Promising Start for Re-launched Site

13th May 2009

Promising Start for Re-launched Site

A week after the re-launch of the Dry Island website and the initial effects of the redesign are beginning to show; both in terms of increased traffic and aesthetic appreciation. Normally I wouldn't expect the results to be noticeable quite so quickly after a site is launched, but because the Dry Island website has been on the internet for many years, it already has listings on all the major search engines and is regularly "spidered" or re-indexed by them all. This means that the changes have already appeared on many of the search results pages.

We can't entirely claim the credit for all the new hits, as Jess and Ian are running a small Google Adwords campiagn too, and judging from the statistics Adwords traffic is accounting for about five percent of all traffic to the site. Even removing this from the stats, the overall site visits are up, and for many more search terms.

A good example of this are the phrases "Badachro Holiday Cottages" and "Badachro Self Catering" both of which were not even within the text of the previous site at all. Now in the first case Dry Island is at position number 2 and in the second case is shown beside the Google Map and at position number 5 on Google's search results.

Putting Yourself on Google Maps

Using Google Maps to locate the cottages as a business has meant we can also tie into the excellent reviews of the accommodation that are already on Trip Advisor. This is a relatively simple process to do and in addition to filling out the obligatory business details we also uploaded some lovely photos and also made sure the map marker was correctly positioned.

The Adwords campaign has also been a useful piece of the jigsaw and has meant that the new site has been put in front of many more people much more quickly than just relying on Google's (and the other search engines')  re-indexing processes. It has kick started and generated additional exposure for the site that would normally take longer to achieve.

The other positive feedback has been over the design which has been warmly received by everyone who's visited. All the comments have remarked on the gorgeous photography and inviting design that makes you want to jump on a plane and visit Dry Island immediately. Interestingly almost all of the photos appeared on the previous version of the site, but the new layout gives them a setting and style that goes way beyond the impact they had previously. This is a really good example of the power of re-branding and the importance of keeping up to date with current design possibilities and trends.

We're going to be keeping a close eye on the traffic and bookings and will post more updates as time goes by.