A WordPress maintenance retainer that grew into a 25% performance gain

The client

RecipeTin Eats is one of the largest independent digital recipe publishers in the world, with monthly website traffic of almost 45 million page views and a 5.7 million-strong social media following. The team had had mixed experiences with development agencies in the past. Human Made began with a maintenance retainer and grew the engagement into larger design and platform work.

The challenge

The RecipeTin Eats team had had mixed experiences with development agencies in the past, so the partnership began by building trust and transparency through proactive communication and consistent delivery. The site needed stabilising and ongoing care, starting with bug fixing and maintenance, before larger improvements could be tackled.

The solution

The results

The migration contributed to a 25% increase in Lighthouse-reported performance from day one. The site saw a 50%+ increase in new and returning visitors, and clicks from Google Search surged by 160% over 16 months. Consistent Lighthouse audits continue to ensure ongoing performance monitoring and optimisation.

“It’s no overstatement to say the relationship has been transformative for our business. I feel entirely confident about the future knowing that whatever we choose to do from here, we have the expertise, the capability, and the rapport with the Human Made team to get it done.”

Tools & stack

Original project by Human Made ↗ — published by the delivering agency, included here as an industry reference.