For organizations with diversified business operations, there are pros and cons to operating multiple websites. On the pros side, you get to give each website its own personality, with its own branding and distinct domain name. On the cons side, you’re stuck managing multiple websites with multiple back-ends and codebases, which can be complicated and expensive.
Fortunately, we have an innovative way to reap the rewards of multiple sites without the drawbacks. We recently implemented this unique solution for one of our longstanding clients, Childress Klein.
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Childress Klein is one of the largest commercial and industrial real estate developers in the southeastern United States. The company possesses assets in excess of $3 billion, and a development portfolio of over 56.6 million square feet, with particularly large footprints in Charlotte and Atlanta.
In 2019, Chapter Three rebuilt Childress Klein’s main website into a high-performance, fast-loading site with big, bold images centered on the company’s three pillars: people, project expertise, and properties.
Microsites to Spotlight Individual Properties
Childress Klein was very happy with our work on their main site and wanted to create an additional feature. With numerous properties to showcase, they needed a platform for easy-to-launch, easy-to-maintain microsites, each dedicated to a specific property. Each microsite would have its own url, navigation, logo, fonts, and color palette. They wanted to easily create each Spotlight microsite themselves, and streamline their maintenance with a single back-end platform and a codebase.
Requirements for these microsites included:
- A component-based system for creating new page templates for homepages, galleries/video archives, maps, “postcards” (spotlights), video grids, calls to action, and staff contact directories
- Functional elements including downloads, news sections, and sortable availability lists
- The ability to change background color, fonts, and other branding elements by site
- The ability to create unique URLs and navigation structures for each site
We recently launched a microsite for the Rexford SouthPark property and we will launch a second site, CK Parking, shortly. Going forward, Childress Klein will be able to handle all aspects of microsite production themselves.
Our Approach: Domain Access
We used the Domain (Access) module along with custom theme settings, to allow multiple domains to share a single codebase. Users, content and configurations can be shared across all domains, though each domain can display its own content and set of settings like colors, custom fonts, etc. Each domain can also have its own menus, blocks and user permissions, as needed. Content can be restricted to a specific domain, or made accessible across all domains. The Domain Access module was ideal for this project as it provides a tremendous amount of flexibility.
We hosted on Platform.sh, which provides a Let’s Encrypt certificate that allows for up to 100 domains within a single instance.
What We Can Do For You
Are you a company or organization with a wide range of business areas that needs multiple smaller sites with their own individual imprints? If so, you will definitely want to consider a similar approach to the one Childress Klein has taken. This approach has the advantages of considerably less upfront work and cost, while allowing you to build your own sites without agency help and Chapter Three would be delighted to help you. Contact us today and let’s get the conversation on your multisite future started!
