Full-Stack Digital Transformation for a Premium Hardscape Contractor

We tore down the WordPress site and rebuilt the entire platform on Next.js 14 with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS, deployed on Vercel. This wasn't a theme swap or a migration. It was a ground-up rebuild of the site architecture, content structure, and technical foundation.

The new site launched with 342+ static pages: 8 service pages, 22 city landing pages, a 176-page city-by-service matrix, 143 migrated and reformatted blog posts, case studies, a gallery, and supporting pages including About, Contact, Privacy, and a Financing page integrated with Lyon Financial.

Every service page was written from voice memo transcripts recorded by the owner. No AI-generated filler copy. We provided targeted questions for each service, the owner recorded thoughts on a phone, and we rewrote the transcripts in their voice. The result is copy that sounds like a real contractor talking about the work, because it is.

The city-by-service matrix pages are the local SEO engine. Each page targets the exact keyword pattern homeowners search: "paver driveway installation Portland," "retaining wall contractor Salem," "patio paver installer Lake Oswego." Rather than spinning up 176 pages with the city name swapped into template copy, we built a system where 70-80% of the service content is shared from centralized data files and the remaining 20-30% is a genuine localization layer with city-tagged reviews, regional photo fallbacks, and localized headlines and meta descriptions.

We replaced a broken contact form with a multi-step ProjectPlanner form and a CostEstimator widget. The lead pipeline is fully wired: form submissions trigger a Resend email notification to the owner and a branded confirmation email to the prospect, then fire through a Zapier webhook into SynkedUP, the client's existing CRM for estimates, proposals, and job costing. reCAPTCHA v3 is configured for spam protection.

We also built a feedback funnel page that routes happy customers directly to Google Business Profile to leave a review, and unhappy customers to a private internal feedback form. The page is excluded from navigation, the sitemap, and search indexing. It exists purely as a link sent after completing a project.

We rebuilt the Search campaign from scratch. The old structure had two broad ad groups. The new structure has 7 tightly themed ad groups: Paver Patios, Paver Driveways, Retaining Walls, Outdoor Living, Hardscape General, Pool Decks, and Walkways & Steps. Every keyword uses exact or phrase match only. Broad match is disabled until there's enough conversion data to let the algorithm work responsibly.

We added 80+ negative keywords across 5 categories (DIY/informational queries, material/wholesale searches, competitor names, job seekers, and irrelevant terms) to stop budget from leaking into searches that will never produce a lead.

Each ad group points to its corresponding service page on the new site, not the homepage. Full ad extensions are configured: sitelinks to service pages, callout extensions highlighting free estimates and the 5-year warranty, call extensions, and structured snippets.

Geographic targeting is set to "Presence" only, not "Presence or interest," the default that causes ads to show to people researching an area rather than living in it. Targeting is scoped to specific Oregon counties plus Clark County, Washington. The dead Display campaign was paused. Duplicate and irrelevant conversion actions, including an "Android installs" action for a business that doesn't have an app, were identified for cleanup.

We set up a GA4 property, connected Google Search Console as a domain property, and implemented Google Ads conversion tracking via direct code on the Next.js site. Active conversion actions include website call click tracking with call forwarding, calls from ad extensions, and lead form submissions.

We audited the existing conversion actions and identified dead weight: a duplicate "Submit lead form" action, a "Phone Lead" action recording zero conversions, and the Android installs action, all of which were cluttering the account and potentially confusing Smart Bidding.

We consolidated the site's schema markup into a single, comprehensive LocalBusiness entity served from the root layout. This isn't just about traditional rich results in Google Search. Structured data is increasingly how AI systems like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, and Perplexity identify and recommend local businesses.

The schema includes the owner as a named founder with typed credentials (CMHA certification, Belgard partnership, Western Interlock relationship), the business's service area defined by county-level AdministrativeArea objects aligned to the Google Business Profile, service catalog markup, and blog authorship attributed to the owner as a named Person entity.

Every city-by-service matrix page generates its own FAQPage schema. Case study pages carry structured data for the projects described.

Before cutting over to the new site, we ran a complete pre-migration audit using Screaming Frog, a Google Search Console pages export, and the existing WordPress sitemap. We cross-referenced every indexed URL against the new site's routes and redirect map, identifying gaps where live URLs with traffic or backlink equity would have 404'd after cutover.

92 redirects were configured in the final build. We caught a missing redirect variant for the Eugene city page and fixed 4 broken internal href paths that the audit surfaced. The redirect strategy used middleware with slug validation rather than wildcard redirects in next.config.mjs, because wildcard patterns are dangerous on a site with a city/service matrix where slug collisions can silently swallow legitimate pages.

The site's existing backlink profile of 581 links across 280 referring domains was preserved through the migration.