Best Practices-Optimize Theme Before Coding or After Coding?

[Kingalan1]

We purchased a Wordpress Real estate theme called wpcasa.  My developer started coding it. We hired a new SEO. The SEO looked at a simple page (About Us) and saw about 70 Java scripts and 11 templates and was very dissatisfied with the coding and heavy source code contained in the theme. My SEO claims the optimizing this theme (removing the unnecessary Java Scripts and combining the templates is way too much work and that it would be better to start from scratch and purchase a theme like https://my.studiopress.com/themes/agentpress/   with more compact, efficient and streamlined code. Problem is we need to throw out 2 months and thousands of dollars worth of code. My SEO says that in the day of Google's "mobile first" streamlined code is particularly important. My developer has taken the position that the code can be cleaned up after the design. Where it seems my SEO wants clean code to stat with. I don't know who to is right. Any ideas? Am I better of starting from scratch with a new more efficient theme, or cleaning up the code on the wpcasa theme?

The code for the test page is below. Thanks!

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|   | lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> |
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|   | charset="UTF-8"> |
|   | http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> |
|   | name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> |
|   | rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11"> |
|   | rel="pingback" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/xmlrpc.php"> |
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|   | <title></span>About Metro Manhattan - Metro Manhattan Office Space<span class="html-tag"></title> |
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|   | name="description" content="New York City real estate brokerage service helps business tenants acquire office, commercial loft, retail or showroom space anywhere in Manhattan."/> |
|   | name="robots" content="noindex,follow"/> |
|   | property="og:locale" content="en_US" /> |
|   | property="og:type" content="article" /> |
|   | property="og:title" content="About Metro Manhattan - Metro Manhattan Office Space" /> |
|   | property="og:description" content="New York City real estate brokerage service helps business tenants acquire office, commercial loft, retail or showroom space anywhere in Manhattan." /> |
|   | property="og:url" content="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/about-us/" /> |
|   | property="og:site_name" content="Metro Manhattan Office Space" /> |
|   | name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> |
|   | name="twitter:description" content="New York City real estate brokerage service helps business tenants acquire office, commercial loft, retail or showroom space anywhere in Manhattan." /> |
|   | name="twitter:title" content="About Metro Manhattan - Metro Manhattan Office Space" /> |
|   | name="twitter:image" content="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/process-01.png" /> |
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|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//maps.googleapis.com' /> |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com' /> |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//fonts.googleapis.com' /> |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//s.w.org' /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Metro Manhattan Office Space » Feed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/feed/" /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Metro Manhattan Office Space » Comments Feed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/comments/feed/" /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Metro Manhattan Office Space » About Metro Manhattan Comments Feed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/about-us/feed/" /> |
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|   | rel='stylesheet' id='font-awesome-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/menu-icons/vendor/kucrut/icon-picker/css/types/font-awesome.min.css?ver=4.7.0' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='menu-icons-extra-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/menu-icons/css/extra.min.css?ver=0.11.2' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='contact-form-7-bootstrap-style-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/bootstrap-for-contact-form-7/assets/dist/css/style.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpsight-favorites-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpcasa-favorites/assets/css/wpsight-favorites.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpsight-listing-labels-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpcasa-listing-labels/assets/css/wpsight-listing-labels.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpsight-listings-map-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpcasa-listings-map/assets/css/wpsight-listings-map.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpfront-notification-bar-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpfront-notification-bar/css/wpfront-notification-bar.css?ver=1.7' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpfront-scroll-top-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpfront-scroll-top/css/wpfront-scroll-top.min.css?ver=2.0.1' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='chld_thm_cfg_parent-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/style.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='fontawesome.min.css-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london-child/assets/css/fontawesome.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='load-fa-css' href='https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.1.0/css/font-awesome.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpcasa-london-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london-child/style.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='bootstrap-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.css?ver=3.3.6' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='bootstrap-dropdownhover-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/kybarg/bootstrap-dropdown-hover/css/bootstrap-dropdownhover.min.css?ver=1.0.0' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='bootstrap-select-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/silviomoreto/bootstrap-select/css/bootstrap-select.min.css?ver=1.10.0' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='awesome-bootstrap-checkbox-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/flatlogic/awesome-bootstrap-checkbox/awesome-bootstrap-checkbox.min.css?ver=0.3.7' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='pushy-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/assets/css/pushy.css?ver=1.2.1' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='lightslider-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/sachinchoolur/lightslider/css/lightslider.min.css?ver=1.1.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='lightgallery-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/sachinchoolur/lightgallery/css/lightgallery.min.css?ver=1.2.15' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='animate-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/assets/css/animate.min.css?ver=1.2.1' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='dashicons-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-includes/css/dashicons.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='google-fonts-css' href='//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:700,400|Raleway:400,300&subset=latin' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpmtst-custom-style-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/strong-testimonials/public/css/custom.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='zcffront-jquery-ui-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/zoho-crm-forms/assets/css/jquery-ui.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='zcffront-end-styles-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/zoho-crm-forms/assets/css/frontendstyles.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
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|   | rel='https://api.w.org/' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-json/' /> |
|   | rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> |
|   | rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" /> |
|   | name="generator" content="WordPress 4.9.5" /> |
|   | rel='shortlink' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/?p=3800' /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/json+oembed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.metro-manhattan.com%2Fabout-us%2F" /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="text/xml+oembed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.metro-manhattan.com%2Fabout-us%2F&format=xml" /> |
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|   | rel="icon" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon-75x75.png" sizes="32x32" /> |
|   | rel="icon" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon.png" sizes="192x192" /> |
|   | rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon.png" /> |
|   | name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon.png" /> |
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|   | class="page-template page-template-page-tpl-about page-template-page-tpl-about-php page page-id-3800 page-parent custom-background wpsight-london" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage"> |
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|   | id="top" class="site-wrapper"> |
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|   | class="header-widgets"> |
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|   | class="header-full-width"> |
|   | id="section-wpsight_london_listings_search-2" class="widget-section section-widget_listings_search">id="wpsight_london_listings_search-2" class="widget widget_listings_search"> <form <span="" class="html-attribute-name">method="get" action="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/search/" class="wpsight-listings-search horizontal"></form> |
|   |   |
|   | class="listings-search-default"> |
|   | class="row gutter-30"> |
|   | class="listings-search-field listings-search-field-text listings-search-field-keyword col-xs-12 col-sm-9"> |
|   | class="listing-search-keyword text form-control" title="Keyword or Listing ID…" name=" |

[TucsonAZWebDesign]

The great thing about Themes is pretty much over 90 something percent of them are under 100 bucks. In all honesty, there's like maybe a handful that is just simply amazing! I personally love Divi. I've tried many themes, the only one I really need outside of Divi is my retro tube for an adult niche.

The problem with a platform like WordPress is that there are a LOT of themes. Which means naturally a LOT of themes will most likely SUCK. If it becomes even slightly a hassle, in the beginning, I would get out dodge and get a better one quick.

Take it from me and my poor experiences trying desperately to make my theme not suck for the first website I ever made. I did eventually but thinking back on it, that was such a torturously miserable painful process. A few traits of themes to avoid:

• Top heavy visual builders
• Ridiculously large amounts of mandatory plugins. (install as few as possible is a great practice to follow) Some sites I have like literally just use Yoast and do quite well.
• Not having some form of responsiveness. With so many optional frameworks easily attached, there is no excuse.

431 premade page layouts, Email popup software Bloom/social share software called Monarch. I would go with either Either that one or just ridiculously godly fast like Generate Press which utilizes varnish.

And in reference to optimizing before or after the process of configuring a theme for your site, it's actually both. Any well optimized site, will involve modifying content frequently and I would definitely suggest optimizing everything you have right away or as quickly as possible