Website Build – A Case Study

Having a website is important, but having an easy to use, mobile optimised website that you can easily make changes to yourself is even more so. All too often clients come to us with a below-par website that has cost them thousands of pounds (plus hundreds a year in hosting fees) and that they can’t make even tiny changes to without incurring further costs.

We’re all about transparency, and so here’s a detailed case study of a recent website build we carried out for a client with two holiday lets.

 

 

The client was unhappy with their website, which had been built by a local web developer who had promised a ‘bespoke’ site. The site was not mobile optimised, and the client was paying c.£40 per month (£480 per year) in hosting fees, which they were keen to reduce. The site was also in need of modernising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These screenshots illustrate that the existing website was not mobile optimised. These days, the vast majority of initial engagements with a website are on mobile devices, and so when a site isn’t mobile optimised it can really affect bookings and sales.

 

 

We moved the hosting over to our own servers, which reduced the client’s hosting costs to £4.99 +VAT per month, as we only charge what we need to cover our costs. This has saved the client over £400 per year.

We then built a new modernised website for the client, using a WordPress template and tested it with the client before implementing it live.

 

 

The website is now mobile-optimised, the previous website was not, and the client was missing out on potential customers.

 

We reworked the content to appeal to a more discerning customer and made the User Interface [UX] more intuitive, guiding people to get in touch about booking.

There is a streamlining of information on the website now, and it is focused solely on potential customers coming through.

We also completed a research exercise for the client to understand the benefits to the business of using a channel manager. A channel manager is used to help manage multiple advertising outlets for a single property, and to make sure that booking availability is synchronised between all advertising outlets so double booking doesn’t occur. Due to the scale of the client’s business, it was felt that this wasn’t necessary, but will be valuable for the business if it expands in the future.

 

A multi page website such as this one costs £540 +VAT.

Optional Extras:-

Photography – +£100 +VAT for single bedroom property, +£15 +VAT for each additional bedroom.

Writing copy for multipage website (including edits) –  +£90 +VAT per page

Implementation of a booking system for 1 property + training – +£210 +VAT

 

Get in touch with us at sayhello@theresponsibleagency.wales for a chat about how we can improve your business with a new, easy to use website.