Problem

The Coombe House proprietors Marian Windebank and Suzanne Major started to think about having an internet presence some two years ago. As the majority of new residents come to The Coombe House through recommendation, their objective was to provide an information resource more than a marketing tool. Increasingly, prospective residents and their families were asking if The Coombe House had a website they could visit.

When Marian Windebank began to think about a website for The Coombe House, she contacted some local web developers to ask for quotes. The prices proved to be prohibitive, and the website plans were shelved. Early in 2008, Karen Chapple of IRUN Newbury was recommended to Marian by a friend. Karen was asked to provide a proposal and a quotation. This price was within the budget, and IRUN Newbury was commissioned to develop The Coombe House website.

Solution

Working with Marian and Suzanne, Karen Chapple designed and built the website. Karen demonstrated the design options and advised on the look and feel of the website. It was a consultative process, with Marian and Suzanne making the final decisions. Karen also made recommendations about the relevant keywords which The Coombe House should include in their copy. The pictures were taken by Marian and Suzanne: a challenge in the very poor weather conditions of 2008! Within a few weeks, The Coombe House website went live.

Result

Although Marian and Suzanne have not yet added any new content to the website, they are confident about using the WebBuildPRO online package. Visitors to the site have provided some positive feedback. The consensus of opinion is the website is ‘soft and gentle’, reflecting the atmosphere and care of The Coombe House. The site is not too ‘busy’ and is factual; essential when providing an information resource.

The Coomb House website has been indexed by Google, and further work on the optimisation will be carried out by Karen to ensure success on the search engine rankings. All in all, The Coombe House now has a website which is fulfilling its objectives.

The new website has solved another problem for The Coombe House. The home needed a new promotional brochure and, instead of producing an expensive printed hard copy version, a downloadable PDF has been generated instead. Now prospective residents and their families can simply visit the website and download the brochure. The brochure can be kept up-to-date, and is immediately available instead of waiting for hard copies to be delivered by post.