Case Study: RealCedar.com

RealCedar.com (or the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association – WRCLA) represents Western Red Cedar Distributors across North America, and has been growing steadily since its inception in 1954. Since then, RealCedar.com has become the largest online presence of Western Red Cedar in the world, with over 1 million visitors per year.

RealCedar.com needed room to scale

In order to support the continued growth of their program and website, it was determined that the current website architecture (built on core WordPress) could not handle the scalability and growth needed for Realcedar.com. The increasing need for new enhancements and functionality made it a challenge to maintain speed and performance (as WordPress is considered an outdated platform).  Maintaining a WordPress site also meant concerns about security, hacks and vulnerabilities, which increased overall development time. The WRCLA came to us for a solution – they wanted a faster website that could support their large (and increasing) database of images, resources, and data, while being able to improve the functionality of their original site. A re-architecture to GatsbyJS framework was the clear solution to their requests. 

How a Gatsby upgrade changed everything

By implementing a new Gatsby architecture, we delivered a site that is up to 5x faster than its predecessor, with better search engine rankings, more stability, and increased functionality. Features built in with the upgrade include: updating to headless WordPress, five languages supported by a proprietary Polylang integration, allowing RealCedar to continue their growth trajectory by reaching more of an international audience, an online shopping cart functionality for brochure and sample orders (vs the use of simple forms on the old site), a rebuilt custom CRM integration into Zoho, using the Zoho API for quote request management, and 3D vector mapping technology for their Retailer Locator. We also improved member visibility by redesigning the individual membership pages, for better accessibility of member information. 

While their original WordPress-core site served them well up to this point, Real Cedar needed a more sophisticated website solution that reflected and supported their growth as an organization. The move to a Gatsby/JAMstack website will allow Real Cedar to continue to scale, while maintaining the stability, speed, and functionality their site now provides. 

Ready to make the upgrade on your website and business? Contact us to explore your options.