Building SLCG Economic Consulting’s Website

Gathering Information & Preparing

When starting the rebuild of the SLCG website, I first had to familiarize myself with the information and materials that needed to be presented on the website. I also needed to gather information about the target audience and the desired changes from the Presidents of the company. This process consisted of looking extensively at the website, doing heuristic evaluations of the website to find all current problems, and a multitude of conversations and brainstorming sessions with executive members of the company. The website was not user friendly at all, looked like it was 20 years old, had a lot of bugs and broken code, and no one in the company really knew how to update it.

Fixing those problems became my personal goals in building the new site.

Prototyping & Initial Coding

After completing an extensive preparation and research period, I began to prototype page layouts on paper and in Balsamiq and Figma. After my prototypes were edited and discussed, I started to code the entire website page by page using HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript/ JQuery. I started by building out my proposed file structure in files to define my navigation, then built out a draft home page including a header and footer. I created a general template for each page, and began to code out and style the rest of the website. As content was needed I would write new text, design graphics and take professional “stock” images of our employees to use to make the website look more impressive. When implementing our Free Tools, I took extensive broken code from the previous website, debugged or rewrote and and re-implemented those tools back into the website. I also created secure, validated forms for job applications and a contact page, which were features not included in the previous website.

Soon after, I finished a full website draft, and proceeded to implement responsive styling on every page.

Hosting & Database Creation

In order to easily receive feedback and continue implementing website functionality, I needed to host my draft. I researched decided to use Hostwinds for my hosting service, as it would be user friendly and reliable. Along with uploading my website files and all content I needed to display on the website, I also transferred in previous database data, editing old data and creating new data where necessary. I was able to successfully create pages that would allow users to search, filter, and sort files and posts based on MySQL queries. I even created a site-wide search engine from scratch. I connected all forms to this database, taking responses and saving them as well as automatically emailing them to relevant people internally. I even opted to implement our 650+ post blog manually into our web ecosystem rather than using Google Blog, which mean’t manually building and reformatting the database of posts and images.

I have since automated as much of the data entry process for adding new content as I can, making it a task easy enough that anyone at the company could do it.

Final Styling and SEO

Once I was satisfied with the website’s functionality and content, I overhauled the styling of every page, trying to keep as much consistency as possible in layouts with similar functionalities and contents. I also consistently worked with principals on identifying and making changes to text and styling, as well as simplifications to certain pages and sections in order to decrease emphasis on the topics they cover. Once I got final approval, I took down the old website, and configured the DNS settings so that the new website was live. Once the website was live, my focus shifted to fixing any bugs I could identify and refining our website’s SEO. SEO is something I knew little about before this project, but I am now a self-taught expert. Using site auditors, I was able to find any dead links and page-related SEO problems. I wrote a multitude of URL rewriting rules to prevent us from losing backlinks, simplify our URLS, and force HTTPS/WWW.

I continue to look for any way I can increase our SEO, but it is getting harder for me to find.

Building Potomac Analytics’ Website

Brand Design

When it was announced that there would be a new company being built by the founders of SLCG Economic Consulting, I was tasked with brand creation. I spent a week with the executive team and members of the new company to understand the mission, vision and values of Potomac Analytics. I wanted the branding and the website to make a splash and accurately depict the team behind the project. I also did market research to understand the potential client base. With all my information gathered, I designed 15 different logo drafts, each complete with variations, their own color schemes and alternative colors, and brand guidelines draft. I was given feedback on the team’s favorite design and created a final logo and brand guideline document, as well as stationary and other official documentation for company use.

Procuring Content and Styling Makeover

With the successful launch of the SLCG website, I was asked to make the two websites similar enough in functionality and usability that our web experience would be up to standard, but still be visually different. I was able to take insights and basic code structure from the previous project and apply a lot of that to this new website, making the prototyping time go down significantly. I instead spent most of my time re-styling and procuring content for the website draft. I used as many pages as made sense for a brand new company, like pages detailing careers opportunities, team member information, and service descriptions. We did not want this website to feel too barren on launch, even though the company was brand new, so I created a comprehensive, interactive FINRA broker and company database, detailing disclosures and regulatory activity.

SEO and Final Touches

With my previously gained knowledge of SEO, I began to self-audit the website to make sure that when we debuted on search engines, we would be ranked as highly as possible. This involved further learning that also affected our approach on the SLCG website. Throughout this time, I was also working directly with the Principals to refine the visual and functional experience of both websites based on feedback from clients and team members. The website launched publicly in March 2022 and has been advertised as the best way for new customers to learn about the company by Potomac Analytics’ President.