Senior WordPress Designer/Developer for Premium Service Brand — GoHighLevel, UX and Local SEO

Project Overview Monarch Canine Academy is a premium private dog-training academy serving Athens, Northeast Georgia, and selected affluent communities in the greater Atlanta area. We are seeking an experienced senior WordPress professional or a small, senior-led agency to design and build an exceptional new website based on an already completed strategic website brief and contractor-ready scope of work. This is not a basic dog-training website and not a template-customization project. The finished website must feel refined, authoritative, established, calm, professional, and quietly premium. It should position Monarch Canine Academy as a highly credible private training academy—not a neighborhood hobby trainer, daycare company, tactical K9 business, or mass-market franchise. The primary business objective is to build brand authority. The primary conversion objective is to have qualified prospective clients schedule a free phone consultation through GoHighLevel. Project Status The core website strategy has already been developed, including: Brand positioning Target audience Conversion strategy Recommended sitemap Homepage architecture Page requirements Program presentation strategy Local SEO direction Photography direction WordPress technology recommendations GoHighLevel integration requirements Analytics requirements Accessibility standards Performance standards Project milestones Acceptance criteria Asset and access checklist Contractor scorecard Contractor bid requirements The selected contractor will receive the complete strategy and scope document after initial qualification. You should be capable of improving and executing the strategy—not ignoring it and replacing it with a generic template. Core Scope The project is expected to include approximately 15 core public-facing pages, reusable templates, supporting conversion pages, and selected local SEO landing pages. Likely pages and templates include: Home About Monarch Meet Peter Schnurrer Training Philosophy Programs Overview Fundamental Excellence Excellence Unleashed Board and Train Behavioral Modification How It Works Free Phone Consultation In-Person Evaluation Results or Case Studies Frequently Asked Questions Service Areas Athens-area landing page Oconee County or Watkinsville landing page Resources or Journal Contact Legal and policy pages Thank-you pages Booking confirmation pages Campaign landing-page template Case-study template Article template Custom 404 page The final page list will be confirmed during the initial project milestone. Required Deliverables The selected contractor or team must be able to provide or coordinate: UX and Website Design Sitemap and navigation validation User-journey refinement Homepage and inner-page wireframes Custom visual design Desktop, tablet, and mobile design Reusable component system Design-system documentation Correct implementation of the Monarch brand identity Thoughtful mobile logo treatment Photography and image recommendations Accessible form and interaction design Copywriting The strategy and messaging foundation are complete, but the contractor must be able to write, refine, or professionally edit: Headlines Page copy Program descriptions Founder biography Calls to action Process copy FAQs Form microcopy Booking instructions Thank-you-page copy Metadata Location-page copy Error and success messages Please clearly state whether copywriting is included in your proposal and who will perform it. WordPress Development WordPress installation and configuration Staging environment Custom responsive build Global styles and reusable components Blog or journal setup Case-study content structure FAQ management Landing-page template SEO configuration Redirect management Security configuration Backups Caching and performance optimization Spam protection Cookie-consent implementation Administrator and editor roles Complete client ownership and handoff The preferred direction is a lightweight native WordPress block-based build using GeneratePress Premium and GenerateBlocks Pro, or a comparably maintainable solution. Alternative technology recommendations are welcome, but they must be justified in terms of: Performance Accessibility Owner editing Maintainability Plugin dependency Licensing Developer lock-in Future expansion We are not interested in a bloated collection of overlapping plugins or a builder selected solely because it is convenient for the contractor. GoHighLevel Requirements Monarch Canine Academy has a dedicated GoHighLevel sub-account. The website must integrate correctly with existing or planned GHL components, including: Free phone consultation calendar Lead and consultation forms Intake forms Appointment reminders SMS and email follow-up Opportunity pipeline Lead-source attribution In-person evaluation scheduling Review requests Tracking links Call tracking UTM capture The selected contractor must understand how to: Create or update GHL contacts without unnecessary duplication Create opportunities in the correct pipeline stage Apply appropriate tags Pass source, campaign, and UTM data into GHL Store consent records Handle SMS and email consent correctly Test calendar behavior on mobile devices Coordinate confirmation pages with GHL automations Track completed bookings Track click-to-call actions Handle cross-domain tracking where necessary Separate test submissions from real leads Document the final integration Generic form embedding alone is not sufficient. SEO and Analytics Requirements The website must be structured for local organic search, referrals, Google Ads, and future campaign landing pages. The project should include: Keyword-to-page mapping On-page SEO implementation Search-friendly heading structure Title tags and meta descriptions Internal linking Image SEO XML sitemap Robots.txt review Canonical configuration Redirects LocalBusiness or Organization schema Person schema Service schema Breadcrumb schema FAQ schema where appropriate Google Analytics 4 Google Tag Manager Google Search Console Google Ads conversion readiness UTM capture Form and consultation-booking events Click-to-call events Conversion testing Internal traffic filtering Referral-exclusion review Conversion deduplication where applicable Local pages must contain meaningful, unique content. We do not want dozens of thin, duplicated city pages. Performance and Accessibility The website should target WCAG 2.2 AA where reasonably achievable. Requirements include: Mobile-first responsive development Keyboard accessibility Visible focus states Semantic heading structure Accessible navigation and accordions Proper form labels and validation Sufficient color contrast Reduced-motion support Meaningful image alt text Skip-to-content functionality No accessibility overlay used as a substitute for proper development The website must also be optimized for: Core Web Vitals Properly sized WebP or AVIF images Limited font families and weights Reduced layout shift Limited third-party scripts Efficient GHL embeds Mobile booking speed Caching and CDN compatibility Any performance limitations caused by third-party GHL components must be documented. Brand Direction The approved brand palette is: Deep Emerald: #0D3626 Antique Gold: approximately #B79A5B Warm Ivory: approximately #F5F1E8 Soft Charcoal: approximately #1C211F Muted Sage: approximately #A7B5A8 The visual direction should feel similar to: A respected private academy A refined equestrian brand An established estate service A discreet private club A premium professional advisory firm It should not feel like: A dog daycare A veterinary clinic A pet store A tactical K9 company A cartoon pet brand A rustic farm A flashy luxury company A generic Elementor template Strong typography, restraint, spacing, photography, and composition are more important than excessive animation or decoration. Required Qualifications Applicants should demonstrate strong experience in most or all of the following: Premium or high-end service-brand websites Custom WordPress design and development Mobile-first UX GoHighLevel integration Local SEO Conversion-focused service websites GA4 and Google Tag Manager Website performance optimization Accessibility-conscious development Client-controlled hosting and account ownership Structured project management Professional handoff and training Dog-training industry experience is helpful but not required. The ability to understand and execute a sophisticated premium-service position is more important than prior pet-industry work. Ownership Requirements All critical accounts and assets must remain owned by Monarch Canine Academy. This includes: Domain Hosting WordPress administrator account Analytics Tag Manager Search Console Design files Brand files Premium plugin licenses or clearly documented license arrangements Source files Website content Integration documentation The contractor may not retain exclusive control over hosting, analytics, plugins, or other critical systems. The website must be editable and maintainable without permanent dependence on the original developer. Proposal Instructions Begin your proposal with the word: MONARCH This confirms that you read the full job description. Your proposal must include: A brief explanation of why you are a strong fit. Links to three relevant websites you personally designed or developed. Your exact role on each example. Your recommended WordPress stack and why. Your experience integrating WordPress with GoHighLevel. How you would capture UTM and lead-source information through the booking process. Who would handle strategy, copywriting, UX, design, development, SEO, and analytics. Your proposed project timeline. Your proposed fixed price or price range. Any expected recurring software or license costs. Your revision policy. Your post-launch warranty or support period. The three greatest risks you see in this project. Confirmation that all accounts, files, licenses, and credentials will be transferred to the client. Do not submit a generic agency introduction or a list of unrelated websites. Screening Questions Please answer the following directly: Which two portfolio examples best demonstrate your ability to create a refined premium-service website, and what did you personally do on each project? Describe a WordPress-to-GoHighLevel integration you have completed. Which forms, calendars, pipelines, tags, automations, attribution fields, and tracking events were involved? Which WordPress stack would you recommend for this project, and why is it preferable to Elementor or another heavy page builder? How would you preserve UTM and lead-source attribution from the initial website visit through a GoHighLevel consultation booking? What steps do you take to ensure that the client—not the contractor—owns the hosting, website, analytics, design files, licenses, and connected accounts? What performance and accessibility targets would you commit to, and how would you test them? Based on this description, what do you believe is most likely to cause the project to fail or underperform? Suggested Project Milestones The final milestone structure will be negotiated with the selected contractor, but proposals should anticipate a structure similar to: Requirements validation, sitemap and technical plan Copy, wireframes and visual direction Homepage design Inner-page designs and component system WordPress development GoHighLevel integrations Content population, SEO and analytics Quality assurance and owner review Launch Training, documentation and handoff Payments will be tied to defined deliverables and approval criteria. Timeline Target completion is approximately 10–14 weeks from kickoff, depending on the proposed approach, asset availability, revision process, and contractor capacity. Applicants should provide a realistic schedule rather than an artificially short estimate. Final Note We are looking for a strategic execution partner—not simply someone who can install WordPress and customize a theme. The right candidate will understand how brand positioning, conversion strategy, content, design, development, GoHighLevel, local SEO, performance, analytics, and handoff work together. Quality, judgment, communication, and long-term maintainability will be more important than selecting the lowest bid.