Building a High-Performance, Scalable Website for Beacon Council

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We developed a modern, fast, and user-friendly website that supports customers’ digital marketing efforts, enhances user experience, and provides seamless access to essential business information.

Background

Beacon Council is an economic development organization founded in 1985 as an initiative of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Their mission is to attract, support, and retain businesses in Miami, strengthening the region’s economic landscape.

The organization assists companies aiming to establish or relocate their headquarters in Miami. It helps with logistics, legal matters, and eligibility for local and state business incentives. Additionally, Beacon Council provides access to networking events, workshops, and seminars that connect international businesses with local partners.

Striving for growth, the customer had ambitious goals to: 

  • Enhance their visibility and credibility within the local business community. 
  • Improve direct engagement with their clients, investors, and stakeholders by making services and opportunities more accessible.
  • Provide a more structured presentation of its various initiatives, ultimately, strengthening Miami’s position as a business hub on a national and international level.

Beacon council, Miami, USA

Challenge

The client’s existing website couldn’t support their goals effectively. There were several key challenges:

Limited content management control

The website was managed by a third-party provider, which made even small updates costly and time-consuming.

Outdated design and performance

The visual style no longer reflected the organization’s mission, and slow loading speeds negatively impacted user experience.

To address these challenges, we defined the following clear objectives:

  • Easy content updates

    We decided to provide an intuitive content management system for the new platform (website), allowing staff to easily update text, images, and other content without external support.

  • Modern, fast, and responsive website

    The website needed to load quickly and perform seamlessly on different devices, including desktop, mobile, and tablets. For this purpose, we need to create the design adjustable to any device type.

  • Compliance with modern standards

    The site needed to align with current accessibility (such as WCAG 2.2) and SEO best practices, while meeting the latest privacy regulations.

Methodology & Approach

We set out to develop a modern, easy-to-navigate, and high-performing website, while ensuring a seamless transition from the old system. To achieve this, we followed a structured, step-by-step approach, keeping the client involved at every stage.

Stage 1: Technology assessment

We analyzed the client’s website, including its structure, data volume, and content, to define migration requirements and tech limitations. They used WordPress CMS, but it was outdated and slow-performing. We kept the CMS, with the goal to improve its speed, flexibility, and ease of use.

Stage 2: Vision, structure, & planning

Working closely with the client’s team, we identified the website’s vision, goals, and general structure and created a roadmap. It involved sitemap creation, breaking it down into layouts and individual page types, wireframes’ development for each type, and identification of reusable elements from the existing website to optimize development time and resources.

Stage 3: Design & approval

Before development, we needed to ensure the website's final look and feel would match the client's expectations. We presented high-fidelity prototypes and interactive mockups to them, ensuring a clear understanding of the user experience before any coding began.

Stage 4: Development & best practices

With the design approved, we moved into development using the Waterfall methodology. The key aspects of this phase included:

  • WordPress-based development. We built the site on a containerized/Dockerized WordPress setup, leveraging custom components and plugins (including the Divi plugin for creating custom, component-based pages and new custom components) for flexibility.
  • Custom backend features. The website included PHP-based features, such as an event management system, paginated lists of the media events with advanced filtering, protected pages for the investors, SalesForce integration, etc.
  • AI-powered efficiency. We used AI tools like Claude AI to speed up the development of custom components, reducing production time by 50%. AI also helped generate detailed test cases based on UI specifications.
  • Best practices implementation & testing. Our team followed industry-standard SDLC processes, ensuring smooth integration from requirements gathering to final deployment. We conducted extensive performance testing under different conditions to fine-tune the site’s responsiveness.

Stage 5: Content migration & user testing

Given the website’s extensive history, data migration was a critical task. Working alongside the сlient’s content managers, we transferred all data, while continuously testing and refining the site based on the сlient’s feedback.

Key aspects of this stage:

  • Seamless transition. We ran the old and new sites in parallel, ensuring zero downtime during the switch.
  • Real-time feedback. As content was migrated, adjustments were made to ensure accuracy and usability.

Stage 6: Final demo & deployment

The final stage involved a full client walkthrough of the new website. After confirming everything met expectations, the client approved deployment. The new website went live, offering a faster, more user-friendly experience from day one.

Solution

The entire project took six months from planning to launch. The result was a fast, visually appealing, and highly functional website that serves hundreds of users daily, providing seamless access to information about the Client’s value proposition, services, and activities.

New functionalities

The new website offers a range of essential features that improve user experience and support the Client’s business operations:

  • Real-time multilingual support. Users can instantly translate website content thanks to integration with Weglot service.
  • Advanced sitewide search. Visitors are able to quickly find relevant information across all pages.
  • Investor portal. A password-protected section provides exclusive access to investor-related content with a single sign-on mechanism.
  • SEO-ready architecture. Provides proper metadata, descriptive URLs, sitemaps, Open Graph tags, and migration of existing Google Places data to maintain search engine visibility.
New functionalities

Third-party integrations

We also connected the website with the essential business tools, including:

  • Salesforce for managing online forms.
  • ZoomProspector to embed and display economic data.
  • Constant Contact for handling newsletter sign-ups.
  • Google Analytics to track visitor interactions and performance.
  • Events Calendar imports upcoming events from Eventbrite and directs users to the registration page.
Third-party integrations

Technology Stack

Cloud Infrastructure

Microsoft Azure

Containerization

Docker

Content Management System

WordPress

Backend

PHP

Frontend

HTML

CSS

React

Results

We successfully delivered a high-quality website that met all functional and non-functional requirements. The solution was approved by the сustomer, and it now operates smoothly, fulfilling its intended purpose.

Key benefits of our solution for the сustomer:

  • Fast, high-performing, and visually appealing website with a modern design.
  • Easy content management through a component-based approach.
  • Scalability and flexibility for adding new pages and features, as needed.
  • Full control over digital marketing tools to support business growth and engagement.

With this website, the сustomer now has a reliable and adaptable platform to drive their marketing efforts and achieve strategic goals.

Customer Review
No project overview is complete without incorporating the customer’s perspective. Discover the impact and value of our solution through the eyes of those who benefit from it the most.
4.9

25 Reviews on Clutch

25 Reviews on Clutch

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