Case Studies July 28, 2025

Boosting Website Performance and Reliability

AJ Oster, a leading metals processor, faced critical website performance issues. Blacksmith Agency’s expert web development provided a complete technical overhaul, boosting Page Speed from F to A, reducing TTFB by 53% and average page load by 3.3s, while ensuring 99.99% uptime. See the full transformation.

About Aptive Resources

With web development, BSA improved the reliability, performance, and uptime of AJ Oster

To meet the strict performance and reliability standards required for B2B success, AJ Oster, a leading North American processor and distributor of metal strip, needed a comprehensive overhaul of its web infrastructure. AJ Oster partnered with Blacksmith Agency for its professional web development services. Our mission was to rebuild the website, ensuring stability and speed, and an all-around improved performance.

Services Rendered

Custom Web Development

We build your website from scratch, ensuring every feature and interaction works as designed. This approach gives you a unique, high-quality platform that is secure, flexible, and perfectly tailored to your business needs.

Custom Design

Your website should be as unique as your business. We move beyond generic templates to create a custom look and feel, factoring in everything from colors and fonts to page layouts so that they perfectly match your brand’s personality and goals.

Responsive Design

We ensure your site looks and works beautifully regardless of the browser or device, guaranteeing a flawless experience for all your visitors, no matter how they find you.

An Outdated Web Architecture

The website was built on an outdated technical foundation that was inflexible and difficult to maintain. This problem meant that simple content updates were time-consuming, scaling the site was challenging, and integrating modern features was nearly impossible.

Text-Heavy Content Sections

Another key challenge was the front-end’s failure to present information effectively. Critical content was rendered in dense walls of text with inadequate formatting or visual breaks. This created a high cognitive load, making the pages unscannable and leading to a poor user experience (UX).

Inefficient Front-End Build

The site relied on generic templates with bloated CSS and inefficient JavaScript. This resulted in visual inconsistencies, slow load times, poor Core Web Vitals, and made the site feel generally sluggish and unprofessional and directly impacted user engagement.

The Solution

Complete Re-architecture

We rebuilt the website’s core foundation from the ground up using a modern technology stack. This involved creating a streamlined, clean, and efficient codebase designed from the outset for superior speed, security, and scalability, addressing the fundamental sources of poor performance.

Holistic Server and Rendering Optimization

Our team optimized the website’s server and its internal software to ensure rapid response times, while simultaneously fine-tuning the front-end. This strategy focused on making the visible parts of the site load quickly and efficiently, drastically improving the user’s perception of speed.

AJ Oster new website homepage bottom of the page

Implementing Maintenance Protocols

To guarantee long-term stability and prevent the previous issues of downtime, we implemented rigorous testing protocols alongside a proactive monitoring and maintenance plan. This ensures the website remains consistently fast, dependable, and available for all users.