A new headless CMS website for Ultimate Finance

Client: Ultimate Finance
Sector: Finance
Website: Ultimatefinance.co.uk
Services: Web development, SEO and Analytics

Website speed was a key issue (for both visitors and website administrators) and created a poor UX. There was also the potential for the speed issues to negatively affect SEO performance, with Google launching its Page Experience update at a point in spring of 2021.    

Behind the scenes, the website was difficult to manage and update, with the WordPress core being heavily customised. For administrators, making even simple changes was time-consuming. The site needed to become more efficient to manage in both content management and ongoing web development.   

Following extensive conversations about which direction to take, we were delighted that Ultimate Finance chose to go ahead with a complete rebuild. As a result, we took the opportunity to improve the site structure for users and upgrade the tracking implementation to GA4. In addition, the new Analytics installation provides a solid foundation to measure the effect of ongoing marketing activity and provide a clear picture of the activity driving performance.

Ultimate Finance knew there were issues with the existing WordPress site, and our technical audits (SEO, UX Analytics) highlighted the extent of the problems.

There were two primary challenges with the website:

#1 Poor performance

The existing website scored low on technical site speed and performance due to overuse of plugins, an off-the-shelf WordPress theme, a complex page builder set-up, and unoptimised assets and images. 

• Using the Google Lighthouse page speed tool for benchmarking, we initially optimised the site where possible, minifying assets, combining CSS files and optimising images. Page speed improved on the desktop version from 5.5/100 > 46/100 and mobile from 1/100 > 6/100. While the scores improved, they were not sufficiently optimal. 

#2 Inefficient development platform

Due to the front-end approach/architecture, considerable inefficiencies hindered rapid development and efficient content management. 

• Time-consuming page builder: the highly complex nature of the prior page builder required content editors to build complex components using grids, spacers and an array of small elements. Website administrators needed deep knowledge of the system and prolonged time to complete even basic content requirements. 
• Process inefficiencies: The process to build/use the same patterns on other pages created inconsistencies and was time-consuming. A lack of componentisation and automation and the need to customise off the shelf themes and plugins led to slow development. 

Rather than continue to invest in a site with inherent problems, Ultimate Finance wanted a trusted partner to rebuild their website. Initially working with our SEO team in 2017, we quickly demonstrated our web development and analytics expertise and took on the complete management of their website and, later, the rebuild project.  

We carried out the rebuild project in the first half of 2021 with the goal to:  

• Improve technology and structure for ultimatefinance.co.uk to improve UX and site performance.
• Make the site more efficient to manage – in terms of both content management and web development.  

We proposed a headless CMS coupled with a Gatsby/React front end. Headless CMS provides security, scalability and futureproofing. It is also a more straightforward, faster, and more flexible platform to develop on. We chose to keep their existing CMS, WordPress, but utilise this lean technology. This approach enabled us to use a CMS the client was familiar with and reduce the effort of migrating content and users to a new platform.    

With the front end decoupled from the back end and no longer bound by restrictive back-end technologies, the site can take advantage of new, market-leading, super-fast front-end technology. For example, with Gatsby, page load times of 200ms is the new 2s. In addition, near-instantaneous navigation means users stay engaged with the content rather than bouncing while waiting for content to load.  

The new website utilised a simple component-based system. Having a carefully designed selection of reusable components led to editing efficiencies, reduced maintenance effort and made it easier to create consistency across pages.  

We also proposed that the site was restructured for SEO gain, consolidating value into a single 'power page' for each product to prevent cannibalisation and compete more effectively in search for generic non-brand terms.   

Major benefits of the headless CMS website rebuild 

• Enhanced UX
• Content production efficiencies
• Stronger SEO foundation
• Agile, rapid development
• Flexible, faster CMS 

SEO improvements 

Another significant advantage of implementing Gatsby is that, unlike other JavaScript frameworks, SEO visibility is built-in to the rendering model. Thus, all the content that we script into the website is visible to search engines.  

As a result, although it is still early days as Google re-assesses and re-ranks new page content and structure, there is already some recovery for organic visibility on generic product terms. Additionally, some of the supporting hub pages now appear on pages #1 and #2 of SERPs, showing that content is indexable and relevant to search queries.   

The website now offers an excellent platform with a flexible CMS to support content strategy work. The enhanced functionality will aid the Ultimate Finance team to push primary products and target new search segments and audience niches. 

Faster development, prompting rapid deployment 

We've already seen the benefits of the new headless CMS platform. Our development team is far more efficient in developing new features, allowing us to be more reactive to the needs and requests of our client while reducing development costs and reducing the time to deployment.