Girls in Tech
Girls in Tech is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the gender gap in tech. Girls in Tech counts more than 60,000 members in 50+ chapters around the world.
The Challenge
The old website was built on WordPress Multisite with a page builder. Branding was not well defined and consistent even on the main site. Subsites were loosely defined, and their management was not easy. There was no layout and content consistency.
We supported our partner, Women Branding Agency Tote + Pears, in taking their client to the next level.
How the old website
was branded
The main feeling was: just another WordPress site. There was no clear design language or established character that spoke for the mission. No coherency or thoughtful visual communication.
Across the subsites network, the problem was even more apparent.
How the Website performed
The website was built with a page builder that gives a poor performance. Without additional optimization, page bulders usually score the half of a clean WordPress build by Web Core Vitals indicators.
Performance Grade
66
Page Size
4.1 MB
Load Time
7.86 sec ⚠️
Requests
75
Mobile
Mobile optimization score by Pagespeed Insights
Desktop
Desktop optimization score by Pagespeed Insights
Technical SEO Audit
Technical SEO analysis helps find and improve the most critical aspects of the site. Improving these also improves your organic traffic and usability of the site.
Indexing and crawlability
- 404 page set up correctly Yes
- robots.txt file Yes
- Resources with 4xx status code 16
- Resources with 5xx status code 2
Links
- Broken links 44
- Pages with excessive number of links 1
Images
- Broken Images 15
- Empty Alt Text 335
Encoding and Technical Factors
- HTTPS pages with mixed content issues 7
Other issues we found
Missing Images
On some layouts we noticed missing images.
Readability and Categorization
Low contrast on buttons makes the text unreadable. Webinars using blogs for annuncements instead of specialized components.
Line Spacing
Line spacing could be improved. In some places is too big, yet in others, it feels too condensed.
Hosting Infrastructure
The current hosting provider was affecting the performance through oversold infrastructure.
Identified Improvement Areas
- Keeping the branding consistent on the main site and across the chapters (WordPress subsites)
- Performance Improvements
- Making event planning easier by creating a set of predefined components and pages
- Making the management of international chapters easier
- Allowing centralized, yet optional content distribution across the WordPress network
- Building reusable and on-brand Gutenberg components that can be used everywhere
The Solution
Our partner, Women Branding Agency Tote + Pears, developed extraordinary branding, solving all the mentioned challenges for Girls in Tech. Now we were strategically able to develop unified and on-brand components and templates for WordPress on Multisite architecture and help Girls in Tech manage their site network with ease.
Some of the improvements we accomplished together
- Applying consistent branding on the main site and across the chapters (WordPress subsites).
- Developing a set of page templates and components for Events to standardize operations and layout.
- Developed additional modules and to support the organization in improving its image and position.
- Standardized the chapter’s design, components, and pages to make their education and maintenance easier.
- Built a mechanism for centralized yet optional content distribution across the WordPress network.
- Developed reusable and on-brand Gutenberg components that can be used everywhere.
- Provided video training and recording for the site infrastructure and components for their developers.
Our Results
Aside of implementing the amazing branding that Tote + Pears developed, we made sigificant improvements in the following areas:
600%
Load Speed Increase
From 7+ seconds to almost 1-second page load makes a significant change — especially for tech-oriented organizations.
40%
Overall Performance Increase
The combined index of overall performance and technical user experience is increased by 40%.
90%
Technical SEO Issues Resolved
Within the budget, we resolved over 90% of technical SEO issues.
50%
Page Size Reduced
We optimized the page sizes to approximately 50% and decreased media size to only 30% without visibly losing on the quality.
Technical SEO on Delivery
Technical SEO analysis helps find and improve the most critical aspects of the site. Improving these also improves your organic traffic and usability of the site.
Indexing and crawlability
- 404 page set up correctly Yes
- robots.txt file Yes
- Resources with 4xx status code 0
- Resources with 5xx status code 0
Links
- Broken links 0
- Pages with excessive number of links 0
Images
- Broken Images 0
- Empty Alt Text 0
Encoding and Technical Factors
- HTTPS pages with mixed content issues 0
Other Improvements
Improved Chapter Management
Improved management for chapters, including a process for launching new subsites.
Podcast Implementation
The podcast is a new content format on the Girls in Tech website, giving more leadership opportunities.
On-Brand Gutenberg Blocks
Using designed blocks protects the branding from human errors when editing the content.
Design Separated from Content
We separated the content from the design with Gutenberg blocks, thus preventing the layout and branding consistency.
Summary of Services for Girls in Tech
Improvements
- Building Branded Components
- Creating New Content Channels
- Unifying the Layout
- Standardizing Processes
- Improving Technical SEO
- Separating Content from Design
Services
- Front-end Development
- Back-end Development
- HTML/CSS Coding
- Technical Consulting
- 3rd Party Software Integration
Technologies
- WordPress Multisite
- JavaScript
- Gutenberg
- Bootstrap
- Vue.js
Amber Anderson
Co-Founder
Tote + Pears
Finding a development partner isn’t easy. Lucky for us, we’ve found our team at MANE. Referred by a friend, Sasha and the group at MANE was everything we’d hoped for — reliable, strategic, and collaborative. They cared about our clients and easily integrated into our team. Often going above and beyond to make sure that the work that was delivered the team exceeded our expectations.
