Craft installs tend to reach us from Aberdeen after they've been quietly running on autopilot, plugins nobody's audited in years, and the person who originally built it long gone from the company.
Karl picks it up from there, and only Karl. Expression 37 hasn't touched a platform outside Craft CMS and ExpressionEngine since it started in 2007.
Before quoting anything, he goes through the install properly. What comes out of that is either a quick fix, a version upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
What makes Aberdeen's Craft sites different from a typical brochure build?
The North Sea oil and gas industry still anchors the local economy, and it's brought a dense supply chain of engineering, logistics, and technical services firms with it, most needing sites built to hold accurate technical content rather than simple marketing pages. Craft suited that particular job well, which is presumably why a fair number of local businesses settled on it and then gave it very little further thought.
Expression 37 supports Aberdeen businesses wherever that's left them, a plugin compatibility audit before an upgrade, taking over an install from a developer who's gone quiet, or an ongoing retainer for a business that wants proactive attention rather than firefighting. Karl reads the site properly before anything gets quoted.
Common questions Aberdeen clients ask:
Technical and compliance documentation, is that a common thing to see here?
Very common, given the energy sector. It needs a content structure that keeps things properly categorised and searchable, not a flat archive that outgrows anyone's ability to navigate it.
Does distance from Aberdeen actually matter?
Not for the work. Everything runs remotely, plugin review right through to deployment, and it holds up reliably. An in-person conversation is never genuinely out of reach if one's actually warranted.
Picking up an install the previous developer's walked away from, is that straightforward?
Routine, yes. The first job is always establishing what's genuinely custom against a modified plugin, and that only comes from actually reading the code.
Should an old Craft version be a genuine concern?
Less than most people assume. The core software rarely causes problems on its own. Real exposure tends to sit in whatever plugins have been left to run unmaintained alongside it.
What does signing up for an ongoing retainer actually change?
Faster response when something breaks, proactive checks rather than total silence between problems, and the same developer handling it every time instead of relearning the setup from scratch.
What's the likely cost of all this?
Depends on scope. A defined piece of work carries a fixed price. Ongoing support runs monthly. Either way, you'll know the number before anything's agreed.
Where this tends to matter:
An energy sector supply chain firm whose site holds technical documentation, certifications, or compliance content that has to stay accurate and genuinely easy to find. A business whose previous agency stopped supporting Craft and pivoted elsewhere, leaving the install unmanaged in practice. A site with Stripe, Salesforce, or HubSpot integrations wired in years ago by someone no longer around to explain them. And an install several major versions old, where an upgrade means a proper compatibility check across every plugin first.
Ready to get started?
If your website is business-critical and needs a specialist who will take proper long-term ownership of it, get in touch. Karl will respond personally and give you an honest view of how we can help.
