Dunton Guest House
Rivonia, Sandton, South Africa
A quiet, family-run guest house in Rivonia — minutes from Sandton's boardrooms. A 2015 template rebuilt into a direct-booking site that argues the property's case.
Dunton Guest House went from 42 to 83 out of 100
A dramatic improvement. The rebuilt site scores 83/100 against the old site's 42/100 — moving Dunton from the weakest site in the Rivonia and Sandton set to stronger than any competitor reviewed.
Old site
42/100
Weakest in its competitive set
Audited 3 August 2026
0
out of 100
Strongest guest house site reviewed
Re-audited 27 August 2026
- +41
- Points gained
- 98%
- Improvement on the old score
- 17 / 20
- Top recommendations fully implemented
- 42
- Indexable pages, up from 9
Where the 41 points came from
Each dimension scored out of 10 · 98% overall improvement
Search visibility
3→8.5+5.5
42 indexable URLs against 9, LodgingBusiness structured data, clean per-page titles and descriptions, social cards, a fresh sitemap, and every home page image given alt text.
First impression
4→9+5
The hero states category, location, audience and proof in one screen, with a 4.9/5 rating from 202 guests, TGCSA accreditation, a date picker and Book Direct. The landline banner is gone.
Brand & 4-star positioning
4→9+5
Editorial typography, a restrained olive palette and consistent components — the design now matches the 4-star claim rather than undercutting it.
Technical performance
3→8+5
A modern server-rendered stack that returns readable content without JavaScript, where the old site returned an empty body to non-browser agents. No jQuery-era libraries.
Content & copywriting
4→9+5
Specific, benefit-led and warm throughout — run by Gigi and Iris, not a front desk — with load-shedding answered in concrete detail and the clichés purged.
Direct-booking conversion
4→8.5+4.5
A four-perk strip — best rate, free date changes, no booking fees, personal assistance — at every decision point, from-rates on every room card and a /book bridge page.
Mobile UX
4→8+4
A sticky Call · WhatsApp · Book now bar, a floating WhatsApp widget, and pinch-zoom re-enabled after being disabled on the old site.
Desktop UX
5→8.5+3.5
A clean seven-item nav with an Explore menu, no interstitial pages, a skip link, one H1 per page and logical page structures.
Competitive positioning
5→8.5+3.5
Better proof display than The Syrene, more content depth than Cliff Lodge, and new revenue lines in meetings, events, dining and long-stay that competitors ignore.
Trust & credibility
5→8+3
Five linked review platforms with counts, TGCSA accreditation, the hosts named with photo and story, dated and attributed review quotes, and published privacy and policy pages.
Booking funnel
6→8+2
Honest rates, room names that map to the booking engine, Executive Suites now visible and bookable, and policies written in plain language with EFT and card options.
Independent conversion audit, same framework and scoring dimensions used on both audits. Every page cited was fetched live and the booking engine re-checked on the day.
What that score looks like on the page
The same screens on the old Dunton Guest House site and the rebuild, in the order a guest meets them.
- 01
Home
The old home page opened by apologising for a disconnected landline. The new one opens with who the guest house is for — quiet, family-run, minutes from Sandton's boardrooms — with ratings, a date picker and a best-rate promise in the same screen.
Before 
After 
- 02
Rooms
Eight named room types replace generic descriptions, each with a from-rate, occupancy and a detail page — and the names now match what the booking engine calls them.
Before 
After 
- 03
Rates
The published rate card now matches the live booking engine exactly and carries validity dates, so a guest is never quoted one price and charged another.
Before 
After 
- 04
Reviews & trust
The badge wall is retired. Five review platforms are shown with their scores, counts and deep links, alongside TGCSA accreditation and the hosts by name.
Before 
After 
- 05
Facilities
Facilities are grouped around what a business traveller actually checks — fibre, backup power and water, secure parking, breakfast — instead of one undifferentiated list.
Before 
After 
- 06
Contact
Calling, WhatsApp, email and booking are all one tap away, instead of a single form and phone numbers buried in a header image.
Before 
After 
- 07Newly built — wasn't here before!
Booking
New in the rebuild: a bridge page that explains the three booking steps and how payment is handled, replacing a Book Now link that returned a 404.
After Newly built
- 08Newly built — wasn't here before!
Meetings & corporate
New in the rebuild: meetings, boardroom hire, corporate accounts and long-stay — revenue the old site never mentioned.
After Newly built
- 09Newly built — wasn't here before!
Guides
New in the rebuild: twelve articles answering the questions travellers search before booking a guest house in Sandton.
After Newly built
Wondering what this would look like for your business?
We start with three questions: how do we make more money, save money, and make the work easier?