One of the hardest "easiest"​ things - a new website is born

Articles > New Website Is Born

Published: Mon, Mar 2, 2020

Contributor: Dan Leger | Profile | Articles

Talking about my company and my colleagues, about who we are, what we do and why we love doing it, should have been as easy as the proverbial pie. Turns out – not so much!

When we made the decision to rebrand our two companies under the new infraStruct umbrella name several months ago, I realized this presented us with the perfect opportunity to “fix” some things with which I knew we could do better – namely our old, antiquated, rushed, clumsy and content poor website. Full disclosure - that’s the polite way of describing how I felt about it! In trusted circles, I tended to use more “technical language” typically heard around construction sites.

Our plan was to launch our official rebrand on January 1, 2020, along with our new website and, mission accomplished – sort of. We rebranded, we announced it and we launched a website still sporting an “under construction” banner as we continued to tweak and obsess over every single video, word, phrasing, picture, description, etc., – you name it, it was discussed, often at length.

We fretted over all the obvious stuff – content, layout, colour and the dreaded, yet all too important and nebulous SEO (that’s Search Engine Optimization for those not in the know) score and Google’s AI that makes it all happen. Let me tell you that trying to outsmart and outthink an algorithm is not nearly as much fun as it sounds.

Facts, figures, stats anything quantifiable, that’s easy – at least to me it is. Numbers I get – I consider them friends, actually. Using words to translate the numbers and their meaning hopefully in a way that makes sense to others is also in my comfort zone. This should have been waaaaaaay easier.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked with some fantastic people along the way. That’s not terribly unusual, I think as most people would likely make the same claim. What is a genuine first for me is that with infraStruct, that’s a statement that I can make right down the company contact list. That’s not intended with any hint of hyperbole, that’s a fact, Jack, and you can take it to the bank. I really and I mean, REALLY love my colleagues like my dearest friends! I’m not really typically the mushy type and have been accused a few times of being a little too “business first” minded (I prefer “solutions focused” but not going to quibble over semantics here 😊 ).

So, in light of my great admiration and respect for my wonderful teammates, I assumed (yes, I do know what that “means”) that updating our “About Us / Mission, Vision and Values” should be the easiest content to create. After all, I had our old – and clunky, “corporaty-sounding” stuff to serve as a jumping off point. All I had to do now was simplify the language, talk about how awesomely fun and bright and dedicated my coworkers are and how much we enjoy working with our fantastic clients and I’d have this done in no time.

As you’ve no doubt guessed, the exercise was anything but easy. The weight of trying to capture who we are, what drives us, why it is so important for us to help our clients is truly daunting. How do you convey that our almost zealot-like tenacity to find solutions that are truly valuable, appreciated, that remove real pain points for our clients and, whenever possible, provide a more sustainable, economically advantageous and environmentally friendly impact in a simple and concise way?? The length of that last run-on sentence should pretty much answer that question. It ain’t easy!

And the coup the grace – coming up with a tagline. That’s a special kind of hell, in my humble opinion.

But, finally, FINALLY, our website is sufficiently up to snuff to no longer be considered “under construction” and I’m beyond proud to announce its official launch and invite you to take a look at what we’ve created: www.infrastruct.ca. Don’t forget to check out the “About Us” tab – it should be read as it really does capture as well as possible who and what we are.

More importantly, and obviously – if you work in underground infrastructure, municipal construction, consulting engineering in any capacity, be sure to bookmark our site and to check back in periodically. According to our website guru (special shout out to the awesome Steve Smith of Red Fish Web Solutions!!) we will be updating our content regularly – that dreaded SEO thing again for sure, but mostly, my awesome coworkers see to it that we have great stories to share.