In August 2026, Aldo rebuilt the front end of Fig Tree Patisserie, a specialty bakery in Kenmore, New York, replacing a purchased theme with hand-written code. At launch every page scored 100 in all four Google Lighthouse categories on mobile and desktop. Re-tested on October 5, 2026, the homepage still scores 99 to 100.
Full disclosure: the site we replaced was also our work. AldoMedia first built the bakery's website in 2018 on a purchased theme, and this project rebuilt it. Nothing on this page compares us with another designer, and nothing here is a claim about the bakery's sales, traffic or rankings.
Project at a Glance
| Client | Fig Tree Patisserie (opens in a new tab), a specialty bakery known for custom cakes and macarons |
|---|---|
| Location | Kenmore, in the Buffalo area of New York |
| Relationship | AldoMedia built the original site in 2018 and rebuilt it in 2026 |
| Rebuild launched | August 6, 2026 |
| Scope | Front-end rebuild, structured data, accessibility, security headers, three new pages and owner editing |
| Built with | Hand-written PHP and HTML, one stylesheet and one small vanilla JavaScript file |
The Starting Point
The 2018 site ran on a purchased theme. Like most themes, it was built to demonstrate every feature a buyer might want, so every page carried all of them. The page header loaded 15 stylesheets, including Bootstrap, an icon font, a second cake-themed icon font, animation, slider and lightbox libraries and Google Fonts, and the pages loaded 17 separate script files. That chain of files is what a phone has to download and process before it can show the page, and no amount of tuning makes it small.
Time had also worn on the site. The social media gallery embeds on the gallery pages were coming back empty, the embedded 360-degree tour of the bakery loaded its full viewer the moment the page opened, and leftover theme demo pages and an unused admin script were still sitting on the server.
What We Changed
- One stylesheet, one script. A hand-written stylesheet of about 22 KB and a vanilla JavaScript file of about 12 KB replaced the theme's libraries.
- Fonts and icons served from the site. Self-hosted, preloaded Roboto font files and inline SVG icons replaced Google Fonts and both icon fonts.
- Images that do not shift the page. Responsive WebP images with their real width and height, so text does not jump while photos load.
- Galleries that work. The empty embeds became galleries built from the bakery's own photos, with a native dialog lightbox that works by keyboard.
- A click-to-start tour. The 360-degree tour sits behind a preview image and loads its viewer only when a visitor asks for it.
- One source of truth. A single configuration file holds the address, hours, navigation and each page's questions, so they match everywhere.
- Structured data that matches the page. LocalBusiness and Bakery markup, FAQ markup generated from each page's visible questions, and HowTo markup on the ordering page.
- Three new pages for ordering and pickup, gluten-free and vegan options, and the areas the bakery serves.
- Security and privacy. A content security policy and other security headers, and contact details set up so the email address never appears as plain text in the page source.
- Owner editing. Our SimpleCMS editor lets the bakery update its four photo galleries and its opening hours from a browser.
This is the same approach we describe on our website speed and code quality page: remove what the page does not need instead of trying to compress it.
Results at Launch: August 6, 2026
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Google Lighthouse, mobile and desktop | 100 in Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices and SEO on every page measured |
| W3C Nu HTML checker (vnu 26.8.6) | 0 errors |
| axe-core accessibility checks | 0 violations |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0 |
| 360 tour page, mobile Performance | 93 with the viewer loading on page open; 100 with the click-to-start preview |
| AldoMedia Ultimate Website Scanner | 47 of 53 flagged items fixed the same day |
The six scanner items left open were deliberate or belonged to the owner's hosting account. For example, we did not add tracking pixels, because that was the owner's decision and it costs speed, and we did not add star-rating markup, because Google does not show self-serving review stars for a business on its own site.
Re-Measured on October 5, 2026
Launch-day numbers can drift as a site gets edited, so we tested the live homepage again two months later.
| Measure | Mobile | Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse Performance | 99, 100 and 100 in three runs | 100 |
| Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO | 100, 100, 100 | 100, 100, 100 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.9 s | 0.6 s |
| Total Blocking Time | 0 ms | 0 ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0 | 0 |
| Page weight transferred | 207 KiB | 438 KiB |
The W3C Nu HTML checker (vnu 26.10.2) reported no errors or warnings on the homepage the same day.
How We Measured
- Lighthouse: run at launch on August 6, 2026, and again with version 13.4.1 on October 5, 2026, in headless Chrome with the default mobile settings (a simulated slow 4G connection and a slowed-down processor) and the desktop preset. Lab scores move a point or two between runs, so we show every run.
- HTML validity: the W3C Nu HTML checker, with the checker version noted beside each result.
- Accessibility: axe-core automated checks for WCAG A and AA rules at launch, plus a tap test of every control in the open mobile menu.
- What we did not measure: sales, orders, search rankings or traffic. We do not publish a client's business figures, and lab speed scores are not a promise of either.
You can check the site yourself: paste https://www.figtreepatisserie.com/ into Google's free PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab). Your scores will vary a little with the test server and network.
What This Means for a Florida Coast Business
A bakery, cafe or restaurant on A1A sells to people deciding on a phone, often on a beach connection, often in a hurry. The lessons here carry straight over: drop the theme weight, put menus and hours in real text, keep galleries light, hold heavy embeds such as tours and maps behind a click, and make sure the hours in the structured data match the hours on the door. Our restaurant website design page covers menus, ordering and reservations in detail, and our ADA website accessibility page explains the WCAG 2.2 AA testing behind the accessibility results.
We do not have a Florida bakery to show you yet. When we do, its case study will follow this same format, with the owner's permission and dated numbers.
Questions About This Case Study
Did the rebuild increase the bakery's sales or search traffic?
We do not publish a client's sales, traffic or ranking figures, and we do not estimate them. This case study reports only what anyone can measure on the public website: speed, code validity, accessibility checks and structured data.
Why does the mobile Performance score show 99 on one run and 100 on another?
Lighthouse is a lab test that simulates a slow phone connection, and results move by a point or two between runs on the same page. That is why we report the range from three runs instead of picking the best one.
Can the bakery still update its own website?
Yes. The site includes AldoMedia SimpleCMS, so the owner can change the photos in four galleries and the opening hours from a browser. An hours change also updates the opening hours in the structured data, so search engines see the same hours customers do.