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Case Study

Garage Equipment Website Design — Pomphreys Case Study

A South West garage equipment supplier, a client since Mediatopia was founded — four complete rebuilds, the latest a 158-product catalogue, and fifteen years at number one for garage equipment Bristol.

ClientPomphreys

SectorGarage Equipment

Client since2010

LocationBristol

Pomphreys garage equipment website designed and built by Mediatopia

A client from the beginning

Pomphreys supply garage equipment across the South West — ramps, lifts, tyre machines, compressors and the rest of what a workshop runs on. Their customers include haulage operators, dealerships and independent garages, several of whom are clients of ours as well.

The relationship predates Mediatopia. When the company was founded in August 2010 they came across with us, and they have been a client ever since — making this one of the longest continuous working relationships we have.

What that has meant in practice is four complete rebuilds. Not a site built once and left, but a web presence maintained across fifteen years as the technology, the devices and the way people search all changed underneath it.

The same business, four websites

Fifteen years of the same client, shown as the site actually evolved. Each version answered what the business needed at the time, and each was replaced when the technology or the way people searched moved on.

The 2010 redesign

The old HTML site restructured and given a proper design.

The CMS rebuild

Moved onto WebGuru with a full product catalogue behind it.

The e-commerce site

E-commerce, so trade customers can order directly.

The new site

Pomphreys website — the new catalogue site, designed and built by Mediatopia

A 158-product catalogue across twelve ranges, with an engineer behind every one.

Fifteen years in four rebuilds

The original site was old HTML — effectively a list of links on the homepage, which was how a great many trade websites were built at the time and how a surprising number still are.

The first rebuild took that content, restructured it and gave it a proper design. The second moved the site onto WebGuru, our own content management system, with a real product catalogue behind it so the team could add and update equipment without a developer. The third added e-commerce.

The fourth goes the other way, on purpose. The new site is a catalogue rather than a shop: 158 products across twelve ranges, with no prices and no basket, because a lift or an MOT bay is quoted against the bay it is going into, the installation and the training. Every product leads to an engineer, not a checkout.

Each rebuild solved the problem the previous one had run into. That is what maintaining a website actually looks like over a long period, and it is why the site has never had to be abandoned and started again from nothing.

A catalogue, specified properly

Trade buyers compare on specification, so the new catalogue sets each product’s figures out as labelled specifications rather than burying them in a paragraph. The old descriptions had 127 prices typed into them; those came out, so nothing on the page goes out of date the day a supplier changes a price.

Every range page lists the service lines that apply to it — calibration, repairs, hydraulic repairs, on-site repairs, tool repairs and warranty repairs — because the firm that sells the lift is the firm that keeps it working. The home page opens with a contents page of the twelve ranges, so a buyer who knows which aisle they want is one tap from it.

The whole site runs without JavaScript, which keeps it quick on a phone in a workshop.

Number one for fifteen years

Through its rebuilds, Pomphreys has held the top position for garage equipment in Bristol.

That is worth dwelling on, because holding a ranking for fifteen years is considerably harder than getting one. Competitors appear, Google changes what it rewards, and a site that was well optimised years ago is not well optimised now. Position is maintained rather than won.

The way it holds is by not letting the site go stale — rebuilding when rebuilding is needed, keeping the structure matched to how people search, and having the same person responsible for the site, the hosting and the search optimisation so nothing falls between suppliers.

If you supply equipment, parts or materials to the trade and your website is not producing enquiries, that is exactly the work. The Prolift Access case study and the Longcross Garage case study are comparable projects.

What We Built

Project development work carried out

Four Complete Rebuilds

From old HTML to a CMS catalogue, then e-commerce, and now a 158-product catalogue built for enquiries.

Twelve Ranges, Specified

Every product’s figures set out as labelled specifications, so a workshop can compare like with like.

Sell, Install, Service, Repair

Every range page lists the service lines behind it, because the firm that sells the lift is the firm that keeps it working.

Fifteen Years at Number One

Top position for garage equipment Bristol held across every rebuild, through consistent optimisation rather than a one-off exercise.

Common Questions

Garage Equipment Website Design FAQs

Roughly every five to seven years, though it depends on the business. Pomphreys has been rebuilt four times since 2010, not because anything was wrong, but because devices, search and buyer expectations moved and the site had to move with them.

It depends on what you sell. For smaller stock, ordering online can make sense. Pomphreys went the other way with their new site: it is a catalogue rather than a shop, because a lift or an MOT bay is quoted against the bay it is going into, the installation and the training, so every product leads to an enquiry instead of a basket.

For anything with a real catalogue, yes. Trade buyers search by manufacturer, model and part — very specific terms with high intent. A single catalogue page can only rank for one of them; individual pages can each rank for their own.

Match the page to the search and then keep the site maintained. Pomphreys has held number one for garage equipment Bristol across three rebuilds, which is the product of consistent work rather than a single optimisation exercise.

Yes. Much of our work is business-to-business — garage equipment, powered access, construction materials, haulage. Trade sites have different requirements to consumer ones: less persuasion, more specification, and faster routes to a price.

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