Last updated January 16, 2010. Created by digitallica on October 18, 2005.
Edited by silverwing, NonProfit, Boris Mann, jo1ene. Log in to edit this page.
Website: Destination Bride
The owner's original dream for this website was to build a comprehensive resource directory for all major wedding destinations in the world; the completion of which was to coincide with the release of her new book on the topic. The problem was that her "static" website was nowhere near completion and was full of inconsistencies.
Problems with a Static Website
She found herself frustrated by the time and complexity involved in expanding the current "static" website that had been developed for her. Editing the pages with Macromedia Contribute was not too difficult, but waiting (weeks) for "the other" web design company to add a page, then to sort through the inconsistent or incorrect menu links was really gumming up the works. Just to add a database-driven menu system - without any other content management - was going to cost thousands.
In addition, much of the website was not spidered by the major search engines. The Javascript menu and non-clickable breadcrumbs (what's the point?) were suspected as the problem here. Most of the pages that were found by Google had no descriptions in the results. Many didn't even have titles! The website was not performing well in the search engines as a result.
The Task at Hand
I was originally asked if I could create a database for the menu structure. With our friend Drupal, I was able to provide a complete, content managed, SEO friendly website solution at a fraction of the cost of my competition. Here's how I did it:
- Flexinode created the regional pages with data entry for area overview, climate, currency and other information. Eventually, flexinode will allow couples to maintain Personal Wedding Pages.
- Taxonomy support for the Banner module was developed for use on this website. Advertisers sponsor regions and/or resource pages, and banners are served up according to respective vocabulary terms.
- Menu on the Fly assisted in building the enormous resource navigation structure.
- Edit as New allowed for the addition of the 29 identical resource pages listed under each of the 50 included regions.
- Nodewords allows for the customization of keywords and meta descriptions. Default node titles alone helped place several of these pages in the top ten of Google - without any content yet!
- I used the Image module to upload regional maps.
- The Wedding Planning Packages are organized with Book pages (Drupal core) for easy browsing.
- Amazon Associate Tools simplified the migration of her existing books from the old website to the new one. The "related books" feature for nodes will allow for future additions.
- Mail allows for the sending of simple newsletters to registered users and advertisers.
- Originally, FCK Editor was installed to allow the website owner and her staff to edit the pages, but they decided against editing the content themselves. But they could if they wanted to!
Hopefully Google Sitemap will help.
What About the Design?
She was also very pleased that the design didn't have to change. I started with the box-gray theme and was able to recreate the look and feel of her existing website almost exactly. Promoting nodes to the front page took the place of the few little blurbs placed on the previously "static" home page. Blocks house menus, ads and news items in a simplified and consistent way.
A Happy Ending
It's been two years. But with two months of amazing Drupal Power, this website is nearly complete. The content for all regions including links, maps and other information is posted. The resource navigation tree is always accurate. The banner system keeps track of statistics and expiration dates. News and other important items are promoted to the front page to generate interest in the content offered. Users are starting to register themselves. And the wedding team at Destination Bride can focus on what they do best - plan amazing weddings!
Looks like the website presently (01/13/2009) uses Joomla? Owner's mind change