Portfolio

This project was a new website design for a Law Firm in Las Vegas. I was responsible for building the site in WordPress. I used the Genesis Framework. I worked closely with a designer to turn a layout created in Adobe XD into a WordPress site.

This site was created while working at NeONBRAND Digital Marketing.

The site is very easy to update with custom post types for Testimonials, News and Services. There is a custom slider area that pulls in testimonials selected at random.

See the website at: younglawnv.com

This site was done for a new landscaping company in Las Vegas. For this project, I met with the client and took notes on what their main focus was and what kind of customers they wanted to target.

This project was a little different in that I wrote and organized the copy for each page. While coming up with the content, it helped that I spent my summers as a landscaper when I was in school.

Aside from copywriting I was responsible for building the website in WordPress. I worked closely with John, Neon’s talented designer to turn the layout he created in Adobe XD into a Working WordPress site.

The website features a Custom Post Type “Services” to be able to easily add new services they offer.

This site was created while working at NeONBRAND Digital Marketing.

See the website at: landscapevegas.com

This project was a redesign of a website for a Dentist in Las Vegas. I was responsible for building the site in WordPress. I worked closely with a designer to turn a layout created in Adobe XD into a WordPress site.

The site uses the Genesis Framework.

This site was created while working at NeONBRAND Digital Marketing.

The site is very easy to update with custom post types for Team Members, Testimonials, FAQ’s, and Services they offer. Many pages have custom layouts where the client can enter content easily. This functionality was built using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.

See the website at: hansenortho.com

This project was a website redesign for a Surveying Company in Las Vegas. I was responsible for building the site in WordPress and Migrating it over to a new server. I worked closely with a designer to turn a layout created in Adobe XD into a working site.

This site was created while working at NeONBRAND Digital Marketing.

See the website at: heritage-surveying.com

This project was a redesign to update an older website that looked quite dated.

Many of the sites I have been working on lately have involved moving a static website to a WordPress install. That is often the best option, but not in every case.

Some websites are essentially just a brochure. They don’t need to be updated very much after the initial launch. If this is the case, then a static HTML website is all you really need.

Before

When you want to make a more or less simple website, you have a few options. Do you install WordPress and let that handle your content? Do you simply create a few HTML pages and style them with CSS manually?

In this case, I made a static HTML website. Here are some of the criteria that this site in particular had, that made me lean in that direction.

• The site owner does not need to regularly add content or have a blog
• SEO is not really a huge factor in the needs of the business… They will not be doing any content marketing
• Project budget calls for no maintenance fees
• The site can run on same basic shared server as before

One nice thing about just doing a simple static HTML website is that they tend to run very fast without doing any kind of extra work. WordPress sites can also run fast, but it can be more work to optimize plugins and the hosting setup of the website.

The new design – mobile friendly with a responsive layout.

Even if SEO is not a main concern, it is still nice to have some “base SEO” on any website. This helps search engines to show users the right content. It also can help a website get some traffic. A website that is not optimized at all will generally get very little traffic. Unless it is heavily promoted through other channels like social media, then people can’t find it.

During the initial stages of the project, many of the older pages were consolidated and moved around. The new pages had to be checked that they had a unique Title tag, as well as an optimized page URL based on the content of the page.

For example, if a page is called “/page_05.html”, then it does not contain any of the relevant keywords that are in the page’s content. In the case of this website, pages with only a numbered URL were renamed to keyword optimized URL’s, like “/construction-project-manager.html” for example.

The site now has a responsive layout. This also is a positive SEO factor for Google rankings.

See the website at: Phammanagement.com

For almost 20 years, MR. DETAIL Appearance Centre has been doing business in Calgary, AB. They sell wheels, tires and aftermarket parts. They also provide services like window tinting, detailing and paint polishing to their customers.

You can visit the website at mrdetail.ca

Another long time client, the website has grown and changed quite a bit. Over the years, the company has made changes to what it does, and has even moved locations. The website has been updated along with it, so a WordPress conversion was the next step.

As the number of services they offer has grown, I have worked with the owner of the company to create new pages, update content and add pictures. Most of it is specific information about the services they offer, and it goes over prices and policies.

How people use the website

This website’s content is read by customers doing research online. They usually want to have their car worked on, and are looking for a company to do it.

Some people come into the store at that point, but more often they will call to discuss what they see on the website. On the other end, the person who picks up the phone needs to familiar
with what’s there – so they can quickly give answers.

SEO Concerns when Moving a Website to WordPress

SEO must be considered when converting a static HTML website to WordPress. This is especially so when it has been around a long time.

There are steps that must be taken so you don’t negatively affect the search engine rankings for the site. This can sometimes happen from careless mistakes when the site is moved.

What WordPress enables with SEO

What to update when moving a site

If you are going to be overwriting an existing website, then you must pay particular attention to make sure all the pages are found by Google again. In web designer terms, this means that your page URL’s must either be named exactly the same or have redirects set up so they do not give 404 (page not found) errors.

For this website, there were some changes made to the site’s architecture. A few pages were put into categories and became Sub-pages. This just makes the site easier to navigate for the users. With all the changes to the URL’s, I used the Redirection WordPress plugin. This was done to make sure the pages all routed the right way after the switch.

The plugin can also help you find errors once the new site is launched, as some pages might not route correctly after the switch. In the settings, there are a set of tabs where you can see what pages are giving a 404 error and how often. You can use this info to go in and fix the bad links on your site. For bad links pointing to your site from other pages, you can create a redirect. These are for links pointing to your domain, but not to an actual page that exists.

After a few weeks, there were no significant impacts to traffic and it started to grow again. The more errors you can correct on a website, the better it will fare in the search engine rankings.

The Business

The Riverview B&B is a Bed and Breakfast that also does summer weddings. This is not your average B&B, it features some amenities that set it apart.

For one – it is located on a lookout on the edge of the Sheep river near Okotoks. The hillside has been landscaped and terraces allow people to walk down the hill to an amphitheater-like formation with flower beds and staircases.

The website is used to get people to book guest rooms year round, and also to get bookings for the seasonal wedding venue that they have. You can see the site at Riverviewbnb.ca

Personally, this project is one of the more interesting that I’ve worked on. This is because the original website was actually my first commissioned project while I was still in University. See below to view the homepage of the first version I made all the way back in 2002.

Over the years, the site has been updated and redesigned. I kind of get a kick out of looking at the various versions, just to see how my own skills have progressed. I can also see some of the website design trends that I’ve been influenced by in the last 14 years.

Now while doing a major upgrade in 2016, I can look back at how much the site has changed.

2003

2006

2011

Site Priorities and Top Tasks

With every website there is a short list of things you have to get right. The B&B is located in the country in a rural area, so simply finding the place needed to be made as easy as possible. Weddings are not something you can be late to. The site had to make the Map the easiest thing to find in the navigation. This is a top task that many people use the site for.

In the not so distant past, before everyone had Google Maps on their phone, (hard to remember huh?) there would always be a couple people who got totally lost trying to find the place. Some even having their GPS units take them several miles away.

This happens a lot less now with most people having a smart phone. With the new site, I did the best I could to make it so people can quickly find the place on the Google map. The map is also the second item on the navigation, so you don’t have to look hard to find it.

Going Responsive

Upgrades to the Photo Gallery

Some of these updates were easy and didn’t require much thinking. Simply updating to a larger size of thumbnail made it a lot easier to see all the photos.

The way that the navigation worked on the old site was a little clunky. When moving from photo to photo – the “next” button would move along with the size of the photo. This meant a lot of moving the mouse to click each time — not that fun to do if you’re trying to show the website to someone who is sitting next to you.

For the new Gallery I used the Magnific Javascript library. It does not have a WordPress plugin yet but I got it to work by using the wp_enqueue_script function in the theme’s functions.php file. This properly imports the required JS files in the right order. The Gallery now has “next” and “previous” buttons that are always in the same place, and you can also navigate the photos with the keyboard.

As a side note, many of these scripts allow the user to navigate using the keyboard arrow buttons. This is not something that most people will try however, so most people will just click on the navigation buttons with their mouse.

Adding a blog and planning some future content

Just about every website that wants traffic has to actively publish new content. This is often done with a blog on the site. The overly simplified idea is that you publish a post, share it, and encourage other people to both share it and link to it from their websites.

Going from a static HTML website to WordPress one meant that getting a blog was one of the main upgrades. For this one I opted for super-simple and mobile optimized. This meant no sidebars and only a 1 column layout.

For a blog strategy (always good to have one) we have a few ideas. We will start with posting some current pictures of the place to show some activities that are going on. Upcoming content will include some helpful resources for people who are planning their wedding, which is who our customers are.

I’ll also be working on some outreach of local photographers and wedding-related vendors. in order to write the guides that will be on the site.