Craft CMS, a true multisite
A UK site and a Greece site (English and Greek), one shared backend. Greece used to run on a completely separate CMS — now retired.
McBains Celebrating 240 years of history with a site built for the future
- Client
- McBains
- Sector
- Property & construction
- Services
- UX/UI design, Information Architecture, Craft CMS, Multisite
- Website
- mcbains.co.uk
- The Team
-
Many experts, one team
McBains is a property and construction consultancy with 250-plus staff working across architecture, engineering, cost consultancy, project management and sustainability. Their projects run from local retrofits to regeneration schemes worth more than £200m, with 240 years of history behind them. The philosophy is individual expertise, collective excellence.
The rebrand had landed
Their previous site launched alongside the change of name from McBains Cooper to McBains, and it did the job of establishing the new brand.
The analytics showed how thoroughly: almost all search traffic arrived on the name. The disciplines and sectors McBains actually specialise in were doing far less work, and clients described the site as covering the basics without much depth.
Two audiences, same proof
We started by listening. Staff and client surveys, interviews with leadership and early-career staff, competitor benchmarking and a full analytics review. Prospective clients and prospective employees turned out to want the same three things: the projects, the expertise behind them and the people doing the work. Candidates who want to go further move into a Pinpoint careers hub designed to match the McBains brand.
Emma Browne
We wanted to make the site feel simpler without making the business feel smaller. Bringing sectors, services and credentials into one clear structure made it easier for people to find what they need, and the search results show that clarity is paying off
Individual shapes, connected pathways
Having architecture, engineering and cost consultancy in one practice is a genuine strength, but leading with it risks losing the client who came looking for a structural engineer and nothing else.
So every service page stands on its own terms, with the integration story carried by a graphic device that gives each discipline a shape and joins them with pathways. We built McBains a generator for it, so their team draws new combinations themselves rather than coming back to us.
Four layers become one
Four levels of navigation and a Collections feature collapsed into a single structure, with sectors and services standing as equals.
Search impressions across those pages are up 306% and clicks up 175%. Impressions on the trust and credentials content, previously buried several clicks down, are up 1,104%.
Search impressions up
306%
Impression on trust up
175%
Credentials content up
1,104%
One backend, two countries
Greece used to run on a separate CMS. It now sits alongside the UK site as a true Craft multisite in English and Greek, with AI translation built into the control panel so Greek content is produced in-house. Modular content blocks replaced fixed templates, and the McBains team build new pages without a developer.
Monthly reviews, shared roadmap
We've carried on working with McBains since launch, with monthly site reviews, regular check-ins and a shared roadmap for what comes next.
Round Up
Careers fully integrated via Pinpoint
A UK site and a Greece site (English and Greek), one shared backend. Greece used to run on a completely separate CMS — now retired.
AI translation, built into the control panel
Greek content generated in-house, no external translation service
Thank you so much for all of your hard work. The site looks incredible and the feedback, having soft launched to staff, has been really positive.
It's been a pleasure working with you all and we're really proud of the site and you couldn't have made the experience any easier or more enjoyable.
