Wildlife Photography Hides | Website Design
BJ Creative was tasked by Tom Robinson to create a web presence for his wildlife photography business. The main draw of the site is some of the truly breathtaking scenery and shot composition for budding photographers. Tom has been able to build up multiple sites around the UK that allow birds of all types to photographed in their natural habitat. His work has created specialised hides for the relevant terrain and conditions that they are in. From photographing owls, to egrets, from eagles to woodpeackers, Tom Robinson has a hide to suit all types of photographer and their passion.
Web Design
Tom provided the logo for us so that we could make a quick start and he knew the type of structure he wanted. Due to the nature of this business, having large full size photographs of some of the birds taken at his hides was essential. There was no stock photography for this site. As well as showing the photos that could be achieved, it was important to list the relevant details for each of the hides so that customers knew what they would be staying in for the duration of their booking and the facilities on site. Originally the hides had their own galleries to demonstrate the interior and surrounding fauna of the hide. This was soon stripped back so that the focus was on the birds that could be seen and the spectacular shots that could be achieved.
Tom also wanted a way for clients to check the calendar for spaces in each of the hides and then make the appropriate booking. To this end we added online calendars that allow people to check the availability of each hide for their chosen date.
Recommendations
The start of this project revolved around the SEO that BJ Creative could build into the site. Tom Robinson had not focused on this aspect of their site, but the new, although graphic, website has seen many search terms now appearing on the top 5 pages of Google whereas before, he was relying on word of mouth, which can be very strong for recommendations, but can limit the reach of your business. By adding specific pages relevant to his key searh terms, we have been able to make the site go from unlisted to highly prominent without spending on Google AdWords.
Several search terms now appear on the first page of Gooogle.
The Build
We built the site using ASP.NET 4.5. The new site was built in its entirety as a test site on a hidden domain so that the full functionality and cross-browser and cross-platform could be tested.
The site was initially hosted by BJ Creative on our server so that changes could be amended quickly at our end and this also then enabled us to managed the domains chosen for the website.
Skills used
Website design: Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop
Website Build: Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio
The website can be viewed at www.wildlife-photography-hides.co.uk
Web design in Bourne
