Case study · New website · Kitchener-Waterloo
Instagram and Google weren’t enough. So we planted a website.
ReLeaves is a family-owned crew keeping Kitchener-Waterloo yards sharp in every season, and growing the flowers they plant. For a long time the business lived on an Instagram account and a Google listing. The owner, Nick, thought that would be enough. It wasn’t. This is the third piece.
- Services on one page
- 6
- Seasons of work
- 4
- On Google, 8 reviews
- 5.0
- Cities, Kitchener & Waterloo
- 2
Spring · Groundwork
Chapter 1, Spring, Groundwork: Two plots planted. The third was bare soil.
Nick’s words, from the review he recorded for us: “The biggest trial I’ve ever had when I started my business was only having social media and having a Google presence. I thought it was gonna be enough… I didn’t get as much customers as I needed.” People could find ReLeaves. There was nowhere to send them once they had.
Planted
Planted
Bare patchA feed is not a front door
Instagram shows the work beautifully and answers none of the questions a homeowner has before they call: what you do, where, when, and how to ask.
A listing is a signpost
The Google listing got ReLeaves found and rated. It had nowhere to point. The website field was the one thing it was missing.
The crew is out working
Monday to Friday, seven to six, Nick is on a mower. Whatever the site is, it has to take the enquiry without him.
Summer · Growth
Chapter 2, Summer, Growth: Grow it from what they already had.
No stock photography of a stranger's lawn. The site is built out of ReLeaves' own work: their dahlias, their mulched beds, their battery mowers lined up on a patio. The palette came off the same ground, forest and cream with one marigold for anything you can press.
The site has one job: say “one crew, all year” before anything else.
Plenty of yard companies are a summer business with a snow line added. ReLeaves genuinely covers the whole calendar, so the site is organised around it: the headline promises year-round care, the services read as one list, and the plant shop sits in the middle of the page because growing is half of what they do.
- SpringSpring cleanup · Garden beds · Mulching · Plants & seedlings
- SummerLawn mowing · Edging & trimming · Pressure washing · Flowers for sale
- AutumnRaking & leaf cleanup · Gutter cleaning · Bed tidy-up
- WinterSnow removal · Driveways · Walkways
From the ground up
Forest
Ground · #184829
Cream
Paper · #F8F7DC
Marigold
Action · #EA8A18
Moss
Accents · #4E9A52
Amber leaf
On dark · #F6B84D
Bark
Soil · #3E2F23
Newsreader, for the voice
Year-round care for the yard you love.
Hanken Grotesk, for everything practical
Lawn, garden, pressure washing, gutters and snow. One local crew keeping your property sharp through every season. Mon–Fri, 7am–6pm.
Bed by bed
Eight sections, planted in the order a homeowner asks.
Autumn · Harvest
Chapter 3, Autumn, Harvest: What came up. In Nick’s words, not ours.
We don't have a dashboard to show you here, and we won't make one up. What we have is the owner, on camera, in his own words.
“Now, thank you to Vortio. They made me a professional website. It looks amazing, it's got me more customers.”
“You can look it up on Google.”
“Especially small businesses or small contractors just like me… only having a media page and or a Google business account. You need the extra step, the extra push, and that is having a website that's professional.”
The launch, as it went out
Two feeds worth following
One grows lawns. One grows websites.
Instagram is where ReLeaves started, and the website didn’t replace it. It gave the feed somewhere to send people. The launch went out there too, so if you want the day-to-day from the yard and from the studio, follow both.
Winter · Upkeep
Chapter 4, Winter, Upkeep: The part that keeps working after the snow.
A lawn needs looking after all year and so does a website. This is what's underneath, measured on the live site with Lighthouse, not described.
100
SEO
Lighthouse, mobile and desktop
100
Best practices
Lighthouse, mobile
2
Cities in the markup
Kitchener and Waterloo
6
Services in the markup
Each one a structured offer
A business Google can read
HomeAndConstructionBusiness data carries the phone, email, hours, price range, both cities and all six services, so the listing and the site describe the same company.
One page, done properly
One H1, a title and description that name the services and the city, a canonical URL and full social cards. A small site is not an excuse for a thin one.
Somewhere to send people
The Google listing and the Instagram profile finally have a destination: one page that answers what, where, when and how much to ask. As Nick puts it, you can look it up on Google.
Enquiries while the crew is out
A four-field form that says who replies and when, and WhatsApp beside it for the people who would rather text a photo of their yard.
Their work, their photos
The lawns, beds, flowers and gear are ReLeaves' own photographs. All 26 images are WebP with real alt text, and all but the two above the fold load lazily.
Quiet by design
Battery-powered gear is a real reason to pick a crew for an early start on a residential street. It's on the site in one word: Quiet.
releaveslandscaping.ca
Instagram for the day-to-day. Google to get found. A website to get hired.
See it liveOnly on Instagram and Google?
That’s two thirds of the way there. The website is the part that turns being found into being booked.
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