We are pleased to announce the launch of the new 1795 Acorn Inn website, which features a completely customized responsive bed and breakfast WordPress theme built in cutting edge HTML5 code and CSS3 styling to ensure a competitive edge in the online marketing efforts of innkeeper Sheryl Mordini. Thanks to this redesign, the 1795 Acorn Inn website is ready for the new Google mobile-friendly algorithm that launches in April.
Our Longtime Relationship with This Great Finger Lakes Bed and Breakfast
BEFORE: 1795 Acorn Inn website, circa 2005-2014 looked OK, but was cramped into a small space on higher resolution monitors.
Sheryl has been a web services client of InsideOut Solutions since 2005. Our first website redesign for 1795 Acorn Inn, elegant bed and breakfast in Canadaigua, New York. launched in September of that year.
Sheryl worked with Beth, our lead designer, and internet marketing staff to keep that website an effective online presence for her business for 10 years. A WordPress blog addition came in 2009 and soon after we began providing ongoing internet marketing services for SEO.
Sheryl loved her website, but by the summer of 2014 knew that, while it had served well for 10 years, it was definitely in need of a makeover worthy of showing off her inn’s updated decor and style.
The Next Phase of Marketing for 1795 Acorn Inn
Sheryl realized she needed enhance her online marketing into its next form with a website redesign. Knowing the website would need new and better photographs to show off the inn, she got a photographer to start taking interior photos. Working again with Beth, a completely new, clean and easy to read and navigate layout was fashioned. This website would take full advantage of the custom responsive bed and breakfast WordPress theme that would be created for it and careful consideration went into every element.
AFTER: 2015 Redesign of 1795 Acorn Inn website is clean, elegant and makes better use of browser window space.
Setting the Scene – The Layout
Beth sought to capture a magazine style layout that focused on the Inn’s great photography, while maintaining the color palette that had become a hallmark of the inn’s marketing. The result is a sleek and stylish website that sets the tone of a relaxing retreat in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.
Establishing the Foundation & Framework – The Development
Behind the elegant exterior, the website’s interior is just as impressive. Taylor, our WordPress web developer, used Beth’s stylish layout as a basis for a completely original responsive bed and breakfast WordPress theme which includes:
- Sticky navigation menu and social sharing bars that are always in view as a visitor scrolls down the page
- A layout that responds to web browser resolution and orientation, enabling it to look its best on all devices and screen sizes
- WordPress CMS for easy blogging and updating of text & photographs
- Cutting-edge HTML5 coding & CSS3 styling that conforms to the recommended standards of Google
- Custom WordPress plugins and post types developed specifically for B&B innkeepers by InsideOut Solutions, including:
- Rooms post type: effortlessly manage room description, amenities list, type of accommodation, photo gallery, rate, availability link and more
- Specials plugin: easily set up and manage of recurring or date-specific special and package offers and their categories
With new and redesigned websites, InsideOut works with its clients to ensure pages will reap the full benefit of the responsive web design.
Crafting the Full Website – The Fill-in
Putting meat on the bones of the responsive theme was not a simple copy-from-old and paste-to-new procedure. The content needed an overhaul in both photos and text to properly balance out these important elements and take advantage of the strengths and flexibility of responsive web design. Care was taken with all of the newly-taken photos of the inn to show them at their best. Text content was rewritten to re-establish a marketing voice that is consistent with Sheryl’s style.
The new Rooms post type and Specials plugin allowed Sheryl to futher refine her marketing message to website visitors.
We also worked with the inn’s online reservation system provider to update the HTML layout to be in line with the new website.
Maximizing Search Engine Compliance – SEO
Prior
to launch, and in addition to a responsive website design that is inherently optimized to current standards set by Google, extensive search engine optimization services were performed to give the new website an edge with search engines, including:
- Custom WordPress SEO plugin focus keywords and custom title & meta description entries for website pages were carefully researched
- A custom Header 1 (H1) tag was applied to web pages using a WordPress plugin developed by InsideOut Solutions for its clients
- Focus Keyword density was optimized on pages
- Care was taken to ensure all old web page addresses either remained the same or properly redirected to new page addresses as needed
Additional SEO services were performed after launch to ensure the search engines would note the changes made to the website and re-index it. All of these services come standard with a new or redesigned website from InsideOut Solutions.
Results Speak for Themselves – The Numbers
With both beauty and brains backing it up it’s no wonder the website has proven popular with both Sheryl and new & returning visitors since it launched on March 12.
Comparing Google Analytics organic (i.e. unpaid) search engine visit sessions stats for March 14-24 2015 versus the same dates in 2014:
- Visit sessions via organic search engine results are up nearly 28% and new users are up 25%
- Visit sessions from other sources are up over 20% and the sessions have a longer duration as users look deeper into the website
This is a very short timeline, of course, but the graphs for these stats show an increasingly sharp rise over that time, indicating the new website, with Sheryl’s continued diligence to blog marketing efforts, is well on its way to improving 1795 Acorn Inn’s website marketing effectiveness.
Click here to see the new 1795 Acorn Inn website.
Real World Application – Don’t Forget Print Materials
The shared marketing journey for Sheryl and InsideOut Solutions continues with Jennifer in our graphic design department. She has created an updated rack card to match the branding of the new 1795 Acorn Inn website and it goes to print soon.
Get Your Own Responsive Bed and Breakfast WordPress Theme from InsideOut Solutions
If you don’t have a responsive WordPress website yet we can build it for you from scratch. If you do have a WordPress website that’s four or less years old we can provide you with a responsive upgrade. WordPress websites developed by InsideOut Solutions that are over four years old benefit most from a responsive redesign. Contact us today for a quote to put your website in gear for a better online marketing platform to reach all internet users regardless of device they use.