The Village at Incarnate Word
How a redesigned website can support mission, growth, development, recruitment, and community trust.
Rich in tradition. Devoted to care. Together in community.
The website is not the project. The organization’s goals are the project.
Five decisions before design
The site should express the mission and advance the plan.
Four institutional goals. One public-facing platform.
Mission
Extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ to all those served.
Vision
Become the leading senior living resource center in San Antonio.
A modern website should be a strategic platform, not a brochure.
Build trust
Help visitors feel confidence before they ever call.
Guide decisions
Answer the questions families and residents already have.
Invite action
Turn interest into tours, inquiries, gifts, applications, and visits.
Support staff
Make content easier to maintain and marketing easier to measure.
Different visitors need different paths.
Prospective residents
Can I picture myself here? What options fit my needs?
Adult children
Can I trust this place with someone I love?
Donors
What impact does giving make?
Job seekers
What is it like to work here?
Volunteers
Where can I serve and how do I start?
Partners & community
How can The Village be a resource beyond campus?
The site should reduce uncertainty and create clear next steps.
Need
“We may need help soon.”
Explore
Services, lifestyle, care levels, costs, faith, values.
Trust
Stories, outcomes, leadership, history, evidence.
Compare
What makes The Village meaningfully different?
Act
Schedule, inquire, apply, donate, volunteer.
There is real audience demand. The question is whether the site is turning it into progress.
The front door is not the homepage.
Residential Living receives nearly twice as many landing sessions as the homepage.
The website is supporting several different missions simultaneously.
Residential Living
Prospective residents and families evaluating fit. 31,210 sessions
In-Home Care
Families looking for practical support and trust. 2,039 sessions
Employment
Job seekers deciding whether this is a place to serve. 1,051 sessions
Volunteering
Community members looking for meaningful ways to help. 397 sessions
Support the Village
Donors looking for mission, impact, and confidence. 464 sessions
Navigation Question
Should the site reflect the org chart or visitors' goals?
The highest-quality visitors are arriving through organic search.
Engagement rate
Organic Search: 58.8%
Paid Search: 26.4%
Average engagement
Organic Search: 81 sec
Paid Search: 24 sec
Organic visitors engage 3.3x longer than paid search visitors.
Mobile is the front door. Desktop is the research tool.
We measure traffic, but not outcomes.
Key events tracked: 0
Tour requests
Are prospective residents taking the next step?
Contact forms
Are visitors turning interest into inquiry?
Job applications
Is the site supporting recruiting goals?
Volunteer inquiries
Is community engagement becoming action?
Donations
Is mission interest becoming financial support?
Success metrics
What should the website be accountable for, and what is a tour worth?
People arrive through different roads. Some roads are missing.
Where a redesign can create leverage
Clarify the story
Support repositioning and rebrand work — mission, care, and differentiation understandable in seconds, not minutes.
Simplify audience paths
Serve campus services and community outreach — from Residential Living to events, partners, and resource beyond campus.
Strengthen conversion
Make tours, inquiries, gifts, applications, and volunteer interest visible — and measurable against plan goals.
Create a marketing foundation
Activate blog and event content, support Speaker Series and Legacy Series, and connect search, social, and campaigns.
The platform should make the strategy easier to sustain.
Easy to update
Staff can keep pages, events, stories, and calls-to-action current.
Fast & reliable
Strong performance, uptime, backups, and security.
Search-friendly
Clear structure, metadata, schema, and indexable content.
Accessible
Designed for older adults, families, staff, and assistive technologies.
Flexible
Can support campaigns, landing pages, giving, jobs, events, and future services.
Measurable
Analytics connect content and campaigns to meaningful actions.
A redesigned site needs an operating model.
Ownership
Who approves resident-life updates, giving content, job content, and service pages?
Cadence
What should be reviewed monthly, quarterly, and annually?
Governance
How do we protect brand, voice, accessibility, and accuracy?
Measurement
What actions matter enough to track and discuss?
Questions worth answering together
Move from redesign discussion to strategic website plan.
1. Discovery
Goals, audiences, stakeholder interviews, content review.
2. Strategy
Information architecture, conversion paths, content priorities.
3. Design
Visual direction, page patterns, mobile experience.
4. Build
CMS, integrations, analytics, QA, accessibility.
5. Launch + improve
Training, measurement, content cadence, ongoing optimization.
A successful redesign is not just a better website. It is a clearer public expression of mission, trust, and invitation.
Once the strategic direction is clear, the technology choices become much easier.
What a CMS demo should prove
- Staff can update content without touching design.
- Structured content can be reused across the site.
- Approvals and roles can protect accuracy and brand quality.
- The front end can be fast, accessible, and search-friendly.
- The platform can evolve as programs, campaigns, and audiences change.