Client
West Pole Partners
Region
Texas Hill Country · Austin Metro
Services
—
Engagement
Long-term partner (multi-year, multi projects)
West Pole Partners came to me early—back when they had a single website and a clear ambition to grow. From the start, the challenge wasn't just designing a website. It was building a system that could evolve with the business, support high-end real estate listings, and stay fast, flexible, and future-proof.
What followed has been a multi-generation CMS journey—one that mirrors the broader evolution of the modern web.
Escaping the WordPress Gravity Well
Like many brokerages of the time, West Pole Partners was constrained by a traditional CMS stack:
- PHP-driven WordPress maintenance
- Front-end and back-end tightly coupled
- Blog systrem not ideal CMS for specific content
The goal was speed, control, and maintainability without the overhead and fragility of WordPress.
Initially we replaced the out-of-date WordPress with Bolt CMS, giving them a more nimble, developer-friendly foundation that respected performance and content structure. This was the first step toward something bigger.
CraftCMS & Structured Content at Scale
As the site matured, so did the needs of the brokerage. We transitioned to Craft CMS, which introduced:
- Strong content modelingFlexible templatingA cleaner authoring experienceBetter performance tuning
This wasn't just a CMS swap—it was an architectural reset that allowed the site to grow without breaking itself.
Property Listings as First-Class Products
One of the most important innovations came next. West Pole didn't just want listings inside the main website. They wanted individual property websites, each with:
- Its own domainIts own branding flexibilityFull parity with the main site's data
Using CraftCMS, we built a system where the main website and every individual listing site all shared the same CMS backend.
This was one of the earliest implementations where we treated listings as independent digital products, not just pages.
Going Headless (Before It Was Cool)
As front-end technology accelerated, we made a decisive shift. CraftCMS continued to power content, but we decoupled rendering entirely, serving both the main gowestpole.com site and all property microsites through a headless CMS approach.
This unlocked:
- Independent front-end iterationFaster rebuildsPlatform experimentation without CMS migrationCleaner separation of concerns
This was the turning point.
100% Headless with Sanity
As headless matured, we fully transitioned to Sanity—a pure content backend designed for long-term adaptability.
Sanity now serves as:
- The single source of truth for all contentThe backend for both the main site and all listing sitesA stable platform supporting years of front-end evolution
Front-End Evolution Without Rewrites
Because content and presentation were fully decoupled, West Pole Partners benefited from something rare: front-end innovation without backend disruption.
Over the years, their sites have evolved through:
- Static site generatorsEleventyModern React-based frameworksRemix (v2)And now React Router v7 (framework mode)
All while keeping the same content backend intact.
This staggered development approach meant faster experimentation, safer upgrades, no "big bang" rewrites, and continuous improvement instead of disruption.
Why This Matters
This case study isn't just about technology choices. It's about thinking in systems, not pages.
By separating content from presentation early—and doubling down on that philosophy—we created a platform that has lasted through multiple generations of web technology while continuing to deliver real business value.
That's the advantage of doing it right the first time—and improving it deliberately over time.