Background:
I was brought on in 2009 to be RAND'S webmaster. I inherited a large (200+) page flat file website to oversee and administer. Over time, I convinced RAND of the importance of good UI and the effectiveness of simple design standards. Plus thanks to my Google analytics training, I was able to demonstrate how we could fully utilize the SEO potential of that large amount of content.
The Scope:
RAND Engineering & Architecture, DPC required a complete revamp of their outdated, troublesome to update flat file site. They wanted a site that could work across all devices and browsers and have the ability to be updated with relative ease. They also needed to maintain the great SEO ranking that the old site had in google search results.
The Solution:
By working closely with RAND, I designed and developed the new site to run on the Concrete5 content management software. This allowed the former flat filed website's 200+ pages of content to be served up dynamically from a site cache. This assured fast page delivery. The site was built responsively with custom scripting to optimize image sizes and template stylings based on the device viewing the site. RAND's staff required training in the use of the CMS that was used, which I provided, so that they can create new pages/content for the site.
Other Details:
When creating the new site, special care was taken to keep the SEO standards of the previous site which had very high, organic SERPs. Each dynamic content page retained the URL of the equivalent page on the former website.
The site functions on a database driven CMS, PHP, Javascript and the Bootstrap CSS Framework. However, much of the site required custom Jquery, CSS and PHP scripting.
The Rand website in 2009 and the Website in its current look.
The Blog:
in 2010, RAND also wanted a blog to promote news articles. At the time this was built and maintained with Concrete5 CMS.
In 2013, the client wanted a fresh and modern design for both the main site and the blog. They also wanted to use Wordpress to power the Blog.
I built out the blog with a custom Wordpress theme to be more inline with the brand and also be optimized for mobile. This also involved importing a few hundred article from the ConcreteCMS and into the Wordpress database.
THE 2010 DESIGN
The Current look of the Blog.
Currently the client and I are in talks about the the next evolution of the website and blog.
Stay Tuned.
Stay Tuned.