Case studies · 6 min read
A Huddersfield redesign where the small details compounded
Inside the Hat-Tricks website redesign: what changed, and why it adds up.
The short answer
The Hat-Tricks website redesign rebuilt the site around the brand and around one clear action: get in touch or book. We put personality back into the design, made the key details impossible to miss on a phone, and laid down local search foundations so people searching in Huddersfield can actually find the business.
By Raja Wahab, Co-founder, Fixby Studios · Published · Updated · 6 min read
What Hat-Tricks needed
The brief for the Hat-Tricks website redesign was simple to say and easy to get wrong in practice: look like the real place, and make booking or enquiring obvious. Many local businesses over-complicate a redesign when the actual job is to prove you're real, show what you offer, and give visitors one clear next step.
Before the redesign, the site wasn't doing that job. It looked generic rather than like the business behind it, and there wasn't one obvious action for a visitor to take once they landed. Instead, attention was split between several competing links and a design that could have belonged to almost any business, in any town.
That gap between how a business feels in person and how its website looks online is a common one. A visitor who has heard good things about a place, then lands on a bland, templated site, often comes away less confident than before they looked it up.
Before
- — Unclear next step
- — Slow on mobile
- — No consistent local details
After
- — Clear, single call to action
- — Fast on mobile data
- — Consistent local search details
What we changed
| Area | Before | After the redesign |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Generic, stock-template feel | Brand-led, bolder type and real photography |
| Primary action | No single clear next step | Booking or enquiry on every screen |
| Layout priority | Desktop-first | Mobile designed first, since most local traffic is a phone |
| Speed | Heavier pages | Lighter pages, compressed images, fewer unnecessary scripts |
| Search foundations | Inconsistent business details | Consistent details, structured data, Huddersfield-focused pages |
Brand-led design
We used bolder type and real photography of the actual premises and people, so the site matches the in-person experience instead of reading like a stock template borrowed from anywhere. That consistency matters more than most business owners expect: a visitor who has seen a place in person, or on social media, should recognise the same business when they land on the website.
One primary action
Booking or enquiry now sits on every screen, so nobody has to go hunting for a contact page. That sounds like a small change, but it's usually the single biggest lever in a redesign: removing the guesswork about what to do next.
Mobile as the main design, not an afterthought
The majority of local traffic arrives on a phone, in one hand, often while someone is walking or between other things. The phone layout was designed first, rather than the more common approach of designing for desktop and squeezing the result down afterwards.
How the site works now
A redesign isn't about a new coat of paint. It's about deciding what the single most valuable action on your site is, then removing everything that competes with it. For Hat-Tricks, that action is booking or enquiring, so it's the thing that stays visible wherever someone is on the site, on any device.
Underneath that, the local SEO groundwork means the business details on the site match the Google Business Profile exactly, structured data marks up the business properly, and the pages are written around how people in Huddersfield actually search, rather than generic marketing language.
[ADD REAL EXAMPLE: booking or enquiry volume once available] would be useful proof here, but we're not going to invent a number we can't stand behind.
Why the details compounded
None of the individual changes in the Hat-Tricks website redesign is dramatic on its own. A faster page, a tappable phone number, one consistent set of business details — each is a small fix. Together they add up to a site that stops losing people at every step, which is usually worth more than any single flashy feature.
It's also worth being honest about what a redesign can't do on its own. A better website won't fix a business with no reviews or an inconsistent Google Business Profile. It works best as one part of a wider local presence, alongside the reviews, the listing and the social content that bring people to the site in the first place.
What another Huddersfield business can take from this
If you're weighing up a redesign, start by writing down the one action you most want a visitor to take. Then look at your current site and count how many things compete with it: multiple buttons, a buried contact page, a phone number nobody can tap. Everything that isn't the main action is a distraction from it.
- Say what that one action is in a single sentence — if you can't, that's the first thing to fix.
- Design the phone layout first, since most local searches happen on mobile.
- Use real photography of your actual premises and work, not stock imagery.
- Keep your business name, address and phone number identical across your site and your Google Business Profile.
- Check your site's speed on your own phone with Wi-Fi off, since that's closer to what most visitors experience.
This is the same principle whether you run a barbershop in Huddersfield, a trades business in Kirklees, or a shop in Halifax or Dewsbury: a redesign should make one thing obvious, not add more things to choose from.
Considering a redesign of your own?
We can tell you honestly whether your site needs a full redesign or a handful of fixes. Email info@fixbystudios.co.uk or call 07737 067552.
Your questions
- How do you decide what to change in a website redesign?
- We start with the one action the site should drive, whether that's a booking, a call or an enquiry, then design every page around making that action obvious and quick.
- Does a redesign need to change the whole brand?
- Not necessarily. For Hat-Tricks it meant matching the site's look to the real, in-person experience rather than replacing the brand — a redesign can be about clarity and speed as much as visuals.
- Why design for mobile first rather than desktop?
- Most local searches and bookings happen on a phone, so designing the phone layout first, rather than shrinking a desktop design down, usually gives a better result for the traffic you actually get.
- How long does a website redesign like this take?
- Most small business redesigns in Huddersfield take two to four weeks, depending on how quickly content, photos and feedback come back.
- What does a redesign cost?
- Fixby builds are available on monthly plans with no upfront build fee (see our monthly plans at /plans), from a basic site to a premium build, or a fully-loaded build with booking and selling features.
Raja Wahab is co-founder of Fixby Studios, a Huddersfield studio building websites, SEO, social media and business software for small, owner-managed businesses across West Yorkshire.
Next step
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Fixby Studios builds websites, runs SEO and manages social media for small businesses across Huddersfield and West Yorkshire. Website redesign in Huddersfield
Prefer to talk it through? Contact Fixby Studios, email info@fixbystudios.co.uk or call 07737 067552.
