When CES Conteneurs owners Michaël Lanciault and Brigitte Lavigne asked me to “fix” their website, I was happy to help. But, I also knew I could do a whole lot better than that.
I asked them what they hoped to accomplish in the next year—and in the next five years. They wanted to compete with bigger companies in their market and attract new clients in the industrial sector. Those answers gave me insight into how I could improve, rather than simply fix, their website. Beyond optimizing photos and implementing an SEO strategy, which addressed their immediate needs, I also helped them expand their vision of what their website could do for their business.
Step 1: Fix the website
Before
Previously, their website was little more than a web version of a printed brochure with their company name, photos and phone number. Designed with the web host’s drag-and-drop web builder, the old website was slow to load, had little content and zero web traffic (unless you count Russian hackers). Moreover, the company’s own logo wasn’t on the site, the photos didn’t show off the containers and the website looked terrible on mobile devices.
After!
I designed a new, responsive website on the WordPress platform, which offered design flexibility and instantly improved SEO. I created a horizontal version of the company logo and expanded the brand identity beyond the logo to include a cohesive color palette and a web-friendly typeface. I then selected photos that put the company’s containers front and center, making it immediately obvious to visitors what service CES Conteneurs provides. The new home page highlights the company’s value propositions: eco-friendly waste management, online reservations (more on that in a minute) and great customer service. The new website is professional, clear and easy-to-navigate. And since we no longer needed the web host’s web builder, CES Conteneurs’ annual web hosting costs have decreased as well (I love to save my clients money)!
Step 2: Add value
Before
Their old website was organized around market sector—residential, commercial and industrial. This distinction may have made sense internally in terms of how CES Conteneurs classified their clients, but it didn’t make much sense for the website’s users. What mattered to a potential client was the size of containers offered, the types of waste materials accepted and the price of renting each container.
After!
The new site is centered around what matters to customers. The container page is now organized around the three different-sized containers available for rent. Each container also gets a dedicated page with detailed dimensions, an explanation of ideal uses and lists of accepted/prohibited materials, making it easy for potential customers to compare containers and make decisions. And when they’re ready to make a decision, there’s a reservation form on the page that allows them to rent the container on the spot.
Now, their website is a tool that saves the owners and their customers valuable time. And it’s no surprise that within a week of launching the completed website, they secured three new clients.