Modernising a Long-Established Local Business
Premier Illawarra is one of the Illawarra’s most recognisable transport businesses.
With a long history in the region, an established customer base and a website relied on by passengers for practical information, this wasn’t a simple case of creating a new site for a new business.
It was about taking an important, well-known local brand and giving it a digital presence that better reflected the business it had become.
Top Gong Digital Marketing was engaged to redesign and rebuild the Premier Illawarra website, replacing an ageing HTML site with a modern WordPress website that was easier to use, easier to manage and much better suited to the needs of today’s passengers.
The Challenge
Premier Illawarra’s existing website had served the business for many years, but the technology and structure behind it were showing their age.
The old HTML website was difficult to update and no longer provided the flexibility expected from a modern business website.
For a transport company, that creates a particular challenge.
Customers aren’t just visiting the website to learn about the business. They are looking for practical information such as:
- timetables
- service updates
- trip planning
- employment opportunities
- company news
- contact information
That information needs to be easy to find, particularly on mobile devices.
The new website also needed to respect the existing Premier Illawarra brand while creating a cleaner, more contemporary user experience.
Rebuilding From the Ground Up
Rather than trying to keep adding to the existing HTML site, Top Gong rebuilt Premier Illawarra on WordPress.
The new website was designed with a much more flexible structure, allowing content to be updated and expanded without requiring the same level of technical work as the old site.
The project included a complete redesign of the website’s layout and navigation, with particular attention given to the information passengers access most often.
Key areas included:
- trip planning
- timetables
- service updates
- news
- employment information
- company information
- contact pathways
The result was a website designed around what Premier Illawarra’s customers actually need to do when they arrive.
Improving the User Experience
One of the priorities of the rebuild was making the website easier to navigate across desktop, tablet and mobile.
Transport websites can contain a large amount of information, so clear navigation and page structure are particularly important.
Top Gong worked to simplify the customer journey and make essential information easier to access without stripping away the detail the business needed to provide.
The design was modernised while retaining the familiar Premier Illawarra branding, helping the new website feel like an evolution of an established business rather than a complete departure from it.
Accessibility Was Part of the Build
For a public-facing transport business, accessibility also needed to be considered from the beginning.
The website was developed with modern accessibility standards in mind, helping create a more inclusive experience for people using different devices, browsers and assistive technologies.
That meant considering elements such as:
- colour contrast
- navigation
- page structure
- readability
- mobile usability
- forms
- interactive elements
This was an important part of ensuring the new website worked for as broad a section of the community as possible.
A Website That Is Easier to Manage
One of the biggest differences between the old HTML website and the new WordPress build is what happens behind the scenes.
The previous site depended on an older development model that made ongoing changes more cumbersome.
The WordPress rebuild gives Premier Illawarra a much more practical platform for ongoing management.
News can be published more easily.
Service information can be updated.
Pages can be expanded.
New functionality can be added as the business evolves.
That flexibility means the website is no longer just replacing an old design. It provides a foundation that can continue to support the business into the future.
Managing a Major Website Transition
Replacing an established website also requires much more than designing new pages.
Top Gong worked through the migration process to help ensure important website assets, URLs and functionality were carried across correctly.
The project included considerations around redirects, analytics, search visibility, forms, hosting and the transition from the old website to the new live environment.
For an established business, getting those details right matters.
The goal was to modernise the website without disrupting the digital presence Premier Illawarra had built over many years.
The Result
Premier Illawarra now has a modern website that better reflects the scale and professionalism of the business.
The new site provides:
- a cleaner and more contemporary design
- improved mobile usability
- clearer access to passenger information
- stronger accessibility
- easier ongoing website management
- a flexible platform for future growth
- a much stronger digital representation of the Premier Illawarra brand
For Top Gong, the project was an opportunity to work with one of Wollongong’s best-known businesses and demonstrate that a local digital agency can deliver websites for organisations of very different sizes and levels of complexity.
Premier Illawarra didn’t need to build a brand from scratch.
It needed a website that finally caught up with the business behind it.