An audit and cleanup of the Rubino Ryder real-estate site following its move to the new host — removing redundant plugins, identifying inherited license dependencies, and setting out exactly what the practice needs to own going forward.
The site was migrated to its new home by the hosting team; our role was the cleanup they weren't set up to do. We removed what the site no longer needs, verified what it genuinely depends on, and — most importantly — surfaced the licensing the site inherited from its previous developer.
| Plugin | Action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| WP Rocket | Removed | Page-caching plugin. The new host serves the site through Cloudflare, which caches at the network edge — this duplicated it. One less paid plugin to license. |
| UpdraftPlus | Removed | Was backing the site up onto the same server it lives on. The new host runs proper off-server backups (JetBackup), which is safer. |
| Kadence Starter Templates | Removed | A one-time setup tool used when the site was first built. Nothing uses it now. |
Four plugins appeared to be duplicates — a free and a "Pro" version of the same tool running side by side (CookieAdmin and GoSMTP). The obvious move was to delete the free halves.
Switching off the free versions caused the Pro versions to stop working entirely. They aren't duplicates: the free plugin is the required foundation and Pro is an add-on that sits on top. Removing them would have silently disabled the site's cookie-consent banner (a privacy-compliance feature) and its email delivery. Everything was restored and verified.
The site's paid plugins were originally set up by the previous developer (resindev.com). We checked each one's licensing position on the new-host copy.
WPBakery builds every page on this site. Its license is a lifetime license that is active and carries over — confirmed in the builder's own license panel — so it continues to receive updates and requires no purchase.
Ultimate VC Addons, Kadence Pro and Gravity Forms currently sit under the previous developer's accounts. They work today; over time they're best re-registered in the practice's own account so the licenses belong to them. Nothing is broken and nothing is urgent.
Going forward we recommend every paid plugin be purchased in the practice's own account, on their own card. Neither Yellow Bloom nor Robot Kittens should be carrying a client's subscription, and it means the licenses travel with the client. We handle installation and activation; ownership stays where it belongs.
| Paid item | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|
| WPBakery Page Builder | Licensed | Lifetime license active and carries over — no purchase needed. |
| Ultimate VC Addons | Licensed | Extension of WPBakery; used on the built pages. |
| Gravity Forms (+ Constant Contact, Styles) | Subscription | Powers the contact and home-estimate forms. |
| Kadence Pro | Subscription | Theme add-on. |
| Revolution Slider | Licensed | Used for a slider on the site. |
| CookieAdmin Pro · GoSMTP Pro | Subscription | Cookie compliance and email delivery (each needs its free base plugin too). |
| ShowcaseIDX | Existing service | The live MLS property search — already the practice's own subscription. |
Following on from the near-miss above: rather than keep paying a recurring per-site subscription for the cookie-consent banner, we rebuilt it in-house. The replacement was written once and works on all eight sites.
The new banner matches the original exactly — same wording, same colours, same Customize / Reject All / Accept All choices — with the previous vendor's badge removed. It is now live on the site.
The important part of a cookie banner is not the banner, it is what happens when a visitor declines. We verified on the live page that analytics is switched off before Google's tracking code loads at all — so a visitor who declines is not measured, and no tracking cookie is written. Declining also registers an opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information, as required in the United States.
The paid product also scanned the site automatically to categorise new cookies. The replacement does not; cookie categories are set once, by hand. For a site of this size that is a fair trade for removing an ongoing cost, and it is noted here rather than glossed over.
While the site sits on its temporary web address, it should be hidden from Google. Otherwise the temporary address can be indexed as a second, duplicate copy of the real website — which can hold back the real site's own search rankings.
The temporary site was fully open to search engines. The only thing keeping it out of Google was a "maintenance" screen — and the moment that screen came off, the site would have been indexable as a duplicate. We switched search indexing off.
Because indexing is now switched off, it must be switched back on when the site moves to its permanent address at rubinoryder.com. If that step is missed, the finished site will not appear in Google at all. This is on our list and is called out here so it cannot be lost.