Case Study: Building a High-Performance SEO Engine for JNSN Hospitality | RatifiedTech

Case Study: Building a High-Performance SEO Engine for JNSN Hospitality | RatifiedTech

By George Kamunge

Nov 19, 2025

Case Study: How We Built a High-Performance SEO Engine for Kenya’s Leading Hospitality Consultant

By George Kamunge | Founder, RatifiedTech

In the Kenyan digital landscape, there is a prevalent myth: "If you want a website, just install WordPress and buy a theme."

For a hobby blog, that works. But for a business aiming to dominate a competitive industry, "good enough" is a death sentence. When JNSN Hospitality Partners approached RatifiedTech, they didn't just want a brochure website. They needed a digital infrastructure capable of selling courses, showcasing a massive portfolio, and ranking #1 on Google for competitive terms like "Restaurant Consulting in Kenya."

They were entering a market saturated with legacy websites—competitors sitting on 10-year-old domains relying on outdated SEO tactics. To beat them, we couldn't just build a website. We had to build an engine.

This case study breaks down how RatifiedTech utilized Next.js (App Router), Static Site Generation (SSG), and enterprise-grade JSON-LD Schema to build the most technically advanced hospitality platform in East Africa.

The Challenge: The "Empty Room" of Kenyan SEO

When we audited the digital landscape for hospitality consulting in Kenya, we noticed a pattern. The top-ranking sites were built on heavy, bloated WordPress themes. Their content was "thin"—generic corporate speak about "synergies" and "conceptualization" with zero actionable value.

However, they were ranking on Page 1 simply due to Domain Age (being online for 10+ years) and a lack of real competition.

The Technical Bottlenecks of Competitors:

  1. Slow Load Times: Reliance on heavy plugins and jQuery resulted in poor Core Web Vitals.
  2. Unstructured Data: Google could read their text, but it couldn't understand their entities (courses, prices, locations).
  3. Generic UX: No clear user journeys for high-ticket services.

The JNSN Goal: We needed to bypass these legacy sites not by waiting for our domain to age, but by leveraging Technical SEO Superiority. We needed to feed Google’s algorithms exactly what they crave: Speed, Structure, and Specificity.

The Architecture: Why We Chose Next.js Over WordPress

At RatifiedTech, we believe that for a site requiring dynamic content (like courses and blogs) mixed with static speed, Next.js is the only logical choice.

For JNSN Hospitality Partners, we utilized the Next.js App Router. This allowed us to make a critical architectural distinction that most template-based sites miss: the separation of Server Components and Client Components.

1. Server-Side Rendering for SEO

In traditional React apps (SPAs), the page is empty until the browser runs JavaScript. Google’s crawlers hate this.

We built JNSN’s core pages—such as the Hospitality Business 101 (HB101) landing page—as Server Components. This means the HTML is generated on the server before it ever reaches the user's browser. When Googlebot crawls the page, it sees the full content, the course details, and the metadata instantly.

2. Static Site Generation (SSG) for Speed

For the blog section, we didn't want the server to rebuild the page every time a user clicked a link. That’s slow. Instead, we used Static Site Generation.

We utilized generateStaticParams to pre-build every single blog post at build time. Whether a user is reading about Hospitality Insights and Trends or a specific deep-dive into restaurant management, the page loads instantly because it is served as a static HTML file from the edge.

The Result? A Lighthouse Performance score of 98/100, compared to the industry average of 45/100.

The "Secret Weapon": JSON-LD Structured Data

This is where RatifiedTech provided the massive competitive advantage. Most developers stop at <title> tags. We went deeper.

Google has moved beyond just matching keywords; it now tries to understand Entities. It wants to know: Is this a product? A course? A person? A place?

To communicate this, we hard-coded complex JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) into the application.

1. Course Schema for Rich Snippets

JNSN offers premium training, such as their Professional Restaurant Leadership Programs.

If we had just listed the text, Google would see it as a blog post. Instead, we injected Course Schema. We explicitly told Google:

  • Name: Restaurant Leadership & Management Program
  • Provider: JNSN Hospitality Partners
  • Price: KES 25,000
  • Currency: KES

Why this matters: When a user searches for "Restaurant Management Course Kenya," Google can now display a Rich Snippet showing the price and course title directly on the search results page. This increases Click-Through Rate (CTR) significantly because the user sees the value before they even click.

2. FAQ Schema for Screen Real Estate

We noticed competitors had vague "About Us" pages. We countered this by building a dedicated Frequently Asked Questions page powered by FAQPage Schema.

By structuring the data this way, Google can pull the questions and answers directly into the search results accordion. This allows JNSN to dominate the visual space on Page 1, pushing competitors further down the screen.

3. LocalBusiness & ProfessionalService Schema

To prove legitimacy, we wrapped the Contact Us page in ProfessionalService Schema. We defined the area served (Kenya), the price range, and linked the entity to the founder’s credentials.

Speaking of credentials, we utilized Person Schema on the About JNSN Hospitality page to link the founder, Johnson Mbugua, to his specific qualifications (Swiss-trained, Boma International Hospitality College). This builds E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), a critical ranking factor for business consulting.

Solving the Content Problem: Dynamic Slugs vs. IDs

One common mistake we see in React applications is lazy routing. Developers often leave URLs looking like website.com/blog/1 or website.com/course?id=55.

Google hates this. It tells the user nothing about the page content.

For JNSN, we implemented a dynamic slug system. When we migrated their content, we ensured that every URL was descriptive and keyword-rich.

We applied this same logic to their Services Page. Instead of a single generic page, we structured the content so that specific services like "Menu Engineering" and "Staff Training" are distinct, crawlable entities within the site architecture.

The "Two Birds" Strategy: Content Marketing & Portfolio

A major part of the strategy was showcasing JNSN’s actual work. Competitors were listing "Proposed Projects"—essentially admitting they hadn't built anything yet.

We built a dynamic Project Gallery using Next.js Image Optimization. This automatically serves images in modern formats (AVIF/WebP) tailored to the user's device size.

But we didn't stop at visuals. We added ImageGallery Schema to these pages. Now, when hospitality owners search Google Images for "Restaurant Interior Design Kenya" or "Waiters Training Nairobi," JNSN’s optimized images are primed to appear, driving traffic back to the main site.

Conclusion: Why Custom Development Wins

The JNSN Hospitality Partners project serves as a proof of concept for the Kenyan market: Technical SEO is not optional.

While competitors rely on the "safety" of old domain age and WordPress plugins, JNSN is entering the market with a Ferrari engine.

  • Faster Load Times = Lower Bounce Rates.
  • Structured Data = Richer Search Results.
  • Clean Architecture = Better Crawlability.

At RatifiedTech, we don't just build websites that look good; we build digital assets that perform. The JNSN platform is now scalable, secure, and ready to handle the traffic that comes with being the industry leader.

If you are a business owner in Kenya tired of "website designers" who don't understand business growth, it’s time to talk to engineers who do.