WordPress Website for Concrete Homes + Low-Rise Construction
Project: Client needed to update their magazine's website from several years ago, improve its visual style and branding, and provide a way for the new managing editor to easily add posts and articles without coding. Client also wanted current industry news to be featured more prominently on the home page.
Process: Consulted with client and advised to move from PHP/HTML/CSS setup to WordPress. This would make it easier for the editor to add posts and articles without coding, and would open up greater possibilities for a more visually appealing design via child themes, which would also stay well within the modest budget.
Below is a screenshot of the home page before the redesign. The header contained a banner ad but no real branding. Only branding for the magazine was visible in the cover image on the slider. Menu colors seemed too bright and distracting.
Process: Consulted with client and advised to move from PHP/HTML/CSS setup to WordPress. This would make it easier for the editor to add posts and articles without coding, and would open up greater possibilities for a more visually appealing design via child themes, which would also stay well within the modest budget.
Below is a screenshot of the home page before the redesign. The header contained a banner ad but no real branding. Only branding for the magazine was visible in the cover image on the slider. Menu colors seemed too bright and distracting.
Home page before redesign.
Proposed several magazine-style WordPress themes to client. Each was responsive, supported, stylish, and fairly easy to customize. Also acquired a few dozen concrete texture photos to use as backgrounds and for posts or articles without photos.
Helped client finalize theme selection, then customized the child theme and incorporated the client branding and concrete textures. The result is a site that is much more up to date, establishes the Concrete Homes magazine brand, provides more visual appeal, and displays the latest industry news on the home page. The editor can add new posts within minutes.
Helped client finalize theme selection, then customized the child theme and incorporated the client branding and concrete textures. The result is a site that is much more up to date, establishes the Concrete Homes magazine brand, provides more visual appeal, and displays the latest industry news on the home page. The editor can add new posts within minutes.
The new website's tools also allow the client to track ads and clicks, integrate with social media, and solicit emails for their database. The day after the website redesign went live, two of the magazine's print advertisers called about adding their ads to the site.
Below is a screenshot of the new-&-improved home page.
