Spring is here – at last – and it’s hard to believe that we’re more than a quarter of the way through the year already.
Here at Lightflows, we’ve been heads down and busy with some really exciting projects. So let’s take a quick breather and update you on what’s been going on.
Going mobile – Fitzpatrick Referrals responsive website relaunches
We’ve worked with Noel Fitzpatrick – AKA The Super Vet – and his revolutionary veterinary practice, The Fitzpatrick Referrals, for the last five years. In that time, we’ve built several websites for the business, including their primary business website http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk
The business has seen tremendous growth in the last few years, adding new businesses and services along the way. In addition, the Super Vet TV show has thrust the practice into the spotlght and for the TV show, there is a website too. More on that, this way
The challenge
This superb growth has meant the Fitzpatrick Referrals has more visitors, broader audiences and more exposure generally in the digital channel, with a particular increase in traffic from mobile and tablet devices. This was proving to be a challenge for the old, desktop-only site, which had existed for at least four years and didn’t represent the business in its current form.
Planning the site began in November 2014 – the site is large, with 600 or more pages, has great authority, and ranks well in organic searches for veterinary terms. We needed to ensure that we wouldn’t break its credibility by updating the site.
The solution
Q&A sessions and workshops took place with the team throughout the projects. We arrived at the decision to join the separate satellite businesses that existed in the Fitzpatrick Referrals family together with a global navigation mechanism. This would be added to all Fitzpatrick’s websites to provide a constant, clear way to navigate the business.
The breadth and depth meant we needed to focus on making navigation really simple for visitors. Mega menus were added to the primary site to aid users in getting into and find content and articles quickly. This approach reduces the number of clicks needs to get into the pages.
User Experience (UX)
We really wanted to make the site great for all audiences on all devices. Our user experience team worked tirelessly with the design and development team to ensure that each page, and navigation element, was considered to deliver perfectly.
As proud of the project as we are as a whole, we’re particularly happy with the mobile pages on the site. The user interface adapts and changes perfectly to fit each device: tabs change into accordions, carousels adjust to allow touch controls, and we defer loading any large images so that the site loads blazingly fast when on a cellular or 3G/4G connection.
As the site has many technical and veterinary terms, we added an automated glossary tool highlighting the first instance of a technical term in an article and providing a tooltip explaining the term’s definition. This means that readers don’t have to jump off to another site or Google the term, breaking their reading experience. All in all, this leads to better engagement.
Maintaining Authority
Noel’s pioneering work means that the site is a reference point for veterinary professionals. To maintain the site’s authority and preserve SEO and ranking factors, a full website audit was completed, and the most highly trafficked and popular pages were noted. Now the new site has launched, we have redirected all the old pages to the new, meaning no broken links resulting in page not found 404 errors.
Photography
In addition to the digital work undertaken by Lightflows, we also provided the majority of the photography. This included photography of the practice, vets and other members of staff. We’re particularly proud of the team pages which put each of the staff members in their environments – why not take a look Fitzpatrick Referrals team pages.
The Results
Fitzpatrick Referrals are thrilled with the new site, as are their fans. The reaction on Facebook has been amazing.. but don’t just take our word for it…