Groundhogg is a WordPress-native marketing automation and CRM platform built for small businesses. As the product matured, its marketing website needed to evolve alongside it. The existing site, built with Elementor, was increasingly constrained by performance limitations, design governance challenges, and a content-editing experience that made scaling difficult.

Groundhogg partnered with Lone Rock Point to rebuild groundhogg.io using WordPress’s native Gutenberg editor and a custom block architecture. The goal was to create a blazing-fast website, simplify content management for non-technical editors, and establish a future-proof foundation aligned with the direction of WordPress core.

Lone Rock Point engineered a Gutenberg-first solution that removed unnecessary page-builder overhead, leveraged WordPress’s template hierarchy and Full Site Editing capabilities, and introduced reusable custom blocks and patterns for consistent, scalable content creation. The result was a significantly faster website, improved Core Web Vitals, and a streamlined editorial workflow.

By transitioning away from Elementor and embracing native WordPress capabilities, Groundhogg achieved a reported 60% reduction in page load time while gaining greater flexibility, improved SEO performance, and a site their team can confidently manage as the business grows.

Our Approach

Discovery & Objectives

The project began with a focused discovery phase designed to align technical decisions with Groundhogg’s business and content goals. Lone Rock Point worked closely with the Groundhogg team to review the existing site, understand editorial pain points, and identify opportunities to improve performance and scalability.

A clear direction emerged: move away from heavy page builders and toward a Gutenberg-first, system-driven approach.

Strategy & Implementation

Lone Rock Point approached the rebuild with a core principle: use WordPress native capabilities wherever possible, and customize only where it adds meaningful value. We collaborated with Groundhogg to make intentional choices around base themes and existing block libraries, aiming to cover approximately 80% of site use cases using established, well-supported solutions. This minimized technical debt while ensuring long-term maintainability. For more specialized UX needs, such as pricing tables, comparison grids, and feature layouts, we developed custom Gutenberg blocks that balanced flexibility with simplicity. These blocks empowered editors to build and update pages confidently without relying on shortcodes or page-builder abstractions. We also leveraged WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE) to centralize layout control and establish a cohesive design system. This approach ensured consistent presentation across templates while giving the Groundhogg team greater autonomy over site structure and content. Editor styles were carefully aligned with front-end styles so that what editors saw in Gutenberg accurately reflected the final output across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices. Custom post types were introduced where appropriate, such as for testimonials and partner content, to further streamline content organization.

The Solution

The rebuilt groundhogg.io site is powered by a native WordPress Gutenberg architecture optimized for performance, flexibility, and ease of use.

Key Components

• Migration from Elementor to Gutenberg
  Elementor was fully removed, eliminating page-builder overhead and reducing reliance on external libraries. Pages were rebuilt using Gutenberg blocks and patterns optimized for speed and consistency.
• Custom Gutenberg Blocks
  Lone Rock Point developed custom blocks for:
  • Feature grids
  • Testimonial layouts
  • Pricing tables
  • Competitor comparison tables
• These blocks enable fast, repeatable content creation without technical complexity.
• Performance Optimization
  Best practices were applied across the site, including reduced HTTP requests, lazy loading of images, minimized JavaScript, and lean template-driven layouts.
• Responsive, Mobile-First Design
  The Gutenberg-based approach ensured consistent behavior across devices while simplifying responsive design management.
• Training & Documentation
  Lone Rock Point delivered comprehensive documentation and training materials, enabling the Groundhogg team to confidently manage and evolve the site independently after launch.

Results & Impact

Operational Benefits

• Faster publishing and iteration without page-builder friction
• Improved design consistency across the site
• Reduced reliance on developers for routine updates
• A future-ready WordPress foundation aligned with platform evolution

Key Takeaways

• Native Gutenberg can deliver major performance gains over page builders
• Custom blocks strike the right balance between flexibility and maintainability
• Full Site Editing enables scalable design governance
• Editor-first design empowers non-technical teams
• Performance and usability improvements directly support growth and SEO