Today’s post is a little bit different from my usual case study posts. Because instead of talking about a website I have developed for a web designer and their client, I’m going to be talking about my own website!
In late 2024 I decided it was time for a rebrand of my business. I’d always DIYed my own branding and website design, but I had reached a point where I felt like my branding was holding me back. I knew I needed to bring on an expert!
I decided to hire Cat from Gatto, who I have been collaborating with since 2018, as I knew she would be able to create something special for me and my business. She helped me to create a brand and website that is professional but not corporate, as well as being full of personality and fun.
As well as focusing on design, I really wanted to focus on improving my messaging across my website. I felt like my previous website was failing to explain what it means to be a web developer for web designers, and as a result I was getting a lot of enquiries that weren’t a good fit. I re-wrote my website copy, and Cat used this to create page layouts that are not only beautifully presented but that are also strategic.
Let’s take a closer look at some of my favourite features and functionality of my new website:
Conditional logic contact form
Although I’m a web developer for web designers, I often get enquiries from businesses who are looking for someone to design their website for them. I completely understand that not everyone knows that web designers and web developers are different, and so when people see my work in my portfolio, they may assume that I am a web designer.
I was concerned that I wasting people’s time, and so I wanted to make it clear to business owners before they enquired about working together that I only offer development services and not design.
To do this, I added conditional logic to my contact form. When someone uses the form to contact me, they have to select which statement best describes them, and if they select “I am a business owner who needs a web developer” a little message pops up to remind them that I only offer development services.
Web development portfolio with interactive previews
This is actually a piece of functionality that I had on my previous website, but I decided to keep it and just update the design because I think it works so well!
If you head over to my portfolio you’ll be able to see a selection of websites I have developed. If you hover over one of the websites, the preview will automatically start to scroll so you can preview more of the website without needing to click through to the actual website.
Also, when you hover over a website you can see who designed the website. I really wanted to make it clear that the websites I develop are designed by others and that it’s a collaborative effort.
Blog with search and filter options
The blog has always been one of my favourite parts of my website. When I first started my business, I prioritised creating content for my blog in order to capitalise on organic traffic from search engines. I spent a lot of time writing blog posts in those early days, but the hard work paid off.
As I have a lot of blog posts on my website, I wanted to make it quick and easy for visitors to my website to find exactly what they’re looking for. To do this, I added a search and filter section to the top of the blog page, allowing users to filter by the post category, or to search for a relevant post using keywords.
The results are powered by AJAX, meaning they are updated live on the page, without forcing a complete reload of the page. This helps to speed up the browsing process, helping visitors to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. The search bar is hidden by default and pops out when you click on the search icon.
This section also appears at the top of every individual blog post so that users can easily continue to browse the blog once they have finished reading a post.
Another little detail I love on the blog is that the posts are colour coordinated based on the category they are assigned to (Case Study is green, Developer Collaboration is light blue, and WordPress is dark blue).
Search engine and loading time optimisations
Whenever I develop a website, whether it’s for myself or a client, I always build with search engines in mind.
My new website is structured in a way that is easy for search engines to read and index, and it loads very quickly, which is something Google will take into consideration when ranking my website.
As always, I created a custom WordPress theme from scratch and I utilised the block editor that is built into WordPress rather than using a pre-made theme with a bulky third-party page builder. I also kept plugin usage to a minimum, and selected plugins that I knew wouldn’t have a negative impact on the loading time of the website.
The results from Google PageSpeed Insights speak for themselves!
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