ABOUT

Project at a glance

-Digital strategy and user journey planning
-Information architecture and content restructuring
-Technical SEO audit and implementation
-170 target keywords mapped
-170+ pages audited and 60+ consolidated
-Headless WordPress website design and Astro development
-HubSpot integration and enquiry tracking
-Cloudflare, performance and security optimisation

200+ technical SEO issues identified and resolved
170 target keywords mapped, pages audited and restructured
60+ pages consolidated and redirected
A grade achieved in the Security Headers assessment

Making occupational health services easier to discover, understand and access:
MCL Medics provide occupational health, employee wellbeing and specialist medical services to organisations across the UK. While the business had a strong reputation and extensive expertise, its website no longer reflected the full scope of its services or made it easy for visitors to find the information they needed.

Having partnered with MCL for over four years, we brought together user journey planning, information architecture, technical SEO and headless WordPress development to create a website designed around its audiences and how they search for support. The project went far beyond replacing an outdated website. It focused on helping users find relevant services more easily, showcasing MCL's expertise more effectively and providing its team with a scalable platform for ongoing website management and growth.

An established partnership. A broader digital challenge:
Our work with MCL started long before the website redevelopment. Through tender support, marketing communications, graphic design and illustration, we had developed a strong understanding of the organisation and how it communicated its expertise.

The new website needed to bring those strengths together. MCL serves a wide range of audiences, including HR professionals, procurement teams, health and safety managers, business leaders, employees seeking support and potential recruits. Each audience arrives with different objectives, questions and levels of understanding.

Someone searching for a specific service shouldn't have to navigate the same content as a procurement team evaluating a long-term occupational health provider. Equally, individuals looking for support need straightforward access to information that is relevant to them. Our role was to simplify those journeys while creating a practical platform that could support MCL's expanding content library and service offering.

Structure first, design second:
We started by reviewing the existing website's technical SEO, content performance, navigation and internal linking. Keyword research and mapping helped us understand how prospective clients were searching and which pages should be responsible for answering those searches. That research informed the information architecture before moving into wireframing and design.

The service offering was organised around four primary entry points: Occupational Health, Employee Assistance Programme, Remote Medical Services, and Education and Training. Individual services sit beneath these sections, guiding visitors from broad service categories to more detailed information. Internal linking was designed to reflect the relationships between services rather than treating each area of the site as a standalone destination.

Where relevant connections existed, users were encouraged to explore related services without needing to return to the main navigation. We also reviewed existing content, identifying which pages should be retained, restructured or combined. Content consolidation and redirects were part of the migration strategy from the outset, not an afterthought. The objective wasn't simply to reduce the number of pages. It was to ensure every page served a clear purpose.

Design that supports decision-making:
Service pages need to achieve more than describing what a business offers. They should help visitors quickly determine whether a service meets their needs and what action to take next.

The management referral page demonstrates this approach. It outlines the service, explains the process and makes it clear that employers can request a one-off referral without committing to an ongoing contract. By answering practical questions at the decision-making stage, the page helps remove uncertainty around getting in touch.

The same principles shaped the wider page hierarchy and calls to action. Essential information is easy to find, supporting detail is readily available and next steps are clearly signposted. Trust signals were integrated throughout the experience, bringing together accreditations, client examples and case studies alongside service content rather than expecting visitors to search for a separate credentials section.

The visual design reinforces this structure through clearer navigation, more consistent layouts and stronger signposting across desktop and mobile devices. It allows MCL's expertise to take centre stage while making information easier to access and understand.

A headless WordPress platform built around content:
The website was developed using headless WordPress and Astro. WordPress manages content behind the scenes, while Astro delivers the public-facing website. Separating content management from presentation provides greater flexibility and allows both systems to evolve independently.

MCL needed a platform capable of managing a large volume of service content while supporting multiple audience journeys. We addressed that requirement through a modular WordPress content framework connected to a bespoke Astro front end.

Repeatable content structures give the MCL team a consistent way to manage services, resources and supporting information. Content updates in WordPress automatically trigger the Astro build process, linking day-to-day content management with website publication.

As a result, routine content updates can be made without front-end development support while maintaining a user experience that remains focused on content and navigation. The technology itself wasn't the goal. The priority was creating a system where content management and user experience worked together effectively.

Search built into the foundations:
Search considerations informed every stage of planning and development rather than being introduced after launch. Keyword mapping established clear relationships between services, search intent and content, influencing page structures, heading hierarchies, metadata and internal linking alongside wider technical SEO work.

Content planning focused on answering user questions directly. Service overviews, supporting information and FAQs help define each page's purpose while enabling visitors to find key information quickly.

We also provided recommendations to support AI-assisted search and discovery, including structured data, semantic page structures and clearer service categorisation. These recommendations create a framework to support MCL's future search visibility and content development.

The objective remained simple: make services easier to understand and make the relationships between content clearer for both users and search systems.

Connecting the website to wider business activity:
The project also considered what happens after a visitor decides to make contact. HubSpot integration supports enquiry capture and tracking, connecting website activity directly to MCL's broader marketing efforts. The modular framework also provides a consistent foundation for publishing resources, developing service content and adding new case studies over time.

Behind the scenes, performance optimisation and Cloudflare implementation contributed to a faster, more secure website. Security enhancements included the implementation of HTTP response headers, helping the website achieve an A grade in the Security Headers assessment.

Together, these improvements addressed both sides of the challenge: the user experience people encounter on the website and the systems that support it behind the scenes.

What changed?
MCL now has a website built around clearer service pathways, better structured content and stronger visibility of its expertise. The headless WordPress platform provides a scalable framework for managing and expanding content as the organisation continues to grow.

The project combined technical SEO, content restructuring, design and development, supported by HubSpot integration for enquiry tracking and lead management. Rather than approaching each discipline separately, they were brought together around the needs of MCL and its audiences.

A complex service offering didn't require a more complex website. It required a clearer, more intuitive way for people to find, understand and act on the information that mattered most.