A holistic approach to web design.Website Design Case Study for a Local Plumbing Business
About
Vestal Plumbing & Heating is a residential and commercial service provider serving the Vestal, NY and surrounding areas. In business since 1964, they are a second generation, family business, run by Norm and Betsy Smith. Norm started learning the business from his father when he was young and joined the family business full time when he was ready. With a reputation of honesty and integrity, as well as fast, caring service, they are definitely an asset to the Vestal community!
Discovery & Pain Points
They felt their website could be a major source of leads for new and repeat business. Our first discovery meeting revealed many pain points about their website. The original website was a one-page simple yellow pages type website. The site did not have any images, a logo, or a contact form. Because they didn't have access to edit the content on the site, their service descriptions were outdated and much of the contact information was incorrect.
They wanted a website that featured their services and told their story of being a second generation family run local business that cared about their customers. They also wanted to an easy way for new and existing customers to contact them for estimates.
Research & Analysis
Since it would take some time, the first thing that was needed was for to regain ownership of the domain.
I suggested the WordPress platform to allow . The platform would allow for a blog, as well as allow for custom coding necessary to display certain information.
Because the original website didn't have content, I worked together with Norm and Betsy to gain a full understanding of their services, and how people contacted them for estimates.
The business logo was created a long time ago, so the digital files were missing. So we determined it was best to just recreate the logo for the website.
The Process
I re-created the logo from their business card, redesigning a simple faucet and matching the typography.
Next, I wrote the content necessary for the homepage and inner pages, created a banner image to promote their winter equipment checkup service and touched up photos showing heating installations completed by Norm.
Site design mockups were created for the pages. The inner pages seemed a little bare, so I designed narrow height graphics that looked like water flowing to add texture and movement to the design.
Once the content and design was approved, I custom coded the design into a new custom theme files, installed necessary plugins including advanced custom fields and contact form. Due to WordPress's lack of built in SEO functionality at the time, I added an SEO plugin as well. Due to page speed issues and bugs within the SEO plugin, I uninstalled it and custom programmed the functionality into the theme myself.
The new website was launched on Amazon Web Services (AWS) custom hosting solution, right on schedule within a few week's time.
Results
Within just a few weeks, their homepage shot up to the first result in the search engines for the term "vestal plumber", and several others. Even today, they continue to maintain that position for several targeted l keywords in May, 2024. They are now receiving new leads from people filling out the contact form prominently displayed on their homepage, resulting in new business and increased revenue.
They now have a website with full control over the content, ownership and control of their domain name, and a new business partner (me) to help them update the platform, plugins, and content as they needed with a Website Care Plan.
"Awesome web site! We could not be any more pleased with the work Liz did for us, and helping us portray how we wanted our business to be seen."
Vestal Plumbing & Heating, Inc.