Website redesign record

The Solavelle redesign

Solavelle Health Resort. May 20 to June 25, 2026. SEO health 44 → 80.

SEO audit, website redesign and AI-assisted build · Client project, shown as Solavelle · 2026

A client project for a skilled nursing and rehabilitation resort in Miami, shown here as Solavelle so the client stays private. On May 20, 2026 I audited the old site with Claude Code's seo-audit skill: 44 out of 100, with no structured data and no meta description on any of its 107 pages, and about 20 theme-demo pages indexed. The next day I crawled and archived all 141 pages and 235 assets.

I rebuilt it in Astro with Claude Code from that archive, then built three directions, with the White one in English and Spanish for its Miami families. Re-scored on the same rubric on June 25, it reached 80, with every Critical and High audit item fixed. The redesign blueprint sets out the work in twelve parts: what I did, what I used and why.

I wrote the audit and action plan, a score-comparison report and a proposal in six revisions, each rendered to a branded PDF. In September I added a content model with Zod schemas, a Supabase database with row-level security and Vitest tests, preparing the site for an editor without changing what visitors see.

A real client project, shown as Solavelle so the client stays private. Dates, tools, counts and scores come from the original work's records.

Part 1 of 12

Research and planning

141 pages archived, audited at 44 out of 100

May 20, 2026
What I did
Ran a full SEO audit of the old site on a seven-category weighted rubric, with every finding ranked Critical, High, Medium or Low. It scored 44 out of 100.
What I used
Lighthouse, Chrome UX Report field data, Chrome DevTools, BeautifulSoup, Claude Code, Codex
Why
It turned the old site's problems into a ranked list of work and a baseline to prove the result.
May 21, 2026
What I did
Crawled and archived the whole old site, every page saved as HTML, text and metadata with its images, fonts and scripts: 141 pages and 235 assets.
What I used
Claude Code, Custom site-archive skill, Codex
Why
The rebuild took its copy and photos from the archive, and nothing the business had written was lost.

Part 2 of 12

Platform and build

WordPress replaced by a static Astro site

June 2, 2026
What I did
Replaced the WordPress site with a static Astro site: no CMS, no database and no plugins to patch.
What I used
Astro 5, @astrojs/sitemap, Claude Code, Codex
Why
There is far less to keep secure, the pages are faster, and hosting is simple.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Built three directions, White, Black and Gold, on one content structure, each with its own palette and type.
What I used
Astro layouts, CSS design tokens, Claude Code, Codex
Why
The client chooses a look without changing content or SEO.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Deployed each direction to its own Vercel address from one build, with a workflow that builds and deploys all three whenever the site changes.
What I used
Vercel, Deploy script, GitHub Actions, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Every change ships to every version the same way, with no manual step to forget.

Part 3 of 12

Pages and content

Ten focused pages, the junk cleared out

June 2, 2026
What I did
Cleared out the junk: about 20 theme-demo pages, three overlapping services listings, duplicate copies of pages, an admin author archive and a 27-post blog from 2017.
What I used
Crawl inventory, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Search engines spend their time on real pages, and pages stop competing with each other.
June 2 to 25, 2026
What I did
Built ten focused pages in each direction from the archive's own copy: home, facility, team, services, all services, rehabilitation, careers, contact, emergency rules and visitation.
What I used
Astro, Archived site content, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Families find care, see the facility and call in fewer clicks.
June 2, 2026
What I did
Checked every fact in the copy against the archive and the audit: the city in the address, the main phone line and the fax number each in its own place, and every team bio on its own page.
What I used
Archived site content, Audit contact data (NAP), Claude Code, Codex
Why
The same name, address and phone everywhere is a local-search factor, and every fact comes from the business itself.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Put trust signals on the home page: the accreditation and the Five-Star rating, with facts such as the bed count and the hours of therapy each day.
What I used
Trust-signal stats band, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Credibility for search engines (E-E-A-T) and reassurance for families.

Part 4 of 12

Visual design and experience

White, Black and Gold, three ways to look

June 25, 2026
What I did
Designed three directions from the brand: White, an editorial magazine look with Volume, Issue and Chapter markers in bronze on white; Black, in ivory and gold on near-black; and Gold, in gold and cream with emerald.
What I used
CSS design tokens, Google Fonts, Claude Code, Codex
Why
A distinctive, premium look in place of a stock theme, and three real choices for the client.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Placed the full logo in the header, the mobile menu and the footer, with a transparent footer logo on White and the white wordmark on Gold.
What I used
Brand logo files, CSS, Claude Code, Codex
Why
The brand reads clearly on every background.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Replaced the autoplay YouTube video with a four-slide photo hero: the headline over crossfading slides, with slide dots.
What I used
CSS, Claude Code, Codex
Why
The audit found the video setting DoubleClick advertising cookies the moment the home page opened, before any consent. The photo hero sends no video or ad requests and loads far faster.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Built a mobile drawer that slides in and closes with Escape or a tap outside, and a sticky top bar on every direction that carries the language switch.
What I used
CSS, JavaScript, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Most families browse on a phone, and the menu and the language stay one tap away.

Part 5 of 12

Language (English and Spanish)

The White direction in English and Spanish

June 25, 2026
What I did
Built the full Spanish site for the White direction: ten Spanish pages, with the services, the team and the testimonials translated, and a language switch.
What I used
Astro i18n routing, Bilingual content files, Claude Code, Codex
Why
The resort is a Miami business, and the site reaches the many Spanish-speaking families it serves.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Chose each visitor's language from the browser's own settings, tested in 15 scenarios.
What I used
navigator.languages, JavaScript, Claude Code, Codex
Why
A browser set to Spanish arrives in Spanish, without looking for a switch.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Linked every page to its twin with hreflang tags, x-default included, and sized the Spanish menu and headings so long words fit.
What I used
hreflang link tags, Locale-specific CSS, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Search engines can match each family with the right language, and long Spanish words fit.

Part 6 of 12

Search (SEO)

Its own title and description on every page

June 25, 2026
What I did
Gave every page, in both languages, its own title, description and canonical address, with Open Graph and Twitter card tags.
What I used
Astro layouts, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Clearer search snippets, more clicks, and clean previews when a page is shared.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Led the home page with a keyword title naming the care, skilled nursing and senior rehabilitation, and the city.
What I used
On-page SEO copywriting, Claude Code, Codex
Why
It tells Google exactly what the business is and where.
June 2 to 25, 2026
What I did
Produced a new robots.txt with a Sitemap line and no crawl delay, where the old one let a crawler read one page every 30 seconds, and generated a sitemap for each direction.
What I used
robots.txt, @astrojs/sitemap, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Search engines crawl the whole site quickly.

Part 7 of 12

Structured data

Structured data score 8 → 70

June 25, 2026
What I did
Added MedicalBusiness JSON-LD to every page of every direction: the name, postal address, map coordinates, medical specialty and area served.
What I used
JSON-LD (schema.org), Claude Code, Codex
Why
Search engines read the business's facts without guessing, which supports local results and the map pack.

Part 8 of 12

AI search

AI search score 30 → 82

June 2, 2026
What I did
Published llms.txt, a plain summary of the business and its care for AI assistants.
What I used
llms.txt, Claude Code, Codex
Why
AI assistants can read an accurate summary of the business.
June 2, 2026
What I did
Set explicit allow rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot in robots.txt.
What I used
robots.txt, Claude Code, Codex
Why
The named AI crawlers are allowed to read the whole site.

Part 9 of 12

Speed

Images score 25 → 92

June 2 to 25, 2026
What I did
Rebuilt the site as static pages, without the WordPress theme, its sliders and plugins, or the autoplay video that made more than 50 third-party requests on the home page.
What I used
Astro static build, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Faster pages keep visitors from waiting: Performance went from 72 to 85.
June 2, 2026
What I did
Ran every content image through one pipeline: WebP, responsive sizes, and a width and height on every image. The badges went from 96 kB to 3 kB, and the photographs came out 50 to 75% smaller.
What I used
Astro image pipeline, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Faster loading and no layout shift as the page arrives.

Part 10 of 12

Accessibility

Skip link, labels and focus on every page

June 25, 2026
What I did
Built to the WCAG 2.1 AA basics: a skip link, a main landmark, labeled form fields, a titled map, visible keyboard focus and pinch zoom allowed.
What I used
Semantic HTML, ARIA labels, CSS focus styles, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Easier for older visitors and for keyboard and screen-reader users.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Wrote alt text for the images and turned the motion off for visitors who ask for reduced motion.
What I used
Alt attributes, prefers-reduced-motion, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Screen readers describe the photographs, and motion-sensitive visitors get a still page.

Part 11 of 12

Privacy and security

No ad cookies or video trackers on load

June 25, 2026
What I did
Removed the autoplay YouTube hero, and with it the DoubleClick advertising cookies and the third-party requests it fired the moment the home page opened.
What I used
Self-hosted image slider, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Visitors are not tracked by an ad network for opening the home page.
June 2, 2026
What I did
Replaced WordPress with static files: no login page, no database, no plugins, and no server or CMS version announced in the page.
What I used
Astro static build, Claude Code, Codex
Why
It removes the most common ways a small business's site is attacked.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Served every page over HTTPS with HSTS.
What I used
Vercel, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Browsers are told to connect only over HTTPS.

Part 12 of 12

Testing and proof

Re-scored 44 → 80 on the same rubric

June 25, 2026
What I did
Re-scored the White build on the same seven-category rubric: 44 to 80, with every Critical and High finding resolved.
What I used
Seven-category SEO rubric, Claude Code, Codex
Why
An apples-to-apples result the client and the portfolio can stand behind.
June 25, 2026
What I did
Tested the browser-language choice in 15 scenarios and ran a dry build of each direction, checking its pages and its sitemap, before deploying.
What I used
Automated QA scripts, Staging builds, Claude Code, Codex
Why
Problems are caught before the client sees them.

Out of 100, by category, from the audit to the re-score
Category	Weight	Before	After
Technical SEO	25%	58	80
Content	25%	42	74
On-page SEO	20%	40	88
Structured data	10%	8	70
Performance	10%	72	85
Images	5%	25	92
AI search	5%	30	82
Overall	100%	44	80

Scores use the audit's seven-category SEO rubric (Technical 25%, Content 25%, On-page 20%, Structured data 10%, Performance 10%, Images 5%, AI search 5%). It is not a Google score.

Measurements

Every one
Critical and High audit findings resolved
Recorded in part 12, Testing and proof
Every page
Pages with their own title and description
Recorded in part 6, Search (SEO)
~~Before: 96 kB~~ After: 3 kB
Badge images
Recorded in part 9, Speed
50 to 75% smaller
Photographs, after the image pipeline
Recorded in part 9, Speed
~~Before: One page every 30 seconds~~ After: None
Crawl delay in robots.txt
Recorded in part 6, Search (SEO)

Before and after

The before is each page of the old site as its crawl archive recorded it, rendered from its own HTML, CSS and fonts with the client's identity replaced: the layout, type and colors are the original's, faults included. The after is the redesigned page, captured from the live demo.

Home

The old home page autoplayed a YouTube video in its hero on every visit, which set cookies before visitors agreed. The redesign has no video and makes no third-party requests on load.

Home, after — Home · archived May 21, 2026 · captured October 24, 2026

Our Facility

General Services

The old page, like every page of the old site, had no meta description and no structured data; the redesign gives every page a title, a description and structured data.

General Services, after — General Services · archived May 21, 2026 · captured October 24, 2026

Rehabilitation

Careers

Contact

Live demos

I designed three directions on one content structure: White, an editorial layout with magazine-style numbered inner pages, and Black and Gold, which change the type, atmosphere and emphasis over the same content.

For this showcase I directed a new identity, Solavelle: a flowing S symbol with a serif wordmark and a widely spaced descriptor, in full, light and icon versions.

Client privacy

Solavelle is a showcase identity that keeps the client private: the client's name, logo, copy, photographs and contact details are replaced, while the dates, tools, counts and scores are the original project's own.

Where the figures come from

Scores use the audit's seven-category SEO rubric. It is not a Google score, and it measures the site itself, not search rankings, traffic or inquiries.
The live demos carry the Solavelle showcase identity, with replacement copy and photographs. The scores and measurements above come from the original client build, re-scored on June 25, 2026, not from the demos.
The before captures rebuild the archived pages from their own HTML, CSS and fonts with the client's identity replaced, so their copy and photographs are not the original's; their layout, type and colors are.
The audit reports, proposals and other client records are private, so none is published or offered for download here.

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