Website Case Study

horizons success highlights

The Website, Page One Google Search Rankings plus Online Booking Forms and Payments has helped the business with…

  • higher profits
  • increased turnover
  • filling capacity
  • time savings
  • reduced administration
  • better user experience

video tour

Take a video tour of the Horizons Montessori Website with the designer and developer Denis McCaul

MIN:SEC – Video Timeline

  • 0:00 – Project Goals
  • 2:30 – Website Tour
  • 14:50 – Case Study
  • 16:40 – Online Payments
  • 19:30 – Images + Features
  • 20:25 – One Year Results
  • 22:10 – Top Pages + Months
  • 23:25 – Google Rankings
  • 26:50 – Project Stages
  • 28:00 – Mullingar Montessori Website
  • 29:30 – Contact Details

PROJECT OVERVIEW

the client

BUSINESS: Horizons Montessori, Homework Club and Summer Camp, Founded 1993
BUSINESS OWNER & CLIENT LEAD: Fiona O’Kelly
DESCRIPTION: An industry leader providing Montessori, Full Day Care, Summer Camp, Homework Club and Breakfast Club. It has two locations, Templeogue and Terenure in Dublin.
SECTOR: Education
WEBSITE: www.HorizonsMontessori.ie – Launched July 2015
Online Payments added 15th Feb 2019

the brief

RE-DESIGN & BUILD: New website that showcases the superb facilities and services of the school optimised for mobile devices
ECOMMERCE: Take Summer Camp Payments + Bookings online
PARENTS BOOKING: Allow interested parents to book a visit to the school
REGISTER INTEREST: Facilitate parents wishing to register their children for admission consideration
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISE: The website to rank on page one of Google Search Results for key search terms
PHOTOGRAPHS + VIDEO: Make the website a virtual tour of the buildings and gardens
SERVICES: Segment and detail each school service with typical curriculum, times and calendars answering all possible parent questions
ABOUT: Profile management and staff members

project goals

  • INCREASE REVENUE: To use online marketing to fill any available capacity in Full Day Care, After School Care or Holiday Camps
  • MAXIMISE PROFITABILITY: Raise percentage of full day care attendees vs ECCE hours only while maintaining cost base
  • FILL SUMMER CAMP: Sell out summer camp using online booking and payments in conjunction with Search Engine Optimisation
  • PROMOTE AFTER SCHOOL CARE: Harness existing Google Search Traffic to make parents aware of the school collection, dinner, homework and activities available
  • RAISE BRAND AWARENESS: Increase visibility of school and services online to attract parents who are outside the existing direct referral community
  • ONLINE FORMS FOR PARENTS:
    • Summer Camp Booking and Payment Form
    • School Visit Request Form
    • Submit child details for application
    • School enrolment form
    • Contact form
  • REDUCE CALLS AND EMAILS: Many calls and emails from parents are for term dates, opening hours, ECCE links, directions etc., place this information on the website

Payments & booking online for summer camp

in the first month
15/02/19 – 15/03/19

  • 114 weeks booked
  • 81 children booked
  • 29 bookings

On 15th February 2019 we added eCommerce functionality to the website. The purpose of implementing online booking and payment was threefold;

  1. Ensure that parents who booked children for camp pay in advance
  2. To implement full week booking only, no part weeks or single days
  3. Increase bookings from parents who do not have children currently in Horizons

Having online payments increases conversion rates, attendance, sales and profitability. The payment gateway used charges 1.4% plus 25 cents per transaction. So for an example €110 booking, the school gets €108:21.

The costs of the development work were covered in sales on the first day of going live.

These first sales were to parents who did not have children already attending. They found the summer camp page and booking form through Google Search.

website design & features screenshot gallery

Here we have compiled some screenshots of the website design.

the website features

payments and forms

  • e-commerce payments
  • summer camp booking
  • school visit request form
  • school enquiry form
  • school enrollment form
  • contact form
  • phone, email, eircode

parent information

  • school calendars
  • daily timetable examples
  • class ages and hours
  • activities by day
  • detailed service pages
  • ecce scheme details
  • information on meals

multimedia

  • parent testimonials
  • video of homework club
  • video of breakfast club
  • school photo galleries
  • teacher photos and profiles
  • school blog
  • google maps

1 year website results 2018

These are the horizonsmontessori.ie website visitor statistics for the calendar year Jan to Dec 2018. The numbers are taken from visits to the website from Ireland only.

  • 19,302 pages viewed
  • 8,709 website sessions
  • 7,002 google visits (80.4% of total visits)
  • 5,197 website visitors
  • 2.22 av. pages viewed
  • 2m 13s av. visit length
  • 1.68 visits per user
  • 81.25% female users
  • 25 - 44 age group
  • 44.5% of visitors are 35 to 44 year olds, followed by 25 to 34 who are 27.33%
  • 61.2% mobile visitors
  • 31.95% computer visitors
  • 6.85% tablet visitors

top 12 pages page views ranking 2018

  1. Homepage – 5,223 views
  2. Summer Camp – 4,235
  3. Homework Club – 1,498
  4. Contact Us – 1,176
  5. Teachers – 1,086
  6. Junior Montessori Class – 778
  7. Breakfast Club – 603
  8. School Calendar – 566
  9. Montessori Class – 549
  10. ECCE Information – 442
  11. Summer Camp Booking Form – 387
  12. Transition Class – 324

top 12 months website visits monthly ranking 2018

  1. July – 1,256 (Summer Camp)
  2. June – 1,235 (Summer Camp)
  3. April – 936
  4. May – 931
  5. January – 706
  6. August – 633
  7. February – 632
  8. September – 615
  9. March – 603
  10. October – 591
  11. November – 332
  12. December – 239

google search results rankings

Every sale starts with Awareness. When a prospective parent types a keyword phrase like “Montessori School Templeogue” into Google, Horizons is competing with other schools to appear at the top of the results. Search Engine Optimisation (known as SEO) is the name given to the work we carry out, which makes a website rank above competitors in Google for targeted keywords that potential clients use most frequently.

project STAGES

  1. Domain Name Registration
  2. Client Interview
  3. Industry Research
  4. Set Client and User Goals
  5. Set Key Performance Indicators
  6. Information Architecture
  7. Two Day Photo Shoot
  8. Website Design
  9. Google Keyword Research
  10. Copywriting
  11. Website Hosting Setup
  12. Image Photoshop Work
  13. Email Setup
  14. Website Development
  15. Website Data Encryption
  16. Mobile Responsive Edits and Testing
  17. Google Submissions
  18. Google Verification
  19. Client Training
  20. Website Testing
  21. Website Launch
  22. Monthly Software Updates and Ongoing SEO + KPI’s

CLIENT EXPERIENCE

REFLECTIONS FROM THE SCHOOL OWNER ON THE ONLINE PROJECT

“High Google rankings have been important tools in helping to showcase our school and expand our Montessori, Summer Camps, Breakfast and Homework Clubs. We now have payment and booking for Summer Camp on the website which has been successful beyond all expectations. Hundreds of prospective parents have booked school visits through our website.”

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