High Effect Web Design is always looking for ways to make website design easier. We look for ways to make websites easier to manage, easier to scale, and more efficient for our clients. One of the most powerful tools we use to accomplish this is WordPress Custom Post Types, built using the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin.
Many new web developers don’t realize that not every piece of website content should be managed through traditional pages and blog posts. With large websites especially, these tasks become repetitive and boring, chewing away at whatever time is left in the work day. By creating custom content structures, we streamline website management, reduce development time, and make updates significantly easier for both our team and our clients. The following are some use cases for custom post types:
1. Employee Directories
One of the most common ways we use Custom Post Types is for employee and team member sections.
Businesses are constantly growing. Employees join, move into new roles, or leave the company. Rather than manually editing page layouts every time a change occurs, we create a dedicated Employee Custom Post Type that allows staff members to be added, edited, or removed from a single dashboard.
Each employee profile typically includes the employee’s name, position or title, headshot photo, short biography, social media links, and contact information. Because every employee follows the same structure, the website automatically displays them consistently throughout the site. This makes future updates simple and keeps team pages looking professional and organized.
This is an example of a custom post type we built for Body Heal Therapy. On their “Our Therapist page, each therapist has a container associated with them that features a headshot, name, position, license number, and a button to view their profile.
If a user clicks on their icon, they are brought to the therapist’s profile page where users get an in-depth look into the employee. Users also have the option on the employees page to book a service with them.
2. Service Pages
Certain industries have service offerings that follow a similar format but require separate pages for SEO and user experience.
A great example is our work with wildlife control companies such as Advanced Wildlife Control and Health’s Wildlife. These businesses handle many different animal species, each requiring its own dedicated service page.
Instead of manually creating every page from scratch, we build an Animal Service Custom Post Type. Each animal receives its own entry with fields for the animal name, description, common problems caused, removal methods, prevention tips, and related images. Once entered, the website automatically generates a fully designed service page using the data provided.
This allows us to create and manage large numbers of service pages efficiently while maintaining consistency across the site.
3. Portfolio and Project Showcase Systems
Another common use for Custom Post Types is project portfolios. Many of our clients regularly complete new projects and need an easy way to showcase their work without rebuilding page layouts every time. By creating a dedicated Portfolio Custom Post Type, we can give clients a simple interface to upload photos, add project details, and publish new portfolio entries that automatically match the design of the website.
We use this approach for contractors, landscapers, deck builders, home service companies, and even our own website. Every project can have custom fields for location, services performed, project descriptions, images, categories, and before-and-after photos. This allows us to create powerful portfolio sections that are easy to manage while maintaining a consistent user experience. It also provides SEO benefits by making it easier to create and organize large libraries of project-specific content.
4. Town and Service Area Pages
Local SEO often requires businesses to create dozens or even hundreds of location-specific landing pages.
Without Custom Post Types, building these pages becomes a repetitive process involving copying templates, updating headings, changing content, and manually adjusting metadata.
By creating a Town Landing Page Custom Post Type, we can generate new service area pages much faster. Instead of rebuilding each page from scratch, we simply enter information such as the town name, county, service descriptions, local landmarks, and custom content sections. The website then automatically assembles the page using pre-built templates and dynamic fields.
This approach dramatically reduces production time while ensuring consistency across every location page. It also makes future updates much easier because changes can often be applied globally across the entire template rather than updating every individual page.
Why We Use Advanced Custom Fields
The Advanced Custom Fields plugin gives us the flexibility to build highly customized content structures without creating complicated interfaces for our clients.
Rather than forcing business owners to edit code or work inside page builders, ACF allows us to create clean, user-friendly forms that only display the fields they actually need.
This results in faster website management, consistent content formatting, easier staff training, improved scalability, and reduced development costs over time.
Working With High Effect
Interested in having High Effect build you website or have other digital marketing questions? We are here to help. Reach out to us today and we’ll help you answer your questions.
