Weekly Progress Update: Countertops Contractors (10.23.2024)

Another week has flown by, and we managed to accomplish a lot, though not everything we had planned. During this sprint, we made significant progress in improving our product and its functionality, wrote exclusive content, advanced in analytics and social media. Plus, we hired two new team members: one for the development team and another for the analytics department. This is great news because with such a professional team, all our plans will surely come to life!

Now, let’s move on to our traditional weekly report.

Work on updating the system and design of countertopscontractors.com

We’ve finally decided on the frontend technology we will use to update the site’s design. Initially, we considered using React for the new version, but after discussions, we opted for classic HTML and CSS. This decision was made because our backend is based on PHP, and we’re not ready for React just yet. Moreover, this will help us shorten the development time for the new site version.

After weeks of searching for a frontend developer, we finally found one! He has already started working, and in the next two weeks, we plan to update key site pages, such as the listings and company profiles. The new design will allow users to instantly see company ratings and key information, which we believe will improve their experience on our site.

We also abandoned the idea of releasing an interim version of the company profile page that had already been designed by our team. Due to the long search for a frontend developer, this task became irrelevant, and we decided to focus on the new site version to meet our deadlines.

Instead of tweaking the old version, we started creating a new API system that will meet our updated requirements. This will speed up the adaptation of the new design and functionality, while also improving page load times. Work on the new API is already underway and should be completed during the current sprint.

New concept for the homepage

Our designer is actively working on the new homepage version. Some of you may wonder: “Why are the listings and company profile pages being updated first, while the homepage isn’t ready yet?” The answer is simple: our priority is user convenience and showcasing company ratings. We can tell everyone how great we are later, but I believe we’ll be ready to unveil the new homepage at launch.

We continue to improve the design and functionality of the site. Alongside the visual updates, we’re speeding up data collection to ensure we have an up-to-date contractor ranking supported by a high-quality interface by November.

Progress in analytics and new challenges

This week, our analyst Ann did a huge amount of work by reviewing data for new cities. Ann relies on data collected by Maya, our secret shopper, who requests pricing from companies. This method allows us to gather objective data and improve the accuracy of our rankings.

• Thorough data verification: All the prices and information gathered by Maya were checked and structured for writing articles. This crucial step ensures that we provide reliable and high-quality materials to our users.
• New cities: Ann prepared several new cities for articles, each of which was carefully reviewed. This will allow us to expand our rankings and cover more regions.
• Challenges of the week: Some cities didn’t pass the first review and had to be sent back for further clarification and additional data requests. This routine work is essential, as it helps maintain the accuracy and objectivity of our rankings.

Weekly challenges

Unfortunately, our secret shopper won’t be able to complete calls to all the contractors by mid-November. To speed up the process and avoid delays in publishing our rankings, we decided to hire another employee. We’ve already found the candidate, who will start on October 29 after training.

Social media stability and traffic growth

This week, our SMM manager, Vikki, maintained steady progress, even as we await new designs for social media.

Despite temporary constraints, Vikki managed to handle several important tasks:

• Photo selection for promotion: Over the week, a large number of high-quality photos were collected for companies we promote on our platforms. These images are actively posted to our Pinterest account, which continues to deliver results — traffic is growing, and we couldn’t be more pleased!
• Working on Instagram Reels: Work on creating Reels continues. We feature top companies in the videos, which helps draw attention to our rankings and the best countertop manufacturers.
• Content plan update: We’ve decided to use the articles written by our copywriter for social media promotion, which will add more work, but we’re confident it will pay off in the long run.

Site publications and exclusive article on Substack

This week, our copywriter Alice continued working on articles about countertop prices in different cities. She completed 7 articles in the past week.

We continue to grow our Substack blog and published our second article, where we analyze whether high countertop prices always guarantee better quality. We spent more than a week working on the article and conducted a deep analysis of 30 of the most expensive companies in our ranking. The results were surprising. If you're curious about which companies charge such high prices for countertops, be sure to check out our exclusive content on Substack!

Conclusion

With every update, our service becomes more user-friendly and effective. We aim to make it easy for every user to find a reliable contractor based on accurate data. The COCO team continues to grow with top talent, which means there are many more improvements ahead. Stay with us to keep up with new changes and be informed of all updates!