Don't rebuild zucity.org. Restructure 3 page-types instead.
Your site is on Vercel with HTTP/2, valid SSL, sitemap, robots.txt. The infra is fine. Three page-types are where the structural lift sits, and they're all additive, so no rip-and-replace needed.
This page is the structural companion to the CRO teardowns. CRO covers what's leaking inside the current funnels. This one covers which page-types are worth re-shaping and which new pages are worth adding. Sequenced across 4 to 6 weeks of designer plus dev time, not a quarter-long rebuild.
3 page-types worth restructuring
Membership tier-select page
Tier comparison is buried below scroll. Pricing is obscured until late in the flow. No social proof above the fold. Visitors who arrive intent-loaded ("I want to see if Zucity membership is worth it") have to dig.
- Hero with a single member-count stat ("400+ members across Japan + Chiang Mai", or whatever the real number is)
- 3-column tier comparison with prices visible immediately, not gated
- 3 testimonial cards (one per archetype: builder, nomad, founder)
- FAQ block addressing the 5 questions that actually block signup
- Checkout, with the tier preselected from whichever column was clicked
This is funnel-1 of the CRO teardown. Highest-intent traffic lands here and bounces. Fixing the structure compounds every other acquisition channel.
Themed-week landing pages
Each themed week has minimal page real-estate. Speakers and mentors are hidden or inconsistently surfaced. Past-week recordings, photos, and quotes are invisible to someone evaluating whether the next week is worth flying in for.
- Hero with theme, dates, city, and a single line on who it's for
- "Who's there" speaker and mentor card grid with real photos plus a one-line bio each
- "What you'll do" schedule snapshot, not the full agenda, just the shape of a typical day
- "What past members got out of it" with 3 quote cards from a prior cohort, names where permission allows
- Apply CTA with the actual application criteria visible (this saves you and them time)
- Application form captured on Zucity, not just a Lu.ma redirect. You want the intent data on your domain.
Themed weeks are Zucity's sharpest wedge. Their landing pages should match the seriousness of the offer. Right now the page weight does not match the experience weight.
Property listing pages
90+ accommodations are browsable but filtering is limited. Photo quality varies between listings. There's no clear labelling for which properties are Zucity-direct versus partner-sourced, which matters for trust and pricing expectations.
- Filter bar: city, property type, dates available, "Zucity-direct" toggle
- Card grid with consistent photo treatment (uniform aspect ratio, lighting baseline) and a "Zucity-direct" badge where applicable
- Per-property page with real photos only (no gradient placeholders, no stock fillers), partner attribution clearly stated, and the booking method explicit (instant book vs inquiry-first)
- Member-only pricing surfaced where it applies, with a soft prompt to join if the visitor is not logged in
90+ listings is a real strength being undersold by browsability friction. The catalogue is wider than most competitors, but a visitor who can't filter to "Hokkaido in March, instant-book" walks away thinking the inventory is thin.
3 new pages worth adding
Visa + relocation playbook · /relocation
Frequently asked, currently scattered. A centralised resource covers Japan visa types relevant to nomads and remote workers, tax thresholds, partner-property purchasing options, and opening a Japanese bank account.
This is also a content moat (see intel-leads section A). Nobody else in the coliving space owns this content territory, and search demand is high.
Founders Circle landing · /founders
Companion page for the Founders Circle wedge (see wedge offers, wedge 2). Invite-only application form, member benefits, current member list with permission, and a clear answer to "what makes this different from a regular Zucity membership".
Required if launching that wedge in Track 1 of the 90-day plan. Without a dedicated page, the offer reads as a vague upgrade rather than a distinct tier.
Member directory · /members (opt-in)
Surfaces intra-community connections. Members opt in, then see other members filtered by city, theme attended, or interest. The directory becomes a passive matchmaking layer on top of the themed-week and coliving cohorts.
Compounds the member-matcher module from ops modules. Without a UI, the matching logic stays in Notion or DMs. With one, it's a renewal driver.
Performance + technical, light touches
Structural moves, not a full rebuild:
- Add Event schema (structured data) to themed-week pages. Cheap win for AI visibility and Google event-result eligibility.
- Lazy-load below-the-fold images on property listing pages. Trivial on Vercel.
- Set up an A/B test framework on the tier-select page. That single page is the highest-ROI experiment surface on the whole site. Vercel + a tool like Statsig or Vercel's own Edge Config makes this a half-day setup.
- Image formats: zucity.org probably has decent LCP already via Vercel, but image-heavy property pages benefit from next-gen formats (AVIF or WebP). Vercel's image optimisation handles this automatically if it's enabled in next.config.
What NOT to do
- Don't migrate off Vercel. It's working. HTTP/2, edge caching, image optimisation, A/B framework support. Migrating is pure cost with no upside.
- Don't add a blog unless Kiba (or someone owned) commits to 1 post per week for 6 months. A stale blog hurts trust more than no blog. Themed-week recaps and member spotlights are higher-leverage content formats anyway.
- Don't add a separate "community" subdomain. Keep everything on zucity.org for SEO compounding and brand cohesion. Subdomains split authority and add navigational friction.
- Don't redesign the homepage. It's not the bottleneck. The tier-select page is. Homepage redesigns are the most visible work, which makes them tempting, but they rarely move conversion as much as a single tier-select restructure.
The discipline here is to resist the rebuild impulse. Most agencies pitch a rebuild because rebuilds are easier to scope and bill. The actual lift on Zucity is 6 surgical page-type changes, not 60 pages of new code.
Sequencing across 4 to 6 weeks
If Kiba were running this with his own builder (or with help), a sane order looks like:
- Week 1. Tier-select page restructure (highest ROI, fastest payoff). Ship the A/B framework alongside it.
- Week 2. Themed-week template (one week as the pilot, e.g. the next confirmed Karuizawa or Chiang Mai cohort).
- Week 3. Property listing filter bar plus per-property template. Backfill content for the top 20 highest-traffic properties.
- Week 4. /relocation playbook content drafted and shipped.
- Week 5. /founders landing page (if the Founders Circle wedge launches in this window).
- Week 6. /members directory v1 plus Event schema rollout across themed-week pages.
Each week is independently shippable. If priorities shift mid-stream, you drop the lowest-priority week and the rest still compound.
3 page-type restructures plus 3 new pages, sequenced across 4 to 6 weeks of designer plus dev time. Total scope is far smaller than a full rebuild and unlocks roughly 80% of the leverage. The other 20% can wait for evidence that says it's worth building.