Websites St Ives Cornwall

I've built, enhanced and managed sites for many businesses and organisations

These include hotels, self catering properties, shops, artists, galleries, writers, business services and community organisations.

I also build and manage social media such as FaceBook Pages, Blogs and Twitter Feeds.

A selection of my work is below - please do take a look.

Lyonesse Seven - Luxury Self Catering Apartment - St Ives

The owners of the apartment had been marketing it solely through a local agency. But they wanted their own website so that they could also sell direct and fill more weeks.

The brief was to come up with a clean bright modern design - to reflect the clean bright modern design of the apartment itself. Also to design a site better that the one already online for another neighbouring apartment - who were getting more bookings.

The owners had some strong ideas about what they wanted, so I came up with a design prototype. We discussed this, made some adjustments based on their ideas, then I built the rest of the site.

The project included online marketing - I optimised the site for searches and submitted a sitemap to Google to ensure that all pages were indexed. We also added Lyonesse Seven to three of the most popular international self catering listings sites.

A steady stream of booking has come in since then, including many for several months ahead into the holiday season - which is what the owners wanted.

Lyonesse Seven

Lyonesse Seven Website

The Western Hotel St Ives

One of the longest established hotels in St Ives located right in the centre of town. It has fifteen bedrooms, restaurant, bar and function room with regular live music.

I built this site some years ago and I've been working the the owners ever since - adding new pages, improving the marketing message and generally keeping it up to date.

The first thing that we did was some analysis of the hotel's customers and the target audience for the site. Because of the diverse nature of the business many groups of customers were identified - regular drinkers in the bar, darts teams, music lovers, community groups booking functions. But it quickly emerged that the key target audience for the web site was hotel guests. This was an important source of revenue for the business - the locals already knew about The Western.

The site was designed and marketed with this in mind. Enquiries from the web site are now a key source of customers. A later review revealed that group bookings were becoming more important - particularly school groups, sports teams and golf societies. I added new pages to the site to reflect this and attract these groups.

The design of the site is deliberately simple. I must admit I would like to update the look a bit. But a recent discussion with management revealed that they are happy with it as it is. More importantly the feedback they've had from customers is almost all good - they like the fact that the site is easy to use and supplies all the information that they need.

The Western Hotel

Western Hotel Website

What My Clients Say:

I am pleased to say a big thank you to Steve for his excellent website design skills. He has lifted up the quality of my web site, making it an interesting place to visit on the Internet. Especially my tours page which he made interactive with Google Maps and information about sacred sites for the potential visitor.

Steve is very enthusiastic about his work and is also very quick to update any details you may need. I am delighted with his work and very pleased I found him.

Nigel Breen - Ancestral Realm Tours - www.nigelbreen.com

Ancestral Realm Tours

Jo McIntosh - Textile Artist

I'm particularly proud of this site that I designed and built for my wife Jo. She is a textile artist who's skills include feltmaking, weaving, knitting, jewellery making, rag rugging and paper making.

She makes pieces for sale both directly and to shops / galleries. The site includes a portfolio of work and an online shop. Recently delivering textile workshops has become an increasingly important part of her business - and this is where the site has come into its own.

Its optimised for search on phrases such as "textile workshops Cornwall" and "workshops for children Cornwall". As a result she's had a lot of enquiries from individuals, schools and community groups. Most of these would not have found her without the website.

She now enjoys regular trips to The Scillies to run workshops for community groups there. She has also been employed by many schools and community groups such as Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change, Arts for Health, Truro Arts, Ayr Field Community Group, Penwith Housing and The Guiness Trust.

The next phase of development on the site will be extending the online shop.

Jo McIntosh - Textile Artist

Jo McIntosh Website

Donald MacLeod - Artist

I have built many sites for local artists - so this is just one example. Donald is a specialist maritime artist and produces paintings depicting famous naval ships and battles. He also paints impressions of Cornish harbours. He has a gallery on St Ives Harbour where he sells both original paintings and limited edition prints. He also undertakes commissions.

The site is partly designed as a showcase for Donald's work. But it is also designed to sell the work - both to online visitors and potential visitors to the St Ives gallery.

A key part of the design was to add useful historical information about the ships and battles depicted. This brings in visitors who have an interest in naval history - and so are potential buyers for both the prints and originals.

Donald now receives regular enquiries by email and telephone generated from the site. His work has also been used for menu cards for a naval dinner in Portsmouth and a Trafalgar exhibition in Edinburgh - generating useful publicity. These requests also came directly as a result of the site.

Donald MacLeod - Victory at Trafalgar

Donald MacLeod Website

St Ives Farmers Market

The market runs every Thursday in town and offers a great range of local produce - fresh vegetables, meat, fish, bread, cheeses cakes and more. Their slogan is GULP! - Great Unbeatable Local Produce.

The organiser Tim Andrewes wanted a simple cost effective website that would attract both more customers and more local traders. With that in mind I designed a simple, easy to navigate site, that contained the essential information needed by both groups.

One design principle that I follow is - make it easy for people. The facts that they need are basically what is it, where is it, when is it, why should I go there and how do I find it. Like many of my sites this one includes an interactive Google map - visitors can use this to generate directions from anywhere.

There is a separate section for Traders - giving them the practical information that they need such as stall sizes, how to book, costs and load in / out arrangements.

St Ives Farmers Market

St Ives Farmers Market Website

The Glass Tree - Gift Shop

They describe themselves as 'a pretty eclectic style shop crammed full of unique giftware, beautiful cards & even more gorgeous home accessories from Gisela Graham, East Of India, One World and many more.'

They wanted both a new site to bring customers into their shop on Fore Street and an online shop that they could maintain themselves. The design was to reflect the stylishness and uniqueness of the shop. Co-owner Sherry Haley had a very clear vision of what she wanted.

I based the site on Sherry's designs and added a few ideas of my own. We reviewed the first prototype, I made changes based on feedback and the site was done. For the online shop I used a package called OSCommerce. I set up a framework to which Sherry could add categories and products as and when she wished.

As with all sites this is a work in progress, with more products and content to be added over time. This will keep the site fresh and up to date with The Glass Tree's latest product ranges.

The Glass Tree

The Glass Tree Website

St Ives Fishermen's Co-operative

The Co-op is long established in St Ives - it was founded in 1920 after a meeting of about 70 interested fishermen was held at the Town Hall.

They have a shop on The Wharf selling a range of outdoor clothing and fishing tackle. They also have a self-catering holiday cottage behind the shop and workshops on The Island.

Their key business objective is to make people aware of the shop, the cottage and the history of the co-op. They wanted a simple clean site, similar to some of the other sites that I've built, which is why they chose me for this project.

They are not interested in e-commerce at the moment, so each of the three shop pages are designed simply to showcase the quality products and brands that they stock. There are further pages for the cottage and the workshops.

St Ives Fishermen's Co-operative

St Ives Fishermen's Co-operative Website

What My Clients Say:

Steve is willing to contribute ideas and information that have helped Vi²dus obtain the best real estate space on the Internet possible on a tight budget.

We recommend Steve if you are seeking a reliable, effective and communicative partner.

Elaine Stockman - Sales and Marketing Director
Vi²dus Training and Consultancy - www.vi2dus.co.uk