Hidden Gems: Meet Dusty Candland of WP Support HQ

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dusty Candland.

Dusty, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started building websites back in 1999 after getting my degree in graphic design. What began as creating visually appealing sites quickly evolved into a deep fascination with programming and problem-solving. I love both the creative side of programming and solving real-world problems, and the web has always been at the heart of my work.

Around 2007, I was doing consulting and custom development for small businesses and startups, many of which had built WordPress sites. At first, the questions were usually easy things to answer and fix. But as time went on, I started getting more emergency calls – sites that were completely down or had been hacked. Most times I could fix things quickly, but sometimes I couldn’t and would have to restore the site from a backup. The problem? There was rarely a recent backup. And when there was one, getting it from the client’s hosting company was incredibly difficult.

I kept seeing the same pattern: businesses would invest in building beautiful WordPress sites, then months later they’d call me in a panic because their site was broken, hacked, or completely down. They hadn’t been updating plugins, didn’t have proper backups, and were essentially flying blind when it came to their website’s health. These were smart business owners who simply didn’t have the time or technical knowledge to manage all the behind-the-scenes maintenance that WordPress requires.

That’s when I realized these businesses shouldn’t have to worry about any of this. They needed someone to handle the technical side so they could focus on what they do best – running their businesses. So in 2014, I founded WP Support HQ right here in Centennial, Colorado.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Overall, it’s been a pretty smooth journey, but we’ve definitely faced our share of challenges along the way.

One of the biggest hurdles early on was educating businesses about the value of managed hosting and what that actually means. Many business owners thought all hosting was the same – they didn’t understand why they should pay more for managed WordPress hosting when they could get hosting for $5 dollars a month elsewhere. Explaining that managed hosting includes proactive monitoring, daily backups, security scanning, and expert support took time. We had to help them see that their website is a critical business asset that deserves the same level of attention as their storefront or office.

The technical side had its challenges, too. When I first started, I tried using several existing technologies and management tools to help run the business. Some were pretty good, but most were just okay. The major problem was that they managed WordPress by using a WordPress plugin- which sounds great until WordPress isn’t working. That’s when I realized we needed something better.

I didn’t have the technical foundation I needed at that point to support customers the way I wanted to, so I made the decision to build our own internal tools. Using WP-CLI, I developed a system to manage sites from the command line, which meant I could automate processes and still access sites even when WordPress itself was down. It took significant time and effort, but building our own tools gave us the control and reliability our customers deserved.

As you know, we’re big fans of WP Support HQ. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
WP Support HQ is Colorado’s premier WordPress hosting and support company. We specialize exclusively in WordPress – we don’t try to be everything to everyone. This laser focus means we know how WordPress works and interacts with the almost 60,000 plugins and 30,000 themes currently available.

What really sets us apart is our approach to managed hosting. We use Virtual Private Servers instead of shared hosting, which means each site gets dedicated resources and doesn’t slow down when other sites get busy. Our hosting includes WordPress-specific optimizations like built-in caching, image optimization, and a Content Delivery Network that makes pages load faster worldwide. We also provide daily offsite backups with 30 days of retention, automatic malware scanning, uptime monitoring, spam protection, and staging sites for testing changes.

But hosting is just the foundation. We offer comprehensive support packages that handle everything from quick content updates to complex landing page creation and custom functionality. Marketing teams especially love working with us because they can focus on their campaigns instead of fighting with WordPress. Need a landing page for tomorrow’s product launch? We’ve got you. Worried about plugin updates breaking something? We handle all of that proactively.

We’ve also built strong collaborative relationships with agencies like Media Salad and others. We often work alongside marketing and design agencies, handling the technical WordPress side while they focus on strategy and creativity. It’s a partnership model that serves everyone well – the agencies can focus on their expertise, and we focus on ours.

Since 2014, we’ve been focused on helping local Colorado companies keep their digital infrastructure running smoothly so they can concentrate on growth. We’re not just a vendor—we’re your neighbors, based right here in Centennial. You can actually talk to real people in your time zone when you need help.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We’re excited about continuing to grow while maintaining our commitment to supporting local Colorado businesses. There’s something special about being part of our local business community; we understand the challenges Colorado companies face and we’re invested in their success.

On the technical side, we’re constantly enhancing our technology stack. WordPress and web technology in general are always evolving, and we’re committed to staying ahead of those changes. We’re continually improving our automation, our security protocols, and our performance optimization tools to make sure our clients always have access to the best possible WordPress infrastructure.

What won’t change is our focus. We’ll continue to specialize exclusively in WordPress, and we’ll continue to prioritize the quality of our service over rapid expansion. Our goal has always been to be the WordPress team that Colorado businesses want to work with—not the biggest, but the best at what we do.

We’re also excited about helping more businesses understand that their website should be a marketing asset, not a constant source of stress. Too many business owners are still dealing with emergency website fires, slow loading times, and security nightmares. Over the next decade, we want to help even more Colorado companies move past those problems and use their websites as powerful tools for growth.

This month, we’re excited to announce our newest strategic partnership with ZeroDown Software to deliver SafeHouse® for WordPress—an Always Available™ resilience platform that ensures websites remain online, secure, and uninterrupted, even during outages or attacks. By integrating ZeroDown’s SafeHouse® for WordPress, we at WP Support HQ are taking our commitment to give our clients peace of mind through world-class support and premium managed WordPress hosting even further by ensuring our customers’ websites are not just supported, but engineered to stay Always Available™, no matter what happens.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wpsupporthq.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wpsupporthq
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wp-support-hq/
• Twitter: https://x.com/wpsupporthq