Astoria Custom Homes

Our client, Astoria Custom Homes, embarked on a two-phase journey to elevate their online presence. In the first phase, the focus was on revitalizing the website’s design and increasing web traffic. The second phase involved the integration of a new section dedicated to showcasing their home models.

Client: Measurable Genius / Astoria Custom Homes
Type: Employee Project
Role: Digital Design, Web Development, Search Engine Optimization

The client presented us with a challenge: transform their website within eight weeks. The first four weeks demanded a user interface design overhaul and on-page SEO enhancements. Subsequently, the following four weeks required the introduction of a new section devoted to home models, including a landing page with robust product search and filtering capabilities and over 20 individual product pages.

Our primary end-users consisted of two distinct groups: home buyers and home sales associates. Each group had unique needs. Home buyers sought new homes, while home sales associates needed to input home model data.

Our journey began with a comprehensive website audit, analyzing aspects such as visual design, SEO content, technical SEO, web analytics, mobile compatibility, page speed, site structure and accessibility. The audit unveiled issues such as poor SEO content, missing technical SEO files, mobile compatibility challenges and non-semantic HTML.

Once the audit insights were gathered, we compiled a list of tasks to tackle in the first phase. This included refining the user interface design, addressing SEO content issues and improving technical SEO.Wireframes were developed to visualize the refreshed user interface design and to illustrate how the page layouts would adapt across mobile, tablet and desktop screens. Additionally, text documents were crafted to explain the importance of addressing missing technical SEO files and their impact on Google’s SERP.

With client approval in hand, we proceeded to develop new website page templates. This involved enhancing the visual design to create a more engaging user interface and offering art direction for responsive imagery. On-page SEO adjustments included optimizing page titles, meta tags, URL structures and semantic HTML. We also rectified the missing technical SEO files. Following these improvements, we submitted the website for crawling and re-indexing via Google Search Console.

Once the refreshed website was live, we transitioned to the second phase of the project, adding a dedicated section for home models. We initiated this phase with a competitor analysis to benchmark against other luxury home builders. Armed with a comprehensive understanding of the competition’s products, we formulated a feature list to inform the user interface design and page templates.

We created wireframes that served as the foundation for the home model section, outlining user interface elements, information architecture, page layout and prioritized product content. After client approval, we proceeded with back-end development, leveraging WordPress custom post types and Advanced Custom Fields to accommodate the home model data.

Our toolkit for this project encompassed a variety of skills and tools:

• Adobe PhotoShop
• Adobe Illustrator
• HTML & CSS
• JavaScript & jQuery
• PHP & WordPress

We gauged the success of the SEO enhancements using WooRank, an SEO audit and digital marketing tool. Following the website’s relaunch, the audit revealed a 20-point increase in Site Health SEO. Subsequently, after Google’s re-indexing, the client’s website started surfacing in search results for the targeted keywords, marking a significant achievement.