SAOU
Website Redesign & Development and SEO
Client
The South African Teachers’ Union
Category
Website UI/UX Design
Build & Development
SEO Services
The Goal
The South African Teachers’ Union (SAOU) requires a full-scale digital transformation of its national website to better serve its bilingual member base and strengthen its public-facing presence. The new platform must be mobile-first, intuitive, and accessible, ensuring that teachers, members, and the public can seamlessly engage with SAOU’s resources across both Afrikaans and English.
This project goes beyond design, it addresses scalability, performance, and user experience at its core. The website must reflect SAOU’s credibility and national footprint, while reducing administrative burdens for internal teams. It should integrate authentic imagery, streamlined navigation, and a content structure optimised for mobile behaviour trends, all while aligning with SAOU’s strategic priority of building a modern, accessible digital presence.
In addition to development, the project includes secure hosting, ongoing maintenance, and technical support to guarantee long-term stability, speed, and accessibility. Built with scalability in mind, the new site will provide SAOU with autonomy and flexibility to manage bilingual content efficiently while ensuring compliance with accessibility and SEO best practice.
Ultimately, the goal is to deliver a professional, high-performing website that empowers members, strengthens engagement, and positions SAOU as a trusted and modern voice for educators across South Africa.
The SAOU’s current website, hosted with Digital Zoo, has revealed critical limitations in terms of mobile accessibility, technical flexibility, and content management. With up to 80% of visitors accessing the website on mobile, members face friction navigating menus and content. The current platform is misaligned with SAOU’s bilingual, national member-base and does not provide scalable solutions.
A modern, mobile-first, bilingual website is not optional—it is a strategic priority.
We believe we’re the perfect fit, because education is about clarity, connection, and credibility and that’s exactly what we’ll bring to SAOU’s digital presence.
The Blueprint
Vision
To deliver a modern, bilingual website for the South African Teachers’ Union (SAOU) that is fast, secure, and effortless to use; designed with members in mind, fully optimised for mobile, and scalable to support future growth. This project is about creating a professional, accessible digital platform that reflects SAOU’s national presence, strengthens member engagement, and ensures long-term sustainability in both Afrikaans and English.
Approach
Our approach is hands-on and strategic, built around collaboration, adaptability, and measurable results. For SAOU, we aim to deliver a modern, bilingual platform that reflects the organisation’s national identity, supports members with seamless mobile-first access, and reduces administrative burdens for internal teams. We value transparency and long-term partnerships, and we’re committed to adding real value at every stage of the project while keeping the user experience at the heart of every decision.
Ethos
As a team, we pride ourselves on our relentless commitment to building strong client relationships and consistently adding value wherever possible. We view every challenge as an opportunity to learn, grow, and refine our skills while deepening our understanding of the industry. We are dedicated to evolving with the world around us, all while staying rooted in the core values on which we were founded.
The Timeline
Phase 1
- Wireframe and user journey layout (2-4 weeks)
- Website redesign delivered (4-6 weeks)
- Feedback and revisions (1-2 weeks)
- Implementation across both languages; Afrikaans & English (2-4weeks)
Phase 2
- Staging setup and testing server architecture (1 week)
- Build of entire website, mobile UI and importing of all existing content to staging platform (6-8 weeks)
- Final feedback and revisions (2-4 weeks)
- Launch and implementation of new website (1-2 weeks)
Project Highlights
Atterbury Trust
The challenge was to create a simplified navigation for a very complex and content heavy website. This was achieved by deep-diving into the SEO and actual user data to ensure each page is curated to ensure conversions and engagement.
Doc Scientia
Combining eCommerce, physical product sales and and online learning platform that directly integrates with the clients bookkeeping, courier and online payment services to ensure a seemless user journey.
Seatme
The goal was to create a platform where artists and organisations can make use of an online ticketing platform that allows them to tailor each event to their specific needs. A highly adaptable and scalable infrastructure makes it possible to scale the website and ensures that maintenance can be done effortlessly.
Bulletin
Redesigning this platform meant that we had to curate and custom code an entire new platform, ensuring that all features meets the exact needs of the client, their editors, journalists and paid subscribers. This included tiered access and custom backend management systems so that editors and admins can manage subscribers and content. on the go.
D’vine Skin & Body
The challenge was to create a luxurious online presence that reflects the feeling of the physical store. The eCommerce platform was integrated to digitise all vouchers and gift cards, allowing users to use there in store or online.
Body20 New Zealand
The new website not only had to look good, but directly integrate via API’s with the membership management software provided by the franchise. We created a hub for all contact forms, lead submissions and ad campaigns to funnel prospects directly into the CRM System.
VDT Attorneys
The mission was simple; Create a digital footprint that embodies the legacy and values of VDT Attorneys. Furthermore, we had to ensure that the services offered are easily understoor and accesible to their broad client base.
TransAfrica Life Lesotho
Future-forward, simplified navigation and an online presence inline with the broader TransAfrica Group corporate identity and personality. The website now serves as a source of information for potential new clients, but also as a communication and claims platform for their existing users.
Breakdown
Strategy & Design
Along with project kick-off, an in-person/online meeting will be set up to discuss all relevant internal processes, debrief on the design direction and also discussion concerning the user journey (UI/UX). This is done to ensure clear communication and direction with the project, but also to best understand the required maintenance capabilities, integrations and systems that may be relevant to increase website productivity.
A private link showcasing the new website is created including the updated look & feel, colours and fonts and presented to the client. An integrated system is added to ease the collection and management of live feedback, directly from the client to the OPTOG! Media team. This ensures that all revisions are centralised and updated/changes can be tracked live by the client.
Integrations & Implimentation
As part of the rollout, we will integrate Brevo and Google Site Kit into each website to support effective communication and performance tracking. Brevo will handle email marketing, automated responses, and contact list management, allowing each entity to engage with users efficiently, using email, SMS, push notifications and communication tracking. Google Site Kit will connect services like Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights directly to the website dashboard, giving clear visibility into site performance and user behavior. These tools will be set up during development to ensure everything is ready for use at launch.
The entire platform to be backed up and launched once ready. A staging website setup is included with auto-updates for further development and feature testing, while not affecting the live website.
Weekly automated backups are setup with a log retention of 14 days.
Costing
Project Total
This is an overview of the total amount payable for the new website and includes the abovementioned integrations, backups and deployment.
Subtotal:
VAT:
Total:
R 108,280.00
R 16,242.00
R 124,522.00
Monthly Retainer
This is an overview of the monthly retainer agreement, ensuring dedicated account management, automated backups, a backup log, server security and management.
Subtotal:
VAT:
Total:
R 11,050.00
R 1,657.50
R 12,707.50
Additional Add-on Services
- Social media management
- Event ticketing systems (powered by Seatme)
- Video production
- Audio production
- 360 Virtual tours
- Graphic illustration
- Further API integrations
- Automated processes
- Photography
- Copywriting