Optimizing the Umbraco-Based Corporate Portal for a Sixfold Decrease in Page Loading Time
- IndustryReal estate
- Solution Umbraco
Challenge
The Client faced several challenges with their Umbraco-based news portal. The page loading time was notably slow at 5.5 seconds. Despite being responsive, the website experienced functionality issues on mobile devices, leading to a poor user experience. Moreover, visitors using different web browsers frequently left the website due to compatibility problems. Also, the lack of multi-language support was a significant shortcoming.
Solution
Following our successful collaboration in modernizing The Instant Group’s Real-Estate Marketplace based on Sitecore, the Client re-engaged SaM Solutions to enhance their corporate news portal powered by Umbraco. Our dedicated team, comprising back-end and front-end developers as well as a QA engineer, took charge of this project, adopting an Agile approach that involved releasing frequent updates.
Refactoring and migration to React
The initial phase involved a thorough analysis of the website’s codebase and architecture, which revealed a heavy dependence on outdated, inefficient technologies. Consequently, the decision was made to undertake a comprehensive refactoring of the solution.
After enhancing the back end, the team transitioned the user interface from jQuery to a modern React framework, ensuring the preservation of the essential business logic. This included implementing server-side rendering using React, WebPack, and TypeScript for optimal performance.
UI audit and optimization
The Client also requested a full website redesign, so our team was complemented by a UI/UX designer. The process included a content structure and user interface audit, followed by the development and implementation of a new website design concept.
During the audit, our specialists uncovered the use of oversized, unoptimized images, leading to a significant decrease in the website’s page loading speed. To address this issue, SaM Solutions’ team automated the conversion of all existing images to WebP format and developed a plugin for Umbraco for image uploads.
Migration to Umbraco 8 and back-end optimization
This upgrade involved content migration, structural optimizations to the content tree, updates to the code logic, introduction of a new search mechanism and functionality, and implementation of essential redirects. Additionally, upon the Client’s request, our team developed a marketing analytics module and integrated the website with Salesforce CRM.
Multi-language support
Originally, the corporate portal featured separate versions in US and UK English, each with nearly identical content structures. The Client aimed to add more language versions, but this was challenging due to Umbraco 7 limitations. Migration to Umbraco 8 enabled enhanced multi-language support.
Toolbox
Success
As a result of collaboration, our team:
- Implemented an Umbraco 8-based corporate portal with a powerful set of new features.
- Revamped the website design to enhance user engagement.
- Dramatically reduced page load time from 5.5 to 0.9 seconds.
- Resolved compatibility issues across different browsers and mobile devices.
- Expanded the website’s reach by adding four new language versions due to Umbraco 8 powerful multi-language support.
The Instant Group continues to partner with SaM Solutions for the ongoing development and enhancement of their websites.
