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Case Study

He Loved His Website. Keeping It Online Was the Problem.

WeCollect2 moved off expensive legacy hosting to Surmado without losing the site its owner spent years building.

The business

Lawrence Dykes sells children's records and rare collectibles at WeCollect2.

Most owners come to us wanting a new website. Lawrence didn't. He liked his site. It looked like his business, and the last thing he wanted was a generic redesign in its place.

What he wanted to lose was everything it took to keep it running.

I liked my website. I didn't want to start over. Surmado kept it feeling like mine. It's just faster now, and I'm selling more.

— Lawrence Dykes, WeCollect2

Paying more just to stay online

Lawrence hosted WeCollect2 with iPower for years. iPower was eventually rolled up into Newfold Digital, the conglomerate behind Bluehost, HostGator, and dozens of other hosting brands. His bill kept climbing, and the site never got any easier to manage.

My old hosting company had been sold, and I was paying more and more just to keep the website online. With Surmado, hosting is already included.

— Lawrence Dykes, WeCollect2

Surmado rebuilt and migrated WeCollect2, preserving the design, content, and products Lawrence wanted to keep. The goal wasn't a redesign. It was to remove the maintenance while keeping everything his customers already knew.

A migration he expected to take hours

Lawrence braced for the move. Past website companies had taught him to expect long onboarding, technical questions, and hours of troubleshooting.

Surmado stayed on the phone with him through the migration. He barely needed it.

I expected moving the website to take hours. Surmado stayed on the phone with me, but I was surprised by how little help I needed. A couple of clicks and it was done.

— Lawrence Dykes, WeCollect2

Updates in plain language

Lawrence doesn't consider himself an AI person. He didn't want to learn prompting, code, or a new editing system.

With Surmado, he describes the change he wants and it happens.

I don't use AI very much. But I can just say what I want changed, even a whole new page, and Surmado does it.

— Lawrence Dykes, WeCollect2

He keeps control of the site without doing the technical work himself.

More traffic, more sales

Customers still recognize the website. Lawrence just doesn't have to fight with it anymore. Since the move, WeCollect2's traffic and sales are both up.

I liked my website. I didn't want to start over. Surmado kept it feeling like mine. It's just faster now, and I'm selling more.

— Lawrence Dykes, WeCollect2

Keep your website. Lose the headache.

Lawrence kept the website he'd spent years building. He just doesn't spend his time maintaining it anymore.

We rebuild your website before you pay. If you love it, we handle the rest.

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