Since Realnet first opened its doors in 1998, our core focus has been on developing marketing websites, ecommerce websites and digital marketing strategies that deliver real, measurable value to our clients.
A significant factor in the success of these websites and services is the time and effort we and our clients invest in evolving these products to ensure they remain ahead of the curve. Websites have a limited shelf life and over time need to be redesigned or redeveloped to ensure they keep up with current technology. This evolution includes anything from simple website design and content updates to complete redesigns, software upgrades or new system integrations.
And to ensure that Realnet sets a high bar, we’ve also evolved our own website over time to reflect not only the new services we offer and showcase some of our work, but also to ensure that our website is an excellent example of our website design, development and digital marketing capabilities.
Our latest iteration has just gone live, and marks the next step in Realnet’s commitment to digital design and service excellence.
Applying the ‘Realnet Approach’
When we’re working with a client – whether prospective, new or long-standing – our approach is always the same: it’s always about asking the right questions so that we can develop the right answers and ideal solutions from the start.
Reviewing our own website was no different – each team member from our various departments including website design, development, project management and digital marketing was consulted to give feedback on the key questions they’ve received and information clients have requested over the past 12 to 18 months.
Using the feedback and insights from this, we developed our strategy and approach for the Realnet website redesign, taking into account:
- Visual design – improving the imagery, layout, use of white space, column structures and overall flow of the home page and inner pages
- User Experience (UX) – making the user journey from discovery and first glance to navigation and contact experience as simple, easy and efficient as possible
- Content – optimising our full website content to answer as many of the questions our visitors and clients ask, thus enhancing the value we offer right from the start
Design for your end user
Our key focus in the visual redesign of our website was to create impact using the right balance of imagery, text, colour and white space.
We’re a proudly Cambridge-based agency, so using an iconic image of The Backs in full summer sunshine sets exactly the right initial tone, with subtle angled image boxes leading visitors to scroll further down the page. Our designers then combined, graphics, text and white space to break up the home page content into clear, easily identifiable areas for visitors to browse through.
We’ve increased the size of images and reduced text density to make a more approachable website. The result is a visually-appealing, light, easily-navigable home page that creates exactly the first impression we want for website visitors.
Focus on UX
As with our client’s websites we wanted to create a great User Experience. Our re-worked navigation is the first indication of this, where we neatly compartmentalise our core services including website design and digital marketing as well as our range of other services such as bespoke web systems, website audits and system integrations into the easily-navigable menu.
We’ve also created some new navigation entry points for additional content sections we’ve recently added such as our Insights section.
As visitors navigate around the website, we’ve ensured that access to each section is clearly-marked, with a consistent visual language, making it easy for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.
Getting hold of us is also really easy as we’ve ensured to include frequent and clear contact prompts.
Content that is relevant, readable and useful
Another significant area of focus for us during the website redesign was our content. Google’s algorithms are extremely particular about having content that is authoritative, trustworthy and useful.
On our home page we’ve worked hard to ensure our content is clear, concise and relevant to the work we do. We’ve been careful to highlight not only what we do, but also why we do it – the clear goal is to deliver websites, systems and digital marketing that enhance our clients’ businesses.
Throughout our website’s pages the content remains clear, useful and engaging – we’ve taken care to avoid using jargon or acronyms that may not make sense to site visitors, opting rather to use language that is easily accessible.
One of the new content areas we’re proudest of is our Insights section, a regularly-updated section that gives site visitors answers to direct questions such as ‘Can WooCommerce create invoices?’ or ‘What’s the best site search for WordPress?’.
Our aim is to grow the Insights section over time to be an excellent go-to resource for our clients and anyone browsing for a solution to a website based problem, demonstrating our knowledge and authority.
Walking the SEO Walk
Our full website redesign would, of course, not be complete without a comprehensive SEO strategy.
Apart from the key elements discussed above, we’ve worked extremely hard on ensuring that our website checks every box for SEO including:
- Keyword-dense website copy and meta-data
- Rich, useful content throughout the website, including news and other articles
- Optimised images and site speed elements
- Optimisation for Google’s most recent updates
- Full Mobile Responsiveness and mobile indexing
- Analytics and reporting integration
Additionally, our digital marketing team is hard at work building new content and marketing strategies to help us keep Realnet top of mind for clients in our area, the UK and globally who are looking for our services.
2024 and Beyond
One of the most exciting aspects of working in the website design and digital media space is that things never just stay as they are – there is constant evolution, new products and developments, new tools and trends and more to keep us all on our toes.
From AI and Augmented Reality to Voice Search, Chatbot Marketing and more there’s no doubt that 2024 will be an exciting year. As things develop so will we, whether for our own internal digital platforms or for the myriad solutions, websites, strategies and digital marketing campaigns we build for our clients. Either way, the future looks bright!
If it’s time for a review of your website, whether for redesign, refresh or redevelopment, get in touch with us today to find out more about our website design, development and digital marketing capabilities. Contact us today on 01223 550800 or info@realnet.co.uk.