Salient powered a huge wave of agency builds through the last decade, and thousands of UK businesses still run on it. The good news: most “we need a new website” conversations about Salient sites are really Salient theme customisation conversations — a fraction of the cost, most of the impact.
What ages a Salient site (and the fix)
- Typography from 2018: swap to a modern variable font, increase base size to 17–18px, tighten heading line-heights. Instantly five years younger.
- Cramped sections: double the vertical padding, let content breathe. Salient’s row settings make this a systematic pass, not a rebuild.
- The header: Salient’s header builder can produce a slim, sticky, blur-backed header that reads completely current.
- Stock icon-boxes everywhere: replace with custom-styled columns, real photography and fewer, better sections.
Performance: Salient’s real weak spot
Older Salient builds ship the entire Nectar asset stack everywhere. The fix path: enable the theme’s selective script loading, remove dead sliders (Revolution Slider earns retirement), modernise images to WebP, and add proper caching. We routinely take legacy Salient sites from red to green Core Web Vitals without touching the design.
When to customise vs rebuild
Customise when the structure is sound, content is good, and the complaint is “it looks dated” or “it’s slow”. Rebuild when the business has outgrown the sitemap, the WPBakery content is spaghetti beyond salvage, or you’re consolidating onto an agency-standard builder. An honest audit takes an hour and saves a five-figure mistake.
I handle Salient work white-label for several agencies with legacy portfolios — refreshes, speed rescues and lift-and-shift rebuilds when they’re truly warranted. Send me a Salient site and I’ll tell you which one it needs.
