Creating a Great New Website is Child's Play for Six Ticks!

We've spent this week delivering great CRM systems and reminiscing about the joys of being a kid... No bills, no mortgage, no job, just playdough, fuzzy felt and safety scissors.

Great web development is part of every day for Six Ticks, but why all the childhood memories you ask?

It's because our latest project has taken us back to the playground as we finished development on a new website for Parkside Preschool in Reading!

Parkside Preschool

Parkside is a lovely nursery in Berkshire for kids aged 2 to 4 years old. It's run in association with YMCA Reading and has wonderfully named fun spaces such as the Hedgehog and Squirrel rooms.

Providing a professional and fun environment for children in the years before school begins is what they do best, but they needed a great website to showcase everything the preschool has to offer and provide an even better experience for parents.

Parkside approached Six Ticks and asked us to take a look at their existing website which they'd built themselves using Wix, a self-build website provider which many businesses use to get started online.

The Wix website wasn't quite working for Parkside and they wanted to know what they should do. One of our favourite things is helping organisations to reach their online potential and we offered a free website review for Parkside straight away to assess what they could do to improve.

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Using a website builder can be a quick and easy solution to get your company website up-and-running, but it's not always the best long-term option for a business.

Self-build websites are often made to accommodate the needs of millions of types of businesses around the world. This means that your business has to fit to what there is rather than having something customised to you... It's a bit like having bare feet and going into a shop which only sells shoes which are a size too small for you. You'll buy them because you have bare feet and you really need a pair of shoes, but every step is probably going to be uncomfortable and you're not going to be able to go far.

There are some things website builders can be good for including:

• An affordable website
• A quick basic website to send to existing customers

But they can be bad for:

• Security - open source coding is often vulnerable to hacks & many website builders do not come with standard security measures, such as https (SSL).
• Search engines - Google hates clunkily coded, slow loading websites & many website builders are guilty of ticking both of those boxes.
• Function - you rely on software built for the masses instead of for your business, . Having something which is customised to you can save you lots of time and countless headaches in the future.
• Creating a great finished product - A lot of work goes into creating a brilliant website and self-build websites need your full commitment to ensure that all pages are completed so that the site provides an intuitive and positive experience for users. Investing in a professional site has the benefits of your very own web developer who can advise you on what makes a great website and can instantly address any technical issues you are having.

Six Ticks to the Rescue!

So with the one-size-fits all approach not always the best choice, it was no surprise that when we assessed Parkside Pre-school's website that some significant work was needed.

It was clear that the existing website just wasn't working for them. It was missing content, the function and layout wasn't intuitive, and the website did not have a security certificate. The website was also what we'd call 'ungoogleable' - when you typed 'Parkside Preschool' into search engines it was impossible to find, a common occurrence with Wix sites.

Overall the website failed to convey the high standards or professionalism of the preschool and had little information about the school or its facilities available which would be frustrating to parents who were looking for information.

There was work to be done and the decision was made. It was time to invest in a professional new Six Ticks website.

Website Wizards

Following close consultation with the pre-school we got straight to work on the new site.

We knew it needed to reflect the ethos of Parkside Preschool and show parents everything:

• Informative
• Easy to use
• Professional, but friendly

We loved the parent friendly, colourful website which we launched this week. What do you think? www.parksidepreschool.org.uk

"Thanks to Six Ticks we are now the proud owners of a lovely new website. They have been very helpful and patient and managed to meet our requirements wonderfully well. We couldn't be happier." Marie Nolan, Deputy Manager

Can Six Ticks help you?

If you'd like a free Six Ticks website review then get in touch today. We'd love to help.