Background:
I was brought on in 2009 to be RAND'S webmaster. I inherited a large (200+) page flat file website to oversee and administer. Over time, I convinced RAND of the importance of good UI and the effectiveness of simple design standards. Plus thanks to my Google analytics training, I was able to demostrate how we could fully utilize the SEO potential of that large amount of content.
The Project:
RAND Engineering & Architecture, DPC required a complete revamp of their outdated, troublesome to update flat file site. They wanted a site that could work across all devices and browsers and have the ability to be updated with relative ease. They also needed to maintain the great SEO ranking that the old site had in google search results.
The Solution:
By working closely with RAND, I designed and developed the new site to run on the Concrete5 content management software. This allowed the former flat filed website's 200+ pages of content to be served up dynamically from a site cache. This assured fast page delivery. The site was built responsively with custom scripting to optimize image sizes and template stylings based on the device viewing the site. RAND's staff required training in the use of the CMS that was used, which I provided, so that they can create new pages/content for the site.
Other Details:
When creating the new site, special care was taken to keep the SEO standards of the previous site which had very high, organic SERPs. Each dynamic content page retained the URL of the equivalent page on the former website.
The site functions on a database driven CMS, PHP, Javascript and the Bootstrap CSS Framework. However, much of the site required custom Jquery, CSS and PHP scripting.
The Blog:
In 2010, RAND also wanted a blog to promote news articles. At the time Wordpress was the best choice for that.
I installed the Wordpress blog and built a semi-responsive custom theme. Since Wordpress is vulnerable to hackers, I also installed a very tight security system which effectively blocks hacking attempts.
