Mago Rods builds hand-finished fishing rods for Perth anglers. one rod at a time, to order. Their old site was a generic Wix template that looked like every other business in WA. We replaced it with a bespoke HTML build that makes the craftsmanship the hero.
Mago Rods is a craft business. Every rod is built to order, taking 20-40 hours of hand work. That story wasn't landing on their old Wix site. the template was generic, the photography wasn't given room to breathe, and enquiries were trickling in at a rate that didn't match the quality of the work.
The owner wanted three things: fast, clean, and something that felt like the rods themselves. considered, hand-made, not off-the-rack. A template-based build was never going to deliver that.
We decided early to skip a CMS entirely. No WordPress, no Shopify, no Webflow. just hand-written HTML, CSS and a sprinkle of vanilla JS. Fewer moving parts, fewer attack surfaces, and a genuine performance edge. The trade-off is that non-technical updates need to come back to us, but for a business where the product range barely changes year to year, that's a feature not a bug.
Design-wise we leaned into the craftsmanship story. big product photography, tight typography, and a build gallery showcasing rods in progress. Everything on the page exists to move the visitor toward one CTA: request a custom rod.
Built on Custom HTML / CSS / JavaScript. Everything below was delivered in-house. no outsourcing, no handoffs, no excuses.
A nine-page custom HTML site: home, rod builder process, gallery, about, materials, testimonials, blog, FAQs, and enquiry. Every page hand-coded for sub-second page loads and a perfect 100/100 Lighthouse performance score. SEO optimised for Perth fishing keywords with schema markup that gets Mago showing up in map packs.
Organic traffic grew 4.2x in the 90 days after launch as the site started ranking for 'custom fishing rods Perth', 'hand-made fishing rods WA', and long-tail build queries. Enquiry volume tripled. Page load dropped from 4.1s on the old Wix site to 0.8s first paint. And the owner is fielding more serious, ready-to-buy enquiries instead of tyre-kickers.
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Lighthouse Performance | 100/100 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8s |
| Organic traffic growth (90 days) | 4.2x |
| Monthly enquiry volume | 3x |
| Top 3 ranking keywords (Perth) | 7 |
A custom HTML website for a Perth custom fishing rod maker. Hand-coded site (not a template) tailored to the client's specific catalogue, ordering process, and brand visual identity. Mobile-first, fast-loading, with custom interactive elements showcasing the bespoke rod-building process.
Mago Rods needed visual and interaction patterns that off-the-shelf themes did not support cleanly. A custom build gave them total control over presentation, faster load times, and no monthly theme licence fees. For some clients custom is the right call; for others Shopify or Squarespace fits better.
Approximately 5 weeks from kickoff to launch. Custom builds take 1-2 weeks longer than templated builds because the design and interactions are coded from scratch.
Custom HTML builds at Source Digital range from $4,500 for a single-page site to $15,000 for a full multi-page custom site with bespoke interactions. Mago Rods sat in the middle of that range.
Yes. Custom HTML/JS builds suit businesses that want total visual control, fast load times, and no theme licence fees. Common for custom product makers, professional services, and design-led brands. Book a [free strategy call](/contact) to discuss whether custom or templated is right for you.
Whether you're launching, replatforming, or scaling. we'll build you a site that actually converts. One team. Perth-based. No outsourcing.