.

Example: Use https://www.example.com instead of https://example.com.
Reason: Improves compatibility with CDN and SSL configurations.

Use relative links and paths instead of absolute ones.

Example: Use /contact/ instead of https://www.example.com/contact/.
Reason: Simplifies migrations and prevents environment-specific issues.

The website must work when installed on LocalWP (https://localwp.com).

Reason: Verifies that hard-coded URLs are avoided, relative URLs and paths are used, and domain changes or subdomain updates do not require extensive find/replace processes.

External Resources

No links to CSS/JS files hosted on private servers or subdomains without approval.

Exception: Widely used public libraries (e.g., Google Fonts, jQuery) are permitted with approval.
Reason: Minimizes site dependencies and reduces risk from third-party outages.

Custom Code and Plugins

Avoid custom PHP or plugins without approval.

Allowed: Functions provided by theme/plugin developers or WordPress core.
Requirement: Provide links to sources in comments.
Reason: Ensures maintainability and avoids introducing unsupported code.

Avoid custom CSS in themes, child themes, or Divi Theme Options without approval.

Reason: Keeps the codebase clean and maintainable.

Avoid custom JavaScript without approval.

Reason: Prevents unapproved dependencies and ensures performance.

Avoid using free/paid plugins without prior approval.

Reason: Ensures compatibility with existing tools and avoids unnecessary plugin bloat.

Database and Website Redesign

Do not clone websites for redesigns.

Reason: Cloning carries over database cruft and bit rot from years of abandoned themes/plugins.
Allowed: Export and re-import blog posts to the new site.

Image Usage Guidelines

Source images from popular free providers or the Instantly plugin.

Approved free sources: Unsplash, Openverse, Pixabay, Pexels.
Requirement: All images must reference their source in captions.
Example of captioning: AI Email Writer - Future of AI.
Reason: Ensures legal usage, proper attribution, and maintains visual quality standards.

If paid images are required, they will be sourced from Deposit Photos or similar paid websites.

Reason: Avoids copyright issues and ensures access to high-quality assets.

Divi-Specific Best Practices

Follow Divi best practices outlined by trusted resources to ensure the efficient use of the Divi framework while optimizing for performance and usability.

Developer Acknowledgment

By adhering to these guidelines, you ensure the delivered product is robust, maintainable, and aligned with modern web development practices. Contact the project manager for clarifications or approvals.