Trend Group - A Website That Finally Matched the Quality of the Interiors Behind It

Trend Group is South Africa's leading office interior design and fitout company. Their website wasn't communicating that. We rebuilt it - modernising the structure, improving the mobile experience, and delivering a platform that reflects the precision and aesthetic that defines their work.

The Brief

Trend Group is South Africa’s leading design and project implementation company, specialising in office interior design, refurbishments, and upgrades across the full fitout process. Their work spans some of South Africa’s most recognisable commercial interiors.

Trend Group came to RubyWeb via Ruby Digital, who manages their ongoing SEO, with a brief to modernise and upgrade their global website. The priority was a contemporary, intuitive, and visually polished platform that clearly communicated the Trend Group service offering and reflected the standard of their interior design work.

The Challenge

A website redevelopment for a client with active SEO carries a specific risk: organic traffic typically drops after a site is rebuilt, even when everything is done correctly. For a client investing in SEO, managing this transition carefully is critical.

The existing site also failed to communicate what Trend Group actually does clearly and intuitively. Visitors needed to work to understand the offering. On mobile, the experience was worse.

  • Existing site failed to communicate the Trend Group offering clearly - visitors had to work to understand the services
  • Poor mobile experience for a business where clients research and shortlist on all devices
  • Navigation was not structured to guide users through the service range intuitively
  • Active SEO campaign meant traffic continuity through the rebuild was a primary technical constraint
  • Site needed to reflect the visual quality and precision that Trend Group's interior design work represents
  • Content structure needed to be rebuilt around how clients think about fitout decisions

Our Approach

We managed the site migration with SEO continuity as the primary technical constraint from day one. URL mapping, redirect strategy, and metadata transfer were all planned before development began.

The design process started with the service offering – understanding how Trend Group’s clients think about interior design and fitout decisions, and building a content structure that matched that thinking.

Architecture & UX Decisions

Navigation was restructured around the client journey – from the initial brief through design, project management, and fitout delivery. Service information was organised to guide a visitor through the process naturally.

The visual design was built to reflect Trend Group’s aesthetic – clean, precise, and sophisticated. High-quality project imagery was positioned prominently, letting the work itself communicate the quality of the business. Mobile responsiveness was treated as a primary requirement.

The Build

The core deliverable was a modernised, responsive WordPress website with clear service navigation, visual quality aligned to the Trend Group brand, and a managed migration that protected active SEO performance. Key deliverables included:

  • Full WordPress website redesign and redevelopment
  • Restructured service navigation aligned to the client decision journey
  • High-quality project imagery integration for visual showcasing of fitout work
  • Mobile-first responsive layout across all page types
  • SEO-managed migration – URL mapping, redirect strategy, and metadata transfer planned before development
  • Clear calls-to-action and contact pathways throughout the site
  • Content restructured around client-facing language rather than internal service categories
  • Performance optimisation for fast load times across devices

The Outcome

The rebuilt Trend Group website delivers a modern, responsive experience that works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Navigation is clear. The service offering is communicated intuitively. The visual quality of the site reflects the standard of the work Trend Group delivers.

The SEO migration was managed without measurable disruption to organic performance – protecting the investment Ruby Digital had built in the ongoing campaign.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Google re-evaluates a site when it detects significant changes. Even with a better site, rankings can temporarily soften while this happens. We prevent it through pre-migration URL mapping, redirect implementation, metadata transfer, and post-launch monitoring to catch unexpected drops early.
By structuring content around how the client thinks, not how the business is organised internally. Navigation and content that matches the client's mental model creates a more intuitive path to contact.
Increasingly so. Decision-makers research suppliers on all devices. A site that performs poorly on mobile sends a signal about the business behind it before any conversation has happened.
By leading with the work. High-quality imagery of completed projects, presented in a clean layout that does not compete with the content, lets the quality speak for itself.
Pre-migration URL mapping of every existing page, redirect rules built and tested before go-live, metadata transferred to new pages, XML sitemap updated, and post-launch monitoring.
By grouping services around outcomes and client challenges rather than internal product categories. The result is a structure that a potential client can navigate intuitively.