Website update: sagis.lt case

Upgrading an old website is a process that involves not only design changes, but also technical, SEO and user experience solutions. This case study is a good example of what a website refresh can look like, what the client's expectations were, how the website looked and performed before the refresh and the results achieved. Sharing experiences like this helps to better understand what is behind the sleek word „upgrade“.

What does a website update look like?

Completely revamping an old website has quite similar processes compared to building a new website. The work involved is almost exactly the same as building a new website. Except that the old website is connected to an existing domain (in this case sagis.lt), so a full update of the old website, i.e. the creation of a new website, requires a reconfiguration of the domain so that it redirects the user to the updated version of the website instead of the old one. Read more about when to update an old website and when to create a new one read here.

In the case of Sagis.lt, the website was developed on a different platform, so when the new website was created on the WordPress platform, the sagis.lt domain had to be configured to redirect the user to a new version of the website on a completely different platform. In order to make the configuration of the domain, the login details to the domain source, i.e. the place from which the domain is purchased, were needed. The client provided access to the domain source without major problems and all the necessary configuration was done. It is important to note that when changing the configuration of a domain there is a transition period of approximately 48 hours, when the old website stops working and the new website also becomes unavailable.

In this case, the site switchover took about 3 hours, by which time it was possible to connect to the new site, and after 24 hours whatsmydns.net showed that the site's DNS data had been updated on all servers. The temporary inactivity of a website is an important moment, so it is best to do it at a time when we know that the website will receive the least traffic.

Another very important point when updating an old page is to redirect the old links to the new pages. The old page had the page „kainorastis“, which means that in a Google search the old link led to sagis.lt/kainorastis. The new page was called „price“, so the new link was sagis.lt/price. This is a critical point to evaluate and redirect the old link requests to the new pages. Otherwise, in the short term, the price page may have become completely invisible, as the search engines have not yet had time to index the new price page and display it in the search results, and the old page sagis.lt/price simply no longer works. This could result in a loss of some visitors for up to two weeks. If a page receives a significant number of visitors, this can have a very strong negative impact on the ranking of the page itself, which is worth avoiding.

Customer expectations before a website upgrade

The client's brief was to update the design of the website so that it looked professional and used the new brand colours (green and purple). The website had to radiate cosiness, warmth, reliability and have a luxury feel. The theme of the site is animals, so we were able to use curated visual illustrations to fit this theme. The old site was fast, so naturally the new site had to be fast too. Needless to say, the client wanted the website to be fully mobile-friendly. Why this is important, you can read here.

During the website upgrade, the client was interested in what additional functionalities could be implemented and what could add value and credibility. One of the suggested functionalities was to display Google reviews directly on the website. The advantage of this feature is that the reviews are pulled directly from the Google business account, which means that the reviews are authentic and not fake. Radeimo does not recommend the use of cited reviews as this does not build much trust. Google reviews cannot be directly moderated, so they are much more trustworthy than regular cited reviews.

After discussing the specifics of the client's business and understanding that haircutting services are provided in Vilnius, which is a multicultural and global city, 5 additional languages were proposed and implemented. The website now offers additional languages English, Russian, Polish, German and Spanish. All of these languages are spoken by at least one member of the hairdressing team.

Another additional functionality available on the sagis.lt page is the registration on treatwell.lt from the sagis.lt website itself. Although treatwell.lt does not have a direct integration into websites, it can be integrated using the „website within a website“ method. This method requires a great deal of care and testing, as the control of another website integrated on the site is very limited, but in the case of sagis.lt this integration has been successful. It is now possible to register directly on treatwell.lt from both the sagis.lt website on a computer and the sagis.lt website on a phone. To make sure that this integration works without any problems, we have carried out several tests and the results have been very good and the customer is very satisfied, as it creates a feeling of continuity and professionalism when visiting the website.

Website performance and design before and after the update

Before the update, the site was running smoothly and quickly, and after the update the site is running just as quickly and smoothly. After the launch of the new website and the connection of the old domain, Radeimo carried out intensive optimisation of the website in the first days, so that the final result and the speed of operation were only visible after the optimisation.

It is important to note that in the first couple of days, the new website receives a lot of traffic, not from regular visitors, but from automated bots from Google and other browsers. Within the first few days, these automated robots receive a signal that the website has been significantly updated, so they connect to the website and test and monitor it. They read the new information and feed it into their internal databases. This is particularly important as a newly updated website takes some time to settle down and for the increased traffic to stabilise. For this reason, we recommend that you notify your customers of the updated website after about 5 days or a week, when you know for sure that your users will have the best experience possible when they visit the new website. This period is critical because the site is actively indexed and visited by robots, and the information is passed on to browsers, so we monitor for any errors that make the site unavailable. A short period of time when the site is updated and the site is completely inaccessible and robots are trying to access it can damage the site's ranking, so we try to avoid this at all costs.

Website design before and after the relaunch

The redesigned website features a clear continuity of colour palette on all pages. You can see this continuity in the before and after photos below. The new design uses accents of purple and green, which creates brand continuity. In addition to purple and green, there are a lot of neutrals: light brown, skin tone and other similar pastel colours. The neutrals perfectly combine all the details into a single image, while the different pastel colours add colour dynamism without detracting from the main objective of neutrality.

The redesign used real animals that the client shared on his Instagram account. Each animal photo was individually dressed by cropping the animals and creating a transparent background. To achieve a good result, care and a keen eye for detail are required. It is important that the animals also fit into the overall composition.

Individual design elements, such as footprints or background paintings, were created for the entire site. Great care was taken to ensure that these elements also matched the colours of the brand, complementing rather than dominating the visible pages. Although these elements do not create real value, all these additional elements give a subtle dynamic, lively and detailed image of the web page. The web page acts as a business card for the business, so that the images conveyed indirectly send certain messages to the potential customer.

The new price page has categories and drop-down price lists. This way of presenting prices gives a sense of order and cleanliness. The visitor no longer has to browse through all the prices and services. The visitor can conveniently select a category of interest, then select a sub-category and open it to see only the breeds and prices of interest.

The pricing page has been kept clean and minimalist to avoid distracting visitors with unnecessary visualisations. Admittedly, excessive visual elements can simply scare customers away and they may leave the page.

What have been the results of the website relaunch?

Customer testimonial

The client is very happy with the colour palette, which beautifully combines the page design and visualisations and fulfils the dog/animal grooming theme. The client is pleased that the website looks professional and has received a lot of positive feedback from the client's environment. The client himself is very happy with the integration of treatwell.lt into the registration page and is pleased with the visibility of the Google business account reviews.

Visitor traffic and impressions

The website update resulted in a 3-fold increase in page views in search results. This was accompanied by a doubling of traffic to the site itself. The more often a page is shown in search results, the more likely it is to generate natural organic visits at no cost.

This result is not only due to the fact that the page has been updated (search engines love updates and are happy to show them in the first place), but also because the page has 5 new languages, which greatly increases the visibility of the page amongst people who speak languages other than Lithuanian, and this increases the potential customer base.

A final factor that has led to increased traffic and impressions is the fact that the website uses a lot of specific local keywords, such as „Dog grooming in Vilnius“ or „Dog grooming salon“. These keywords were used less frequently on the previous website, which meant that search engines did not prioritise the old page as strongly and showed it less frequently to potential customers. Thanks to carefully considered keywords that users search for on the internet, the website receives a higher number of visitors, which converts into customers. For more information on local visibility in your city, you can read here.

Finally,

The client is happy with the investment made in the updated website, as the updated design is in line with the brand image and looks professional. Not only are the new languages and keywords introduced on the updated website attracting more visitors, but, as the client mentions, the update has also resulted in additional new registrations. This is exactly what the final result of the updated website should be - new customers!

If you're thinking about updating an old website, interested in prices, If you would like a free consultation to discuss opportunities or to find out if you have untapped potential to attract new customers and thus increase your online visibility, get in touch!