Case Study · Assisted Living · Evansville, IN
Melrose Markets “Resort-Style” Living — Then Shows Raw Template Code in the Footer.
Melrose Assisted Living — Evansville, IN · melroseassistedliving.com
Melrose Assisted Living sells a luxury experience: tropical atrium, heated indoor pool, cutting-edge technology. Visit their website and you'll find five raw Hibu template placeholders at the bottom of every page — {{placeholder_footer_reserve3}} through {{placeholder_footer_reserve7}}. The credibility gap between the brand promise and the website reality is visible to every prospective resident.
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The Evidence
Five raw Hibu template placeholder variables appear as visible text in the footer of every page — including the homepage that leads with 'resort-style' luxury branding. These unfilled slots were never replaced with actual content.
Melrose Assisted Living opened around 2020 as a premium alternative to the aging assisted living stock in Evansville. They invested in a tropical atrium, a heated indoor pool, and chef-prepared dining — real differentiators that justify a premium price. Their website copy sells it well. And then the page scrolls down to the footer, where five lines of unresolved Hibu template code tell a different story.
The Business
Melrose is a relatively new facility — opened around 2020 — that positioned itself as a high-end option in the Evansville assisted living market. The physical investment is real: a 20,000 square foot tropical atrium is not a stock photo or marketing language. They've built something genuinely differentiated.
That investment makes the website problem more costly, not less. Families comparing assisted living options are making a decision that often costs $3,000–$6,000 per month. They're scrutinizing everything. A footer with broken template code on a “resort-style” facility creates cognitive dissonance — and dissonance drives prospects to whoever presents the cleaner alternative.
What We Found
The same Hibu template placeholder issue found on multiple sites in this vertical — but compounded here by the explicit contrast between luxury branding and broken code.
Five Raw Template Variables in Every Footer
Every page on melroseassistedliving.com renders five unfilled Hibu slot variables as visible text:
{{placeholder_footer_reserve3}}
{{placeholder_footer_reserve4}}
{{placeholder_footer_reserve5}}
{{placeholder_footer_reserve6}}
{{placeholder_footer_reserve7}}— Visible on every page of melroseassistedliving.com
These are reserved footer content areas in the Hibu builder — slots intended for additional text blocks, contact details, or navigation. They were never filled in, and the builder published the raw variable names as content.
The Brand Promise vs. the Website Reality
Melrose leads with “resort-style” language, premium amenity callouts, and the kind of copy that justifies a premium monthly rate. The design above the footer is polished and aspirational. Then the page ends with raw code strings — the web equivalent of a luxury hotel with an unfinished back hallway that every guest walks through on the way out.
Hibu Platform Exposed Through Privacy Links
The privacy and cookie policy links route through budurl.com/hibu* — announcing to every visitor that the site was built and hosted on Hibu's shared platform. For a facility marketing premium, independent living, that's a credibility detail they'd prefer visitors not notice.
What We'd Fix
A website that matches what Melrose built in the real world — premium presentation, zero broken code, and a digital experience that reinforces the physical investment.
Move Off Hibu — Own the Platform
Rebuild on a platform that doesn't expose its own branding in every privacy link and doesn't leave template code visible when slots go unfilled. A custom-managed site for a facility with genuine premium positioning.
Visual Showcase of Real Amenities
A 20,000 square foot tropical atrium and a heated indoor pool deserve to be the centrepiece of the website — not buried in copy. High-quality photos, a virtual tour pathway, and an amenities showcase that shows prospective residents what they're considering.
Pricing and Availability Flow
Families comparing facilities always want to know two things: what does it cost and is there availability? A clear inquiry form that captures both questions — and routes them to the right person immediately.
Evansville Assisted Living SEO
Structured for the families who are actively searching — “assisted living Evansville IN,” “luxury senior living Evansville,” and related queries — so Melrose appears before competitors in organic search.
Spec Redesign Deliverables
- ✓No Hibu template code — clean build from the ground up, zero platform artifacts
- ✓Amenity showcase — atrium, pool, and dining presented with real photography
- ✓Pricing and availability inquiry flow — captures the two questions families always ask
- ✓Local SEO for Evansville assisted living searches
- ✓Premium visual language that matches the physical experience Melrose delivers
- ✓Mobile-optimized — adult children research senior living on phones during work breaks
The Opportunity
Melrose has done the hard part — building a genuinely differentiated facility in a market where most assisted living looks the same. The website should be the easiest part: show what exists, make it easy to inquire, and don't hand prospects a reason to question the investment.
Right now, five lines of raw code at the bottom of every page are doing exactly that. Every family who scrolls to the footer — and footers are where people look for contact information and trust signals — sees template code instead of either.
We've built the spec redesign. Melrose can see exactly what their website could look like — one that matches the facility — before committing to anything.
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