From our first interaction with Dr. LaDan Goble, we knew her heart for helping others heal and take action resonated with us. LaDan’s passion and energy to provide clear insight and direction, and to incorporate her own journey of faith and healing, was so magnetic.
Her previous counseling website was not an accurate representation of that energy, however, and the design felt dated and lacked cohesion. A redesign to create a clean, calm, and cohesive design and include updated content allowed the new website to clearly show who LaDan is and what services she offers.
About This Recent Project
Sitemap & Content Planning
As is often the case, LaDan had a clear vision of how her services were different from other providers in her area, but she struggled to articulate it well in terms of website copy and the flow of the site. Christa of Do a New Thing was a great partner in this project. She put her strategic coaching skills to work to guide LaDan through first the mental outline of what she needed to communicate through the site, and then also the text and flow of the individual pages. With this added support, LaDan was able to tweak the suggested wording provided to ensure it adequately reflected her voice and her mission.
Christa and Mandy worked together to determine which pages should be included in the sitemap, to establish an easy-to-navigate site that would serve LaDan and her ideal clients well. We condensed a few of the pages in her previous site and provided better organization and practical features, like the Frequently Asked Questions and easily accessible client forms.
Brand Design
When we began our work with LaDan, she was unsure of her current brand presence and how that would influence the overall site design. After a few conversations and explanations, she opted to add a brand identity kit to the project scope, which provided her with consistent design elements to use throughout her website, email templates, social media presence, and client forms. This is always a go-to recommendation for us as it helps so much to create brand recognition, which leads to client and customer familiarity and trust.
Hallie, our newest associate designer, stepped in to create the mini brand kit for LaDan, talking her through various design elements that offered a more casual feel versus a more professional feel. Once she was given the chance to compare these details, LaDan quickly settled on a logo design that showcased her name in an inviting way without losing the professional appeal.
Website Design & Development
Just as it was necessary to help LaDan find her voice and build confidence in her brand and what she communicated with her potential clients, Hallie spent a little bit of extra time with LaDan fleshing out the overall design aesthetics for the website until LaDan was happy with the “vibe” and feeling conveyed through the colors and selected photographs. The nature-oriented images supported the relaxed, safe, and calm environment LaDan creates for her clients. It was important to her that we not use any photos specific to gender or ethnicity, but rather the peaceful nature or beach scenery to feel more inclusive and welcoming.
Armed with this information, Hallie did a great job of mocking up each page of the sitemap with a clean, fresh design and following the page outlines that Christa and Mandy had developed. Using the Kadence theme and suite of plugins, Mandy and Hallie quickly built out the more simplified backend of the website, created a functional contact form and page, performed an abbreviated SEO Jumpstart, and made sure the website had all necessary mobile, privacy, and accessibility features. After a minor round of revisions, the new website was made live on LaDan’s domain and connected to her brand new email service and email templates.
We also provided LaDan with a written library of resources, through several of our help documents, and a series of tutorial videos to help her and her administrative assistant navigate the new website. Since she is new to WordPress and the online world in general, we wanted to be sure to fill her toolbox with all the helpful ‘tools’ we could!
What LaDan had to say…
“I am very appreciative of the MRM team for all you have done to help me develop my website. I enjoyed the creative process with you. You all are very helpful. Keep up the great work!”
Services Included in this Project
- Sitemap Planning and Organization
- Mini Brand Identity Package
- Custom WordPress Website Design and Development
- Training for Gutenberg Block Builder
- Domain Change & SEO Support
- Hosting and Ongoing Tech Support
Team Members Involved
Randi Avant
Christa Hutchins
Mandy Roberson
Hallie Woodham
Find out more about these ladies and the rest of the team here at MRM: Meet the Team
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