HDL Group: A MODX Website Case Study in Vancouver, Canada

Mar 25, 2012

As a business grows from small to medium-sized and beyond, its web presence needs to grow with it. In this Internet-based economy, a website and associated online assets are fast becoming significant contributors to any company's valuation.

Business Growth and MODX CMS

One of the key benefits of using MODX as a web development platform is scalability: MODX is equally adept at handling tiny brochure sites to massive, dynamic, database-driven sites.

HDL Group is an example of a business that, although not in the "massive" category yet, has seen it's website requirements grow over time. All along the way, MODX made the necessary changes easy to implement.

From small...

In the beginning, hdlgroup.ca was a brochure site built in MODX Evolution for a small construction company in Vancouver, Canada. The design intent was to focus on high quality images, while letting promotional copy play a support role in the minimalistic layout. 

However, as the company grew, one of its business strategies was to split up into distinct "divisions", one for each vertical of contracting work: new construction, renovations, kitchen & bath, handyman services and decks. Each division would have its own website, a unique top-level domain, and a unique colour scheme. Everything else - logo, web page layout, etc would remain consistent with the "parent" company. 

MODX Revolution Contexts

This is where MODX Revolution and Contexts really shines. An easy upgrade to Revolution allowed the separate divisions to be managed in the same back-end via MODX Contexts. Templates and many of the Chunks, Snippets and other elements could be shared across all divisions, while the colour scheme was handled with site-specific CSS Resources.

...to Medium and Beyond!

Fast-forward to present-day, and HDL Group has become an award-winning leader in their local residential renovation market. But greater revenue and recognition does not mean one can rest on one's laurels as far as web presence is concerned. The level of competition for search engine results pages (SERPs) grows more and more fierce every day. Recognizing that fact, HDL Group elected to pursue content marketing and search engine optimization to help make their website a more effective part of their overall marketing strategy.

Incredibly, MODX came to the rescue once again! The brand-new MODX Revolution version 2.2 and the Articles Blogging Software makes producing and organizing large amounts of dynamic content a total breeze. 

Without sacrificing any of MODX's powerful templating abilities, Articles makes blogging in MODX just as easy as any other Content Management System. In fact, with an unparalleled capability to manage user permissions, and top-notch security built right-in, MODX is arguably the most powerful, secure and easy to use web platform in the world.

If that wasn't obvious to you already - just ask HDL Group :)

MODX 2.2 and Articles Blogging Engine