When The Vogel Group –– a rapidly expanding government affairs and consulting firm –– came to us, they wanted a complete website overhaul. Their website at the time didn’t reflect their growth and status as an established, industry-leading firm, and didn’t have a consistent user experience that was also optimized for search engines.
How we did it
When looking under the hood of the previous website, we found multiple culprits that can harm SEO performance. 38% of URLs featured errors, photos didn’t feature alt text, and open graph tags were left incomplete. Those errors might seem insignificant on their own –– but together, they can (and will) impact your bottom line of site traffic and user experience.
Before breaking ground on the new website, we analyzed the websites of major competitors to see what we were up against. After identifying practices to both follow and avoid, we were able to get to work with research backing up every decision from wireframing to launching.
We strategically optimized the new website with an organized hierarchy of content that clearly communicates who they are, what they do, and what they’ve accomplished across all of their staff and practice areas. Behind the scenes, we paid extra attention to detail by adding focus keywords and custom meta descriptions to all pages, alt text to all images, custom social share images, and more. The new website has a deep bench of content showcasing staff expertise with a sophisticated linking web between internal pages optimized for search engines. In sum, the new website has no dead ends.
The biggest value add for their senior staff was building custom pages featuring each staff member’s bio, office locations, industry awards, and news mentions. These content-rich pages act as great landing pages for their most public-facing staff.
Finally, because we built the website on a flexible CMS, this new site can continue to grow as The Vogel Group grows over the years. Adding a new page to showcase a new office location or practice area is a piece of cake.
WE GOT RESULTS
Our custom-built website ranks higher in search engine results than the old site –– funneling more traffic to their business and maximizing their investment in this digital overhaul.
Words for the wise
Attention to detail matters. Custom web development can be a major investment –– and the difference between an end product that’s “good enough” and one that exceeds expectations starts with “crossing every T and dotting every I.”