Tappu N

Freelance WordPress Developer

Self Employed • Self-employed

Sep 2023 - Present • 3 yrs

Since September 2023 I have worked independently as a full-service WordPress developer, handling projects end to end from initial scoping through launch and ongoing maintenance. My client base spans small business websites, WooCommerce stores, site migrations, and speed optimization work, drawing directly on the mix of design, e-commerce, migration and performance experience from my previous agency and contract roles. Working independently, I manage the entire client relationship myself, from writing proposals and setting realistic timelines to handling revisions and post-launch support, which has strengthened my communication and expectation-setting with clients who often are not technical themselves. I have also started offering ongoing maintenance retainers to clients who want regular updates, backups and monitoring rather than a one-time build, which has become a steady source of recurring income alongside project-based work. This freelance period is where I have refined the specific, tool-specific positioning I now bring to new client work, built directly on what I learned solving real, varied WordPress problems across the previous five years.

Website Performance and Speed Optimization Specialist

Web Design Carnival • Part-time

Jul 2022 - Nov 2023 • 1 yr 4 mos

I worked as a contract specialist for Web Design Carnival, a small consultancy focused entirely on diagnosing and fixing slow WordPress sites for agencies that did not have in-house performance expertise. My work centered on running speed audits using PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix, then implementing fixes such as image compression and format conversion, render-blocking script deferral, caching plugin configuration, and CDN setup. I handled a steady stream of client sites referred by partner agencies, each requiring a documented before-and-after report showing Core Web Vitals improvements the agency could show its own client. This role sharpened my ability to work from someone else's existing, sometimes messy WordPress build rather than a site I designed myself, which required careful testing to avoid breaking functionality while optimizing. Several of the sites I optimized during this period saw meaningful reductions in bounce rate after load times improved, feedback I received back through the referring agencies.

WordPress Migration and Security Consultant

WordPress.com • Part-time

Jan 2023 - Aug 2023 • 7 mos

Alongside my performance work, I took on a parallel contract with WordPress.com, a small firm specializing in moving WordPress sites off outdated or compromised hosting and hardening them against future attacks. I handled full-site migrations including database transfers, DNS cutover planning, and staging-environment testing to avoid downtime, along with security cleanups for sites that had been hacked or infected with malware before the client came to us. This included removing malicious code, patching the vulnerability that allowed the breach, and setting up firewall rules and automated backups afterward. Because several clients were nonprofits and small medical or legal practices handling sensitive information, I paid close attention to access control and login hardening as standard practice. This period gave me hands-on experience with the kind of urgent, high-stakes migration and security work that differs significantly from a standard build, including working under real time pressure when a client's site was actively down or compromised.