Website design & development
Bug Busters R Us
Website strategy · Copywriting · UX/UI design · Website development
A complete website redesign for Bug Busters R Us, bringing together two sides of the business in one website that better reflects who they are today, makes their services easier to understand and gives their customers a much clearer path to getting in touch.
Their business had evolved, but their website hadn't
Bug Busters R Us originally came to us for help with their social media. As part of that work, we began evolving their brand, building on the logo and branding they had already started introducing across their vehicles and uniforms. We expanded that into a broader colour palette, iconography and style guidelines that could be used consistently across their marketing.
The website was next. Initially, the plan was to refresh the existing content and bring the site up to date, but once we started digging into it, it became pretty clear that a few new words and a visual tidy up weren't going to cut it.
The existing website had been in place for some time. Information was outdated and scattered, the navigation wasn't particularly intuitive and the structure made it difficult to quickly understand the breadth of services Bug Busters R Us offered.
There was also a lot of technical information about individual pests and species, but not enough focus on what a potential customer was actually coming to the website to find out. Can you help with my problem? Why should I trust you? What should I do next?
It needed more than a refresh, so we went back to the foundations and started again.
Before
After
First, we worked out what the website actually needed to do
Before designing anything, we sat down with the Bug Busters R Us team to understand what they wanted the new website to achieve. We talked through their ideal customers, the different markets they service, what they wanted people to understand about the business and where the existing website was falling short.
We reviewed their existing site together, looking at what was worth keeping and what needed to change. We also researched their competitors, both independently and alongside the client, to understand how other pest and animal control businesses were positioning themselves and where there was an opportunity for Bug Busters R Us to do things differently.
Those conversations shaped the structure of the new website. From there, we mapped out the site and developed the wireframes and page designs, with the way people would actually use the site guiding the decisions we made.
Once the direction was signed off, we worked collaboratively with the Bug Busters R Us team to write the copy for each page before moving through design, feedback and development.
Two businesses. One website
One of the biggest challenges was finding the right way to represent the two sides of the business.
Bug Busters R Us Pest Control and Animal Control Services Australia are technically separate businesses. They offer different services and speak to different audiences, so each needed enough of its own identity to make sense to the people looking for them.
There was a genuine case for separating them completely, but doing that would also mean maintaining two websites, two sets of content and two separate online presences over time. Instead, we found a way to bring them together without losing what makes each side of the business different.
Pest Control and Animal Control were given their own identities through the use of colour, while the broader design, typography, navigation and language tie everything together. Someone looking for pest control can immediately find what they need, while someone looking for animal control has a clear pathway of their own without feeling like they've landed on an entirely different company's website.
Less encyclopaedia, more useful information
One of the biggest shifts wasn't just how the website looked. It was what the website talked about.
The previous site contained a lot of information about individual pests, species and their characteristics. Some of that information can be useful, but it had begun to get in the way of the more important job of helping customers solve a problem.
Someone with a wasp nest doesn't necessarily need to know every species of wasp before deciding what to do next. They need to know whether Bug Busters R Us can deal with it, whether they're the right people to trust and how to get help.
That thinking guided the structure and copy of the new site. Services are easier to identify, key information is easier to find and there are clear opportunities to get in touch throughout the website.
Rather than trying to squeeze every possible piece of information into the first version, we focused on getting the foundations right. The site has been designed so Bug Busters R Us can continue building on it over time, with plans to expand individual pest and animal control information where it's useful and introduce News & Insights content as the website evolves.
Building the brand into the website
The new website also gave us the opportunity to bring together the brand we'd begun developing with Bug Busters R Us during our earlier work together.
The business had already started evolving its branding through a new logo and updated vehicle and uniform designs, but there wasn't yet a broader system for how that should translate across its marketing. We built on those foundations with a broader colour palette, iconography and visual guidelines, then carried that through to the website.
The brand also helped us solve the challenge of representing Pest Control and Animal Control under one roof. Colour gives each side of the business its own identity while still making sense as part of the same website.
Designed before it was developed
Once the site structure, wireframes, copy and overall direction had been approved, we moved into the individual page designs. Rather than starting with a template and trying to make the business fit within it, we designed the website around Bug Busters R Us, their customers and the content they actually needed.
The homepage established the overall direction before we rolled the design out across Pest Control, Animal Control, About, Reviews, Service Areas and the enquiry experience. Once the designs were approved, we moved into development.
Built to look good and be easy to use
The finished website was developed in Squarespace, giving the Bug Busters R Us team a platform they could comfortably manage themselves once the project was complete.
Where Squarespace's standard functionality didn't quite get us where we needed to go, we used custom CSS and code to make the design work the way we wanted it to. That included adjustments to typography and navigation, smaller design details throughout the site and an automated client logo carousel.
The website was built to work across desktop and mobile. We also set up the on page SEO foundations, including SEO titles and descriptions across the site and dedicated service area content, and connected Google Analytics so the team can see how the website performs as it grows.
Ready for what comes next
The goal wasn't to build the biggest website we possibly could. We wanted to get the foundations right and give Bug Busters R Us something they could continue building on.
The new website gives them a much clearer way to communicate what they do today, with room to expand relevant pest and animal control information and introduce News & Insights when they're ready.
And because it's built in Squarespace, their team also doesn't need to come back to us every time they want to change a sentence or update something. Once everything was complete, we walked them through how to manage the site and handed it over for them to take the reins.
Same business, just a much better reflection of it
Bug Busters R Us didn't need to become a different business. Their website just needed to catch up with the one they'd already become.
What started as a potential website refresh became a rethink of how the business positions itself online, with a website that makes it easier to understand what they do and brings Pest Control and Animal Control together in a way that makes sense.
Has your business moved forward, but your website hasn't?
Your website should reflect the business you are today, not the one you were five years ago.
We work with businesses to get the strategy, structure, words and design right before we build, creating websites that reflect who you are and make it easier for the right customers to take the next step.