|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
URL: http://www.hillsideventnor.co.uk
|
|
Key Industries:
|
|
Business
|
|
Drink
|
|
Entertainment & Leisure
|
|
Food
|
|
Travel
|
|
|
Key Sectors:
|
|
Analytics
|
|
Content Management
|
|
Design & Build
|
|
Hosting
|
|
SEO
|
|
|
Hillside
|
|
Brief
Hillside, a charming 18th Century guest house in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, had recently undergone extensive renovation and modernisation during the first half of 2009. Similarly the website needed to be updated to reflect the new look and promote the beautiful location and surroundings. Codehouse was awarded the contract to design, build and host the website as well as optimise for search.
Strategy
Like with all websites, it was important the content should be kept fresh and up-to-date to maintain interest and encourage returns (both visitors and search bots). For this to really happen the site had to be built on a CMS and, given the non-technical background of the content authors, the CMS had to be simple and easy to use. Additionally given the location of Hillside and the lack of an in-house technical capabilities the decision was taken to host the site off-site. The design of the site was to underline the relaxing nature of a visit to Hillside and promote the facilities on offer including an ever-changing menu featuring local, in-season produce.
All the features of the site (such as rate cards and menus) should be maintained by the Hillside staff without the need, or possibility, of breaking the visual elements.
The site should feature a mailing list, an automatically updated weather spot, blog and guest book amongst other details.
Execution
Hillside and Codehouse decided on the Umbraco open source CMS because of its easy-to-use content management interface and its extensibility. The CMS is hosted by Codehouse in a dedicated hosting centre and supported by the Codehouse technical and infrastructure support team.
The featured website elements were either built by Codehouse from scratch or adapted from the rich list of open source modules available for Umbraco.
When ready to go live, the domains were pointed at the new hosted servers and Hillside came online with a web presence that does the building proud. Of course, the existing links and references were handled gracefully so that search engine rankings and back links were preserved.
Results
Traffic to the site, and as a result direct bookings, has increased significantly. Not to mention that the site now truly showcases the hard work put in by all and gives visitors a taste of what to expect on arrival.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|