The last three months have kept us busy with new website launches, several website refreshes, new projects getting underway, and plenty of ongoing improvements for existing clients.
We’ve also been tackling lots of smaller jobs that don’t always get noticed, but help keep websites up to date, easy to use, and running smoothly.
Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to from July through to September.
A big hello
A warm welcome to our new clients, Gathered Flowers Art Studio and Think Tank Design. We’re building a WordPress e-commerce website for Gathered Flowers Art Studio and a custom one page website for Think Tank Design. Two very different businesses and two very different websites. Looking forward to getting them both online.
A little milestone of our own
We reached 80 Google reviews, while maintaining our 5-star rating. A big thank you to everyone who has taken a few minutes to leave us a review. It genuinely means a lot and helps other businesses feel more confident choosing us for their website.
Looking after WordPress websites
New websites and design projects often get the spotlight, but there’s a lot happening behind the scenes too. Clients on our WordPress Management Plan have their websites looked after every week. We handle WordPress and plugin updates, backups, testing, security, and monitoring to keep everything running smoothly. We’ve also worked through the latest WordPress updates, with all managed websites now running WordPress 7.1.2.
New websites
Pure Images
The new WordPress website for Pure Images is live.
On a photography website, images obviously play a big part, but we wanted the whole website to feel like Pure Images. The colours, photography, layout, and content all work together to reflect her approach to wedding photography: personal, relaxed, and professional.
This way, potential clients don’t just see a portfolio. They get a sense of her photography, her personality, and what it would be like to have her photograph their wedding.
Sometimes, that personal connection is just as important as the work itself.
Website refreshes
Not every older website needs replacing. If the design still works, updating the technology and giving it a visual refresh can add years to its life. We’ve done this for several long-time clients in the past few months.
Sharon Cotter
We’ve given New Zealand soprano, performer, and entertainer Sharon Cotter’s one page website a fresh new look.
We refreshed the design and rebuilt the website with our latest coding framework. Now, it looks more modern and works better on phones, tablets, and larger screens.
Sometimes, a simple design refresh is all a website needs.
Custom Rubber
Custom Rubber’s dark website design still looks great, especially with its pink accents and classic gradients, so we didn’t change it just for the sake of it.
Instead, we upgraded the code using our latest framework. This keeps things tidy behind the scenes and makes the website even more mobile-friendly.
The design stays the same, but the technology moves forward.
Balustrades R Us
Balustrades R Us has been our client for many years, and we’ve recently upgraded their website.
We rebuilt their website with our latest coding framework, improved the mobile experience, added a full-screen mobile menu, and introduced smooth page transitions.
The design is still familiar, but the website now feels cleaner and more polished, especially on phones and tablets.
Superior Plumbers & Gasfitters
We’ve completely rebuilt the one page website for our long-time client, Superior Plumbers & Gasfitters.
Their old website served them well for years, but it was time for a fresh start. The new website is custom-designed to showcase their services better, make it easier for visitors to find information, and encourage more enquiries.
This is a great example of when a one page website is the right choice. Not every small business needs a large WordPress website with lots of pages. Sometimes, all the key information on one well-designed page is all you need.
Sneak peeks
We’re also working on a few more websites behind the scenes.
Bay Gas
We’re working on a new one page website for Bay Gas. Our goal is simple: give the business a professional online presence that clearly explains what they do and makes it easy for customers to get in touch.
Think Tank Design
We’re also designing a one page website for Think Tank Design in Auckland, a company that creates TV sets and props. Since they’re a creative business, a quiet, static website wouldn’t fit. We’re adding movement and animation to the design to give the page personality and showcase their work.
Pacific Frangipani
The new Pacific Frangipani one page website is also taking shape. For this design, we’re letting the flowers stand out. The colour scheme is neutral, so the bright frangipani colours really pop. Keeping the website design quiet is exactly what makes the content shine.
Helping clients keep their websites current
Building a website is just the beginning. Businesses change, teams grow, new projects finish, certifications get renewed, and better ways of working appear. Over the past few months, we’ve kept improving many of our clients’ websites.
Watershed
We’ve made several updates to the Watershed website. We’ve added their latest projects, giving potential clients more recent examples of their work, and added a new section for their ISO certifications. Instead of just showing logos, the website now explains what each certification means and includes details like certificate numbers and links. This gives visitors more useful information and helps search engines and AI tools find clear facts about the business.
We’ve also improved how Watershed manages client testimonials in the WordPress backend. Now, their team can choose which testimonials appear in specific areas. This means visitors see feedback that’s more relevant to the service they’re reading about, and it’s easier for the Watershed team to manage.
Ceiling Restorations
We’ve updated industry certifications across the Ceiling Restorations website to make sure potential customers see the most current information. We also redesigned the testimonials section with a Google reviews-style layout. This makes recent feedback stand out and gives visitors another trust signal when choosing who to contact.
Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand
We continue to help Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand keep their website up to date with regular content, posts, and updates. We added a new conference banner and made it possible to upload a separate portrait banner just for mobile devices. Now, instead of squeezing the desktop banner onto a phone screen, mobile visitors see an image designed for their device. It’s a small change, but it makes the information much easier to read.
Tauranga Tree Co
We’re also continuing our ongoing search engine and AI optimisation work for Tauranga Tree Co. We’re working through the website page by page, improving content, keyword coverage, page titles, and meta descriptions.
SEO isn’t usually one big job that suddenly makes everything rank overnight. It’s often better to keep improving the website over time, page by page, and build on what’s already there.
Explore and Flourish
We’ve updated the Explore and Flourish one page website with new content, staff updates, and more image optimisation for better performance. For an early learning centre, keeping staff information up to date is especially helpful. It lets families get to know the people who might be caring for their children before they even arrange a visit.
Fourie Building Group
After updating the Fourie Building Group website for their rebrand, we’ve now added their finished logo as the final touch. Keeping the website in line with the rest of the business branding helps create a consistent first impression, whether someone finds the company online, on social media, on a vehicle, or through signage.
Kingfisher Boats
We’ve made checkout easier on the Kingfisher Boats online shop by adding Apple Pay. Giving customers a quick, familiar way to pay removes friction from checkout and makes buying online easier, especially on a phone.
Progressive Automotive
We’ve added a new Reviews section to the Progressive Automotive one page website, along with a floating review badge powered by REVU. Customer reviews give potential clients more confidence before they get in touch, and showing them directly on the website means that reassurance is there when they need it.
Coast Palms & Cycads
It’s now a bit easier to browse the Coast Palms & Cycads plant collection. We’ve added Previous and Next buttons to product pages, so visitors can move through the range without going back to the main page each time. Nothing complicated, just one less click and a nicer way to browse.
Marine Pro
We’ve also helped Marine Pro improve their local online presence by setting up a professional Google Business Profile. A well-maintained Business Profile makes it easier for customers to find important business information on Google Search and Maps, and gives them another easy way to get in touch.
Sharing what we know
We’ve kept writing about WordPress, Google Business Profiles, AI, website design, SEO, and changes happening online. Most of our shorter articles are on our LinkedIn page, while longer articles and WordPress resources are on the Good Websites blog.
Recent LinkedIn articles:
- Search is changing. Is your business information keeping up?
- Be careful when blocking bots from your website
- More Google reviews, without the awkward ask
- Why ghost buttons can ruin your conversions
- Is it safe to update WooCommerce to version 11?
- More than 80% of WordPress websites are outdated, and hackers are noticing
- WordPress 7.1 is on the way. Here’s what to expect.
And on the Good Websites blog:
Why we still love WordPress
We first wrote about why we love WordPress back in 2012. Fourteen years later, it’s still our favourite platform for larger business websites. A lot has changed, but our reasons for using it are the same: it’s flexible, easy for clients to manage, works well for search engines, and gives businesses room to grow.
Understanding WordPress user roles (and how we set them up)
Not everyone who logs into a WordPress website needs full Administrator access. We explain the different WordPress user roles, how we set them up for our clients, and why giving people the right access helps keep websites safer and easier to manage.
Meta Boxes missing after updating to WordPress 7?
If your Meta Boxes disappeared after updating to WordPress 7, don’t worry. They’re still there. WordPress just changed how they’re displayed. We’ve put together a quick guide to show where to find them.
What we’ve been up to March to June 2026
And, of course, there’s our previous catch-up, covering new websites, design refreshes, WordPress updates, SEO work, and everything else we were working on from March through to June.
If you’re looking for website design in Tauranga or want to get more from your current website, let’s chat. Always happy to help.
