Web Redesign For The Center for Post Traumatic Growth
The Center for Post Traumatic Growth is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help veterans and first responders heal and understand their mortal injuries. The Center approached Dedicated Designs looking for an entire site revamp, as their existing website was built and maintained by current staff and volunteers. Not knowing how to update and manage a growingly outdated WordPress site, The Center for Post Traumatic Growth needed outside assistance.
For this project, a site rebuild was in order. After meeting with the client and discussing their needs, we identified that their goals were to: 1. Redesign their site to be more functional 2. Present their information in a more stylistic way 3. Make the site mobile friendly and 4. Create a better way to accept donations on the website.
Dedicated Designs takes immense pride in helping nonprofits everywhere to meet their online and web design goals and so we took the project on with a timeline of a 45-day build.
The Initial Redesign Steps
When the Dedicated Design’s web team looked into the site, we knew immediately that freshening up the existing website would require taking the existing style and modernizing it with a fresh aesthetic and a streamlined visitor path. It is of great importance to our design team to stay authentic to our client’s brand as we understand the first impression website visitors will get is a visual one. The colors, fonts, and images used on a site can sometimes send a bigger message than the word’s on the page! Our goal at Dedicated designs is to style a client’s site will leave visitors understanding whose site they are on before they even begin reading the copy. This is why we keep the client in the loop during the design process so the site meets the visual identity of their business.
Bringing The Center’s Vision To Life
In this case scenario, the Center for Post Traumatic growth had a very clear vision of how the first impressions they wanted to send. They wanted those suffering from post-traumatic stress and mortal injuries to be not alone and that this site is for them on the first click. When we started the new build of the site, one of our first steps is to get the design approved. We used their brand’s military-inspired colors with fresh and new imagery to build out a structural draft and once we had a final style approved, we were able to continue the build of the site swiftly.
Sending The Right Messages
Once the new aesthetic was established, we then focused on presenting their copy and optimizing the location of the call to action. With nonprofits specifically, it is so important to deliver their written message the right way as their mission and information is a vital tool in gaining support. Additionally, the written content on the site will help guide site visitors to desired areas and actions. In web design terms, a call to action is a button or link that drives traffic to the most important part of the site or the desired “action” our clients want visitors to take.
In the Center for Post Traumatic Growth’s scenario, their desired call to action was getting visitors to donate. To accomplish this, we fully redesigned the header to bring immediate attention to the donation page and used effective headers, quotes, and information to compel people to that action. At this stage, the site was also fully optimized for mobile as 90% of website visitors are doing so on a mobile device. We made sure that mobile visitors and desktop visitors alike could easily access the donation page and understand why it was important to support the Center for Post Traumatic Growth.
SEO For Center for Post Traumatic Growth
One challenge that all web redesigns face is ensuring that existing search engine rankings and SEO optimization aren’t lost in the process. Just like many other nonprofit organizations, people finding the Center’s site organically via keywords and google searches is vital to gathering new supporters and new donations. When rebuilding this site, we made sure to improve their existing SEO with proper SEO optimization techniques and took extra care to maintain the original site’s site map.
We also added improvements to site that they didn’t have before to increase their overall rankings on Google. This included evaluating proper keywords and meta descriptions for all pages. The best part is all of our designers are experts in SEO optimization, so we can apply these changes and improvements as we build to make sure the site at its core is built properly.
Quality Control and Site Migration
The last step of the build was an intensive quality control review and the migration of the site onto our fast hosting servers. At Dedicated Designs, we make sure that the minute your site goes live, it is working fast, functionally, and securely. The Center’s existing site did not switch over to the newly designed website until it was gone through with a fine-toothed comb by our team and we are given final approval by the client. Additionally, we made the domain transfer after business hours to assure as little disruption to visitors as possible.
A New Website for a Great Cause
When the project was finished, The Center for Post Traumatic growth was left with a site that went above and beyond all of their expectations. Every step of the way, we made sure that we worked with our clients to bring them the site of their dreams. We understand that fundamentally, getting a nonprofit’s message out there effectively is a vital tool that we must get right for them. We always work tirelessly to accomplish that.
“Just had a quick look at the website. I think the tears on my cheeks say it all – it is powerful and gorgeous and impactful. This is way beyond anything I imagined. Amazing job – thank you so much!”
– Michelle McMurtry, Clinical Counseling Intern. Center for Post Traumatic Growth
Our client’s happiness and long-term website success is the most rewarding and important part of our process.
See the site before and after:
Visit the new website and see the difference!
