A Business Website Solution
The Challenge
Karen Munting Architect didn’t have an online portfolio for her Architectural firm based in Windhoek, Namibia. She wanted a website to display her built and conceptual projects and help educate her potential clients on her architectural style and what they would need to prepare when hiring an Architect.
The internet is comparatively underutilized in Namibia, but the market for getting a website in Namibia is growing fast. Getting good web design in Namibia is still hard and the local price for a Namibian web designer is relatively high.
Many websites built in Namibia today are not yet responsive or geared for local SEO within Namibia. This included Karen’s direct competitors as their websites are not search engine friendly and are not geared for modern browsing habits.
Effectively, I was given a blank slate. Karen’s trust in our services gave us the opportunity to help her get leagues ahead of her competitors with a first class website that showcases her company and her work.
Client
Munting Rechholtz Architects
What We Did
Responsive Web Design
SEO
WordPress Theme With Custom Coding
We suggested to Karen Munting that we should explore the possibility of using an existing “premium” WordPress template to build her website, with some small tweaks to the code we are able to get an individual design.
A lot of small to medium size companies do not have the budget required to create a one off unique website, therefore this solution is a fantastic middle ground. This doesn’t stop you from having a unique design, as we can apply small custom coding changes to get the desired effect without having the clients pay for your time.
Small to medium size companies do not have the budget required to create a one off unique website, therefore this solution is a fantastic middle ground.
This is exactly what we did for Karen Munting’s website build. Simple things like making the menu slim lined and having the logo sit outside the menu constraints and overhang when the sticky menu comes into effect make the biggest difference and give it, its own look and feel compared to the original WordPress theme.
Individual Page Layout Design Within a Premium Theme
We helped display Karen Munting’s architectural designs using large beautiful photographs throughout her portfolio site. Within the project pages, I utilised Revolution Slider to build a folio of landscape exterior shots before diving down into the project content.
Architectural photography, especially interior shots, lends itself to portrait style imagery. Using the 2/3rds rule, I was able to create a space to display these portrait images. If a particular project had more than one, I turned it into a slider.
To finish off the project page, I used Karen Munting’s own corporate identity colours to form an area where she could pay tribute to the companies involved in the construction of this project.
Search Engine Optimisation For a Brand New Site
The main focus for SEO was the five distinct building categories Karen Munting’s company focuses on and ensure her company was optimised for local search results within Namibia. By carefully crafting the content structure, writing good image titles and alt tags and adjusting the meta description we made kmarchitects website easy for search engines to index and display correctly.
To ensure Karen’s website ranked well within local search results, we first had to start the process of getting her company onto Google Maps.
This proved to be quite an adventure as we discovered Google Maps hadn’t allowed for the Namibian street name changes over the last 10 years.
On top of that, it is near impossible to receive Google postcard even to a business address. First we had to submit the road change and wait for its approval. Once accepted we submitted the company address to Google Maps and opened a Google + page.
Google + business page is great to have for any company, whether you use it or not. For potential clients it is generally the first place to ensure your business details are correct and to look for your companies opening times. With the launch of the new website, Karen went through each web directory she had been listed on and consolidated her information to read correctly and point to her new website.
#1
SEO Happy Moment
I am so proud to say our hard work paid off as Karen Munting Architect displayed on page one for “Architect” in Namibia within weeks of launching the site.
Client Testimonial
The whole process of website design was all new to me, but Danielle was there every step of the way to guide me with sound advice and suggestions. Her background in design is a definite advantage since she was able from the start to understand my needs and company ethos and could suggest website templates that suit our work from the outset.
She understood very well the work pressures on a business owner and could work independently and suggest effective and creative solutions and ideas for the website. The whole process of creating the website became fun for all in the office and our whole staff contingent enjoyed the process and are proud to be a part of the end result. The website she created for our firm is creative, yet elegant and it has received numerous compliments by colleagues and others in our industry.
Danielle’s after sales service is also excellent and reliable and her response time to queries is very good. We are very happy with her work and can recommend her to anybody to assist in their website design.
– Karen Munting
