Delaware Valley Hardwoods
Case StudyA high-performance, SEO-optimized website for a family-owned hardwood flooring company in Wilmington, Delaware. Built from scratch with hand-written HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No WordPress, no CMS, no bloat.
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Results at a Glance
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google Search Rankings
Within weeks of launch, the site achieved #1 Google rankings for 13 competitive local search terms across refinishing, installation, repair, and “near me” searches. All through technical SEO and content strategy, with no paid advertising.
Project Overview
Delaware Valley Hardwoods is a family-owned hardwood flooring company based in Wilmington, Delaware, specializing in refinishing, installation, and dustless sanding services since 1998. They needed a website that would establish their online presence, educate potential customers, and compete for local search traffic in a crowded market.
The project involved designing and developing a high-performance, multi-page website from scratch, optimized for search engines, AI discovery, mobile devices, and conversion. The site is built as a static website hosted on Cloudflare Pages, delivering near-perfect performance scores across all Google PageSpeed categories.
Site Architecture
10 pages organized around the customer journey, from discovery to contact:
Every page is purpose-built: service pages educate and differentiate, the cost page builds trust through transparency, the care page supports existing customers while capturing long-tail search traffic, and the contact page converts.
Performance Optimization
Every optimization decision was deliberate. Not just checking boxes, but understanding the tradeoffs behind each technique.
Custom Image Pipeline
All images are processed through a custom Sharp.js optimization pipeline that generates responsive WebP variants at multiple breakpoints. The carousel uses srcset and sizes attributes so browsers download only the appropriate size for each device. Desktop views use composite images (two project photos side-by-side), while mobile views display single photos in portrait orientation. A meaningful UX improvement, not just a resize.
The hero image uses a responsive link rel="preload" with imagesrcset so the browser begins downloading the correct variant immediately. This reduced Largest Contentful Paint on mobile by over a full second.
Critical CSS Inlining
Above-the-fold styles (navigation, hero section, carousel) are inlined directly in the HTML head as minified CSS. The full stylesheet loads afterward. The page renders instantly with styled content. No flash of unstyled content, no render-blocking delay.
JavaScript Performance
All scripts are deferred. Scroll event handlers use requestAnimationFrame throttling with passive event listeners to maintain 60fps. DOM selectors are cached to prevent redundant queries. The carousel supports keyboard navigation, touch swipe gestures, autoplay with pause-on-hover, and respects the user's prefers-reduced-motion setting.
Caching Strategy
Cloudflare headers are configured with 1-year immutable cache policies for all images, CSS, and JavaScript. Cache-busting query parameters enable instant updates when assets change. Repeat visitors load almost entirely from cache.
SEO Strategy
Technical SEO
Structured Data
LocalBusiness schema with full NAP, geo-coordinates, service radius, hours, and social profiles. FAQ schema on two pages with 24 questions eligible for rich snippets.
Meta Tags
Every page has unique, descriptive title tags and meta descriptions. Full Open Graph implementation with optimized 1200x630 share images.
Canonical URLs
Every page declares its canonical URL to prevent duplicate content issues.
Clean URL Structure
Semantic, hyphenated paths (/refinishing, /cost, /care) with no query parameters.
XML Sitemap
All 10 pages with priority hierarchy and change frequency signals.
IndexNow Integration
Proactive URL submission to search engines when content changes.
Internal Linking
Service pages cross-link to related services. Blog posts link to relevant service pages. Footer provides site-wide navigation.
Redirect Management
Cloudflare redirects prevent duplicate content from partial blog paths.
Content Strategy
The content strategy targets topic authority around “hardwood flooring services in Delaware” through comprehensive coverage: service process guides, educational pricing content, maintenance tips, project case studies, and detailed FAQs. Each page targets specific keyword clusters while naturally linking to related pages, building the topical depth that search engines reward.
NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency is maintained across every page footer, the LocalBusiness schema, the contact page, and the embedded Google Maps. This consistency is a critical local SEO signal.
Mobile-First Design
Accessibility
Security
The site includes multiple layers of security to protect both the business and its visitors:
Content Security Policy
Restricts scripts, styles, images, frames, and form actions to explicitly approved domains. Prevents XSS and injection attacks.
HSTS
Strict Transport Security with 1-year max-age, includeSubDomains, and preload list eligibility enforces HTTPS everywhere.
X-Frame-Options
DENY prevents the site from being embedded in iframes, blocking clickjacking attacks.
X-Content-Type-Options
nosniff prevents MIME type sniffing attacks.
Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy
Isolates the browsing context from cross-origin windows.
Cloudflare Turnstile
Contact form uses Turnstile captcha for spam prevention, offering better UX than traditional CAPTCHAs with equivalent protection.
AI Discoverability
Built to be understood by AI systems as well as search engines:
Analytics & Conversion Tracking
The site uses a self-hosted Umami analytics instance for privacy-respecting visitor tracking. Every call-to-action is tagged with event attributes that track event type (quote requests, phone calls, form submissions), placement (hero, section CTA, footer, sticky mobile bar), and which page drove the conversion. This granular tracking reveals which CTAs convert best and where on the page visitors take action, enabling data-driven optimization.
Technology Stack
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages |
| Frontend | Hand-written HTML, CSS, JavaScript |
| Images | WebP via Sharp.js optimization pipeline |
| Analytics | Self-hosted Umami |
| Captcha | Cloudflare Turnstile |
| Resend API | |
| Maps | Google Maps embed |
| Social Feed | Behold (Instagram integration) |
| DNS/CDN | Cloudflare |