Calanais Visitor Centre Case Study

www.calanais.org

A website now ready for a £6,000,000 investment!

Background

The Calanais Standing Stones Visitor Centre welcomes over 120,000 visitors a year to this spectacular Neolithic monument at the heart of the Isle of Lewis.
Applying for a £6 million investment to build a new state of the art, interactive Visitor Centre as the focus of their Calanais 2025 celebrations, the need to transform their outdated and limited website led them to our door!

When Ian came to us:

When Ian Fordham, Chair of Outer Hebrides Tourism and leading member of the Standing Stones Trust came to us, he knew that the Visitor Centre website needed a ground-up rebuild. Having recently invested in a new branding strategy, Ian and the team worked with us to develop a dynamic and engaging new site that focuses much more on the online visitor experience and reflects the beauty and vibrancy of the standing stones themselves.

The old website was largely static, lacking in the eye-catching imagery and authoritative, consistent content that the internationally-recognised monument deserved. Worst of all, visitors weren’t being engaged, retained or encouraged to visit the site in person. Opportunities for purchases, bookings and connections on social media were being missed.

A completely original, bespoke website built to serve and extend the client’s existing branding guidelines
Fully integrated WooCommerce functionally allowing for complete control over ticket booking and product purchase
Targeted, SEO-rich content to add authority to the domain and increase value in search analysis

The Results

The Visitor Centre now boasts a beautiful, vibrant, fully interactive and profitable website that reflects the professional, dynamic work of the Trust and adds value to their successful funding bids.

By offering online visitors a fully-integrated and optimised experience, the website not only teaches potential visitors about the stone circle and the community that live and work around it, but makes planning a visit, booking tickets, buying products and supporting the work of the charitable trust effortless and enjoyable.

The Process

Once key members of the Trust had completed our bespoke on-boarding process, we came together for a vital strategy meeting. We quickly identified that Ian’s site needed to echo the power and beauty of the Stones and drive IRL visitors to the monument, offer a streamlined booking and purchasing experience and develop the authority needed to rank highly in online searches.

Our expert team then designed and built a completely new site with original imagery, engaging copy rich with SEO detail, and the functionality needed to manage the needs of both online and IRL visitors. Purchases and bookings are now easily managed by Ian’s team, and the Trust’s social media channels are now fully integrated.

Perhaps most importantly, the site now has an ambition, scope and authority that paves the way for the next generation of visitors to Calanais.