Helping a leading Canadian care provider enter a new era
AgeCare Canada elder care WordPress website redesign
The Challenge
AgeCare is one of the leading national care home operators in Canada. After a recent rebrand exercise, they discovered their existing website no longer reflected the quality and prestige outlined in the new brand guidelines. Additionally, the website lacked essential modern accessibility features and the overall user experience was falling short.
With over 40 care home locations and a large volume of daily visitors—including prospective clients, current residents’ families, and staff—this WordPress website needed to handle complex functionality while maintaining strong performance and uptime. A seamless transition was critical to avoid disruption for existing users.
Solution and Outcomes
AgeCare approached me to propose a plan to modernize the website and align it with the new brand identity. The project involved:
- Refreshing the design to incorporate the new brand elements, color palette, and typography.
- Improving site accessibility to meet modern WCAG standards.
- Enhancing user experience with intuitive navigation and a clearer content structure.
To avoid service disruptions, I set up a development site separate from the live site, allowing us to work on the redesign without affecting day-to-day operations. This also gave the AgeCare team an opportunity to provide feedback throughout the process.
Given the large scale of the project (over 200 pages), I brought in two additional developers to assist with content development while I managed both the design direction and technical execution.
New Features and Functional Improvements
Care Home Finder Tool
- Developed an interactive care home locator using Google Maps to help users easily find the nearest facility.
- Included filters for amenities, services, and care levels.
Localized Performance and Data Compliance
- Recommended moving hosting to a Canadian provider for faster load times and improved data protection compliance under Canadian privacy laws.
Content Expansion and Compliance
During development, AgeCare acquired an additional 22 care homes in Ontario, requiring a rapid expansion of the “Communities” section. The new section was designed to:
- Include standardized assessment data for each home.
- Ensure compliance with varying provincial care home regulations.
- Maintain design and content consistency across all new pages.
Launch and Results
The switchover from the old site to the new version was executed with minimal downtime during overnight hours in Canada. To ensure long-term sustainability, I conducted training sessions for AgeCare’s marketing staff on how to manage and update site content through the CMS.
Feedback from both the AgeCare management team and users was overwhelmingly positive. Since launch, the site has seen:
- Increased traffic and higher engagement from prospective clients.
- Improved search rankings due to enhanced site structure and faster load times.
- A measurable increase in sales leads and user satisfaction.
This project not only elevated AgeCare’s online presence but also positioned them as a modern, user-focused brand—better equipped to meet the needs of both current and future clients.
