Skip to main content

Web Developer Case Study

Helping Scientific Services grow their business

Scientific Services needed a new website to support their ambitious growth objectives.

Image of one of the team from Scientific Services

Project Features

Features that support business growth

SEO was at the heart of this project and has had a massive impact in creating boosted awareness for Scientific Services.

Image of the new website
icon of checkmark

SEO optimised structure using silos

icon of checkmark

New corporate design

icon of checkmark

Powerful landing pages

icon of checkmark

Responsive images for performance

icon of checkmark

Lazy loading of images

icon of checkmark

Full AA accessibility features

icon of checkmark

Easy to use content management system

icon of checkmark

All amends backed-up to remote repo

icon of checkmark

Git versioning

icon of checkmark

Multiple layouts

icon of checkmark

Training and short-cut guide included

icon of checkmark

Plus more!

Tim’s flexible approach and support has meant that we now have a fantastic website. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Pendigital’s services in the future. Carly Matthews, Scientific Services

1. SEO

As part of my SEO report, we used Moz Pro to identify keywords to target. My report made recommendations on how Scientific Services could achieve high rankings. The recommendations included: siloing and a rich mix of content. Some of the content recommendations included:

  • Tower landing pages
  • White papers in a knowledge base
  • Case studies
  • News
  • Video
  • Galleries

Here’s the asbestos landing page demonstrating the tower approach. You will see that there are clear silos of content nested in this layout.

2. Branding

When we discussed branding we recognised that there was a limited palette of colours. What was missing was an accent colour - super-useful for drawing attention to calls to action.

I also introduced a new font with different weights. The different weights allowed us to:

  • Provide contrast between headlines and paragraphs
  • To highlight critical words in core headlines

3. Design layouts

The new website has a set of layouts. These include:

  • The home page
  • A primary landing page
  • A secondary landing page
  • Listing pages for articles
  • Standard pages

4. Accessibility

The website needed to meet (WCAG) 2 - Level AA Conformance. I implemented the following to achieve this:

  • Skip to main content
  • Page menus
  • Navigable by keyboard
  • Outline on links
  • Recognisable anchor links
  • Text for video content
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Semantic html tags
  • Aria labels
  • Contrast on colours
  • Suitable font sizes

5. Content Management System

We decided to use the static site generator Jekyll… you can read about my love of SSGs elsewhere on Pendigital.co.uk. To edit content, we have used the CloudCannon content management system. CloudCannon also includes a global content delivery network via CloudFlare.

In a nutshell, this choice means:

  • More secure than WordPress
  • A faster website
  • No updates needed
  • Version control through Git
  • Every change gets backed up to GitHub
  • All content is in markdown files so is very portable (vs locked away in a MySQL database)
  • An easy to use content management system
  • A consistent user interface for editing content. This is unlike WordPress where you often need to edit galleries in separate areas.

6. Training

All our customers get training. We also often provide a short-cut guide on how to use different systems. As we recognise that sometimes there are gaps between editing and know-how gets lost.

7. Read the full 5/5 review here

If you would like to read the full review - head over to here.

Please note, Fort Marketing is a sub-brand of Pendigital.

8. Final Outcome

The website ranks well for all its niche markets and generates quality leads. Scientific Services’ ambitious growth plans are being realised. They are super customers to work with and I enjoyed building their website. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to complete this work for you.

Tim Bowerbank, Director, Pendigital

Image of guiding lighthouse

Helping you navigate the complex world of web and apps

Helpful guidance, profitable solutions

Get started on a project with Pendigital