The Brief

The aim was to build a directory site aimed at tourists in Yorkshire. The site needed to have the following attributes:

• outstanding design - has to be attractive to reflect the beauty of the area covered

• fast loading, efficient and easy to navigate - so visitors can find their way around the site quickly and intuitively

• easy search facilities to allow visitors to drill down to exactly the area and type of accommodation they’re looking for

• information clearly and consistently displayed - to make it easy on the eye, and the brain

• database-driven - so easily updateable

• extensive content management system - so that news and events can be uploaded in good time

• maximally optimised for search engines - so that the site scores high on rankings across a broad range of search criteria: high visitor numbers means better responses for advertisers

The Work

This is a project which is ongoing and needs constant development - the site has to be able to adapt to changing technology and market trends. Hello Yorkshire was launched in January 2009 and we’ve been developing it continuously ever since - adding features, incorporating new modules, and redesigning the look and feel - to ensure that it provides the first class service that its visitors demand.

Yorkshire is such a huge county with varied terrain and a vast range of accommodation and attractions in big cities, market towns, rural villages and tiny hamlets. The design has to reflect the most important aspects of Yorkshire, and yet have links to the by-ways - the idiosyncrasies - that add that special flavour which makes Yorkshire the unique county that it is. If you need to find hotel in the heart of Leeds or a B&B in a quiet village, if you’re travelling with the family or in business on your own, if you want a peaceful relaxing weekend or a busy action-packed fortnight Hello Yorkshire can generate a list of properties and activities to suit almost everyone’s taste. And a lot of hard work has gone into how the site is constructed to ensure that it’s easy for visitors to find their way around.

The best-designed site in the world is useless if it doesn’t attract visitors, and isn’t specially optimised so that search engines pick it up and place it high in their rankings. Search Engine Optimisation is therefore an extremely important part of the mix. We think that we have designed a site that is very search engine friendly, and our site stats back us up. We’ve been steadily climbing the rankings since we launched and we’re now on page one on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc for many of the top searches - and that’s some achievement in what is a very competitive market place with some very big players.

The Outcome

Hello Yorkshire is a tourism site packed full of information for visitors. It includes extensive lists of holiday accommodation throughout Yorkshire as well as Tourist Information and details of attractions.

Hello Yorkshire plays an active role in helping the local economy by putting prospective visitors in touch with the hundreds of establishments featured on the site. This is a complex, database-driven website created and managed entirely in-house by our outstanding team of web developers and designers.

Check out Hello Yorkshire for Whitby hotels, York hotels or other Yorkshire accommodation.