Project Context & Objectives
Galerie Ikonen Mautner, founded in 1959 in Vienna, is an internationally recognized specialist in 17th–19th century Orthodox icons, with a collection exceeding 200 originals from Russia, Greece, the Balkans, and beyond. The client’s goals were to:

1. Present the collection online with rich detail (provenance, age, materials) and high‑resolution imagery.
2. Enable global sales inquiries while preserving the gallery’s scholarly credibility.
3. Support English and German visitors with seamless language switching.
4. Optimize for performance & SEO to attract collectors, museums, and spiritual art scholars.

Approach & Technology

• Custom Post Types & Taxonomies: Built an “Icon” CPT with metadata fields (origin, century, condition, certificate of authenticity) and taxonomies for Region and Iconographic Theme.
• Multilingual Readiness: Integrated WPML to deliver German and English versions of all content, including form prompts and metadata.
• Dynamic Catalog & Audio Tour: Used Elementor Pro’s dynamic listings to display icon thumbnails, with lightbox‑enabled galleries for close‑ups and an embedded audio‑guide player per icon detail page.
• Performance Optimization: Employed WP Rocket caching, asset minification, WebP image conversion, and lazy loading—achieving sub‑2 s load times despite large image files.
• On‑Page SEO & Schema: Implemented schema markup (Organization, Product) and optimized meta titles/descriptions (e.g., “17th Century Russian Orthodox Icon – Galerie Ikonen Mautner”) to improve visibility for long‑tail art‑collector queries.

Standout Functionality & UX Highlights

• Advanced Gallery Filters: Visitors can filter icons by century, region, and iconographic subject (e.g., Theotokos, saints, feast days).
• Certificate Downloads: Secure, gated download links for each icon’s authenticity certificate, driving qualified lead capture.
• Embedded Audio Guides: Auto‑playing audio narrations (in both languages) to enrich the virtual viewing experience.
• Sticky Inquiry CTA: Persistent “Request Purchase & Visit” button that opens a multi‑step Elementor form, capturing visitor intent and details.
• Accessible Design: High‑contrast text, keyboard‑navigable galleries, and properly labeled ARIA attributes for an inclusive experience.

Results & Impact

• Faster Engagement: Reduced average page loads to under 2 seconds, boosting session duration on detail pages by over 40%.
• Increased Inquiries: Streamlined inquiry workflow led to a 35% uplift in purchase requests and gallery‑visit bookings.
• SEO Gains: Featured rich snippets for icon products and improved rankings for targeted queries like “buy antique Orthodox icon online” and “17th century icon gallery Vienna.”