# The Moment I Realized Our “Cool” Agency Site Was Quietly Losing Leads I run the website for a small digital agency. We do solid work for clients—clean code, decent UX, analytics wired correctly—but our own site was… let’s say “a portfolio from another lifetime.” Animations everywhere, unreadable case studies, and a homepage that tried to be clever instead of clear. It impressed designers, but confused actual buyers. Sales calls always started with: > “We *think* we understand what you do, but could you explain it again?” When every pitch needs a re-introduction, that’s a website problem. So I finally parked my “I’ll build us a fully custom headless thing one day” pride and tried a dedicated agency theme: **[Floka - Digital Agency & Portfolio WordPress Theme](https://gplpal.com/product/floka-digital-agency-portfolio-wordpress-theme/)**. This post is my full, first-person breakdown as the person who lives in the WordPress admin: * How I installed and configured Floka * How it changed our homepage, services, and portfolio UX * Where it shines, where it’s opinionated, and what I’d still tweak * How it behaves for performance & SEO * When I’d pick it again versus other themes or more generic **[WooCommerce Themes](https://gplpal.com/shop/)** I’ll keep it practical, from one site admin to another. --- ## Why Our Old Agency Theme Had to Go Before Floka, we were running on a multipurpose theme we’d slowly mutated over three years. It looked “cool” but had some serious issues. ### 1. No Clear Narrative for Buyers The structure was classic designer-brain: * Giant hero with cryptic one-liner * Grid of Dribbble-style shots * A vague services section * A CTA that said “Let’s talk” without context For prospects, it wasn’t obvious: * What we actually do * Who we work best with * What problems we solve and how The homepage was basically a moodboard, not a sales tool. ### 2. Case Studies That Were Pretty but Useless We had nice images, but: * No consistent structure (every case study looked completely different) * No clear “Before → After → Results” pattern * No quick scannable takeaways for busy decision-makers As a result, people liked the visuals but couldn’t quickly connect them to their own business. ### 3. Admin Overhead and Fragile Layouts From my side, maintaining that theme was painful: * Layouts built with an old page builder plus custom shortcodes * Every small copy or spacing change risked breaking something * A “simple” new landing page became a half-day job I wanted something that: 1. Was **built for digital agencies and portfolio work**, not just generic corporate sites. 2. Had **reusable patterns for services and case studies**. 3. Let me hand over some content editing to non-dev teammates without panic. That’s the mindset I had when I bought Floka. --- ## Installing Floka: From Zip File to Working Layout I never switch themes on production; I like having a safety net. So I set everything up on a staging site first. ### Step 1: Basic Theme Installation On our staging WordPress instance, I: 1. Updated WordPress core and critical plugins. 2. Removed legacy builder plugins tied tightly to the old theme. 3. Went to **Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme**. 4. Uploaded the Floka theme zip and clicked **Activate**. Floka then triggered the usual “Install Required Plugins” notice. That included: * A theme core/helper plugin (for custom post types, widgets, etc.) * A page builder integration (Floka works smoothly with Elementor-style builders) * Optional extras like sliders and contact form integrations I installed all required items, and only the optional bits I actually planned to use. No point dragging around features we don’t need. Within minutes, the skeleton of Floka was ready. ### Step 2: Demo Import (Highly Recommended) I used the one-click demo importer to pull in an agency-style demo closest to our niche: * Strong hero sections * “What we do” services blocks * Clear portfolio grid and single project layouts * Blog and contact pages The import created: * Example pages (Home, About, Services, Portfolio, Blog, Contact) * Menus * Widgets * Global typography and color presets Suddenly the staging site looked like a contemporary agency site instead of an experimental art installation. That gave me a clear base to customize. --- ## Branding Floka: Making It Look Like “Us”, Not the Demo Demo content is just scaffolding. The next step was to inject our brand. ### Colors and Visual Tone Inside Floka’s theme options and/or the builder’s global styles, I set: * **Primary color** → our logo accent (for buttons, links, badges) * **Secondary color** → a muted neutral to break up sections * **Backgrounds** → mostly white with subtle off-white zones for contrast Floka applied these across: * CTAs (“Book a strategy call”, “See our work”) * Icon accents in service sections * Portfolio hover states It stayed professional and modern without becoming a rainbow of gradients. ### Typography For an agency site, the typography must carry both credibility and clarity. I chose: * A strong sans-serif for headings (big statements and section titles) * A clean, humanist sans-serif for body text * Slightly larger base font-size than default for easy reading on wide screens and mobile Because Floka respects global typography settings, I didn’t have to hand-style each block: * Service descriptions * Case study narratives * Blog posts …all inherited the same visual language. ### Header & Navigation In the header, I wanted: * Logo left, nav center/right * One primary CTA button: “Book a call” So I restructured the menu as: * Home * Services * Work * About * Blog * Contact Floka offers several header layouts; I picked one with: * Sticky behavior (nav stays visible when scrolling) * Support for a highlighted CTA button On mobile, the header collapses into a tidy hamburger menu, with the CTA still just a tap away. That matters when a prospect is reading from their phone between meetings. --- ## Rebuilding the Site Structure with Floka With branding installed, the real work began: turning our old chaos into a structured Floka-powered site. ### Homepage: From “Look at Us” to “Here’s How We Help You” The Floka homepage demo was already conceptually close to what we wanted. I tweaked and reordered sections into this flow: 1. **Hero Section** * Clear headline: who we help and what we actually do * Short supporting line * Primary CTA: “Book a free strategy call” * Secondary CTA: “View work” 2. **Credibility Row** * Logos of clients we’re allowed to show * A short line on years in business / projects shipped 3. **Services Overview** * 3–4 cards: e.g., Product Design, Web Development, Growth & Analytics * Each card with a one-line promise and link to a detailed services page 4. **Selected Case Studies** * A grid of 3–6 handpicked projects * Short outcome-focused titles (e.g., “+47% sign-ups in 3 months”) 5. **How We Work** * Visual process steps: Discovery → Strategy → Build → Launch → Optimize 6. **Testimonials** * Real quotes from clients, with roles and companies 7. **Mini FAQ or “Is This For You?” Section** * A couple of bullet points clarifying who we fit best 8. **Final CTA** * A simple two-field form or direct link to the contact page Floka provides pre-styled blocks for all of this. I mainly plugged in real copy and real images. --- ## Services: Turning Generic “Capabilities” into Clear Offerings One big change we made with Floka was splitting services into distinct pages. Each Service page now uses Floka’s layouts to cover: * Who this service is for * What problems it solves * What the engagement looks like * What deliverables clients get Using Floka’s service templates, each page follows a consistent pattern: 1. **Intro Hero** * Service name (e.g., “Web & App Development”) * Short one-liner hinting at outcomes 2. **Outcomes Section** * Bullets like “Faster onboarding”, “Higher activation”, “Cleaner codebase” 3. **What’s Included** * A visual grid: design, development, QA, documentation, analytics 4. **Process Snapshot** * High-level phases, with a line on what happens in each 5. **Relevant Case Studies** * Pulled in via a filter (tagged by service) from Floka’s portfolio system 6. **FAQ / Common Concerns** * “How long does a typical project take?” * “Do you work with in-house dev teams?” etc. 7. **Call to Action** * “Schedule a call” button or embedded form With Floka, I didn’t have to reinvent each layout. I just reused patterns and dropped in specific content. --- ## Portfolio / Case Studies: The Part Clients Actually Care About This is where I saw the biggest difference. ### Portfolio Grid Floka’s portfolio grid accepts: * Featured images * Project titles * Category/tags (e.g., SaaS, E-commerce, Fintech, B2B, etc.) * Optional small descriptions I set up filters like: * “All” * “Product Design” * “Web Development” * “Brand & Visual” So prospects can quickly jump to the type of work they care about. The grid layout is responsive and handles different aspect ratios gracefully. ### Single Case Study Pages Before Floka, each case study looked completely different. With Floka’s portfolio single layouts, I standardized them: 1. **Project Hero** * Big key visual (hero UI, landing screenshot, or conceptual image) * One-line summary (“Redesigning onboarding for a B2B SaaS tool”) * Quick stats: role, timeline, services provided 2. **Context & Challenge** * What situation the client was in * What wasn’t working 3. **Approach** * How we tackled strategy, design, and/or development * Key constraints we had to work with 4. **Solution Visuals** * Screens, flows, or graphs * Floka’s image blocks and sections make this visually consistent 5. **Results** * If available: metrics like sign-up lift, reduced drop-offs, better conversions 6. **Client Quote (if allowed)** 7. **“Similar Projects” section** Once I built a structure I liked, I just reused it across all case studies using Floka’s templates. That alone reduced a huge amount of layout time. --- ## Blog & Content: Educating Instead of Just Showing Off We don’t obsess over blogging, but we do publish: * In-depth articles on UX, performance, and analytics * Process breakdowns * Occasional opinion pieces Floka’s blog templates give us: * Archive layouts (grid or list) with featured images and meta info * Clean, readable single post pages with: * Wide text blocks * Clear headings * Good line height * Optional sidebar for categories or a simple lead magnet I didn’t need to do much design work here—just connected the categories and started migrating older posts into the new format. --- ## Installation & Configuration Checklist (For Fellow Admins) If you’re the unlucky lucky one managing your agency’s WordPress, here’s roughly the sequence that worked for me: 1. Clone the live site to staging. 2. Install & activate **Floka - Digital Agency & Portfolio WordPress Theme**. 3. Install required plugins and import the demo content. 4. Set global colors and typography. 5. Configure header and footer (logo, menus, CTA). 6. Build or adjust key pages: * Homepage * Services overview + single service pages * Portfolio grid + single case studies * About * Blog * Contact 7. Replace all demo media and copy with your own. 8. Test responsiveness and forms. 9. Hook up analytics and essential SEO. 10. After QA, push from staging to production (or redo the steps on production with care). After that, 90% of your work is content, not fiddling with layout. --- ## Feature-by-Feature Review of Floka ### Layout System & Builder Integration Floka is deeply integrated with a modern page builder, so: * Each section is a block/element you can move around or duplicate. * You can create new pages by assembling pre-designed sections. * You don’t need to touch PHP to get different page structures. It’s opinionated enough that you don’t drown in endless options, but flexible enough that you can create unique landings without them looking alien next to the main site. ### Design Consistency This is where Floka shines for busy admins: * Buttons follow the same style site-wide. * Spacing is consistent between sections. * Headings and body text follow a single typographic system. Once we set brand colors and fonts, our site looked coherent across dozens of pages with almost zero custom CSS. ### Custom Post Types & Portfolios Floka’s built-in portfolio system (or its pattern of using custom post types) was a huge upgrade over our old “pages as case studies” approach: * Easy to add new projects * Easy to categorize/filter by type or industry * Templates guarantee a consistent structure Adding a new case study now takes more time to write than to build. ### WooCommerce & Selling Extras Although our agency site isn’t a store, I tested Floka with WooCommerce just to see if we could someday: * Sell workshop tickets * Offer digital resources (templates, small tools) Floka handled basic WooCommerce styling well: product grid, product single, and cart/checkout all looked consistent with the rest of the site. If we needed a full-blown store, I’d still look into more specialized **WooCommerce Themes**, but for “agency plus a small digital product line,” Floka is more than capable. --- ## Performance & SEO: Does Floka Keep Up Technically? ### Performance Agency sites can get heavy with big images, background videos, and layered animations. With Floka, I had to be disciplined, but the theme itself didn’t get in the way. I: * Compressed and resized all images * Enabled caching and minification * Turned off unnecessary animations and effects * Avoided stacking too many sliders on a single page Result: our new site feels notably faster than the previous franken-theme, especially on mobile. ### SEO Floka isn’t a magic SEO bullet, but it provides: * Sensible HTML structure (one H1 per page, decent use of H2/H3) * Breadcrumb support where needed * Clean integration with SEO plugins for titles and descriptions We improved rankings by: * Writing focused landing pages for each core service * Creating strong case study pages that match real search intent (e.g., “B2B SaaS onboarding redesign”) * Making sure internal links connect services ←→ projects ←→ blog posts Floka didn’t require weird workarounds or template hacking to get SEO basics right. --- ## Floka vs Alternatives I’ve Used ### vs Generic Multipurpose Themes Multipurpose themes try to be everything to everyone: * Tons of demos, many not relevant to agency life * Option overload and inconsistent patterns * More performance tuning needed Floka is much more focused. It “thinks” in terms of agencies, portfolios, and services, which means you start closer to your final structure. ### vs Barebones Starter Themes Starter themes are great if: * You want total control * You’re fine building every layout yourself * You treat the site as a code project But in practice, that’s overkill for a marketing site that mostly changes content, not core functionality. Floka’s pre-built sections reduce the maintenance overhead significantly. ### vs E-commerce Focused Themes Full shop themes from collections like various **WooCommerce Themes** are fantastic for: * Retail brands * Large catalogs * Promotion-heavy stores For a digital agency, though, the site needs to sell *services* and *expertise*, not products. Floka is shaped around that narrative: services → work → proof → contact. --- ## Where Floka Makes the Most Sense After using it for a full rebuild, I’d say Floka is an especially good fit if: * You run a **digital agency, creative studio, or freelance collective** * Your site revolves around **services, portfolio, and case studies** * You want to hand some editing power to non-dev teammates * You care about design quality but don’t want to handcraft every component It might be less ideal if: * You’re building an app or platform that needs deeply custom UI beyond marketing pages * You want a hyper-minimal, text-only style * You refuse to use any page builder and want to stick strictly to classic templates --- ## Life with Floka as the Website Admin The best compliment I can give a theme as an admin is this: > I think about it less now. With **Floka - Digital Agency & Portfolio WordPress Theme** in place: * Creating a new landing page is “duplicate a good one, adjust content, publish” * Adding a case study is structured and repeatable * The design holds together even when multiple people are editing pages * I spend more time tracking conversions and less time fixing crooked layout columns Our site finally looks modern, tells our story clearly, and doesn’t collapse every time we tweak a section. If you’re in the “our agency site kind of embarrasses us, but nobody has time to remake it from scratch” phase, moving to Floka on a staging site and rebuilding page by page is absolutely worth a weekend. It gives you a professional, conversion-ready frame so you can focus on the message—not the markup.