Web Design, Digital Marketing & SEO in Scotland - Sean Botha

Highland Fling Bungee

sean — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:57:05 +0000

Following a number of recent one-off projects with Highland Fling Bungee, I am now officially working on a regular basis with the Killecrankie business. This exciting and ambitious Perthshire company offers bungee jumping in Scotland, where happy jumpers launch themselves from the beautiful vantage point of Garry Bridge (also known as Soldier’s Leap!)

This exciting new development resulted after negotiating a retainer agreement whereby I provide a set number of work days per month and in exchange offer a preferential daily rate.

Over the coming months I will be helping the outdoor activity provider develop their business by

expanding their online presence
managing their email marketing and increasing their subscribers
advising on website developments
providing a new photography platform and
identifying profitable online business opportunities

I’ll be posting updates on the developments at Highland Fling, including reports of whether I can overcome my fear of heights!

Interested in finding out how to maintain regular online updates on an affordable monthly budget? Get in touch.

Ocean Terminal

sean — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:27:40 +0000

Recently I provided online marketing consultancy for Ocean Terminal, looking specifically at ways in which the Edinburgh shopping centre could improve its presence across social media and online.

By looking at the presence of competitor shopping centres (such as Omni Centre, St James’ Centre, Braehead and Silverburn) and the existing conversation which was taking place around Ocean Terminal – which the centre wasn’t currently taking part in – I collated a summary document with short and medium term actions. Claiming ownership of an online property on sites such as Google Places, Foursquare or TripAdvisor is a simple step to ensure that your business has the ability to provide accurate and up-to-date information, respond to customer enquiries or concerns and provide incentives to attract new and repeat customers.

If your customers are engaged in an online conversation about your sector, brand or geographic location, clear business opportunities exist to take part in this discussion and help to raise your online profile.

Interested in finding out how to take control of and enhance your online presence? Get in touch.

Outdoor Capital

sean — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:07:47 +0000

View Marketing commissioned a joint proposal from Glasgow digital agency Jam Hot & myself, we delivered an online marketing campaign promoting active outdoor vacations in the Fort William, Glencoe & Lochaber region (also know as The Outdoor Capital of the UK). Jam Hot created an eye-catching design, and using the Unbounce platform we launched 11 separate landing pages focused on the range of outdoor activities & accommodation/food & drink providers available in the area.

The project also involved significant improvements to the site’s organic SEO (including title & meta description changes and site management through Google Webmaster Tools), keyword-focused pay per click campaigns using Google Adwords and Facebook and integration of the campaign across The Outdoor Capital’s Twitter, Facebook and email marketing channels.

Need a dedicated campaign to promote your destination? Get in touch.

Cake Inverness

sean — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:19:24 +0000

Club venue in Inverness which runs regular nights with local and international DJs. Website built on the WordPress platform using a premium Themeforest Wordpress theme, with custom event posts as well as Google Apps email infrastructure and Google Analytics.

Are you working in music and looking for a website? Get in touch.

Kirkhill & Bunchrew Community

sean — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:18:24 +0000

Website for the Kirkhill & Bunchrew Community group to provide information for resident, detail events in the community and serve as an online hub for the region. Content is managed using WordPress and built using a free theme, with hosting provided by local company Teclan.

Want to find out about setting up a community website? Get in touch.

Sequoia Hearne Photography

sean — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:08:38 +0000

Professional photographer Sequoia Hearne (of the excellent Mirrorbox Photography) needed a portfolio website to showcase her work, and offer a way for prospective clients to find out more about the services she offers. Using an Activeden website template built in Flash with editing through XML files, the site displays stunning high-resolution images and utilises full-screen capability to maximum effect.

Sequoia’s hqphoto.co.uk domain was transferred over to 123-Reg with hosting on a secure MediaTemple server; she also manages her emails through Google Apps and analyses website traffic using Google Analytics.

Looking for a professional customised website for your photography portfolio? Get in touch.

Free Google Services

sean — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:31:13 +0000

Google offer a host of free services which can significantly help your search engine rankings and increase the visibility of your website.

Google Analytics
Essential tool to monitor website traffic, identify traffic sources, rank popular pages, identify search trends and much more. Installation requires adding a short bit of Javascript code to the section of your site, or if you’re using WordPress install the excellent Google Analytics for WordPress plugin and the work is done for you! Recent additions to the new version of Google Analytics include a revised Dashboard which fcouses on custom site reports, and a handy Search Engine Optimization section which integrates with Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Webmaster Tools
Once you have installed Google Analytics you can submit your site to Google Webmaster Tools and verify it – this helps to make Google aware of your online presence, and to index it on search engine results pages. To keep Google updated with changes to your site, you can create an XML sitemap and submit it – this can be done using a free XML generator tool or if you’re using WordPress then by installing and activating the WordPress SEO plugin.
Google Search
What are your prospective customers searching for? Use Google to find where your site ranks for a handful of key search words or phrases relevant to your business. You can also use Google’s Keyword Tool to help generate keyword ideas, a very helpful resource when for planning an online advertising campaign.

Google Places
If your business is in a specific geographic location – or if you are looking to establish yourself in a particular region – then get your business address listed on Google Places. Make sure you include the keywords which describe your business in your title or description – business listings on Google Places often appear at the very top of Google’s page 1 search engine results, which means you can increase the visibility of your business on Google for free! Your business will also appear when people search for keywords in your title & description using Google Maps – a fantastic opportunity for new business when people are perhaps travelling through the region you do business in.

Google Apps
Free custom email management with Google Apps, allowing you to send and receive emails using your custom domain on the easy-to-use Gmail platform. Free for small businesses and individuals – all you need to do is verify your domain and make a few changes to your MX records.

Building A WordPress Website

sean — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:30:06 +0000

Widely accepted as one of the top content management systems, many websites are now built on the excellent WordPress platform. In this article I’m going to explain why WordPress is a good choice for your website, and demonstrate how easy it is to use.

Kennedy & Brown Hair

sean — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:00:11 +0000

Kennedy & Brown are a stylish boutique hairdressing salon in Inverness who needed to update their website and develop their online marketing.

As a frequent customer and fan of their work I was eager to help, and worked with Susan and Stuart to help them relaunch their website, establish a social media presence on Facebook & Twitter, set up a system for emails using Google Apps and raise their profile using Google Maps. To track website visitor traffic I implemented Google Analytics and Facebook Insights for Domains, and identified search engine ranking patterns and diagnose website issues using Google Webmaster Tools.

Since the site has launched they have seen a steady and significant increase in site traffic and enquiries to the salon, as well as more fans on Facebook – the salon is regularly booked up for appointments weeks (and sometimes months) in advance! On follow-up visits to the salon they have asked me to continue developing the site’s content, helping to raise their search engine rankings through organic SEO – maintaining regular update in this way is vital to ensure content is fresh, and improve site visibility.

The website was built on a premium WordPress theme purchased from Themeforest (hosted on MediaTemple) and is integrated into the social graph using Facebook’s Open Social protocol.