“I know I need to update my website, but I’m scared to touch it because it’s working.”

Does this sound familiar?

I hear this from food bloggers every single week. You’ve been band-aiding things together with plugins and custom code snippets. You’re not even sure what’s holding your site together anymore. And the thought of changing something that’s currently bringing in traffic and revenue? Terrifying.

I totally get it. Your website is the backbone of your business.

But here’s what I also know: There comes a point where your website stops serving you. It’s generic. It’s limited. And every time you want to make a simple change, you’re either stuck or spending hours trying to figure out a workaround.

Today, I’m pulling back the curtain on our Crafted package—our semi-custom web design solution that gets you a professional, unique website without the custom price tag or timeline.

The Problems Crafted Solves

Let me paint a picture. Does any of this sound like you?

Problem #1: Your Website Looks Like Everyone Else’s

You picked a popular theme off the shelf, installed it, and left it alone. Now your site feels like a carbon copy of hundreds of other food blogs. One of our clients literally said their website was “not aesthetically pleasing or unique.”

Maybe you’re even embarrassed to share your website or promote yourself. Your content is amazing, but your website doesn’t reflect that quality. Or worse—your audience can’t even find your awesome content because the navigation isn’t set up correctly.

Problem #2: You’re Losing Hours to Workarounds

You’re constantly:

• Installing random plugins to get just one feature to work
• Googling CSS and HTML to make tweaks
• Using ChatGPT to try to fix something
• Spending hours on website maintenance instead of creating content
• Or avoiding maintenance altogether (hello, security issues!)

One client told us, “I had to download a sticky bar plugin just to make this one thing work.” We hear stories like this constantly—band-aid after band-aid until the original website isn’t even recognizable.

Problem #3: You’re Afraid to Touch What’s Working

Your traffic is good. Your RPMs are solid. But there’s a part of you that knows something could be better. You’re worried that if you change anything, your numbers will tank.

So you’re stuck between “this is working” and “this could be so much better.”

Problem #4: You Have Zero Flexibility

• You can’t showcase seasonal content easily
• Your category pages are just automatic lists with nothing else
• You want to highlight certain content, but you’d have to create yet another category (and you already have hundreds)
• You have a small change you want to make, but you’d have to code it in or hire your original developer

If any of these sound familiar, Crafted was literally designed for you.

What’s Included in Crafted

The foundation of Crafted is built on flexibility, lightweight performance, and customization. We chose the Kadence framework because it’s constantly updated, flexible, and gives creators customization options at their fingertips.

Important clarification: Kadence is NOT a page builder. It won’t slow your website down or add bulky code. It gives you the tools to make changes going forward—because as a blogger, you need to be able to highlight what’s new, trending, or seasonal without hiring a developer every time.

Here are the pages we design for you:

Homepage

This isn’t just a blog feed of your latest content. This is strategic content placement designed with YOUR audience in mind. We create flexible content areas that can be updated often or moved around based on what’s priority for your business.

And yes, it’s mobile-first design. That’s where most of your traffic comes from, so that’s where our priority focus is.

Recipe Index

Think of this as an SEO-optimized table of contents for your site. It makes it easy for readers AND Google to crawl your recipes and understand what you have. It’s organized by categories and sections, with flexibility built in so you can add seasonal content or adjust categories as needed.

Category Pages

These aren’t just automatic lists of your most recent posts (though you can have that too if you want). You can add specific recipes, descriptions, and organize by subcategories. You can manually curate content without creating hundreds of subcategories.

About Page

This is where you tell your story in a way that connects with your audience and builds trust. This isn’t just a sidebar bio with a little blurb—this is a real page about you, your audience, and how those stories connect.

Blog Posts & Recipe Cards

We create custom blocks designed specifically for YOUR content and brand. These aren’t just template blocks everyone gets—they’re curated for you specifically.

Your recipe cards are user-friendly, print-friendly, and cohesive. Your blog posts are easy to scan and navigate, built to handle those long, detailed posts (I’m looking at you, sourdough bloggers!).

What Makes Crafted “Semi-Custom”?

Here’s the most important thing: This is NOT a template we use over and over.

Every single page I just mentioned is handcrafted and hand-built for you, customized to your brand. If you look at our portfolio, you’ll see every Crafted website looks different. Sure, there are common sections because most of our clients are food bloggers, but you get that custom feel without the custom timeline or cost.

The Process: What to Expect

Timeline: 4-5 weeks from start to finish

What we need from you:

• Fill out a questionnaire (1.5-2 hours of your time upfront)—this guides you to make strategic decisions and gives us everything we need
• Help us understand your categories, content priorities, and any must-haves
• Weekly check-ins to review what we’ve completed

What we handle:

• All the heavy lifting
• Building everything on a staging site (your live site stays intact)
• All the tech stuff—plugins, site speed optimization, everything
• Training videos so you know how to make changes going forward
• Launch day logistics (we only move the theme and new pages—your content stays exactly where it is)
• Working with your ad network (Mediavine, Raptive) to place ads correctly
• Monitoring closely post-launch to ensure everything performs correctly

The Elephant in the Room: What About My Traffic?

Let me be real with you: This is the biggest question I get. “What’s going to happen to my traffic? My RPMs?”

Here’s the truth: It’s very, very rare for a client to lose traffic or revenue when switching themes when it’s done correctly.

I’ve heard horror stories about people who worked with other developers, but when proper measures are in place, it’s extremely rare to see a crazy drop in traffic overnight. And if something does happen, we know how to fix it (though it hasn’t happened yet).

Most of the time, we actually see our clients have an INCREASE in RPMs of about 4-8%. It depends on time of year and your current ad network, but our goal is always for things to go up, not down.

Why? Because we’re making your user experience better for your readers. Better UX means better metrics—better time on page, more email subscribers, people clicking around to more recipes and staying on your site longer.

That’s always the goal. And if something does go wrong, we jump in immediately to fix it, and we have SEO pros in our back pocket who can help.

Who Crafted Is For

Crafted is perfect for you if:

• You have at least 20 recipes on your site (100+ is even better)
• You’ve seen some success, but you have a gut feeling your current website is holding you back
• You’re tired of spending time making tweaks instead of creating content
• You want to control and customize things yourself without knowing code
• You’re ready to invest in your business and take it to the next level
• You want a site that reflects you and your brand and helps your content stand out

Who Crafted Might NOT Be For (Right Now)

Crafted might not be right if:

• You’re brand new with only 4-5 recipes
• You’re not willing to put your recipes on your website (if they’re currently only on YouTube or Substack)
• You’re not sure if blogging is right for you long-term
• You’re happy as a hobby blogger who enjoys completely DIYing everything and has the time to do it

Common Questions Answered

“What about Feast?”

Great news! If you’re using the Feast plugin and love it, Kadence works with Feast. This is something we’ve known for a long time, and Feast now confirms they’re compatible with the Kadence framework.

However, we’ve done side-by-side comparisons, and there’s pretty much equal functionality between what our themes do and what Feast does (with a few exceptions). Many clients are able to stop using it if they want to, but if you prefer to keep it as a “set it and forget it” security tool, that works too.

“This is a major investment for me.”

I totally get this. You have to be ready and have the budget for it.

But think about the time you’re currently wasting on your website. Think about the things that are turning users away and making them go back to search results. Think about the traffic and revenue you might be leaving on the table.

Most of my clients—if not all—tell me they wish they hadn’t waited. I constantly hear, “I should have done this a year ago.”

This is an investment in the foundation and stabilization of your business.

“What happens if something breaks?”

We’ve done this on hundreds of sites at this point. We monitor everything after launch, and we’re here to support you if anything comes up—whether it’s a site speed adjustment, questions on how to do something, or something not working as expected.

We leave room in our schedule to support our past clients. You’re not on your own after launch day.

The Bottom Line

Crafted is for you if you’re looking for a website refresh that gives you a professional, unique website built for growth—not just for the next 6 months, but for the long haul.

This isn’t a generic theme. It’s not a workaround. It’s not a band-aid. And it’s not going to waste your time.

You get the flexibility to make it yours while we handle the tech foundation for you.

Your website should work FOR you, not against you. It should showcase your beautiful content and help your audience find exactly what they’re looking for. It should reflect the quality of the work you’re putting out into the world.

If that’s what you’re ready for, Crafted might be exactly what you need.

Related episode: EP 191: Is Your Blog Ready for Growth?

EP 204: Semi-Custom Never Cookie Cutter (Our Semi-Custom Approach)