WordPress is the platform most small businesses end up on, whether they chose it or a previous designer chose it for them. That makes it the biggest pool of potential clients for anyone who works with it. It also makes it noisy: plenty of WordPress sites are fine, and the owners don't want to hear from you.
The trick is to find the ones with a clear, visible reason to call a developer.
- 4,123
- Websites
- 65%
- Publish an email
- 9%
- Outdated © year
- 2%
- Not mobile-friendly
What usually goes wrong with WordPress sites
WordPress sites rarely break all at once. They drift. A theme stops getting updates, a few plugins pile up, someone adds a slider and a chat widget, and three years later the site is slow and nobody wants to touch it. That drift shows up in a few places you can check from the outside:
- Speed. Of the WordPress sites we've checked, 66% took more than 3 seconds to respond. Heavy themes and stacked plugins are the usual cause, and speed work is an easy first project to sell.
- An old copyright year. 382 WordPress sites still show a footer year that's at least two years old. It's a small detail, but it says nobody is looking after the site.
- Missing basics. No meta description, no social preview image or no analytics. Quick fixes, and good proof that you know what you're doing.
Narrow it down before you write
4,123 sites is far too many to contact. Pick one slice and work through it properly:
- Choose a niche you understand. Dentists, law firms, restaurants, trades. Your email will be better if you've built sites for the same kind of business.
- Pick one problem to lead with. Speed works well for WordPress because owners can feel it on their own phone.
- Keep only sites you can reach. Filter for a verified email so you're not guessing.
What to offer
Most WordPress owners don't want a rebuild, at least not at first. They want the site to stop being a worry. Offers that tend to land:
- A speed and clean-up job. Remove unused plugins, compress images, add caching. Fixed price, clear before-and-after.
- A care plan. Monthly updates, backups and small edits. Recurring revenue for you, peace of mind for them.
- A focused refresh. New homepage and contact page on the existing install, rather than a full redesign.
Start small. A business that trusts you with a speed fix is much more likely to say yes to a redesign later.
Check before you send
Run the site through PageSpeed yourself and look at it on your phone. If you mention speed, give a real number from your own test. If you mention the footer, make sure it's still there. Getting the first line right matters more than anything else in a cold email.
