Seamus and Neil of Doctor Maher’s have developed a fantastic range of natural body care products using only natural, hypoallergenic ingredients, known for their exceptional skin benefits. They were finally ready to launch the business when they asked me to help them build their brand online.

My brief was to design and develop a brochure and eCommerce website which would showcase the business & products and position them as leading products in their niche.

We began by exploring the goals of the business. On consultation with Seamus and Neil, we established their goals as follows:

1. to sell their product range online

2. to create a professional, visually appealing online image

3. to rank well in search results for the relevant keywords, positioning the range as superior, unique and all-natural

4. to demonstrate that they were experts in their field, considering that Neil has a Doctorate in Biochemistry and has worked for years as a Cosmetic Chemist

5. To get people talking positively about their products online

The task was big, but we were lucky that the guys had a great product range which lived up to the desired reputation.

We generated and carried out a plan for achieving their goals. We did the following:

=> designed and built the website, while carrying the branding through all aspects of the website

=> conducted research to determine relevant keywords which were being used often in Google searches. We then looked at the Google Adwords competition for these keywords and selected keywords which were used often but for which competition was not too high.

=> populated our pages with these keywords, while keeping the text easy to read.

=> conducted extensive on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to make the site as visible and easy-to-navigate as possible for the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

=> set up the blog which they were advised to have in place

=> provided detailed training to Seamus, Neil and Alison on blogging techniques to achieve 4 goals:

– to position themselves as experts in their niche by demonstrating their knowledge of the body care industry

– to educate their website visitors on their product features and benefits

– to get found in a Google search for their chosen keywords

– to have content which they could share on social media and get conversations going. The goal was to get people talking positively about their products and their benefits.

The website pages currently rank at page 1 for the chosen keywords and organic visitor numbers have risen steadily. Online sales have been good.

This has all been helped by the products being featured on national television on more than one occasion since the website launch.

A major boost is that the products have recently been approved by Lloyd’s Pharmacy and will be stocked in 90 of their shops nationwide.

This business is a real success story, whose triumph resulted from hard work, persistence, expert knowledge and sheer determination by Seamus and Neil. You can visit their website at www.doctormahers.com and their online shop at www.doctormahers.com/shop

JMAC IT and Office Solutions offer a complete solution for offices including design/layout, fit-outs, ergonomics, equipment, stationery supplies and IT services. While they were an established business, they had not yet had a website built for them, but they were now ready to market themselves online.

We were commissioned to build a mobile-responsive website with the following objectives:

>> To describe their wide range of products and services, thus promoting them as a one stop shop for office supplies and services

>> To position them as experts in their niche

>> To follow the existing branding through to the website and ensure that it is easily recognisable as an office supplies and services provider

>> To provide a great user experience through good navigation and to make it easy for the customer to make contact with the company

>> To provide visibility of their social media profiles, for customers who like to engage with the business in this way

>> To optimise the website for Google search i.e. to make the website search engine friendly so that those searching for this type of business can easily find it.

We followed our standard procedure as follows:

- Initial wireframe submitted to the client, listing the website pages and how they would be displayed in the main menu

- Initial homepage prototype submitted to the client, showing the position of all elements; logo, navigational menu, banner, introduction, testimonial slider and footer.

- Following approval of the above, the website was built using text and images supplied by the client as well as some stock images to enhance the message that the website was delivering. The branding was maintained throughout the site.

- The main goal with the site was to encourage the customer to make contact with the business, therefore we made this as easy as possible by including a contact form at the bottom of each page. Providing a pleasant user experience and making it easy to navigate the site is critical to the success of any website.

- Testimonials were obtained from past and existing customers and placed both on the homepage and in a dedicated Testimonials page.

- Links to Social Media profiles were included on the contact page.

- Because JMACOS was a relatively new business, visibility in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) was a must and so on-page SEO optimisation was carried out. This included (among other strategies) keyword research and the population of metatags, text, URL’s and images with these keywords. In other words, a search was conducted to see what keywords their potential customers were typing into in a Google search box in order to find the products and services which JMACOS were providing. The site was then populated with these keywords. Many other on-page SEO strategies were adopted, too numerous to list here.

The website was moved to the live server upon approval by the client and the client was happy with the results. The following keywords were targeted and beside them you can see where the website ranked (at the time of testing) in a Google search result page for the keywords:

Tim O’Donoghue had worked in the family driving instructor business for many years and had recently set up a new business conducting driving assessments on behalf of both the medical profession and large haulage companies.  He needed a brochure website to showcase his wide range of services and to get found in a Google search.

My brief was to create this website using the new branding and to maximize his opportunities for search engine optimization.

Tim also enquired about LinkedIn and we encouraged him to improve his profile, since his customer base is largely other businesses and LinkedIn is the most popular networking site for professionals.

We implemented a plan for achieving Tim’s goals. All websites must be well laid out, easily navigated, written for easy reading also also written for easy search engine crawling (ranking high in a Google search result). Websites must also be visually appealing and portraying a professional look and feel.

We did the following:

=> designed and built the website on the WordPress platform, while carrying the branding through all aspects of the website. WordPress is robust, functional and secure, so it suited Tim’s needs perfectly.

=> conducted research to determine relevant keywords which were being used often in Google searches. We then looked at the Google Adwords competition for these keywords and selected keywords which were used often but for which competition was not too high. We populated our pages with these keywords, while keeping the text easy to read.

=> conducted extensive on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to make the site as visible and easy-to-navigate as possible for the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

=> ensured that the site was secure and loaded fast. Fast loading of pages is also important for Google.

=> We also overhauled Tim’s LinkedIn profile HERE to properly sell his strengths and also to optimize Tim’s profile rank in Google for his chosen keywords.

Tim’s LinkedIn profile currently ranks on page 1 for his chosen keyword ‘Driving Mobility Consultants’. He also ranks on page 1 for all keywords targeted on his website.

Tim was happy with the overall layout and design of the website and his brand is immediately recognisable to visitors.

He now also has visibility of the behaviour of the visitors to his site through his new Google Analytics account.

Tim has indicated that he gets many enquiries via his website. Unfortunately, he has yet to get his head around LinkedIn, but we’re sure that will happen in time!

Tim offers a very valuable service to the medical profession who require to sign-off on medical fit-to-drive certification and want total peace of mind. He provides this service also to families who are concerned about a loved-ones fitness to drive. Haulage companies also require to assess their drivers on a continuous basis and Tim is there to provide the service. You can view his website at www.resultsdrivingassessmentservices.ie.

Ryle Menswear are a high-end mens clothing shop in Tralee, Co.Kerry. The business is thriving, but they hadn't seen the need for a website until recently. Management finally approached us as they realised that social media on its own was not sufficient as an online marketing strategy and wanted full control over how they appeared to online visitors.

The brief was to design and build a professional brochure website which reflected their brand and their high-end market standing. It would also be the hub to promote their brands, special offers and new stock, particularly via their blog. They also wished for an easy way for visitors to contact them.

While they were not ready to maintain an online shop, they did require to sell gift vouchers via the website, using Paypal as the payment method.

Being a local business, getting found in a Google search was obviously very important to them, as was the ability to track and analyse website visitors. The business required to update the site themselves, especially the blog, so an appropriate training plan was also requested.

A meeting was arranged with Ryle Menswear management to determine the following:

> The Goals of the business. We needed to ensure that the website design and functionality was in line with the goals of the business.

> The reasons for requiring a website and what they expected the site to achieve.

> Their ideal customer, so that we could tailor the website to them and target them through on-page search engine optimisation.

We took a 4-pronged approach;

> Firstly, we designed a site which complimented both their brand and their high-end image

> Secondly, we provided the required functionality i.e. allowing customers to purchase gift vouchers online, maintaining an easy-to-navigate blog and a contact form for customers to easily contact the business.

> Thirdly, we performed some keyword research to determine the best keywords to use .......

> Fourth, we provided the training to allow Ryle Menswear staff to easily update the website themselves, whether it be the homepage slider, static pages or blog. We also integrated their site with Google Analytics to give them the visibility of website visitor statistics;

The website was moved to the live server upon approval by the client and the client was happy with the results. The following keywords were targeted and beside them, where the website ranks in a Google search result page for these keywords:

Celia was referred to me because she had initially built her website herself but now the business had grown to the extent that she needed expert guidance on how to grow her business online. Celia produces her own range of natural beauty care products and is passionate about educating people on the importance of proper skincare. Celia’s customers are very loyal and she is very cognisant of the importance of word-of-mouth to her business. She wished to harness that loyalty and create a symbiotic relationship with her customers.

My brief was to advise and implement an online marketing strategy which included a website overhaul, with an emphasis on education and customer care. Celia was an ideal client because she was already very knowledgeable on eCommerce and had many ideas on how she could grow her business online.

We worked through Celia’s ideas and we also had many recommendations for growing her business online.

Much work was needed in order to achieve Celia’s goals and the following was implemented over a period of approx. 12 months:

=> We stayed with WordPress as a platform because of its robustness and upgraded the theme to give the site a more modern look and feel, ensuring that the branding was carried through the site. The shopping cart was also changed to one which offered more in terms of options for functionality

=> Celia wished to give her customers a choice of payment methods so we integrated a merchant account payment gateway with the new website shopping cart.

=> We introduced options for up-selling and cross-selling, a product offers and discounts system and a customer loyalty system.

=> We gave Celia the ability to track her website visitors through the website to identify the weaknesses in her customer experience. We also added Facebook tracking pixels to her site so that she could track the behaviour of her Facebook visitors.

=> E-mail marketing was already being implemented, but we needed to optimize opportunities to gain email sign-ups on the website through pop-ups, during the checkout stage and by offering regular incentives

=> Because social media is Celia’s biggest referrer of visitors, we maximized on opportunities for visitors to engage via social media. For example, we introduced ‘Pin It’ buttons to each product image, sharing buttons on single post pages and links to all social media profiles on the footer of each page.

=> We conducted research to determine relevant keywords which were being used often in Google searches. We then looked at the Google Adwords competition for these keywords and selected keywords which were used often but for which competition was not too high. We populated our pages with these keywords, while keeping the text easy to read.

=> We conducted extensive on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to make the site as visible and easy-to-navigate as possible for the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Celia was right about her loyal customers as they were very happy to give glowing product reviews which are now widespread throughout her site. Reviews like these are generally accepted as authentic and trustworthy and are thus very valuable to Celia.

Celias sales have been boosted by xx% since all of the aforementioned measures were implemented.

Celia now employs me to conduct routine maintenance on her site. This includes quarterly updates, regular backups, security measures and checks for any search engine indexing issues. I send her a quarterly report and she has peace of mind knowing that there is someone looking after this aspect of her business.

Celia sells 100% natural bodycare products of premium quality both online and offline. her brand advocates are equally as passionate and you can view many positive product reviews on her website www.nia.ie.

Tom Griffin is a business professional with many years of experience, many of which have been at senior management level. Tom had a website on the Wix platform, but he found that it was inflexible and no longer met his requirements, especially as he had recently re-branded.

My brief was to move the website to a more flexible and robust system and one which would allow Tom to easily edit himself. The website should carry his new branding, contain a blog, be responsive to all devices and be search engine friendly. The website would showcase Tom’s services and position him as a leader in his field. Tom would be trained to edit the website and manage his blog.

We generated and carried out a plan for achieving Tom’s goals. We did the following:

=> designed and built the website on the WordPress platform, while carrying the branding through all aspects of the website. WordPress is robust, functional and secure, so it suited Tom’s needs perfectly.

=> conducted research to determine relevant keywords which were being used often in Google searches. We then looked at the Google Adwords competition for these keywords and selected keywords which were used often but for which competition was not too high. We populated our pages with these keywords, while keeping the text easy to read.

=> conducted extensive on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to make the site as visible and easy-to-navigate as possible for the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

=> set up the blog with categorisation similar to the previous website

=> set up hosting on a local server for SEO purposes, since Tom’s business is generally local and ensured that his e-mail account was unaffected

=> ensured that the site was secure and loaded fast. Fast loading of pages is also important for Google

=> provided detailed training to Tom on managing the website and on generating blog posts to achieve 4 goals:

– to position himself as an expert in his field by demonstrating his knowledge

– to offer advice to those looking for answers to problems that he is well positioned to solve. This builds trust which in turn generates business

– to get found in a Google search for his chosen keywords

– to have content which he can share on social media and get conversations going. The goal is to get people talking positively about his services.

Tom was happy with the overall layout and design of the website and his brand is immediately recognisable to visitors.

He now also has visibility of the behaviour of the visitors to his site through his new Google Analytics account and knowledge of any indexing problems (by the Google search engine) through his new Google Webmaster Tools account.

Tom offers a very valuable service to business-owners and Managers in terms of Project Management, Employment Services, Operations and  Audits/Training/Mentoring. You can view his website at www.griffinmanagementsolutions.com