Lyngen North

Moving towards a modern tech stack

Nestled in the serene landscapes of Northern Norway, Lyngen North has transformed from its humble beginnings as Spåkenes Nordre, a cherished family farm, into a pioneering destination blending nature with innovation. Founded on the legacy of four generations, the site evolved under Torbjørn's vision from a tire retreading operation braving the harsh Nordic elements to a thriving hub of fishing tourism. Recognizing the growing allure of the northern lights, Lyngen North expanded into the hospitality sector with luxurious glass igloos, offering guests unparalleled views of the aurora borealis. Today, it boasts the new Solvind Restaurant, enhancing guest experiences with local cuisine under the magical glow of the solar wind. Set to launch Sky Suites in 2024, Lyngen North invites new customers to their journey, continually reaching for the stars while staying deeply rooted in tradition.

Problem

The customer was equipped with a technical background in React.js and the more he felt all of the limitations WordPress their then-current tech stack brought to the table. They found the platform hideous and hard to maintain, particularly when it came to managing functionalities and integrations, i.e. with booking systems, which are crucial for the business. The site was slow, bloated with unnecessary features, and saddled with an outdated technology stack that severely affected page speed and scalability.

The design was unappealing and the layout seemed hastily put together, contributing to a disjointed user experience. Critical information was often buried, failing to reach users when most needed.

Driven by these challenges, our customer sought a streamlined solution that enhanced user engagement, improved operations, and aligned with modern web standards.

The customer was tired of WordPress (their then-current tech stack). He found it hideous and hard to maintain, specifically regarding integrations and adding new or managed functionalities.

They also had to address challenges like:

• Low page speed
• Outdated technology
• Unattractive Design
• Weak User Experience

Solution

Gatsby.js and Sanity to the Rescue

When Lyngen North decided to migrate the website they were looking for a reliable partner, experienced in modern technology and chose Pagepro as the right partner.

Together with the customer, Pagepro decided to use Jamstack and create a static website as the recommended solution for a marketing website, to deliver a blazingly fast, visually rich, SEO-optimized website to drive visitor engagement and hotel bookings.

Benefits of going static:

• Reduced page load time
• Reduced latency through CDN’s
• Easy content management
• The highest level of security
• Improved SEO

Why Sanity?

The decision to go headless was based on the customer’s need to move to the modern tech stack, and have full flexibility in managing new features and integrations.

The decision to go headless was based on the customer’s need to avoid the limitations that he faced with the previous website, which was built on WordPress.

Sanity was picked for the project because it:

• works perfectly as a headless CMS
• provides live previews, which were crucial for the customer, especially with the large amount of images shared across the page
• utilizes global CDN, so Lyngen North can reach customers all over the world
• gives developers full flexibility in creating custom solutions for customers
• allows for customizing the workspace according to the client’s unique needs
• is developer-friendly and allows for live-cooperation, so the devs could work highly effectively
• - enables great image optimization without compromising the image quality

Impact

Stunning, eye-catching hotel visuals

Lyngen North wanted to provide a sneak peek of the amazing panoramic views that attract customers to the property. It was important to feature high-resolution visuals without compromising website performance and negatively affecting SEO.

Flexibility and control

Lyngen North wanted to get away from WordPress because they found it hard to manage and very limited. With Sanity being a headless CMS they gain full control over the content appearance and information architecture. They also can connect any functionality to their website via API and gain the benefit of easy scalability of their platform.

Ease of content management

With live previews on Sanity, Lyngen North can see their changes side-by-side as they’re made—rather than having to switch back and forth between a page and the CMS. Every website change is made fast and with confidence.