Protec
Visit Websitewww.soccertrials.comProtec run numerous football development courses at multiple locations throughout the London and the Home Counties for children aged between 5 and 15 years old. The aim is to train talented young players and help secure trials with professional clubs.
Completion Date:
October 2016
Operates:
HertfordshireLondon
Client Feedback:
"The various automated systems suggested and developed by the team at AWD have also dramatically decreased the amount of time I need to spend communicating with our trialist..."
Initially Richard and his team were working with us to help improve the search engine optimisation of our previous website. Whilst the optimisation improvements on natural listings for our key search words had improved dramatically since Advanced Web Designs got involved, it became apparent that the restrictive nature of the WordPress template in which our previous site had been built, was limiting our success for lesser priority keywords such as the new centres we were opening and football courses we were developing.
So despite some initial reservations on my part, I eventually decided to take on AWD’s services to design and develop a new fully responsive website, and in hindsight now wish I had moved on with the project much sooner than I had.
As well as having a far more modern design with a greater appeal to my target market, there is also a full content management system which allows us Protec to manage all the content on the website, as well as expand the site as our business expands.
The various automated systems suggested and developed by the team at AWD have also dramatically decreased the amount of time I need to spend communicating with our trialist enquiries, players and their parents.
Since the site has gone live I have made numerous requests for small personalised tweaks to the website in order to make my life even easier, and on every occasion the team AWD have carried out my requests extremely quickly and efficiently, often providing better solutions and results then I had anticipated.
Throughout the process I have found Richard and his team to be highly professional, friendly and approachable. Nothing has been too much trouble and their website design and development skills, coupled with their knowledge of my business and what I needed the website to achieve, has ensured that I have ended up with a website, which is critical to my business, that has exceeded all of my expectations.
It goes without saying that I would have no problem at all recommending Advanced Web Designs, and would like to take this opportunity to thank them very much indeed for all the time and effort I know they put into this project.
Read in full
The Brief
Protec already had a website which had been built using a Wordpress template, but it wasn’t responsive, meaning a huge percentage of their target market weren’t being properly catered for, and the ability to carry out good on-page optimisation for search engines was limiting.
There was a number of key features which Protec wanted to ensure would be a priority on the home page, as it was felt that there were numerous reasons potential players chose to apply for a trial.
These key areas included information about the individual courses on offer, latest Protec news, information about players who have trialled or signed for professional clubs, and most important of all, the ability to apply for a free Protec trial.
Whilst getting applicants is the primary goal of the website, it was also considered a good idea to try and ensure visitors had a reason to return to the site.
Finally, the new website not only needed to keep the good search engine placements the old website had already achieved for numerous key words and phrases, but it also needed to improve for many others and have the ability to promote new keyword and geographic locations as the business offered more courses and expanded into new areas of the country.
HOW WE RESPONDED
Although dated, the customer liked the general overall look and feel of his existing website, which was very much based around his corporate colours of black, red and white. Therefore, in the initial design concepts we didn’t stray from these colours and laid out the key features on the home page in order of the customer’s priority.
We used motivational images to promote the main courses run by Protec, and created a slider to display the many players who have recently signed for professional football clubs.
Both the Courses and Centres have dropdowns from the main navigation to easily navigate visitors to the information most relevant to them, where each page contains all of the information relating to that specific training course or centre.
In order to encourage visitors back to the website, as well as providing a latest new area, we created a notification’s (Quick Alerts) feature where Protec can add last minute alerts to inform parents an players of any key information such as cancelations due to ‘inclement weather’ for example, which can be general Protec alerts or centre specific alerts.
We also created a members login area for Pre-Academy players where they can log in and find more detailed information relating to their training and progression.
Finally, we developed a ‘Keepy-Uppy’ game where visitors to the site test their skills of ball control. The idea behind this is not only to encourage revisits to the website from exiting Protec players, but for them to challenge their friends who aren’t yet with Protec. We also added the ability for players to share their scores on the social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter.
At every opportunity we added call to action ‘Apply Now’ buttons encouraging talented players to apply for a free trial.
In the Content Management System, as well as providing Protec with the ability to fully control all of the content throughout the website, and expand areas as more courses and centres are added, we also developed a system to reduce the time required by the previous manual process of accepting applicants and inviting them along to a trial. This system alone saves the customer a few hours every day, allowing him to concentrate on other areas of the business expansion.