How AI Helped Me Revamp My Website Without Losing My Mind

If you're finding yourself in need of redoing your WordPress website with a new theme, this article may help you.

I recently had to redesign my website, Drageda.com, and honestly—it wasn't exactly on my "fun to-do" list. 

The theme I was using could no longer be updated to the latest PHP version, which meant my site was at a standstill. 

Additionally, I recently acquired the rights to create commercial music with my own lyrics, and all of that work—copies of my songs are available on my YouTube channel, @dragedapoemslyrics—but I also needed a reliable website home. 

I knew I couldn't continue building and sharing potentially hundreds of songs on a site that couldn't upgrade properly. So I finally faced the inevitable: the redesign had to happen.

How I Work With AI: Talking, Clarifying, and Back-and-Forth

Here's how I work with AI: I talk to my computer as if I'm talking to a person. It's a full-on, back-and-forth conversation—I never just assume AI is giving me the correct answers, because sometimes I haven't asked the question the best way. 

I explain my problem, AI interprets it, I clarify, and we go back and forth until we figure out the solution. My husband or kids will walk in while I'm mid-issue, and I'll have to put my hand up because yes—I'm actually talking to the computer, asking it questions the way I might in a business meeting. 

It floors them every time, but it works. This conversational approach is far faster than typing out long instructions.

How Using AI to Revamp My Site Saved Me Money

I'm not one to spend money on building websites—I've created them myself for years, learning only what I needed to know as I went along.

I use WordPress, but I don't try to master every single aspect; I just pick up the skills as I go. Often, I learn something, use it, and then let it go—so when I need to make changes later, I have to refresh my memory.

This is where AI became incredibly handy. By guiding me through everything—from selecting a theme to implementing tweaks—I didn't have to hire anyone. 

That saved a lot of money. Of course, it still cost me time: I spent about three solid days on this project. Picking a theme alone took hours because, well, I was being fussy. Once the theme was installed, I had to make various tweaks and adjustments.

I could do it all behind the scenes on a staging site, without affecting my existing website. That meant no pressure to get everything perfect on the first try. 

So, yes, it cost me my time and gave me sore eyes—but it saved me a significant amount of money while giving me complete control over how my site looks and functions.

Step 1: Staging the Site

My hosting provider is SiteGround, and I'm very pleased with them. AI first informed me that I could create a staging site with SiteGround—a temporary clone of my website—so I could work on the redesign behind the scenes without affecting the live site. Once everything was perfect, AI guided me on how to push the staging site live. 

AI walked me through every step of creating this staging site, including where to navigate within SiteGround and the specific steps to follow.

Step 2: Picking and Adjusting a New Theme

I chose a new theme for Drageda.com. It has some limitations—for example, the colors in the dropdown menus that I wanted to tweak. Instead of guessing or experimenting endlessly, I explained the problem to AI:

"I want the dropdown to be a different color, and the hover effect to be more readable. How do I do that?"

AI provided me with the CSS code I needed and instructed me exactly where to insert it in the design settings. 

I asked follow-up questions, such as "Will this conflict with anything else?" and received clear, reassuring guidance. I double-checked, and everything worked beautifully.

Step 3: Quick Problem-Solving Along the Way

Whenever I ran into a hiccup—technical or design-related—I asked AI out loud. It provided step-by-step solutions that were easy to implement. No digging through forums, no guessing—just straightforward answers.

Tips for Using AI For Your Technical Issues

One thing I've learned is that you can't just assume AI automatically understands your question or knows the correct answer based on how you asked it.

Sometimes I think I'm explaining a problem clearly, but AI misinterprets it—not because it's not smart, but because I haven't asked the question in the right way. That's why the back-and-forth is so essential. I'll explain, clarify, and even backtrack steps until AI fully understands the issue.

For example, when I needed additional CSS code for other tweaks, the AI guided me to inspect elements on my site, copy the correct code, and bring it back to our AI conversation. It was then able to provide me with the correct code. 

For anyone doing projects like this on their own: be very specific, and don't trust that AI understands precisely what you mean. You are only getting back what you specifically ask.

Always think it through, double-check, and ask more questions if needed. 

For CSS, AI is particularly convenient when your theme doesn't offer options for specific changes. But I always follow up with questions like: Is there any potential conflict? Can I leave the existing code? Should I delete old CSS code if it's no longer needed? CSS is relatively safe according to AI, but I double-check anyway. It's simple, but these steps save a lot of headaches.

The future is here, yikes - very handy, but still freaky.

You can check out the new look of my site here, at Drageda.com!

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