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Case study · Debby Searle Architect, Johannesburg

A website that makes room for the work.

Debby Searle has designed homes in Johannesburg's established and heritage suburbs for more than 25 years, and she paints her own artist's impressions by hand. Her old website hid almost all of it. We rebuilt it as a gallery for her work and a foundation for new business, with ranking for her main search terms as the goal that couldn't move.

The Debby Searle Architect home page on a laptop, an iPad and a phone
ClientDebby Searle Architect
LocationJohannesburg, South Africa
IndustryResidential and heritage architecture
Websitedebbysearle.co.za ↗
46pages, each with its own title, description and schema
5project categories, from alterations to murals
28old addresses redirected so no ranking was lost
25+years of work brought together in one place

The challenge

Twenty-five years of beautiful houses, and a website nobody found.

Debby is a registered architect (SACAP, SAIA, PrArch) who had just completed a Master's in Heritage Studies and wanted to relaunch her practice. Her website dated from 2016, her previous agency had stopped supporting it, and it brought in no work.

  • Invisible in search. A search for "architect Johannesburg" didn't bring up her site at all, in a category that isn't hard to compete in.
  • The work was undersold, with alterations, heritage restorations and new homes in small static thumbnails, and her hand-painted impressions barely visible.
  • Trust signals were buried, and because she works from home, the site had to build local trust without a street address.

What we did

A gallery for the work, with search built into the walls.

01

A design from her own words

Debby describes her architecture as "axes, symmetry and geometry", with light and nature at its heart. So: a warm stone ground, a brick-red accent from the front doors of her projects, an elegant serif, sharp corners, fine hairlines and a small vertical "axis" line at the key moments.

02

The photographs lead

A full-screen slideshow of finished houses drifts and crossfades, with a caption linking to each project. A translucent panel beneath it carries her credentials, so the first thing visitors see after the work is the reason to trust it.

03

Before and after, under your finger

Each alterations case study has a slider that wipes between the original house and the finished one, working with a mouse, a finger or a keyboard. On category pages, a "See before" chip gives a quick taste without spending the full reveal.

04

Paintings hung like paintings

Her impressions and murals hang on a soft wall tone, in a paper mat with a fine frame and a museum-style placard. On new-house pages the hand-drawn impression sits beside a photo of the finished building, quietly selling her impression service.

05

SEO built in, not bolted on

  • Each category page aimed at its own search, such as alterations and additions architect Johannesburg.
  • Unique titles, descriptions and schema on all 46 pages, with alt text and descriptive names on every image.
  • Every old WordPress address redirected, and local trust built on a service area instead of a home address.
06

Five doors and a voice

The Projects hub is five equal panels, one per kind of work, and the one you approach opens. Three launch articles, including a guide to heritage architecture in Johannesburg, are written in Debby's voice, and the contact form speaks it too.

The result

Houses that make room for light, on a site that does them justice.

Debby now has a website that looks like her work feels: calm, warm and full of light. Every project, painting and credential is easy to find on any device, every page has its own job in search, and adding a new project is as simple as adding its photos.

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