Context
Mortgage Alliance is one of Canada’s largest mortgage brokerage networks with thousands of agents across the country. As part of the M3 Tech group, the Mortgage Alliance platform provides mortgage tools, broker profiles, and educational resources to homebuyers nationwide.
WPlook Studio provided Senior WordPress & Systems Architecture consulting over a 4-year engagement (2021–2025). We inherited the codebase from the previous agency and improved the platform with front-end redesign, custom development, SEO consulting, and infrastructure optimization — alongside the other M3 Tech properties.
The Challenge
Mortgage Alliance needed a reliable, fast-loading platform capable of handling high traffic volumes during competitive rate periods. The site required continuous improvement to maintain visibility in the financial services market, along with a broker management backend that could scale with the growing network.
What We Delivered
- Custom Gutenberg blocks — CTA blocks, location finder, broker information panels, and content management blocks built with React and the WordPress Block API
- Broker, office, and franchise backend — custom post types synced with the BOSS CRM via authenticated API integration
- 7 mortgage calculators — affordability, payment, refinance, rent-vs-buy, debt consolidation, closing fees, and custom rate calculator with dynamic rate data
- Bootstrap 5 front-end with brand-specific SASS theming and Webpack 5 build pipeline
- Broker search with Google Maps API integration and geocoding
- Schema markup — Organization, Financial Service, and Breadcrumb structured data
- Bilingual support via Polylang with translation strings and hreflang tags
- Infrastructure migration — Azure Web App to Azure VM with cPanel, consolidated from 12 to 2 servers
- CI/CD pipelines for continuous deployment
- SEO consulting — Core Web Vitals optimization, technical audits, keyword strategy
- Didomi consent management for GDPR/privacy compliance
- Google Tag Manager with per-brand container configuration
Results
- Page load reduced from 16s to under 1s
- 12 servers consolidated to 2 — eliminating auto-scaling and reducing Azure costs
- Improved Core Web Vitals across all pages
- Faster deployment cycles through modernized CI/CD