Website Design
Catholic Diocese of Cairns
The Catholic Diocese of Cairns covers a broad and diverse region in Far North Queensland, stretching from Cardwell in the south, west across the Tablelands to the Northern Territory border, and north to Cape York and the Torres Strait Islands. The Diocese oversees 23 parishes and parish clusters, along with 27 schools and colleges across three deaneries.
Forte Marketing worked with the Diocese to redesign and rebuild its website following their rebrand. The previous site was outdated, difficult to maintain, and unable to support the organisation’s growing digital needs.
The goal of the new website was to introduce a completely restructured information architecture and sitemap, supported by a modern CMS that enables flexibility, performance, and long-term growth. The project focused on improving usability, accessibility, and consistency with the Diocese’s new visual identity, creating a digital platform that better serves its communities across the region.
Move the slider to compare the before and after.
The Challenge
The Diocese’s previous website posed several issues, especially regarding content management and flexibility. Since it was built on a customised CMS, it was hard to maintain, expand, or adapt to new requirements. Layouts were limited, and uploading or updating content needed technical support. The redevelopment involved transferring a large amount of existing content, including news articles and key diocesan documents, while focusing on delivering a seamless user experience, particularly within the “Find a Mass” feature that serves communities across the region.
Information Architecture
As a key step in our web development process, we took a deep look into the website navigation and content architecture, examining not only existing pain points but also best practices, user behaviour insights from Google Analytics, and feedback from key stakeholders.
- Introduced a standardised set of page templates to ensure a consistent and intuitive user experience.
- Implemented a refined navigation structure to help users find key information quickly and easily.
- Developed custom post types to simplify content management while maintaining a cohesive front-end presentation.
- Streamlined access levels, allowing authorised users to upload and manage only content relevant to their roles, improving both security and workflow.
The Solution
We delivered a modern, accessible, and high-performance website designed to support the Diocese’s diverse communities, making content management simple and efficient for administrators.
Optimised performance
Through a combination of web best practices, advanced compression techniques, and a custom cloud-based hosting solution, we significantly improved loading times across the site. The result was a consistently fast, secure, and accessible platform, with top scores in performance, SEO, and overall technical standards.
Flexible, efficient visual builder
We customised a visual builder component that allows content administrators to add and edit content easily while ensuring compliance and performance.
Multi-language website
We developed a multi-language functionality that automatically adapts content for users in real time. Behind the scenes, this is achieved through dynamic content translation and caching techniques, enabling visitors to view pages in their preferred language seamlessly.
Parish search engine
Implemented a custom parish search functionality that allows visitors to find the closest mass times and parishes around the region. It included a custom integration with Google Maps Platform API and used an improved navigation structure to facilitate content discovery on both desktop and mobile.
Ongoing hosting and maintenance
We provide ongoing support and management to maintain website performance and security.
Donations system
The website features a secure and user-friendly donation platform that connects directly with the Diocese’s existing payment gateway.
Fully responsive design
With a high number of users using mobile devices within the Diocese’s target area, we focused our efforts to ensure a mobile-friendly experience.
Let's get to work
If you want your next web development initiative to be part of your success story, we’d love to hear from you. If you have a project in mind, but aren’t sure where to start, you can book a one hour free consultation with our team.
