A website that highlights all the offerings of a local continuous care community.
The Bartels project was more than just a website refresh. It was a reimagining of their user experience. They took a step back, really thought about what their audience was looking for, and we made adjustments accordingly. Add to that the fact that it needed to be done by a certain time because of changes with their hosting provider, and it became quite the exciting experience!
Our first step, as always, was to craft the message. We worked closely with the client to define the website’s purpose and audience. This led to the creation of a clear and organized sitemap that would guide visitors through the site logically. We identified two primary visitor types that would likely be visiting the site: potential residents, and the families of potential residents. This ensured that the content would speak directly to their needs. The homepage copy was crafted to immediately capture attention, clearly stating Bartel’s purpose, offerings, and encouraging visitors to explore further. We wrote and edited interior page copy based on the client's detailed input, ensuring accuracy and relevance across all sections.
Branding
With the messaging framework in place, we designed key pages of the website, including the homepage, the Independent Living page, the Eisenach Village page, and the About page.
Website
The technical foundation of the Bartels website was built for performance, security, and ease of use. We developed a fully functional website using WordPress and Oxygen Builder. This included building several internal pages and creating templates that make it simple for the client to add new content in the future. We optimized the website for speed, security, and accessibility. This ensures a seamless user experience for all visitors, regardless of their device or connection speed.
In many ways, media was the standout aspect of this project. In addition to website photography, our media director also produced a website background video that featured a more indepth view of life at Bartels than the traditional image would. We also wrote the script for, and produced an About video to live on their homepage. The result is a comprehensive media suite that really shows what life is like at Bartels Lutheran Retirement Community.
website About Video
Impact: By The Numbers
Spotlight Stats
Mobile session duration went from 14 seconds to 2 minutes & 42 seconds.
Mobile users are nearly 6x more engaged today.
Core Metrics
Site Engagement: 14.01%--> 54.75%
Mobile Surge: +511% engagement post-launch
Launched August 7, 2024
Engagement Rate: Improved from 14.01% (July/Aug 2024) to 34.41% (recent 30 days).
Homepage Performance: The engagement rate for the homepage climbed from ~13% to ~59%
Organic Search: Sessions from search engines increased by 48% (from 1,254 to 1,866 sessions per month).Organic Social: Social media traffic grew by 59% (from 195 to 310 sessions)
In the 30 days immediately following the launch, mobile performance metrics saw a dramatic shift compared to the month prior:
Engagement Rate: Jumped from 8.7% to 18.7% (a 114% increase).
Average Session Duration: Increased significantly from 14 seconds to 47 seconds, showing that mobile users were finding much more value in the content.
Active Users: While the number of active users decreased from ~6,800 to ~4,900 (likely due to the end of a high-traffic launch promotion), those who did visit were far more engaged.
When comparing the pre-launch period in 2024 to the last 30 days in 2026, the improvement is even more stark:
Mobile Engagement Rate Today: 46.18% (compared to 8.7% pre-launch).
This means that today, mobile users are five times more engaged than they were on the old website.
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