Candela is an animal-wellness and dog-grooming business in Madrid. The brief wasn’t “a pretty website”: it was to be findable on Google for its neighbourhood and turn that visit into a booking, with zero friction. Every priority pointed at one business goal — fill the calendar.
A neighbourhood business competes for local attention, not global. The client was clear: what moves the needle is showing up on Google when someone nearby searches for grooming or animal wellness, and turning that click into a booking. The site had one job — be found and fill the calendar — and everything else served it.
The core decision: warmth, not veterinary aesthetics. None of the sector’s clinical coldness or generic pet-shop templates. An earthy, editorial brand with real photography — not stock — and a single clear path to WhatsApp booking. Every token and section was measured against one question: does this bring the booking closer, or get in the way?
- Animal wellness
- Local SEO · Madrid
- WhatsApp booking
- Warm, not veterinary
- Listening
Visibility before decoration
The real goal wasn’t the design — it was the calendar. Before laying anything out, I fixed the business hierarchy: findability on Google and a frictionless path to booking, and let that priority rule over any aesthetic whim.
- Art direction
Earthy and editorial, with real photography
I dropped the medical blue and the stock library. Instead: a cream background, an editorial serif (EB Garamond) and a sage accent drawn from nature. The hero is a real, warm photo of a dog by the river, with a scrim that holds the legibility of the headline and the CTA.
- System
Tokens and verified contrast
A colour and type system in CSS variables, not screen by screen. Warm ink instead of grey to break the “all green”, terracotta reserved for links and the coral decoration kept out of body text. Every text was verified at 4.5:1 (AA) with a contrast linter.
- Build & launch
Static, fast and findable
Static HTML on Vercel to avoid framework weight. Full on-page SEO — meta, LocalBusiness schema, sitemap, robots, canonicals — and WebP images. Performance was worked in rounds: a dedicated mobile hero, an async font and inlined critical CSS so the first screen paints without waiting.
I built a static multi-page site (HTML + CSS, deployed on Vercel) with full local SEO — LocalBusiness schema, sitemap, canonicals — and direct WhatsApp booking. The fine work was performance: from a mobile PageSpeed of 76 up to the 86 band, with LCP dropping from 20.6s to 4.8s.
The system comes from avoiding the sector cliché: neither clinic nor pet-shop template. An earthy, warm palette, a serif with editorial weight and a single green that calms. Every token shortens the distance between the search and the booking.
- Cream background, never clinical white: the screen breathes.
- Editorial serif for the voice, sans only for the interface.
- A single sage accent: calm and nature, nothing corporate.
- Contrast verified at 4.5:1; terracotta is reserved for links and coral for decoration, never for text.
The system doesn’t live in a manual: it lives at every point where the visitor decides to book or leave. These are the places where the warmth and clarity had to show.
- 01 · Home and hero
A real photo of a dog by the river over a cream background; the scrim holds the headline, and the WhatsApp booking button jumps out within three seconds.
- 02 · Story and philosophy
A full-bleed editorial — manifesto, pillars and a photographic pause — that builds trust without falling into the clinic brochure.
- 03 · Services and shop
Each service breathes with the same hierarchy; the supplements shop shares the system without breaking the calm.
- 04 · Mobile
Where most of the traffic lands: a dedicated 46 KB hero and inlined critical CSS so the first screen paints almost instantly.
The site does its one job: be found and lead to the booking without friction. Full local SEO to show up in the neighbourhood, direct WhatsApp booking, and mobile performance worked thoroughly — the bottleneck was load time, and that’s where most of the traffic was.
For a neighbourhood business, a website isn’t measured in awards: it’s measured in bookings. This one was designed for that.