WordPress/Elementor Performance Developer

Project overview We are looking for an experienced WordPress/Elementor performance developer to rebuild and improve the global header/mega menu on MyHouseIntoCash.com while materially improving mobile performance and protecting conversion. This is not a request to install another caching or optimization plugin. The project requires source-level cleanup of an overlapping Elementor header stack, unnecessary fonts, icon fonts, CSS and JavaScript dependencies. Current approximate PageSpeed results: Desktop performance: 92 Mobile performance: 60 Primary mobile issue: Largest Contentful Paint Hosting: Rocket.net Performance plugin: Perfmatters Theme: Astra Page builder: Elementor and Elementor Pro The current header/mega-menu implementation uses overlapping functionality from Astra, Elementor Pro, Header Footer Elementor, ElementsKit and Ultimate Addons for Elementor. We want to consolidate this into one maintainable system wherever reasonably possible. Elementor Pro’s native Theme Builder and Menu widget are the preferred direction, but we will consider a clearly justified alternative. Primary objectives Redesign and improve the desktop mega menu and mobile navigation. Consolidate the header into one primary system. Remove unnecessary global CSS, JavaScript, fonts and icon-font dependencies. Improve mobile LCP and PageSpeed without harming lead conversion. Preserve every important internal navigation link. Preserve the cash-offer form, address autocomplete, phone CTAs and sticky-header behavior. Create a global implementation that benefits all existing and future city pages. Current performance issues identified The current implementation includes: A roughly 454 KB elementskit.woff icon font loaded primarily for menu indicators. Approximately 377 KB of Google Maps/Places JavaScript loaded during the initial page load for address autocomplete. Approximately seven font families, including Lato, Lora, Roboto, Roboto Slab, Montserrat, Source Sans Pro and DM Sans. Multiple Elementor templates embedded inside the mega menu. Multiple navigation, sticky-header and header/footer systems loading simultaneously. Approximately 209 KB of potentially unused JavaScript in PageSpeed testing. Render-blocking jQuery dependencies that must not be changed blindly. A large and deeply nested mega-menu DOM. Mobile LCP substantially worse than desktop performance. Scope of work 1. Audit and staging setup Perform a technical audit of the existing header, mega menu, typography and globally loaded assets. Document which plugins, templates, widgets and asset handles currently power each part of the header. Create or use a staging environment. Take a complete backup and establish a tested rollback procedure. Record before-state PageSpeed, Lighthouse and network-waterfall results. Do not make untested structural changes directly on production. 2. Header and mega-menu rebuild Rebuild the global header and mega menu using one primary system, preferably Elementor Pro Theme Builder and its native Menu widget. The rebuilt header must: Preserve all important navigation and internal links. Maintain or improve the existing visual design. Provide a cleaner and easier-to-use desktop mega menu. Provide a fast, uncomplicated mobile menu. Avoid multiple nested Nav Menu widgets wherever possible. Minimize unnecessary containers, wrappers and DOM depth. Use simple text-link columns instead of unnecessarily complex embedded templates. Preserve the site logo, phone CTA and other important header conversion elements. Use one sticky-header implementation rather than overlapping Elementor, UAEL or theme implementations. Avoid layout shifts when the header becomes sticky or the menu opens. Work correctly across desktop, tablet and mobile breakpoints. Before rebuilding, create a link inventory of the current menu so no important internal SEO links are accidentally removed. 3. Accessibility and mobile usability The completed menu must include: Keyboard navigation. Visible keyboard focus states. Appropriate semantic navigation and ARIA labels. Escape-key support for closing open dropdowns where applicable. Logical tab order. Sufficient color contrast. Mobile touch targets of approximately 44×44 pixels or larger. Adequate spacing between mobile menu links. Reliable opening, closing and submenu navigation on touch devices. No inaccessible hover-only navigation. 4. Icon-font cleanup Replace ElementsKit menu arrows and other required menu icons with lightweight inline SVG or CSS icons. Remove the elementskit.woff request from the initial page load. Remove unused Font Awesome, Elementor icon or other icon-font requests where safely possible. Do not leave missing icons, blank squares or broken menu indicators. Verify icons at every breakpoint and in relevant browsers. 5. Typography cleanup Consolidate site typography into one primary font family wherever possible. Requirements: Configure Elementor Global Fonts and Astra typography consistently. Remove unnecessary font-family and font-weight requests. Prefer one brand font or a system-font stack. Limit font weights to those actually used, ideally regular, semibold and bold. Use font-display: swap where applicable. Remove obsolete Lato, Lora, Roboto, Roboto Slab, Montserrat, Source Sans Pro or DM Sans requests that are not part of the final typography system. Check headers, footers, mega-menu templates and Elementor widgets for hardcoded typography overrides. Preserve a professional and consistent visual appearance. Do not preload numerous font files. 6. CSS and JavaScript cleanup Preserve the existing Perfmatters Remove Unused CSS implementation. Identify and remove obsolete header/menu CSS and JavaScript after the new header is working. Disable unused ElementsKit widgets and modules. Remove Header Footer Elementor and UAEL header dependencies when they are no longer required. Do not deactivate plugins globally until their site-wide usage has been verified. Remove unused header-search, off-canvas, mega-menu, popup or sticky assets where appropriate. Avoid creating new combined CSS or JavaScript bundles solely for optimization. Do not use “Delay All JavaScript.” Do not defer jQuery blindly. Do not delay the core cash-offer form script. Avoid adding another caching or all-purpose performance plugin without approval. Resolve any new browser-console errors introduced by the work. 7. Google Places autocomplete optimization The lead form’s address autocomplete is important and must remain available. Optimize the Google Places API so that: The cash-offer form and address input are immediately usable. The external Google Places API does not unnecessarily block the initial page render. The API can be loaded based on user intent, such as pointerdown, touchstart or focus on the address field, if testing proves this improves performance. The API is loaded only once. Text already entered by the visitor is preserved when autocomplete initializes. Visitors can manually enter and submit an address if Google is unavailable or slow. Selecting a Google suggestion is not required to continue. There is a graceful failure path if the API request fails. No first click, tap or keystroke is lost. Mobile autocomplete behavior is tested carefully before deployment. 8. Conversion protection The following functionality must remain intact: Above-the-fold cash-offer form. Address entry and autocomplete. Manual address entry. Form validation. Next and Back controls. All form steps. Partial lead-saving functionality, if currently enabled. Final lead submission. Success and error states. Click-to-call phone links. Sticky header. Desktop mega menu. Mobile menu. FAQ interactions and other Elementor components affected by global scripts. Do not change page copy, SEO metadata, schema, URLs, form fields, lead routing or conversion messaging without approval. Required testing Testing must be performed on staging before deployment. Performance testing Test at minimum: Homepage Arvada city page Boulder city page One additional representative city page Record before-and-after results using: Google PageSpeed Insights Lighthouse Chrome DevTools Network and Performance panels Coverage or an equivalent unused-asset analysis Use the median of at least three comparable PageSpeed mobile tests rather than relying on one run. Provide evidence showing: Mobile and desktop scores before and after. LCP, FCP, CLS, Speed Index and Total Blocking Time. Initial transfer size and request count. Critical request chain. Removed CSS, JavaScript, font and icon-font requests. Confirmation that elementskit.woff is no longer requested. Confirmation that unnecessary font families are no longer loaded. Confirmation that no important above-the-fold resource is accidentally lazy-loaded. Functional testing Test: Current desktop Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Current mobile Chrome/Android. Current Safari/iPhone. Tablet breakpoint. Logged-out/incognito visitors. Cold and repeat page loads. Desktop menu hover and click behavior. Keyboard navigation. Mobile menu open, close and submenu behavior. Sticky-header behavior. Address autocomplete. Manual address entry. Every form step and validation state. Click-to-call links. No JavaScript console errors. No missing menu icons. No broken links. No significant layout shifts. BrowserStack or an equivalent cross-browser service is acceptable when physical devices are unavailable. Performance goals The current mobile PageSpeed performance score is approximately 60, while desktop is approximately 92. Goals include: Material improvement in mobile performance from the current baseline. Ideally achieve a consistent mobile PageSpeed score of 80 or higher without conversion compromises. Mobile lab LCP target of 2.5 seconds or better. CLS of 0.1 or better. Total Blocking Time of 200 ms or better. No regression from the current desktop performance. Removal of the approximately 454 KB ElementsKit icon-font request. Major reduction in unnecessary font requests. Reduction in unnecessary initial JavaScript execution. No loss of functionality or internal links. We understand PageSpeed scores fluctuate and will not accept unrealistic promises of a guaranteed score of 100. Acceptance will be based on measurable resource removal, improved median testing results and preserved functionality. Deliverables Initial technical audit and implementation plan. Complete menu-link inventory before rebuilding. Staging version of the new header and mega menu. Responsive desktop, tablet and mobile navigation. Icon-font replacement and removal. Global typography cleanup. Removal of obsolete header/menu assets. Conversion-safe Google Places optimization. Complete functional and cross-browser testing. Before-and-after performance report. Production deployment after approval. Cache clearing and post-deployment verification. Documentation identifying: Plugins and modules that can now be deactivated. Asset handles removed or conditionally unloaded. Global Elementor/Astra typography settings. Perfmatters exclusions or settings added. Rollback instructions. At least seven days of post-launch support for bugs related to the implementation. Required experience Applicants should have demonstrated experience with: WordPress performance optimization. Elementor and Elementor Pro. Elementor Theme Builder and Menu/mega-menu implementation. Astra. Perfmatters. Rocket.net, Cloudflare or comparable edge-cached hosting. Core Web Vitals and mobile LCP optimization. Chrome DevTools Performance, Network and Coverage tools. WordPress asset enqueueing and conditional unloading. JavaScript dependency management. Responsive navigation and accessibility. Google Places/Maps API loading. Conversion-focused landing pages and lead forms. This is not an appropriate project for someone whose primary solution is installing additional optimization plugins. Application instructions Please begin your proposal with: MHIC PERFORMANCE Then answer the following: Provide two or three examples of Elementor websites where you materially improved mobile Core Web Vitals. Include before-and-after results if available. How would you remove a 454 KB ElementsKit icon font while preserving the menu indicators? How would you load Google Places based on address-field intent without losing the visitor’s first tap or typed text? Which system would you use to rebuild this header and mega menu, and why? How would you confirm that Header Footer Elementor, ElementsKit and UAEL dependencies can be removed safely? How would you test the cash-offer form without contaminating live lead data? What access would you require? Provide your estimated timeline, fixed-price or hourly estimate, and availability. Confirm that you will work on staging and provide a rollback plan. Confirm that you will not add another caching or general optimization plugin without approval. Generic proposals that do not address the technical requirements will not be considered. Milestones: audit/plan, staging implementation, testing/approval, production deployment and documentation