Screenshot of The GEL Group home page
Originally established in 1981 by George and Molly Greene, The GEL Group has grown over its four decades in business. They offer a wide range of analytical testing, environmental consulting, civil and geophysical engineering and industry-specific services.
The GEL Group consists of three subsidiary companies – GEL Laboratories, GEL Engineering, GEL Solutions – and one affiliate company, Cape Fear Analytical. Challenge number one was figuring out how to architect a site that is really five websites.
In May 2023, they began working with Hop Studios to overhaul their decade-old site completely. The site was outdated, clunky, and confusing, with too many pages and too many types of content. The biggest downfall of their site was that it failed to encompass their extensive knowledge and experience fully. The GEL Group came to Hop Studios to help their outward appearance fully illustrate their advanced expertise and services.
Hop Studios eagerly took on the challenge of extensively revamping and redesigning their website. The main emphasis focused on reducing confusion and allowing visitors to more easily understand all of the many services offered so that they could quickly find the proper match for their needs. This “simplify and improve” methodology played an essential role in nearly every facet of the redesign.
Setting up one of the best and newest content management systems is a pivotal step to modernizing a decade-old website. For The GEL Group, this meant upgrading their site to EE7. Not only did this help to improve performance, it allowed for easier back-end maintenance and a more user-friendly interface. Hop Studios helped train The GEL Group team on updating and maintaining the site, and set up role permissions to ensure each editor could only access and modify sections relevant to them.
Once the team was set up for success, Hop Studios shifted focus to the customer’s experience. Previously, the site was confusing to navigate and find the service users were looking for. The GEL Group wanted to make it easier for visitors to determine if they perform the service they’re looking for and quickly contact the right person about that service. By massively overhauling the homepage to simplify and improve navigation, Hop Studios helped site guests understand what the GEL Group offers and demonstrate their expertise.
One of these hiccups involved the search function, which failed to allow potential clients to easily find what they were looking for. Hop Studios took on the large overhaul to simplify and improve the “Find a Service” feature, streamlining the feature for users to effortlessly search across all subsidiaries and services to find what they needed and who to contact. No more frustrating searches that didn’t garner results!
The final piece of the puzzle included setting up a blog, which allowed The GEL Group to painlessly educate new and existing clients on all its services. The blog has become a valuable resource for information on services, updated regulations, and engaging case studies performed by GEL Solutions and GEL Engineering.
Taking on such a large redesign project for a unique company like The GEL Group has been a thrilling and delightful experience. It’s been an absolute pleasure for Hop Studios to help The GEL Group move to a more simplified and improved user experience and overall functionality. We’re excited to see where they grow in the future and what their next captivating case study will be!
