Highland Kilt Connections were a highland wear chain that offered a wide range of kilt outfits for hire as well as bespoke made to measure. They required a website that would provide a new online home for their brand and showcase their extensive range of exclusive tartans.
The main requirements for the project included:
- Bespoke Web Design and Development
- Kilt Outfit and Tartan Gift Finder Application
- Digital Assets for Social Media
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Google Data Studio Analytics Reporting
Home and Contact | Highland Kilt Connections
Design
The design phase began with the creation of wireframe sketches using Balsamiq Mockups, showing the primary navigation and content structure of each page.
Wireframes and Mockup | Highland Kilt Connections
The next phase of the design was to create a mockup using Adobe XD, which shows the final imagery, colours and fonts. The website was designed with captivating imagery, simple fonts and subtle animation to appeal to the target audience of wedding grooms. Red was introduced in button and element active states as this ties in with the colours of the company branding.
Mood Board | Highland Kilt Connections
The typeface used on the website is Verdana, which is used for body text and headings. This is because Verdana is a sans serif and makes large blocks of text easier to read.
The designs were showcased on online software, which allowed the client to be involved in the design process and provide feedback whenever they wanted to.
Development
The website was developed using WordPress so that the content can be easily maintained to keep content fresh in the future. Some of the main plugins used include ACF Pro and Yoast.
Kilt Outfit | Highland Kilt Connections
One of the key features of the site is the Kilt Outfits finder application, which showcases the great range of exclusive tartans provided by the company. The pages were created using a custom post type on WordPress so the content is scalable and easily maintained. The kilt outfits can be filtered by style, colour and name – this was done using jQuery and custom parameters in the URL. The customer is then directed to the appropriate store in order to complete the order.
The initial launch of the website was such a success that the client wanted to work with me on follow-up projects. One major addition to the website was the Tartan Gifts and Accessories page where the client offers their customers a range of custom gift products. The additional challenge was to create categories of products and display unique content on each product page depending on the category chosen.
Tartan Gifts and Accessories | Highland Kilt Connections
The website is optimised for all device types, meaning the user has a great experience on mobile, tablet and desktop. The website also makes use of an SSL security padlock, meaning it is safe and users can trust in the security of the website.
Home, Kilt Outfit and What We Do Mobile Mockups | Highland Kilt Connections
SEO and Analytics Report
I was responsible for the implementation of the on-page and technical SEO – some key considerations include mobile-friendliness and page speed optimisation. A content delivery network (CDN) was used to optimise assets and improve loading times.
Sample Analytics Report | Google Data Studio
Disclaimer – The analytics report shown above is a sample report that highlights the potential insights that can be obtained. Any client data is collated privately and is not shown to the wider public.
Custom events are tracked on the website using Google Tag Manager so the company can track the performance of contact enquiries and products.
After the launch of the website, I created an analytics dashboard so that the performance of the website could be monitored. Highland Kilt Connections have a better understanding of their customers and how they use the website. Therefore, the client can make better-informed business decisions for their online strategy.
Wrap Up
Within six months of the launch of the new website, I was able to showcase the following results:
- 60% Increase in Traffic
- 40% Increase in Conversions
- 35% Increase in Keywords
Following on from the launch of the website, the client had this to say:
“We are really happy with the final website, we think it does a great job of showing off our range of exclusive tartans. The whole process was really smooth and we were happy with the service we got and the price that we paid.
We were happy to use Declan again for additional work carried out on the website and would use him again when we have more ideas in the future.”