wordpress

1. Project Background & Overview

For nearly a decade, the Homeless Hub team from York University operated its homelesshub.ca platform, the leading resource for homelessness research and studies website on Drupal 7. However, with evolving needs, the platform became less suitable. The primary issues were a slow-loading website, lack of design flexibility, and an outdated search system, as well as a heavy backend system.

The Homeless Hub wanted a more intuitive and flexible platform that could provide a simplified backend for editors, options to create pages and sections independently, improved SEO and advanced search, plus a new, modern design to match their branding, as homelesshub.ca is their flagship site. The goal was to migrate from Drupal to WordPress while addressing these challenges.

2. Challenges Faced

Migrating such a large-scale website, with over 30,000 resources and more than 10,000 contributor profiles, posed several challenges:

• Complex Content Types: The site hosted diverse resources such as books, reports, toolkits, factsheets, journals and more, all with connected taxonomies and custom fields.
• Taxonomy and Custom Field Remapping: The existing taxonomies and custom fields required reorganization to improve efficiency and ease of use for editors.
• Search Functionality: An advanced custom search was needed to handle the volume of resources while offering granular filtering options. The old search engine was slow and not pulling relevant results.
• Design Precision: A pixel-perfect design had to be implemented, ensuring a modern, user-friendly interface and interaction.
• URL Structure and SEO: Some URL structures needed to be maintained, while others had to be improved, requiring careful redirection to ensure no loss of traffic. SEO improvements were also essential.

3. Solution & Execution

Our approach to the migration was carefully planned to ensure seamless execution:

• Migration Process: We used a combination of third-party plugins and custom scripts to migrate all resources, contributor profiles, databases, and large amount of files from Drupal to WordPress.
• Taxonomy Remapping: Custom-coded taxonomies were created to match the new improved structure and existing and new fields added using Advanced Custom Fields (ACF). We combined and remapped taxonomies during the import process, reducing the number of fields and simplifying the backend for editors.
• Custom Search with Algolia: To address the need for advanced search, we integrated Algolia, creating a granular index with custom filters based on taxonomies and fields. This was seamlessly integrated into WordPress using a custom plugin to ensure fast and accurate search results.
• Design Implementation: We developed a design system in collaboration with the Homeless Hub team. Using the Divi theme, we redesigned the entire site, ensuring a modern, user-friendly interface. Rigorous testing was done across platforms (Mac, Windows) and devices (desktop, mobile) to ensure pixel-perfect design consistency.
• URL and SEO Enhancements: Resource URLs were kept intact, while new URLs were created for blogs and taxonomies. We implemented Yoast for SEO improvements and made careful redirections to ensure SEO optimization and traffic retention.
• Custom Plugins: We developed several custom plugins, including ones for fields ordering and taxonomy hierarchy management, and another for managing books with chapters and sub-chapters.

4. Unique Highlights

Several custom solutions added exceptional value to the project:

• Custom Plugins: We created custom plugins for managing content types like books with chapters and sub-chapters, as well as for taxonomy hierarchy and field ordering.
• Search Optimization: The granular Algolia search configuration resulted in an extremely fast and accurate search experience, greatly improving user engagement with the site.
• Successful Redirects: We ensured that all necessary URL redirects were in place, maintaining SEO rankings and avoiding any broken links.
• SEO Performance: Compared to the metrics before migration, the website traffic has drastically improved and the Google indexing as been extremely fast. According to GA, clicks and impressions spiked in number of days.

5. Results & Impact

The website migration resulted in significant improvements:

• Smoother Performance: The new site runs much more efficiently, with faster load times and enhanced usability.
• Simplified Backend: The backend is now intuitive, allowing editors to easily create and edit content, as well as create custom pages independently.
• Search Efficiency: Integrating Algolia greatly enhanced the search experience. The new search is now faster, more accurate, and provides users with real-time results from the vast 30,000-resource library. Users can easily filter results by various criteria, making it far easier to find relevant information quickly. This upgrade has improved accessibility and usability for researchers, policymakers, and the public.
• SEO Boost: By utilizing Yoast SEO, the website saw a significant rise in organic traffic and search rankings. Optimized content, proper URL redirects, and better site structure all contributed to this improvement. The site’s faster loading times have also positively impacted user retention, as visitors are more likely to stay and engage with the content.
• Enhanced User Experience (UX): The site is now faster, mobile-friendly, and easier to navigate. The updated design ensures a seamless experience across devices, while the simplified backend allows the Homeless Hub team to manage content more efficiently. The new platform provides a smoother, more responsive browsing experience, supporting the organization’s mission of making homelessness research more accessible.

Homeless Hub WP Website Launch

6. Conclusion

The Homeless Hub website migration from Drupal 7 to WordPress was a resounding success, achieving all of the client’s key objectives. The transition to a more flexible, user-friendly platform has empowered the Homeless Hub team to independently manage and update their site, while users enjoy a smoother, faster experience with enhanced search functionality. The project highlights the importance of meticulous planning, custom solutions, and collaboration to overcome the challenges of large-scale website migration.

With an improved design, better performance, and significantly increased traffic thanks to enhanced SEO, the new Homeless Hub website is well-positioned to continue providing vital resources and information for years to come. This project demonstrates the transformative power of a well-executed migration, where technology, design, and functionality come together to create a more efficient and user-focused platform.

Choosing the right platform for your website is more than a matter of preference; it’s a strategic decision that can significantly impact your online success and company brand. While Webflow has emerged in the last few years as a popular tool for its ease of use and visual design capabilities, WordPress continues to stand out as the preferred choice for businesses aiming for growth, flexibility, and a robust online presence. In this post, we delve into the WordPress vs Webflow matter and why WordPress triumphs, providing compelling reasons for selecting WordPress for their digital endeavors.

Customization and Flexibility

WordPress: A Universe of Possibilities
WordPress’s most significant advantage lies in its unparalleled customization and flexibility. Thanks to its open-source nature, the platform hosts an extensive ecosystem of plugins and themes, allowing users to tailor their sites to their exact needs. Whether you’re looking to enhance your SEO, boost your site’s speed, add an online store, or integrate with third-party services, there’s almost certainly a plugin for that. This extensibility makes WordPress ideal for businesses that anticipate scaling up or diversifying their online activities.

Webflow: Sleek, But Restricted
Webflow offers a more contained environment, which might appeal to users seeking simplicity. However, this simplicity comes at the cost of flexibility. While Webflow’s design-first approach is innovative, it inherently limits what you can achieve compared to WordPress. For businesses that require specialized functionalities or wish to extensively customize their site beyond visual design, Webflow’s restrictions become apparent.

SEO Capabilities

WordPress: Mastering Search Engine Visibility
With WordPress, optimizing your website for search engines is a breeze, thanks to advanced SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO. These tools guide you in optimizing content, improving readability, and ensuring your site meets the best SEO practices. The level of detail and control WordPress offers for SEO is unmatched, making it the go-to choice for businesses serious about high rankings in search results.

Webflow: Basic, But Limited
Webflow provides basic SEO tools that cover the essentials. However, it lacks the depth and breadth of WordPress’s SEO capabilities. For businesses looking to execute a sophisticated SEO strategy, WordPress’s comprehensive tools and plugins offer a more robust solution.

Cost-Effectiveness

WordPress: Open-Source and Economical
WordPress’s open-source nature means the software itself is free. Costs are primarily associated with web hosting, premium themes, or plugins, which are often one-time or annual fees. This model allows businesses to control their expenses, making WordPress a cost-effective solution over time.

Webflow: Subscription-Based Expenses
Webflow operates on a subscription model, which can seem affordable at first glance but may become more expensive as your needs grow. The cost of Webflow can quickly escalate, especially for larger sites or those requiring advanced features, making WordPress a more economically viable option in the long run.

E-commerce Solutions

WordPress (WooCommerce): Powerfully Flexible
For e-commerce, WordPress offers WooCommerce, a powerful and customizable platform that integrates seamlessly with your site. WooCommerce supports an array of payment gateways, shipping options, multiple currencies and currencies converters and virtually unlimited product variations, making it suited for businesses of all sizes.

Webflow: Simplicity over Flexibility
Webflow’s e-commerce capabilities are designed for simplicity, which might suffice for smaller online stores. However, businesses that need more control over their e-commerce experience will find WooCommerce’s flexibility and scalability more accommodating.

Community Support and Resources

WordPress: A Global Community
WordPress boasts a massive, global community of developers, designers, and users. This vibrant community offers an abundance of tutorials, forums, and resources, ensuring help is always available. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, the WordPress community is an invaluable asset.

Webflow: Growing, But Limited
While Webflow has a supportive community, it’s significantly smaller and less established than WordPress’s. This means fewer resources, tutorials, and third-party services, which can be a drawback for businesses requiring extensive support and development.

Conclusion

WordPress’s superior customization, flexibility, SEO capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and community support make it the preferred choice for businesses looking to establish or grow their online presence. While Webflow offers a streamlined, design-centric approach, it falls short in providing the scalability, control, and extensive ecosystem that WordPress offers.

If you’re looking to build a website that can grow with your business, adapt to your changing needs, and rank well on search engines, in the WordPress vs Webflow confrontation, WP is clearly the winner. Contact our WordPress digital agency today to discover how we can help bring your business’s online vision to life, or to learn more about transitioning from Webflow to WordPress.

Introduction

The Homelessness Learning Hub (HLH) is a project started by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and is funded by the Government of Canada. It serves as an important resource for professional growth and strengthening community efforts in Canada’s sector that helps the homeless. The HLH provides training and materials that are based on the best methods and research with solid evidence. To improve its online learning, the HLH needed significant changes and were looking for a solid LMS system to meet their needs. Working with VerticalWave Solutions, we have been partners for many years and on many projects. Our goal was to create an engaging online platform that follows the newest standards in UI/UX design.

Challenge

The current HLH platform was created using Drupal 7, which is now old and doesn’t have the latest UI/UX design or the flexibility we wanted for a good learning experience. Our task was to update the Learning Management System (LMS). We didn’t just plan to start over, but to make it better and bigger. Our goals included adding new features, giving access to new tools, and organizing the content (like trainings, resources, and categories) to make it easier to find. We also wanted to keep the existing user database safe.

Analysis

Our collaborative analysis with HLH identified the essential attributes for a state-of-the-art Learning Management System:

• A lightweight infrastructure capable of supporting a vast user base without compromising performance.
• An intuitive LMS that facilitates easy access to content and tools, ensuring a logical progression through training materials.
• Effective content and user management capabilities.
• The flexibility to incorporate future enhancements without the need for extensive coding.
• Bilingual support, alongside custom content types, taxonomies, and functionalities.
• Advanced search and filtering options.
• Economically viable development and maintenance costs.

Solution

As experts in WordPress development, we saw its potential to better serve the HLH’s needs, offering improvements over Drupal in security, flexibility, and cost savings. We looked at various LMS options that work with WordPress and chose LearnDash for its wide range of course management tools. We also used the BuddyBoss theme and platform for its features in user sign-ups, profile handling, and tracking progress.

Our team carefully set up the WordPress system, BuddyBoss theme, and LearnDash LMS, adding special content types like collections, courses, and resources. We moved all the data from Drupal to the new WordPress LMS. This included courses, lessons, resources, collections, over 1500 users, and related media. After moving the data, we added custom UX/UI improvements and other specific features the client wanted.

Results

Launched in 2021, the Homelessness Learning Hub, powered by WordPress and enhanced with the BuddyBoss Pro theme/platform and LearnDash LMS, has evolved into a premier online training platform. It now boasts a rich array of content and advanced features, catering to the diverse needs of its users. Following several updates focused on improving visuals, UI/UX, and core functionalities, the platform has seen its user base grow from 1500 to over 8000.

VerticalWave Solutions remains committed to providing continuous support and updates, ensuring the HLH LMS remains at the forefront of online education in the homeless-serving sector.This case study exemplifies the transformative power of WordPress and LearnDash in creating an engaging, efficient, and accessible online learning environment.

We’re proud to present our latest project, the interactive Fast TV Channels Website Series for Blue Ant Media. Headquartered in Toronto, Blue Ant Media is a privately held global media company, with offices in five other countries besides Canada.

The Blue Ant team needed a platform to promote some of the newest shows streaming on popular platforms like Roku, LG Channels, Xumo, Vizio, Samsung TV Plus and others, while targeting content for specific countries worldwide and turned to Vertical team for design and development. The Blue Ant and Vertical teams have an outstanding relationship, as we’re providing ongoing maintenance and support for their other projects, like CottageLife, MobileSyrup, BeMakeful, TheBabyShows and other successful websites over the past year.

The challenge was to create a platform that delivers a similar design template across all websites, but promotes specific content for each individual site at the same time. The platform is engineered using our in-house design and a backend structure based on WordPress and Divi, plus additional custom built plugins. At the same time, each website displays country specific shows and streaming channels using a geolocation functionality identifying visitor IP. A default page is displayed if no shows are available in a particular country; otherwise the users are redirected towards Canada, US or Europe specific pages depending on their location.

Another advanced functionality allows administrators make bulk plugin and core updates and content edits across all websites using a single master admin system. The master-slave backend system is designed to reduce operation times and simplify maintenance. At the same time, each website can be updated individually as needed and can act as an independent app.

Here’s a quick overview of the of the Fast TV Channels top features:

• Unified layout design
• Simplified administration interface using both frontend and backend access
• One site controls all
• Geolocated content display based on user IP
• Custom 3D shows carousel
• Fully responsive

The Fast TV Channels include HauntTV, CrimetimeTV, LovePetsTV, HomefulTV, DragRaceUniverseTV, TotalCrimeTV and HistoryTimeTV. The series of channels does not stop here. Several new channels will be added in the near future to complete the list, offering info on the newest and most exciting shows available on popular streaming platforms worldwide.

WordPress has come a long way since it was launched back in 2003.

From a simple blogging platform it has evolved into a powerful and highly customizable CMS, a fully fledged complex website solution. Moreover, over the past five years it has gained a significant share of the CMS market, with about 60% of all websites running it as their CMS.

While competing CMS solutions, like Drupal and Joomla have continued to trend downwards, WordPress has been gaining worldwide appreciation from both, end users and developers thanks to a continuous process of innovation.

Let’s take a closer look at the plain facts, to understand the CMS market evolution up to 2019, according to statistics:

• MS Market share: 60.2% WP, 6.3% Joomla and 4.4% Drupal.
• Number of live sites (estimated): 75.000.000 WP, 2.000.000 Joomla, 1.000.000 Drupal
• All web: 34% WP, 4% Joomla, 2% Drupal

As you can see above, the numbers are pretty astonishing.
As active participants in the design and development space for more than 10 years, we’ve been working with, customizing and implementing all of the above systems into client projects.
Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses depending on project, however, as it stands today, WordPress is by far the most intuitive, versatile and cost effective CMS out of the box.

From our experience, in the last few years, a lot of Drupal CMS projects have been replaced by WordPress. We do migrations from Drupal to WordPress regularly now, a major change from a few years ago, when the opposite was a lot more common.

Businesses and developers slowly moved away from Drupal and focused on WordPress, due to its increased ease of use, modularity and highly efficient plug and play plugins, intuitive publishing system and content administration.

While each new version of WordPress focuses on enhancing performance, flexibility and usability, bringing new features and simplifying administration and development, the latest version of Drupal, Drupal 8, really managed to mess things up.

Drupal not only changed the whole implementation model for developers, but became more difficult to work with overall, buggy and with a lack of basic core functionalities. One example is the need to write custom code or install third party modules, just to open a link in a new browser tab.

In a stark direct contracts to Drupal, WordPress offers extensive flexibility and versatility and comes with ton of features out of the box, that cover almost any functionality a website might need.

It’s pretty easy and straight forward to work with from an end-user perspective: if you need an online store, you just install and configure WooCommerce; you need a forum or community, just add BBpress or BuddyPress to the mix. Easy, reliable, clean development, intuitive administration system, reliable support.

Moreover, as said before, using WordPress to power a website is much more cost effective than using pretty much any other CMS currently available. The development cycle is not that time consuming, testing is cleaner and easier, updates and upgrades can be done on the fly and without extensive maintenance and downtime.
Also, the overall back-end administration system is more user friendly and most features are focused on usability.

In summary, the advantages of using WordPress are many, from lower development costs, an easy management and publishing system to multiple functionalities. WP can be used for basic presentation sites, as well as advanced custom and complex web applications, forums, data collection platforms, e-commerce stores and more.

We highly recommend it here at VerticalWave and if you happen to need some help with a new or existing website project, don’t be shy and give us a shout.

Cheers.