A big design upgrade for a long-time client
Webster Electric is a top electrical contractor in Kalamazoo, MI. They’re also a long-time client of 11Web, and we first designed their website in late 2013.
I generally recommend a website redesign every 3 years, so by 2018, the design was well on its way out. Webster Electric contacted us ready for a change, and we were happy to make it happen.
Together, we defined some key project goals for their website redesign.
Key Project Goals:
- Use larger custom images throughout the website
- Incorporate more white space
- Make the design feel more fresh, modern, and on-trend for 2018
- Preserve search engine rankings in the transition (Webster Electric has been the #1 ranked company on Google for “Kalamazoo electrician” and similar searches for over 3 years)
Work Completed:
New Overall Design
11Web designer Kristin focused on creating a modern design that brought attention to Webster’s great new professional photography.
Image headers are used on each page. Each image has a color overlay to keep them looking consistent.
Kristin was also careful to incorporate contact information and hours prominently in the footer so it is easy to contact the business.
New Blog Design
Blogging has been an important part of Webster Electric’s search engine success. With the redesign, Webster now has a new, easier to read layout for their blog.
Search Engine Optimization
Due to the work we did on their original website design, plus their great blog content, Webster Electric has been the #1 ranked company on Google for “Kalamazoo electrician” and similar searches for over 3 years.
When a website is ranking well, a new website launch needs to be done very, very carefully by a company that understands technical SEO to make sure rankings don’t drop.
A few steps we took to preserve the site’s SEO:
- Generated a sitemap before we started to ensure we knew about all content
- Created any required 301 redirects from old content to new
- Preserved well-optimized home page text
- Optimized new content for keywords
- Submitted a new sitemap to Google Search Console after launch
The finished website looks fantastic and continues to rank well, above much larger websites like Wikipedia, Angie’s List, and Homeadvisor. We’re so proud of this great testimonial from our client:
“After talking with Sara and her team about a complete overhaul of our site, I could tell we were in good hands. We want to be known as the go-to electrical contracting business in Kalamazoo and knew this would drastically help our visibility and customer confidence. From day one, Sara listened to all of our requests and ideas we had in mind and made a detailed checklist for us to easily follow. She walked us through each step with passion and excitement. As we drew closer to starting the redesign we began to see the amazing potential at hand. After the first few stages were complete, Sara and 11Web took the ground running. The communication they were able to maintain was outstanding and there was never a time we’d go with a question unanswered.
Any minor things that we wanted changed along the way were done with ease and professionalism. As the launch date rapidly approached, we reviewed the site one last time. Sara was given the go ahead, and our site was launched with ZERO issues.
There were many things that blew me away with the service we received. The one that stands out the most would be their superior communication throughout the process. We felt like we were treated like family. Their open exchange and daily recaps enabled us to stay confident and remain on target.
Sara and 11Web were able to help us achieve every goal we had in mind. They went above and beyond for us. Not only did we receive an amazing website, she also educated us about SEO, blogging and brand recognition. Being in the skilled trade field, we needed to be known as the best electrical contractor in the area and we couldn’t have done it without their help.
For anyone interested in building, updating or completely overhauling your site, Sara and her team at 11Web are the ones you NEED to call. They were able to help us brainstorm ideas, coach us through the design process, listen, implement, test and eventually launching our site, resulting in an outstanding product and design. Our clean, modern site has helped promote all of our core values and quality craftsmanship to customers and future leads. SEO visibility within our target area has increased, and we couldn’t be happier. You won’t be disappointed.”– Kaj Carlson, COO at Webster Electric
websterelectric.com →
Launched April 2018