Connie Reichelsdorfer
Portfolio
As a Security certified professional, the websites I built are not just beautiful to look at but also safe to trust, since security is built into my designs at every step of the way, and is not an afterthought. Having cleaned up hacked sites for clients in the past, I know how to give your site the best chance to withstand attacks and keep your visitors safe.
With over a decade of experience in technical SEO and usability (UX), search engines and visitors alike are going to enjoy visiting your website.
I have also been teaching WordPress web development, cybersecurity, and other technical aspects of online marketing for many years.
Let’s discuss how I can help you make your project come to life!
Below, please find a short selection of my work:
HSR Recycling
Happy Stan Recycling (HSR), is a recycling hauler in the Port Coquitlam area. Their focus is on the proper handling of recycling products as well as repairing and then donating items that are still usable (e.g. electronics) to remove them from the waste stream.
The first page of the site prominently features the company’s mission, putting the environmental focus front and centre.
Without the need to scroll or navigate to other subpages, website visitors can conveniently submit a recycling pickup request.
Existing customers are offered a different version of the form, which eliminates the need to complete some of the fields.
All three business verticals are prominently featured on the homepage and hyperlinked to their respective sub-pages to facilitate navigation.
The most important USPs (unique selling propositions) are mentioned to highlight corporate values and establish trust with the company.
Goals & Implementations
- Goal: Clean up a previous server hack and black-hat SEO practices (e.g. spamdexting) and create a secure website to avoid future compromises.
Implementation: I cleaned up the organization’s server to remove any remnants of a previous hack including backdoors that allowed the attackers access to the site over a period of several months. In addition, I implemented advanced backend (server-side) and front-end (website) security measures to guard the website against brute-force attacks and other compromises in the future. - Goal: Streamline form submissions and cut down on the previous workflow of 5-7 emails per request.
Implementation: I customized lead forms for various business verticals (e.g. recycling pickups, quote requests, commercial inquiries), which differed for new vs. returning customers. This had a significant, positive impact on business processes and their outcomes. - Goal: Cut down customer frustration
Implementation: Based on their online reviews as well as feedback from the organization’s administrative staff and CEO, I identified online and offline frustration points and implemented features and content that circumvented ambiguity and surprises for their customers.
- Goal: Easy navigation
Implementation: In collaboration with their administrative staff, I evaluated all features and pages of the previous website and removed anything that did not serve the customer or business on the new website. In addition, many pages could be merged or amended to better guide the website visitor.
Backpack to Briefcase
Back to Briefcase is a website accompanying the book of the same name. The book revolves around a concept called the IKIGAI and guides youth and young adults in finding a meaningful career.
The above-the-fold content prominently features the book and introduces two call-to-actions: Buy the book or explore the coaching program that guides the reader along.
This section highlights that the book has been a best-seller on Amazon and the ranks it acquired in the various categories. This aims to establish that this book is a renowned book in its field.
The visitor is informed that the book comes with an editable PDF workbook to help get the most out of the guided coaching journey the book features.
An interactive chapter overview creates curiosity, while at the same time introducing the visitor to the topics covered in the book, in a more fun, engaging way.
A newsletter that provides guidance, stories, and updates along the journey has been created and the sign-up form is prominently featured on various occasions throughout the website.
A FAQ section answers some of the most important questions related to the book and reduces potential barriers.
Goals & Implementations
- Goal: Promote the book and accompanying coaching packages.
Implementation: The navigation throughout the site guides website visitors along the path from book purchase to the signup of customized coaching packages. - Goal: Raise curiosity for the book interactively.
Implementation: I created a flipbook style overview of the chapters and added it to the site to introduce website visitors to the book in an interactive manner and wake their curiosity for the book. - Goal: Download an editable workbook that cannot be found directly through the site or a search engine, since only the book provides the URL for that downloadable workbook.
Implementation: I first created the desired editable PDF workbook following the styling of the book itself. A password-protected portal to acces it was not desired, so I restricted the visibility of the workbook from on-page searches and search engines via different workarounds, so it could not be found without the actual URL.
Joël A. Prévost
Joël A. Prévost is a Vancouver-Island-based sculptor and artistic mentor whose works can be found in numerous private and corporate collections in Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, and China.
The menu of this page clearly communicates that this is a website for purchasing art (e.g. “SHOP” and “SHOPPING VIDEO CALL”).
Scrolling over the SHOP menu brings up a sub-menu that visually repeats the 3 different categories, which are also highlighted on the website below.
Website visitors can then select which subcategory of the artist’s work they are interested in, visually communicated thorough images that are representative of the artist’s work.
The artist’s approach is summarized and a friendly picture included, to introduce the visitor to the artist and create a personal connection between the visitor and the artist. This lowers the threshold of uncomfortableness that sometimes comes with “meet the artist” interactions, which are encouraged throughout the website, e.g. through shopping video calls.
The featured work at the bottom routinely changes to highlight the artist’s most famous pieces as well as his newest creations. By scrolling over the item, the visitor will reach the “product” page of that item, where they can read more about it and submit their purchase order.
Goals & Implementations
- Goal: Establish an ecommerce platform to sell his art to counteract the impacts of the pandemic.
Implementation: I created an ecommerce website with over 40 product pages to sell and ship the artist’s work to buyers across the globe. In addition, I provided guidance on how to take attractive product photos and videos and then edited and optimized all visuals (via Adobe PhotoShop and After Effects) to best reflect his art work. The photos and 360 videos are all integrated into the product image gallery to discourage navigation away from the website (e.g. to YouTube). - Goal: Keep the site minimalistic.
Implementation: While the site needed to fulfill a range of abilities and also highlight the artist’s work, it was kept minimalistic through streamlined design, clean background and fonts, a small range of brand colours, and many functionalities that would only appear if a specific option had been selected by the user.
- Goal: Allow for global shipping.
Implementation: Due to the size and weight of his work, basic configurations of “shipping” calculators were not an option and a highly customized approach needed to be established. Based on the client’s input, I created virtual shipping crates for each product and fed those dimensions and weights into a shipping calculator to retrieve rates from Canada Post via an API. For weights that are beyond Canada Post’s abilities, I configured the checkout system to display a customized message instructing the buyer to contact the artist to obtain a shipping rate. - Goal: Highlight works that had sold as well as mould-based work that could be re-ordered.
Implementation: Many custom adjustments to WooCommerce code were needed to allow for a gallery-style display of sold work as well as labelling and featuring work that had sold but could be ordered again via a custom order. - Goal: Streamline custom-made orders.
Implementation: For custom-made art work that is based on a photograph, I created a page that guides the buyer on how to set up the lighting and take pictures that would form the basis for the sculpture. This was meant to cut down on administrative work, along with a detailed form that asked for all the information. - Goal: Encourage shopping video calls.
Implementation: Video call scheduling became a prominent feature of the artist’s website, as many art aficionados love to have a personal conversation with the creator of the art. These video calls, facilitated via Calendly to automatically create Zoom-links, have opened the door for dialogue and have allowed Joël to showcase his art “live” via video conferencing.
- Goal: Limit brute-force attacks since the site was facing many attacks from malicious actors.
Implementation: I set up advanced back-end (server-side) and front-end (website) security measures to stop attackers in their tracks and keep the site safe from future attacks.
WasteLess Society
WasteLess Society is a nonprofit that I started in 2021 with a group of zero waste aficionados to educate the public on reducing waste as well as energy and water consumption.
The first page of the site highlights the organization’s main areas of focus, clarifying that “WasteLess” refers to more than zero waste, which normally concerns itself with material waste only.
The homepage prominently features the organization’s mission.
The 3D styling indirectly communicates a progressive, fun mindset.
This section not only features the different paths the website visitor can take to explore waste reduction; it also clarifies that these actions are essential to “give a future to future generations.”
Focusing again on the community, not the organization itself, the footer repeats how individuals can get involved and join the movement.
Goals & Implementations
- Goal: Create a WasteLess community
Implementation: Community building is accomplished via social media, email, and in-person/online meetings. I built the website to promote all of these channels and continuously encourage the public to join via call-to-actions on every page. - Goal: Educate the public by getting WasteLess novices up to speed, advancing intermediate zero-wasters, and even push advanced environmentalists to greater heights, all while cross-promoting other verticals (e.g. energy reduction) to those who are already mastering one of the other two verticals.
Implementation: The website is divided into three verticals and offers free WasteLess guides to the general public. - Goal: Encourage presentation requests.
Implementation: Across the site, I made it easy to submit a request for a presentation either to a group of individuals or as a lunch-and-learn for environmentally-focused businesses. - Goal: Narrow-focus SEO
Implementation: Thorough SEO- and fan-focused blog posts, I created the foundation to lift the visibility of the website for important keywords that form the basis of the blog post in question. Each post also features one of the guides to promote the mission of the organization.
Zero Waste International Alliance
The Zero Waste International Alliance is a global alliance of organizations promoting Zero Waste.
The homepage introduces ZWIA’s associates, the policies the organization created for businesses and governments to follow, as well as educational resources the website visitor is free to explore.
Since the organization caters to the general public, policy makers, its affiliates, businesses, and environmental organizations, a submenu guides the visitor to the pages that will likely be of most value to them, depending on which group they fall into.
This section introduces the organization, its mission, and charters.
It was essential to cover this on the homepage since the mandate of ZWIA is very complex and encompasses many areas of environmental stewardship and thus required a more in-depth introduction alongside its mandates (the submenu to its left), to help the website visitor connect the dots.
A newsletter sign-up form is featured alongside a rotating picture slideshow to encourage website visitors to picture themselves as part of the group of individuals featured in the slideshow and encourages the visitor to join.
Goals & Implementations
- Goal: Cleanup of a server that had suffered previous compromises and resource challenges.
Implementation: I recommended alternative hosting options and facilitated the switch to a new, reliable hosting company with good security practices. After the website design was complete, I also implemented advanced back-end and front-end security practices to keep the website secure going forward. - Goal: Establish the organization as a go-to resource for educational material on Zero Waste to advance their mission.
Implementation: Since the original website had its content disbursed over many pages in a complex, disorderly fashion, the distribution of content and navigation underwent a major facelift to make the information easy to find and digest. One particular challenge of the organization was that they serve a multitude of international individuals and organizations, ranging from policy makers, businesses and organizations, community leaders, affiliates, and activists. This was posing some challenges on the organization of the existing and new content. One approach that all stakeholders approved was the addition of a prominently featured sub-menu on the homepage. The goal for this was to give the various groups of stakeholders a “shortcut” to find the information that they may be looking for and also to establish that this organization was serving a vast range of stakeholders. - Goal: Enhance the “status” of ZWIA to reflect a progressive organization that potential partner organizations would like to be affiliated with.
Implementation: To present the organization as progressive and forward-thinking, this website required a complete overhaul. I chose a clean, “futuristic” template (e.g. the header design changed on mouse hover and followed the mouse), so other environmental organizations would consider ZWIA as a progressive partner.
To increase the organization’s international appeal, I translated its most prominent content, the Zero Waste Hierarchy, into my mother tongue (German) and had it translated into French by my partner. - Goal: Bring data and content up-to-date with current events and information.
Implementation: Since most of the website content was outdated and almost half of the links broken, I worked with many stakeholders across the organization and beyond, to ensure that all content is timely and accurate and obtain permission to also add resources and links to other organizations that are relevant to ZWIA’s target audience. - Goal: Easily accessible and easy-to-understand metrics to track growth of reach and exposure.
Implementation: To allow organizational leaders and staff to track website interactions, I set up advanced analytics tracking via Google Tag Manager, and since the team of organizational leaders was unfamiliar with Google Analytics, I created visual, interactive reports via Google Data Studio to lower the learning curve and make data meaningful.