saddlecentral.co.uk · review
Initial review · 12 May 2026

saddlecentral.co.uk

Review notes prepared for Charlotte. Pages were crawled from the public sitemap on desktop and mobile (1,440 px and 390 px viewports). Plugin and theme detection from page source.

Three sections: observed findings with impact, a homepage layout proposal, and suggested next steps. Underlying questions: why is paid traffic not converting, should ad spend increase or the site change, and how to widen organic search reach.

Findings

Observations from the crawl

Each finding is an observed behaviour with an associated commercial impact.

01

No loading feedback on product clicks.

Observation: Selecting a product from a category page produces a blank period of 3–6 seconds before the product page renders. There is no spinner, progress bar, or page-transition indicator during this gap.

Impact: Risk of people leaving: Google's benchmark is 53% leave within 3 seconds on mobile.

Cause: Every click triggers a full WordPress + PHP server cycle: boot PHP, load ~17 plugins, run multiple MySQL queries (product, variations, related products, recently-viewed, cart state), render HTML through the Uncode theme, then send 392 KB of HTML + 41 JavaScript files + 26 stylesheets to the browser. Browser then has to parse everything before it can paint. WordPress is doing this work from scratch on every single click.

After migration: After migration: every product page is built ahead of time as a static HTML file and served from Vercel's global edge network (the server closest to the visitor). There is no PHP, no MySQL, no plugins to boot. Astro additionally pre-loads pages on hover or touch-start, so by the time the click registers the page is already in the browser cache. Click-to-visible drops from 3–6 seconds to under 100 milliseconds.

02

Newsletter popup covers the homepage on first load.

Observation: The "Get 10% off" newsletter popup opens over the homepage before any product is visible. On mobile it covers the full screen. It is dismissable but appears on every first-session visit.

Impact: Google has flagged this pattern (a popup that blocks the page on first visit) as bad practice since 2017 and ranks pages lower for it.

Cause: The Popup Maker plugin is configured to fire on first page load with no exit-intent or scroll-depth trigger. This is a one-line setting buried in the plugin admin.

After migration: After migration: no Popup Maker, no popup. Newsletter signup lives in the footer and on a dedicated /newsletter page where it can convert without blocking purchases.

03

No automated retention email for £600+ items.

Observation: YITH Wishlist is installed but the free version provides storage only. Mailchimp for WooCommerce is installed but no automation hooks (abandoned cart, browse-abandonment, back-in-stock) were detected in the page source.

Impact: Considered purchases need 5–8 touchpoints; without email, each touch is a paid Google click.

Cause: YITH free tier does not include automation. Mailchimp's WooCommerce sync is installed but the abandoned-cart workflow has not been enabled inside Mailchimp itself.

After migration: After migration: a five-email retention sequence runs through Mailchimp (already paid for). Abandoned cart, wishlist drop-price, back-in-stock, browse-abandonment, and trial follow-ups all fire automatically from customer behaviour on the new site.

04

The top of the homepage is just an empty search box.

Observation: On mobile, the top of the homepage is a single empty search box with the prompt "Find your perfect saddle". There is no auto-complete, no suggested searches, no recent or popular queries shown. Tapping the box on mobile pops up the keyboard, which then covers the box itself.

Impact: Search is a fallback action, not a starting point. The most valuable screen on the site asks the visitor to do the work, instead of doing the work for them.

Cause: The Uncode theme hands the entire top-of-page area to the AJAX Search Lite plugin. The plugin only does basic keyword matching against product titles. It does not understand specifications like "17 inch jump saddle for a cob".

After migration: After migration: remove the search from the top of the page entirely. The top becomes a clear headline about what you offer ("A saddle that actually fits your horse") + a featured saddle card + a three-service strip (fitting, trial, part-exchange). A magnifying-glass icon in the top nav keeps search available for anyone who needs it, on every page, without taking up valuable space.

05

Differentiating services are nav items only.

Observation: Fitting, Trial, Part Exchange, and Sell exist in the dropdown nav but have no landing pages from the homepage or category pages. They are not visible without scrolling.

Impact: These services are the main differentiator from Amazon/eBay/brand-direct sales. They are not surfaced where they can influence purchase.

Cause: No landing pages have been built for these services in WordPress. The dropdown nav links point only to short paragraphs of text inside other pages.

After migration: After migration: three new landing pages (/fitting/, /trial/, /part-exchange/) with their own search targets, photos, FAQs, and clear next-step buttons. A three-card service strip appears on the homepage before any scrolling.

06

Scroll animations are aggressive and jumpy.

Observation: Scrolling the homepage and category pages triggers images that zoom in, fade, and parallax as they enter the viewport. The effect is constant. Almost every section animates as it appears. Combined with the slow page-load this reads as visual noise rather than polish.

Impact: For a premium considered purchase, the page should feel calm and confident. Aggressive scroll animations create cognitive load and make the page feel slower than it actually is.

Cause: The Uncode theme bundles ScrollMagic + WOW.js style animations by default and the current theme settings have them switched on globally. There is no granular control over which elements animate.

After migration: After migration: no scroll-jacking, no zoom-on-enter. Images load with a quiet fade-in (or no animation at all). The page is calm. Customers can focus on the saddle, not the animation.

07

Products are invisible to Google Shopping.

Observation: Google needs a small, hidden piece of structured product information on each page (price, stock, brand, rating) to show your saddles in Shopping results and to add price + stars next to your listing in regular search. Your product pages were checked for this — none of them have it. Yoast SEO is installed but its product add-on is not.

Impact: Without that structured data, your products cannot appear in Google Shopping free listings, and regular Google results show plain blue text instead of the rich version with price and stars.

Cause: Yoast's WooCommerce product add-on is a separate plugin that has not been installed. Even when active, it works around the Uncode theme, so the output is inconsistent.

After migration: After migration: every product page writes that structured data into itself automatically from the product file. No plugin involved, no theme to work around. Eligible for Google Shopping free listings from launch day.

08

Fitting process hidden behind a slider.

Observation: The /saddle-fitting page presents your 10-step on-site fitting process as a slider. Only the first three or four steps are visible. Visitors must click small dots to advance through the rest, and most scroll past before they do.

Impact: The 10-step process is the strongest single proof point on the site. It shows qualification, depth and care. Hiding two-thirds of it behind a slider turns evidence into decoration.

Cause: A theme slider widget set to one slide per page. There is no Google benefit (the slides only appear after the page has loaded, so Google can struggle to read them), and the controls are small and easy to miss.

After migration: After migration: all 10 steps render as a static grid on the page. Every step is visible at a glance, indexed by Google, and skimmable in 15 seconds. No clicking required.

09

Fitter-recruitment button buried inside a photo.

Observation: On the /saddle-fitting page, the "Join our database of saddle fitters" prompt is text laid over a background photo. It reads as decoration, not a button. There is no form or visible clickable area.

Impact: Recruiting more independent fitters expands coverage, fills more bookings, and is one of the few ways to scale the service without scaling head-count. A buried button loses applicants who would have signed up.

Cause: A page-builder block where the heading and button text are part of a background-image composition. The image is decorative, not interactive. There is no tracking on this region either.

After migration: After migration: a dedicated fitter-recruitment block on /fitting/ (and a standalone /become-a-fitter/ page) with a real form, clear benefit bullets, and a single "Join the directory" button. Tracked as a sign-up goal.

Stack inventory

What is running today

Detected from the HTML of the homepage and a sample of product pages.

Platform WordPress + WooCommerce
Theme Uncode (ThemeForest) + child theme
Hosting Behind Cloudflare CDN
Plugins 17 detected on the homepage
Email Mailchimp for WooCommerce
Wishlist YITH WooCommerce Wishlist (free tier)
Payments PayPal Payments, Worldpay e-commerce
SEO Yoast SEO v27.4
Ads Google Ads conversion ID AW-18070691382
Homepage proposal

An alternative layout

Built in the existing brand palette and typography. Replaces the search-only top section with a clear headline about what you offer, a featured product card, and a three-service row (fitting, trial, part exchange). All using existing inventory and copy.

saddlecentral.co.uk
Next-day UK delivery on orders placed before 11am · 14-day home trial on every saddle
Saddle Central
Qualified saddle fitters · UK-wide

120 saddles in stock. One ready for your horse.

Browse new and second-hand. Take any saddle home for a 14-day trial. Have a qualified fitter come to your yard if you'd rather we choose with you.

Browse saddles → Book a fitting
14-day home trial Part exchange welcome Klarna available
just in
17.5″ seat deep & supportive close-contact flap med-wide gullet
FEATURED · IN STOCK Bates Caprilli Close Contact tried & loved by Lucy and her gelding Otto
Classic brown · 14-day trial
£1,295 view saddle →
SERVICE 01

Expert fitting

A qualified fitter comes to your yard. Measurement, advice, no obligation to buy.

Book a fitting
SERVICE 02

14-day home trial

Try any saddle on your horse for two weeks. Return at no cost if unsuitable.

How the trial works
SERVICE 03

Part exchange

Trade in your current saddle. Indicative valuation within 24 hours of photo upload.

Get a valuation

The most-trialled saddles this month

New
Amerigo

Amerigo DJ Salto

17"BrownJump
£2,895 View →
Trial
Equipe

Equipe Dressage Viktoria

17.5"Med-wideBlack
£2,295 View →
Used
Equipe

Equipe Rose Dressage

17"Wide3 yrs
£1,395 View →
CHANGED the top of the page is no longer an empty search box · the proof points (trial, fitting, Klarna) sit visible without scrolling · the moat services have their own strip · real saddles replace stock saddles in the slider.
Product page proposal

Where the purchase actually happens

The product page is where buyers commit £600–£3,000. The current page loads blank for 3–6 seconds after a click, hides specs further down, and is missing the structured product data Google needs for Shopping listings. The proposed layout loads instantly, puts trust signals next to the price, and writes that structured data into every page automatically.

saddlecentral.co.uk/saddles/equipe-dressage-viktoria
Next-day UK delivery on orders placed before 11am · 14-day home trial on every saddle
Saddle Central
Saddles / Dressage / Equipe / Dressage Viktoria
In stock · 14-day trial
▶
01

Loads in under 100 ms

The current page sits blank for 3–6 seconds after a click. The proposed page is pre-rendered and pre-loaded, so by the time the click registers the page is already in the browser cache.

02

Visible to Google Shopping by default

Google Shopping free listings and rich search results (price, stock, rating stars next to your link) need a small piece of structured product data on each page. Every saddle page writes it automatically. No plugin, no theme to work around.

03

Trust signals next to the price

Trial, part-exchange and delivery are the moat. They live inside the buy-box so they're visible while the customer hovers the price, not buried in the footer.

CHANGED instant page load · review stars next to the price · trust strip inside the buy-box · structured product data Google needs baked in · cleaner URL (/saddles/<name> instead of /product/<name>).
Service landing proposal

A page Google can rank for "saddle fitter near me"

Fitting is the largest single differentiator versus Amazon and brand-direct. The current page hides your 10-step process behind a slider and buries the "join our directory" prompt inside a background photo. The proposed /fitting/ landing puts every step on the page, adds a coverage check, surfaces fitter-recruitment as a real block with a form, and is structured so Google can rank it for "saddle fitter near me".

saddlecentral.co.uk/fitting
Next-day UK delivery on orders placed before 11am · 14-day home trial on every saddle
Saddle Central
FITTING · UK-WIDE · QUALIFIED

A qualified fitter comes to your yard.

Measurement, advice, trial fit. Done on your own horse in their own surroundings. No obligation to buy on the day.

Book a fitting → Check coverage
SMS confirmation From £85 Mon–Sat slots
ON-SITE FITTING · ~90 MINUTES · QUALIFIED FITTER

Every step of an on-site fitting

Your existing 10-step process, exposed in full on one page. Each step shows how long it takes and what gets recorded in your file. No slider, no clicking through pages.

  1. 01 5 min

    Introduction

    Quick chat about the horse, the rider, current saddle and any discomfort.

    Goals on file
  2. 02 5 min

    Condition score

    Body-condition score on a 1–9 scale. Baseline and any muscle wastage flagged.

    1–9 score recorded
  3. 03 5 min

    Conformation

    Static study of the horse: withers, shoulder, ribcage, hindquarters.

    Build notes + photos
  4. 04 15 min

    Gait & lunge

    Walk, trot, canter on both reins. Symmetry, tracking and any compensations.

    Movement record
  5. 05 5 min

    Back assessment

    Palpation of the topline. Flags tension, soreness or saddle damage.

    Topline diagnosis
  6. 06 5 min

    Templates & weight

    Flexicurve templates of withers and back. Rider weight noted. All photographed.

    Templates + photos
  7. 07 15 min

    Static saddle fit

    Two or three saddles tried cold on the horse. Clearance, balance, panel contact checked.

    2–3 options noted
  8. 08 20 min

    Ridden assessment

    Best static option ridden in walk, trot and canter. Re-checked after warm-up.

    Best option confirmed
  9. 09 10 min

    Recommendations

    Written summary: what fits, what to avoid, what to budget for. Yours to keep.

    Summary in hand
  10. 10 14 days

    Home trial

    Take the saddle home for 14 days. Refund or part-exchange if it's not right.

    Saddle in your tackroom
COVERAGE

UK-wide, with same-week slots in:

  • South Wales
  • Bristol & Somerset
  • Gloucestershire
  • Cotswolds
  • Hereford / Mid Wales
  • + 14 regions on request

"Sarah came out, watched Otto move, and put two saddles on him I'd never have picked myself. We went home with one of them on trial and bought it a week later. Felt like a service, not a sales call."

Lucy P., Monmouth · fitting booked May 2026
FOR FITTERS · NOT FOR OWNERS

Are you a qualified saddle fitter? Join the directory.

Saddle Central refers bookings to independent qualified fitters across the UK. We handle the enquiry, the SMS confirmation and the trial-saddle logistics. You do the fitting and keep the relationship.

  • SMQ, QSF or Society of Master Saddlers qualified
  • Pay-per-fit. No platform fee. Direct to you.
  • Coverage map shows your region to nearby owners
BOOK A FITTING

Pick a date. We confirm within 24 hours.

From £85 · refundable against any saddle purchase · cancel up to 48 hours before.

Book →
CHANGED dedicated /fitting/ URL with its own search description · all 10 fitting steps visible on one page (no slider) · coverage strip so prospects know if you serve their region · fitter-recruitment block with a real form (not hidden in a photo) · single booking button on the page, not buried in the nav.
Search opportunities

Specific search phrases you can rank for

Broad terms ("saddles uk", "horse saddles") are dominated by Amazon, eBay and brand-manufacturer sites. The 24 longer, more specific phrases below are easier to rank for and bring buyers who already know what they want. Each maps to a single page (product, category or article).

Brand + specification

  • wintec 500 17 inch saddle
  • second hand bates dressage saddle
  • pessoa jumping saddle uk
  • wintec wide gullet saddle
  • bates caprilli close contact
  • narrow gullet pony saddle

Local fitting service

  • saddle fitter near me
  • mobile saddle fitter uk
  • how much does saddle fitting cost
  • qualified saddle fitter [region]
  • saddle fitting service for cob
  • best saddle fitter for dressage

Problem-led / informational

  • how to tell if a saddle fits
  • saddle keeps slipping forward
  • measuring saddle gullet width
  • best saddle for high withers
  • when to refit a saddle
  • horse bucking under saddle

Sell / part-exchange (low competition)

  • sell my saddle for cash uk
  • part exchange saddle uk
  • home trial saddle 14 days
  • second hand saddle valuation
  • how does saddle part exchange work
  • saddle trade-in uk

Volumes and current ranks not confirmed here; a Search Console / Ahrefs pull would provide accurate numbers before content work begins.

Suggested next steps

Phased recommendations

Total scope: about 25 working days end-to-end. Full migration off WordPress. Same approach used on the Lonsdale rebuild, with WooCommerce replaced by a modern hosted checkout. Each phase below notes the findings it resolves.

Days 1–3

Export + scaffold

Foundation phase. No customer-facing changes yet.

  • One-time WooCommerce export: products, variations, brands, customers, orders → JSON content collections (same approach as the Lonsdale rebuild).
  • Scaffold the Astro repo, set up Vercel preview deployments. Commerce engine: Stripe Checkout. Hosted by Stripe, zero platform fee, card processing ~1.5% + 20p. Same fee structure you have today. PayPal continues as a parallel option, Klarna comes built in.
  • Codify the existing brand (green + gold + serif) into a reusable design system so the new site looks identical but loads faster.
  • Order + customer migration plan: a read-only archive of historical Woo data stays accessible during transition.
Days 4–12

Rebuild every screen

Solves findings 01, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07.

  • Home, category, product, brand, cart, account screens. Rebuilt mobile-first, statically served from Vercel, pre-loaded on hover. Solves finding 01 (blank-screen gap): tapping a saddle opens it in under 100 ms.
  • No popup library installed at all. Newsletter signup lives in the footer and a dedicated /newsletter page. Solves finding 02 (popup blocks the homepage).
  • Top of the homepage replaced with a clear headline + featured saddle card. Persistent search stays in the top nav. Solves finding 04 (empty search box at the top).
  • Three new landing pages with their own Google targets: /fitting/, /trial/, /part-exchange/. Solves finding 05 (services hidden in nav).
  • No scroll-jacking, no zoom-on-enter. The page is calm. Solves finding 06 (aggressive scroll animations).
  • Structured product data (price, stock, brand, rating) baked into every product page by default. Solves finding 07 (invisible to Google Shopping).
Days 13–18

Commerce + retention

Solves finding 03.

  • Stripe Checkout wired in. Existing PayPal Business account stays as a parallel "or pay with PayPal" button. Klarna included via Stripe with no separate integration. Worldpay can be retired (Stripe covers everything Worldpay does, usually cheaper) or kept as a backup gateway.
  • Custom wishlist that remembers items in the browser and syncs to email for signed-in customers. Same experience as YITH, no plugin overhead.
  • Retention email automation set up via Mailchimp (or moved to Klaviyo if you want stronger automation): abandoned cart, wishlist price-drop, back-in-stock, browse-abandonment, trial follow-ups. Solves finding 03.
  • A modern instant search tool replaces AJAX Search Lite. Free, runs in the browser, no extra server load.
  • Google Ads tracking (conversion ID AW-18070691382) fired on every checkout success. Identical reporting in your Ads dashboard.
Days 19–25

Content + cutover

Solves the question "how do we rank higher".

  • Publish six problem-led articles targeting the more specific search phrases listed earlier. Each maps to one landing page or post.
  • "This page moved here" instructions set up from every existing WooCommerce URL (/product/*, /product-category/*) to the new equivalents, so Google rankings carry across.
  • Domain switched over to the new site. Google Ads paused for a four-hour window so paid clicks do not land on a half-deployed site, then resumed.
  • Decommission WordPress entirely. Catalog updates from then on happen via a small admin editor — same workflow Lonsdale uses now.
What stays · what is retired

Migration audit

Brand, photography, copy, accounts, and campaign assets all carry across unchanged. The WordPress + plugin layer underneath is replaced by a smaller, modern stack.

Carries across

  • Brand identity (logo, palette, typography)
  • Product photography
  • Service copy (fitting, trial, part-exchange)
  • Mailchimp account + subscriber list
  • Google Ads campaign + conversion ID
  • PayPal business account
  • Yoast meta descriptions (migrated as data)

Retired

  • WordPress core + Uncode theme + child theme
  • WooCommerce (replaced by Stripe Checkout, zero platform fee preserved)
  • YITH Wishlist plugin (replaced with custom)
  • Popup Maker (removed entirely)
  • AJAX Search Lite (replaced with a modern instant search tool)
  • Yoast SEO plugin (the new site writes the structured product data Google needs directly, no plugin)
  • Worldpay e-commerce (optional, keep or retire)
  • Plugin update + security patch cycle
  • WP Engine hosting bill
What changes for you and your customers

Without the jargon: three lists

The fair question is "you are killing WooCommerce, what about all the things it does for me?". Here is the plain-English answer.

Stays the same

No surprises for you or your customers.

  • Same checkout fees you pay today (around 1.5% + 20p per UK card). No platform fee on top.
  • PayPal stays. Existing PayPal Business account just gets reconnected.
  • Every saved customer, every past order and every email subscriber carries across.
  • Same Mailchimp list. Same Google Ads account. Same brand, photography and copy.
  • Same wishlist, same cart memory across visits. Customers can close the tab and come back tomorrow.

Gets better

Things you already pay for that finally do their job.

  • Customers sign in by clicking a link in their email. No password to forget, no "reset password" loop.
  • The abandoned-cart email actually fires (Mailchimp is connected today but the workflow is switched off).
  • Wishlist sends "this saddle just dropped £80" emails automatically. Currently a paid YITH feature you do not have.
  • Search understands plain English: "17 inch close-contact for a cob" returns the right saddles.
  • Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna show up at checkout automatically. Zero extra setup.
  • Out-of-stock saddles show a "Notify me when back" button instead of vanishing.
  • Products are eligible for Google Shopping rich snippets from day one.

Off your plate

Less to maintain. None of this is data — only code and overhead.

  • 17 plugins to keep patched → zero. No more update / break / hot-fix cycle.
  • WP Engine hosting bill → folded into the £150 monthly care, not added on top.
  • Newsletter popup that blocks the homepage on first visit → removed (Google has penalised this pattern since 2017).
  • No WordPress admin to lock down, harden or recover after a plugin breaks.
  • Plugin licence renewals (YITH paid tier, Yoast premium, etc) → none needed.
Common questions

Reasonable things to ask before saying yes

What happens to my existing data — products, customers, orders, emails?

Nothing leaves your control. Everything exports from WordPress and WooCommerce as files (products as JSON, customers and orders as CSV, Mailchimp subscribers untouched). I migrate those files into the new site. You also keep a copy of the export. The old WordPress site stays online until the new one is verified live and you sign off. Then it gets archived, not deleted.

Do I have to switch to Stripe? Can I keep Worldpay or use another biller?

Stripe is the recommendation, not a requirement. It has the lowest UK fees and the cleanest checkout, which is why I default to it. The migration works the same way with Worldpay (your current processor), Mollie, Adyen or any other provider — only the checkout integration code changes. PayPal stays in every scenario. If you want to stay on Worldpay, the project is the same scope, only the commerce wiring takes an extra day or two.

Will my Google rankings drop during the swap?

Every existing WordPress URL gets a "this page moved here" instruction set up for Google (the technical name is a 301 redirect). Search Console is monitored daily for the first two weeks. Rankings typically recover within 7–14 days, and on a faster site that includes the structured product data Google needs, they usually end up higher than before.

What if I want to pause or change agency later?

The new site is yours. Source code lives in a GitHub repo you own. Hosting is on Vercel and I run it for you (folded inside the £150/mo Site care, so nothing extra to manage). The catalog is plain files anyone can edit. No agency lock-in and no proprietary admin to learn. Site care has a 6-month minimum to make the migration investment worth doing for both sides, then rolls month-to-month and can be cancelled with 30 days notice. If you ever want to take hosting in-house or move agency, the repo and content come with you.

Pricing

One offer, one fixed price

Fixed scope and price agreed in writing before any work begins. VAT not yet applied. No hourly clock, no scope-creep surcharges.

Pricing is deliberately well below market rate. The templates, content collections and Stripe-checkout patterns were built once for the Lonsdale rebuild and carry across to saddlecentral.co.uk almost unchanged. Most of the heavy lifting is already done. I would rather earn the working relationship than the margin.

Recommended

Full migration

fixed £2,000

21–25 working days

Single recommended path. WordPress retired, Stripe Checkout, retention emails, content targeting specific search phrases.

  • New homepage, category, product, brand, cart, and account templates rebuilt in Astro. Built once, served instantly from Vercel's edge.
  • Three new landing pages with their own SEO targets: /fitting/, /trial/, /part-exchange/.
  • WordPress retired entirely. Catalog moves to a static content store, the same way Lonsdale's did.
  • Stripe Checkout is the default recommendation (lowest UK fees, cleanest dev). Worldpay or another biller works too if preferred — only the checkout integration differs.
  • PayPal stays in every scenario. Klarna comes built in with Stripe at zero extra cost.
  • Five-email retention sequence: abandoned cart, browse-abandonment, back-in-stock, wishlist drop-price, trial follow-ups.
  • Structured product data (price, stock, brand, rating) baked into every product page. Google Shopping free listings and rich search results enabled by default.
  • Six problem-led blog articles published, targeting the more specific search phrases listed earlier.
  • 30 days of post-launch support and tuning included.
Contact

Corey Musa

A more detailed audit covering the same nine findings against your Google Analytics and Search Console data can be produced within 48 hours on request.