CST Industries
A large-scale WordPress implementation that transformed an extensive global product catalog into a connected, searchable system—helping customers move from complex storage requirements to the right product, solution, dealer, or representative.
My Role
PLATFORM
FOCUS
SCOPE
The Challenge
CST Industries offers an extensive range of engineered storage tanks, silos, domes, covers, services, and supporting resources to customers in more than 125 countries. The website needed to serve customers who approach those offerings in very different ways. Some visitors know which product or brand they need. Others begin with an industry, application, storage material, or technical problem. The challenge was to organize those overlapping relationships without duplicating content or forcing visitors to understand CST’s internal product structure before they could find an answer.
What I Owned
I developed the WordPress systems that connect CST’s products, brands, industries, and solution types across the website.
My work included custom product and solution templates, taxonomy relationships, conditional content, advanced search, filtered dealer and representative locators, responsive behavior, and interactive elements throughout the site.
01 / CONTENT ARCHITECTURE
Structured the relationships between products, product categories, brands, applications, and solution types.
02 / CUSTOM TEMPLATE DEVELOPMENT
Built reusable WordPress templates that could present complex technical content consistently across a large catalog.
03 / SEARCH AND DISCOVERY
Implemented site search, product filtering, and locator experiences that help users narrow a large amount of information quickly.
04 / CONDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY
Developed rules that display the correct brands, products, representatives, and calls to action based on the content being viewed.
The Approach
Make a technically complex product catalog feel connected, understandable, and useful.
A scalable WordPress platform that connects CST’s products, brands, industries, applications, resources, and global sales network within one manageable system. The finished website allows visitors to explore CST from whichever direction makes sense to them—by product, solution, industry, brand, or location—and guides them toward the information and expertise they need. Behind the interface, reusable templates, custom taxonomies, conditional logic, and advanced discovery tools give CST a more consistent and maintainable way to manage a complex global product catalog.
01 / Model
Create relationships instead of isolated pages
I approached the website as an interconnected content system rather than a collection of individual pages.
Products needed to belong to categories and brands while also appearing within the industries and applications they support. I created the taxonomy structure that allows those relationships to be managed within WordPress and reused throughout the site.
02 / Build
Turn structured content into reusable experiences
I developed templates and components that pull information from the underlying content model and present it consistently.
This allowed CST to manage a large product catalog without manually rebuilding the same content across product, brand, and solution pages.
03 / Connect
Help every visitor reach the right next step
I built search, filters, dealer tools, representative tools, and contextual links that help visitors move from research to action.
Whether someone begins with a tank type, an industry, a region, or a specific application, the website creates a path toward the relevant information and the appropriate CST expert.
Inside the Build
Product and solution architecture
CST’s products frequently apply to more than one industry or storage challenge. A conventional page hierarchy would have created duplicate content and made those relationships difficult to maintain.
I developed a custom solution taxonomy that connects products with the applications and industries they serve. This allows the same product information to appear in multiple relevant contexts while remaining centrally managed.
Reusable product templates
I built reusable templates for CST’s product catalog using WordPress, WooCommerce, Elementor Pro, and custom fields.
The templates provide a consistent framework for technical descriptions, product features, imagery, resources, related solutions, and inquiry options while still accommodating the differences between tanks, silos, domes, covers, and individual product brands.
Conditional brand logic
Products may be connected to one or more CST brands. I developed conditional display rules so a brand identity appears only when the product has one clear brand association.
This prevents misleading or duplicated branding while allowing the same template to adapt automatically to the product’s underlying data.
Advanced site search
I implemented an enhanced search experience capable of indexing and returning relevant information from across CST’s products, solutions, resources, and standard website content.
Custom result templates organize the returned content into a consistent, responsive layout, making a large technical website easier to explore through natural search terms.
Filtered representative locator
CST serves customers across multiple global regions and product categories, so connecting every visitor with the correct representative required more than a simple contact list.
I developed a filtered representative locator that allows users to narrow results by region and product expertise. The experience reduces irrelevant results and creates a clearer path to the right person.
Aquastore dealer locator
The Aquastore product line is supported by a dedicated dealer network, requiring a separate discovery experience from CST’s general representative search.
I built a searchable dealer locator with dynamic filtering and location information, allowing visitors to identify the appropriate Aquastore dealer without sorting through unrelated contacts.
The representative and dealer tools remain connected while respecting the different business structures behind them.
Interactive company timeline
CST’s history extends back to 1893 and includes generations of engineering, manufacturing, and product innovation.
I developed the interactive timeline experience so visitors could explore that history progressively rather than being presented with an overwhelming wall of content. The interaction keeps the page approachable while preserving access to the complete story.
Responsive implementation
The product catalog, navigation, search results, data-driven templates, and locator tools all needed to remain usable across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
I developed responsive rules for the site’s layouts and interactive components, ensuring that complex technical content could still be scanned, filtered, and understood on smaller screens.