Find My Locals is an online directory that allows local businesses to secure advertising slots. The website has to support an e-commerce solution that would accommodate different slot levels (gold, silver and bronze), numerous business categories, the local area and much more, all based around various subscription packages and repeat billing.
At the time the client approached totalsurf, they had a website that needed fixing, big time! The site wasn’t working at all; it simply wasn’t doing anything that the client needed it to do.
It turns out that Find My Locals had been sold a custom-coded website solution – as in, they had a site that had (supposedly) been explicitly coded for them. The truth is it wasn’t bespoke at all.
After we had a look at the site, we came to realise that they’d actually been sold a site that was using an off-the-shelf theme. This theme that had been installed had been purchased approximately 140 times. Also, the code hadn’t been updated for 18 months. There was absolutely nothing bespoke about their site whatsoever, which came as a shock to the client. They were, unsurprisingly to us, appalled, because this website had cost them a lot of money and it had, essentially, been mis-sold to them.
We advised him that to reverse engineer this website and make it work properly would be costly. We were conscious of the fact that Find My Locals had already sunk thousands into their website, and it’d be complicated to get it to a workable state. It’d involve pulling apart someone else’s theme, constantly updating it, and fixing the numerous bugs and security issues. With all the coding work we’d have to complete alongside these updates, the site would be prone to breaking before long. So we pitched an alternative idea.
We suggested starting from scratch.
We’d take the design of the existing Find My Locals site, but instead, give the client a functioning system that’s coded correctly, and that would accommodate everything the client needed it to. There would be some system alterations required, as because of COVID-19, the client had constantly changing requirements.
Instead, we would build the system and website from the ground up, using the leading WordPress Open Source and premium plugins. Substantial, powerful plugins like ACF PRO and WooCommerce could be configured, bespoke to the client, and seamlessly integrate with the website. Any solutions that relied on third parties would be highly-recognised, leading plugins, with the support and updates that are needed on any e-commerce website.
Now the client has a website that is much easier to manage and update, with the custom code requirements that they needed initially. While we didn’t do any design work, we provided dedicated development support and gave them a website that works and does what they need.
This is an excellent example of totalsurf’s transparency. Find My Locals did speak to us about doing SEO as they were already spending on Google Ads and Facebook ads, and recognised the value in it. However, we steered them away from that because their market is incredibly competitive, and we felt the investment wouldn’t be delivering them the ROI they would expect.
This goes to show that totalsurf won’t just say yes to everyone. We’ll always be upfront and honestly say whether SEO will actually work for your business, and if we felt it wouldn’t, we’d be transparent and tell you so. In this case, it wasn’t a tangible investment, and we could not, in good faith, charge for an SEO service that wouldn’t deliver an ROI.
It turns out that Find My Locals had been sold a custom-coded website solution – as in, they had a site that had (supposedly) been explicitly coded for them. The truth is it wasn’t bespoke at all.
After we had a look at the site, we came to realise that they’d actually been sold a site that was using an off-the-shelf theme. This theme that had been installed had been purchased approximately 140 times. Also, the code hadn’t been updated for 18 months. There was absolutely nothing bespoke about their site whatsoever, which came as a shock to the client. They were, unsurprisingly to us, appalled, because this website had cost them a lot of money and it had, essentially, been mis-sold to them.
We advised him that to reverse engineer this website and make it work properly would be costly. We were conscious of the fact that Find My Locals had already sunk thousands into their website, and it’d be complicated to get it to a workable state. It’d involve pulling apart someone else’s theme, constantly updating it, and fixing the numerous bugs and security issues. With all the coding work we’d have to complete alongside these updates, the site would be prone to breaking before long. So we pitched an alternative idea.
We suggested starting from scratch.
We’d take the design of the existing Find My Locals site, but instead, give the client a functioning system that’s coded correctly, and that would accommodate everything the client needed it to. There would be some system alterations required, as because of COVID-19, the client had constantly changing requirements.
Instead, we would build the system and website from the ground up, using the leading WordPress Open Source and premium plugins. Substantial, powerful plugins like ACF PRO and WooCommerce could be configured, bespoke to the client, and seamlessly integrate with the website. Any solutions that relied on third parties would be highly-recognised, leading plugins, with the support and updates that are needed on any e-commerce website.
Now the client has a website that is much easier to manage and update, with the custom code requirements that they needed initially. While we didn’t do any design work, we provided dedicated development support and gave them a website that works and does what they need.
This is an excellent example of totalsurf’s transparency. Find My Locals did speak to us about doing SEO as they were already spending on Google Ads and Facebook ads, and recognised the value in it. However, we steered them away from that because their market is incredibly competitive, and we felt the investment wouldn’t be delivering them the ROI they would expect.
This goes to show that totalsurf won’t just say yes to everyone. We’ll always be upfront and honestly say whether SEO will actually work for your business, and if we felt it wouldn’t, we’d be transparent and tell you so. In this case, it wasn’t a tangible investment, and we could not, in good faith, charge for an SEO service that wouldn’t deliver an ROI.
