Igor Zielinski and Petra E. Schalk are a husband-wife team who own and operate Avicenna Acupuncture Clinic in the Wheat Ridge area of Denver, CO. Their original site, built in 2009 and maintained by Igor for 8 years, was written in HTML, using tables and internal CSS. Berry Interesting worked with Igor and Petra to revise their existing content and completely redesign the site using Divi Builder. The site now boasts true responsivity, is accessible across all devices, and is still maintained and updated by Igor.
Denver website redesign – conversion to a mobile-friendly WordPress site
What’s great about redesigning a site that already exists is that you can get to work without going through the content creation process first! Redesigns at any price point are some of our favorite projects; starting from scratch often results in “blank canvas paralysis”. Starting with an existing site means that there are already (whether the client knows it or not) weak points to address, clear problems to solve, and lots of opportunity for improvement.
Our approach to redesign for the Avicenna website
The original site had become somewhat of a frankenstein, as most sites do after about 3-5 years. We created a sitemap with the existing site content. From there, we reorganized the sitemap in such a way that took Avicenna’s business goals as well as the user experience into account. The existing content was fully repurposed during this build; however, we did swap out the old photography with more modern day stock images.
Keeping website redesign and maintenance affordable
We chose to use Divi Builder over a custom site design to keep the build affordable and keep the ongoing management as low-friction as possible. We’ve been using Divi on a number of sites this year specifically because of how pleased clients are during their individualized client training sessions.(Seriously – we’ve never seen clients so instantly happy editing the site via the WordPress Dashboard with Divi sitting on top of it!) While we don’t think Divi is appropriate for every website build we encounter, in a situation like Avicenna’s it was the right choice. Not only did it make the build a breeze, but it enables Igor and Petra to make changes to the site design, add new pages, and update/edit content without having to dive into PHP or load the site down with a ton of plugins.
Additionally, because of Igor and Petra’s skill levels, building on WordPress was a breeze. For clients who are committed to managing their own sites, it only takes a little bit of training to fully prepare them for 90% of what needs to be done to keep a WordPress site running smoothly. Igor and Petra are fully capable of handling the week-to-week maintenance that WordPress demands – and should anything ever go sideways they know they can reach out to Berry Interesting for help. (For clients that aren’t quite so experienced, or who have too much to do already, we offer WordPress Support Plans.)
Click the thumbnails above to see the original HTML site, along with the sitemap we used to guide development
Improving website user experience across devices
The other upside to Divi is that the visual builder is super easy to use in order to optimize pages for any device. Out of the box, we were already ahead of the game because Divi is built to present nicely on any device – older smartphones all the way up to big external displays. Divi’s tools let us put our brain power to work on improving how the user interacts with the site instead of spending time time figuring out the user experience based on device breakpoints and screen sizes. Buttons are easily clickable, no matter what device is being used to access the site, and content that’s irrelevant to smartphone users can be hidden with the click of a button. This functionality is easy for Igor and Petra to use when they create new pages, so the ongoing user interaction and experience will be consistent.
Additionally, thanks to WordPress’s out-of-the-box SEO-friendliness and the Yoast SEO plugin, we were able to quickly set up the site in such a way that it dovetails neatly with the off-site SEO efforts. Avicenna partners with Brian Duggan at Vivial for off-site SEO, working to drive leads on their behalf. Berry Interesting picks up where the off-site SEO work leaves off. We created a site that is professional and easy to access across all devices whenever a user makes their way to the site.
Click the thumbnails above to see screenshots of the redesigned site
Building a website for future growth
Running a website on WordPress means that future growth – no matter what shape it takes – is easy to accommodate on your website. For Igor and Petra, the growth of their practice may mean they need better solutions for scheduling, hiring, selling herbs or advertising on-site events. Their site is now ready to easily accommodate the addition of functionality like online scheduling, posting job openings, selling herbs online, or adding an event calendar with registration capabilities. These things can be accomplished via plugins that already exist out there in the WordPress ecosystem, or they can be custom built, depending on what Avicenna needs.
Services provided via this project: sitemapping, user experience optimization, theme customization, WordPress development, lead generation optimization, onsite SEO
If you’re curious about how Berry Interesting Productions can help your team build an outstanding website, we’re always happy to help! Drop us a line or book a consultation directly with our fearless leader, D’nelle. You can also sign up to get emails from Berry Interesting, and we’ll keep you in the loop.