Modern Responsive News Blog

I’m setting up a professional-looking news blog and I’ve chosen WordPress as the CMS. I need the full site built and ready to launch as soon as possible.

Core pages and functionality I expect:
• Home page with a prominent featured-news carousel
• Category sections for Politics, Business, Sports, Technology, Entertainment and any others you recommend
• Clean, corporate-style layout that stays fully responsive on mobile and tablet
• Powerful, yet intuitive admin panel so I can publish, schedule and edit articles without touching code
• On-site search, threaded comments and easy social-sharing buttons
• Contact page with spam-protected form and embedded map (if needed)
• SEO best practices baked in (schema markup, fast loading, optimized images, XML sitemap)
• PageSpeed performance that consistently scores in the green
• Optional: if you can also handle secure hosting setup and SSL, let me know and include it as a line item

Deliverable acceptance:
1. WordPress site installed on my server or staging URL, fully populated with sample categories/posts for testing
2. Core Web Vitals scores in the “Good” range and load time under 3 s on GTmetrix or similar
3. Clear, step-by-step handover guide (or brief Loom walkthrough) covering how to add content, update plugins and back up the site

Time is critical—I’d like the project wrapped up ASAP, so please share links to at least two comparable news or magazine sites you’ve built along with your estimated turnaround.