BLC
A cigar community on an aging WordPress site, in a category where the law limits what you can say.
Compliance was a design constraint from day one, not a review at the end.
How we approached the build
A big library, an old site, and strict rules.
BLC is a free platform for cigar reviews, education, a podcast and a community. It sells nothing. Its content lived on an aging WordPress site, and in Canada, tobacco law limits what any cigar brand can show and say.
The alternative was a fresh coat of paint on the old site. Instead we rebuilt it, moved every piece of content across, and wrote the legal limits into the content rules before a single page was published.
What we built
- Rebuilt siteReviews, education, a cigar database, events, a community hub, search and filters, behind an age gate.
- Content migration18 articles, 7 guides, 28 new releases, 117 community photos and 791 glossary terms parsed from the old site by script.
- ComplianceContent guardrails written against the tobacco act, AI-image disclosure, and an audit of 86 images for identifiable people.
- Voice systemA founder voice guide built from about 46,000 words of real transcripts, across story, podcast and written registers.
- Social and podcastInstagram highlight icons, a podcast intro and outro, and an episode thumbnail kit.
What changed
- About 2 weeksFrom first commit (September 11) to the new site live on its own domain, replacing WordPress.
- 149 pagesIndexed in the new sitemap.
- −79%Gallery image weight, 99.4 MB down to 20.5 MB.
The brand name, link and screenshots will be added once the client signs off.