Launching a new website is supposed to be a moment of pride—a milestone that brings clarity, function, and better service to the public. But for one local government agency, that milestone quickly turned into months of frustration.
What began as a promising project—a redesign from a legacy platform to WordPress—unraveled into a cycle of errors, outages, and unresponsive support. The agency, known for its strong public outreach and commitment to education, wasn’t looking for flashy features. It needed reliability, accessibility, and peace of mind—which is why how one agency took back control after a failed launch became a story not just of recovery, but of reclaiming purpose.
When “Launched” Doesn’t Mean “Ready”
After working with two separate vendors—one for design, one for development—the website technically launched. But the problems began almost immediately.
Pages scheduled for Monday updates would go blank over the weekend. 404 errors flooded their analytics. Web forms failed to send emails. The backend was confusing, and the search tool delivered inconsistent results.
Despite a paid maintenance agreement, support was slow—or nonexistent. Instead of a true partner, the agency found itself troubleshooting its own site while managing outreach campaigns and construction updates.
Relying on Plugins and Hoping for the Best
One of the biggest surprises? The heavy reliance on third-party plugins—many of them outdated and unmanaged. When one failed, public-facing error messages appeared on live pages. The agency had expected stable, customized solutions—not a patchwork of drag-and-drop components and band-aid fixes.
Their internal IT team had infrastructure knowledge, but not the web development skills needed to fix or prevent the growing list of issues. They could see the symptoms—but not the solutions.
Finding a Path Forward
Realizing the risks—especially the possibility of losing control of their own site—the agency knew it was time for a new direction. But this time, they had a clear list of priorities:
- A smooth transition to a secure, reliable hosting platform
- A detailed audit to identify what’s broken and why
- A long-term partner who could support everything from design tweaks to accessibility compliance
They didn’t want another vendor. They wanted a team they could count on.
What This Teaches All of Us
This story is far from unique. Across the public sector, agencies are launching websites without the deep, ongoing support needed to keep them stable and effective. The “go live” moment isn’t the end—it’s the starting line.
What really matters is what comes after: responsiveness, clarity, true partnership, and a plan for continued improvement.
At KWALL, we don’t just launch websites—we help agencies take back control. We work with government and education partners to move from frustration to focus, and from short-term fixes to long-term solutions.
If your current website is causing more stress than success, let’s talk. We’ll help make your next site the one that works—consistently, cleanly, and with purpose.
