Website Design & Development
Content Strategy
Local SEO & Content Marketing

We helped Craig Gaulden Davis Architects optimize their on-page SEO, clean up citations, and create keyword-rich content, resulting in top Google rankings and organic traffic growth.

BMANCSC ProAds awards the Craig Gaulden Davis website as a GOLD WINNER.

”Beyond excelling at website design, Engenius is notable for their impressive sense of customer service. They are thorough and prompt communicators, always swift to address any requests we make. Thanks to their expertise, we have a renewed sense of identity through a website that is easy to navigate and on par with competitors. Additionally, their assistance in email marketing allows us to better reflect our culture, process, and results while engaging a broader design community.

Kate BartonCraig Gaulden Davis Architects

Situation Appraisal

Community is one of Craig Gaulden Davis’ highest-held values. They believe that design is so much more than just planning an addition to a building—it has the power to transform people and the places around them. The firm wanted to unite and engage the design community, their current clients, and potential clients.

Craig Gaulden Davis (CGD) Architects enlisted Engenius’ help to improve their website and digital communication efforts with their target audiences. At the time, the firm had been around for nearly 60 years and their website did not effectively demonstrate its team’s many years of expertise, culture, and skill.

CGD’s main concern was that the website’s project portfolio was severely lacking—both aesthetically and technically. In addition, the firm didn’t have a streamlined and effective way to communicate with clients on a regular basis.

Objectives

Increase prospective clients’ interest and trust in Craig Gaulden Davis by demonstrating the firm’s experience and culture. Since so many of CGD’s clients are repeat clients, it was also important for the firm to maintain regular communication with their client base and highlight recent happenings.

A few months after CGD’s website launched, we launched an ongoing SEO campaign to increase exposure among prospective clients by appearing higher in search engine results for relevant search terms and creating content that would establish them as thought leaders.

Solution

According to CGD, the element that matters most to their target audience is past experience. Therefore, it was critical to develop a stunning project portfolio that demonstrates CGD’s past work. The finished product features dozens of CGD’s projects and is filterable by industry, so users can find exactly what they’re looking for. Calls-to-action can be seen across the website that direct users to the portfolio page or specific portfolio items.

From a design perspective, we aimed to draw parallels between the quality and uniqueness of CGD’s projects and their website. We incorporated custom typographic elements on various pages and carried movement across the site via animated features. The site represents CGD as forward-thinking, distinctive in their industry, and technically advanced.

In addition to the portfolio, the site places emphasis on the firm’s culture. The first few calls-to-action on the homepage point users to the “Culture” and “Meet Our Team” pages because the firm’s history, values, and commitment to their team members set CGD apart from their competitors.

We also maintain a monthly email newsletter for CGD, which allows them to communicate with their clients more consistently. The newsletter sends users to the “News” page on CGD’s website which features recent work and company milestones.

Tactics

On-Page Optimization

  • To start, we spent time doing more advanced keyword research and incorporated those keywords on the site through on-page and content optimization. We optimized their content not only for search engines – but also for an optimal human experience.
Citation Cleanup

  • After being in business for over 60 years, it’s natural to have outdated phone numbers, addresses, and business names throughout the web. We cleaned up their existing NAPs (Name-Address-Phone Number) and created new citations on relevant sites to improve their local SEO rankings.
Content Marketing & Link Building

  • After optimizing their site, we worked with Craig Gaulden Davis to create a handful of thought leadership pieces, optimizing them to rank well on search engines to boost CGD’s brand awareness and thought leadership across their industry. We then assisted in the distribution of some of these pieces, earning them high authority links from industry leaders.

Results

Top Local Rankings and Featured Snippets

  • Craig Gaulden Davis has owned top local rankings in their industry for years following their launch. And in addition to ranking for local terms like “architects,” “architecture firms,” and “commercial architects” – they also hold top rankings for a number of more broad terms across the nation. In addition to top rankings, a number of their pieces hold featured snippets for relevant keywords.
Spikes in Organic Traffic & On-site Metrics

Thanks to continued optimization efforts and regular content creation, Craig Gaulden Davis has benefitted from regular organic traffic growth and onsite metrics following their site launch.

  • Organic traffic 75.23% above industry average
  • New organic users 35.06% above industry average
  • Average session duration 117.19% better than industry average
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