Website restructure and copywriting for Forever Hounds Trust

Before I started writing, I reviewed the existing website in full. With over 100 pages, the priority was to understand what content existed, what was worth keeping, what could be consolidated, and what needed to be written from scratch.

I also reviewed documentation from the client kickoff call to understand their priorities: more adoptions, more donations, and a website that actually reflected the quality of the work they do.

I built a wireframe directly on the staging site (the behind-the-scenes workspace where we build and test before the public sees anything) – section by section, page by page. At this stage, the focus is purely on structure: what goes where, what each section needs to do, and how the pages connect to each other. No design, no images, no distractions.

This gives the client a clear picture of the new site before any design decisions are made – they can see exactly how the information flows and where visitors will land when they're looking for specific things. It also gives Mellissa a solid foundation to build on, so she's not having to guess at content placement while designing.

Working through the pages one at a time, I rewrote the content to fit the new structure.

The brief was to stay close to the existing language – Forever Hounds Trust have a warm, knowledgeable voice and it was important to preserve that – while tightening the copy, removing repetition, and making each page work harder. Where content was missing, I flagged it for the client to verify or provide.

Each page was written to do one job well: help a specific type of visitor (adopter, donor, volunteer) understand what's possible and take the next step.

Several types of content needed a templated, structured approach rather than individual pages. We scoped out custom post types for resources, volunteer opportunities, testimonials, and stories (happy homing stories, rescue stories, in memoriam stories, etc).

The charity also already had news posts covering fundraising events, charity updates, and developments in UK racing legislation.

Custom post types work a bit like a database – the charity fills in specific fields (like volunteer role, location, time commitment) and the website automatically formats and displays them consistently. This means they can add a new volunteer opportunity in minutes rather than building a whole new page, and visitors can browse or filter opportunities more easily.

We built these into the WordPress setup so the team can manage and update them easily going forward.

With the wireframe and draft copy in place, the next step is to walk the client through the staging site – checking that the structure and tone match what they were hoping for, and giving them a chance to flag anything they would like to change.

This is also the moment to catch anything that has shifted since the kickoff call. Once we have their feedback, we will tweak, review and optimise the copy before signing off on it.

With the copy signed off, Mellissa takes over – turning the wireframe into a fully designed, functional website.

This includes the visual design, all technical development, and making sure the third-party fundraising platforms and different types of forms are fully integrated and functional.