The company
About Drive Botswana
Drive Botswana is a family‑run safari outfitter with bases in Botswana and the UK. Since 2008 they’ve crafted more than 1 500 tailor‑made self‑drive and fly‑in itineraries across Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. (drivebotswana.com)
Their small team of safari experts—born and raised in Botswana—combines on‑the‑ground knowledge, fully equipped 4×4 rentals and 24 / 7 en‑route support to deliver hassle‑free adventures that put travellers in the driver’s seat.
The project
What we set out to achieve
Drive Botswana’s website needed more than a facelift. After a decade online, they needed a platform that could evolve with WordPress—allowing their team to publish, rearrange, and refine itineraries without developer support. Our goal was to unshackle their content editing, streamline operations, and future-proof their online presence.
Five core objectives guided the rebuild:
- Replace rigid PHP templates with flexible WordPress blocks for full layout control.
- Enable seamless one-click Wetu imports of text, images, routes, and rates.
- Preserve SEO equity by maintaining URL structures and metadata.
- Optimise mobile UX to serve a majority-mobile audience.
- Cut long-term maintenance by relying on core WordPress features, not custom hacks.
What we needed to deliver
To achieve these goals, we re‑platformed the site using the LSX Design child theme and Tour Operator 2.0 plugin, creating a modern, block-based editing experience.
We integrated Wetu Content Importer 1.5 to automate syncing tours, destinations, and accommodation listings, while a library of reusable block patterns made content creation fast and flexible.
Performance had to be seamless, so we delivered sub‑second first paint times through smart image compression, critical CSS, and caching—all tested across real Safari devices.
Finally, we prioritised autonomy. Two live training sessions and a Loom video library gave Drive Botswana the skills to manage their site confidently without ongoing developer reliance.
What success looked like
Success meant the team could publish a full multi‑day itinerary in under 60 minutes, edit key templates through the WordPress Site Editor without developer help, and achieve Mobile PageSpeed Insights scores consistently above 90+ on primary landing pages.
The challenges
The roadblocks to a modern safari website
Building on more than a decade of growth, Drive Botswana’s existing website had started to show its age. What had once been cutting-edge was now holding them back—making it harder to deliver the seamless, mobile-friendly experience modern travellers expect. In our early workshops with the Drive Botswana team, we identified five core challenges that needed to be overcome for the project to succeed.
Ageing theme and plugins
The website had grown fragile and insecure over time due to an outdated tech stack. Old themes and plugins made the layout inflexible and introduced potential security vulnerabilities.
Limited content control
Drive Botswana’s tours were locked into rigid templates, limiting the team’s ability to update or customise pages without developer assistance.
Fragile Wetu sync
Every Wetu content import required manual fixes, making content management inefficient and prone to errors after each update.
Mobile growth
With over 60% of their traffic coming from mobile devices, the site’s slow load times and unresponsive design significantly impacted user experience.
Tight budget
Cost sensitivity meant that every hour billed had to deliver real, measurable value, with little tolerance for unforeseen overages.
Together, these challenges called for a solution that was not only technically sound but also adaptable, scalable, and genuinely empowering for the Drive Botswana team. Each obstacle shaped the strategy that followed—ensuring that every deliverable was mapped to a clear, measurable need.
The solutions
Delivering practical solutions for long-term success
A dated tech stack, rigid templates, and tight budget sensitivity demanded a pragmatic yet future-proof approach. We mapped each pain point to a concrete deliverable, ensuring every hour logged directly reduced long‑term maintenance for Drive Botswana.
Block‑based redesign — establishing a flexible foundation
We rebuilt the site on the LSX Design child theme, with a custom colour palette, typography scale, and pattern library managed through the Site Editor. Global styles via a theme.json file made design updates effortless, while a mobile-first responsive grid, tested with Lighthouse and Safari devices, delivered a fast, flexible user experience.
Tour Operator 2.0 upgrade — smarter content architecture
We modernised content management by re‑engineering templates for Tours, Destinations, Vehicles, and Travel Styles. Dynamic “From Price” fields now pull peak and off‑peak rates automatically, while related content links are generated intelligently, blending manual control with destination taxonomies.
Wetu Importer 1.5 — seamless itinerary sync
The updated Wetu Importer allows full itineraries—including descriptions, routes, and galleries—to be imported with a single click. Auto-assigned regions and built-in error handling dramatically reduced manual fixes and clean‑up after imports
Owner enablement — autonomy over dependency
We delivered two Zoom training sessions and a Loom video library to support content editing, pattern insertion, and Wetu syncing. Custom dashboard widgets surfaced everyday tasks, while inline help docs in WordPress gave the team on‑the‑spot guidance without external manuals
Agile scope control — transparency in every sprint
Harvest time-logging and weekly burn-up charts gave the client real-time visibility on progress. Any new work triggered upfront mini-estimates, and regular retrospective check-ins helped prioritise tasks and avoid scope creep.
The results
What Drive Botswana gained from the rebuild
Drive Botswana’s new website blends functional depth with easy, block-based editing—deDeploying Tour Operator 2.0 and the Wetu Content Importer unlocked a level of self‑service the Drive Botswana team had never experienced:
- Template freedom
Previously rigid PHP templates are now WordPress blocks that the owners drag, drop, hide or reorder without touching code. - Rapid itinerary publishing
One‑click imports pull text, galleries and maps from Wetu’s API; a 10‑day itinerary now goes live in under 5 minutes. - Reduced developer reliance
Training plus inline help means 8 out of 10 layout tweaks are handled in‑house, slashing ongoing costs. - Automation ready
Scheduled imports keep pricing and availability fresh, while hooks trigger social‑share images automatically. - Open‑source impact – This project was co‑funded by Wetu, enabling LightSpeed to release the next‑gen plugin to the wider WordPress community—the first sponsored OSS release in our 10‑year history.
Client
feedback
– Phil Raggett“We needed a reliable partner who could rebuild our website with modern standards and provide a user-friendly content management solution. LightSpeed delivered exactly that—an intuitive, powerful website that we can manage internally with ease. Their expertise has translated our complex needs into a seamless digital experience.”
Co‑Owner, Drive Botswana
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