Cara had the craft. Her Heiness had the brief. And me? I had the strategy, the design eye, and the dev chops. I rebuilt Cara Smith’s digital presence from the soil up—pairing a sleek, custom WordPress build with high-impact SEO that finally aligned with the level of her work. The result? A quietly powerful site that converts with confidence and calm authority.
Industry: Landscape Architecture & Garden Design
Location: South Africa
Website: www.carasmithdesign.com
01
The challenge
When Her Heiness brought me in, it was clear that Cara Smith’s old website had reached the end of its gardening life cycle. We’re talking digital weeds: outdated visuals, stale content, a confusing structure, and zero alignment with how Cara actually works today – strategically, intentionally, and at a very high level.
The site wasn’t converting, wasn’t ranking, and frankly, wasn’t representing the world-class calibre of her design studio. Cara needed a digital presence that spoke directly to her ideal client: discerning homeowners and estate managers looking for bespoke garden design with architectural precision and timeless elegance.
In short? The old site had to go. We needed a brand-new experience: one rooted in beauty and performance.
02
The solution
I was tasked with leading the entire transformation, from strategy, design, development, to SEO, from the ground up. This wasn’t just about making something pretty. It was about clarity, confidence, and conversions.
Strategic SEO Foundation
First, we tackled the foundation: SEO. I carried out a full audit of the old site, reviewed competitors, keyword gaps, and regional search trends. Then I mapped out a targeted SEO strategy that would increase visibility for high-value keywords like garden design London, landscape designer Surrey, and modern English garden design—ensuring Cara showed up where it mattered most. Every page was crafted with SEO baked in from the start—clean heading structures, metadata optimisation, semantic markup, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness. This was not an afterthought. It was the backbone of the entire build.
Elevated Brand Identity
The Cara Smith brand deserved better than generic templates and placeholder stock images. I designed a custom digital aesthetic that mirrored the tactile beauty of her work—earthy elegance, crisp white space, and soft accent tones to evoke a sense of calm, precision, and trust.
Every design decision was intentional: minimalist typography to let the imagery breathe, grounded layouts that echoed natural flow, and just enough negative space to feel high-end but approachable. It looks good. But more importantly, it feels right.
Full Custom Design & Development
I designed and developed a fully custom WordPress site, tailored to Cara’s workflow and long-term vision. This wasn’t a drag-and-drop job—it was hand-coded where it mattered, modular where it counted, and flexible enough for growth. The site includes:
- A beautifully curated homepage that leads with storytelling, not just services
- An elegant project portfolio with filterable categories and immersive visuals
- A service structure that clearly outlines her process and expertise
- A contact experience that’s simple, professional, and friction-free
Everything is responsive, lightweight, and lightning-fast. Because a beautiful site means nothing if it takes 10 seconds to load.
Designed to Convert (Quietly)
This audience doesn’t respond to loud calls-to-action. They’re thoughtful, design-savvy, and expect subtlety. I designed the site to guide, not shout—using persuasive microcopy, subtle scroll cues, and a natural content hierarchy that nudges without needing neon buttons.
It’s a conversion-focused experience that doesn’t feel “salesy”—it feels considered. Because that’s how Cara works, too.
03
The Outcome
Cara Smith Landscape Design now has a website that’s calm, confident, and completely aligned with the studio’s elevated brand positioning. The SEO foundation ensures she’s visible to the right clients in the right locations, while the design sets the tone from the very first scroll: professional, bespoke, and built to last.
More importantly, Cara now has a website she’s proud to share. It reflects her craft, her ethos, and the kind of design-led service her studio is known for.
04
Client Feedback
“As an extended family member of our team, Christina has managed to do it again! Our client needed a website to reflect their new brand identity and business ethos. The brief was to create a premium website that was simple, yet elegant, focusing on showcasing our clients incredible body of work. Through the power of collaboration, Christina was able to flawlessly execute and deliver a new website that compliments and supports this new chapter for our client. Thank you, Christina! Until the next one!”
Heine Bunge, CEO and Founder
Have a project in mind? Share your story and let's create something great together.