Portfolio
Some of our recent work
British Moorlands. Aberlour, Moray
CUSTOM WORDPRESS CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
British Moorlands can now update their own content.
British Moorlands is a Grouse Moorland Management company based in Moray serving customers all over the UK. They came to us to regenerate their website which had become tired and out-of-date. They particularly wanted to be able to add and update content, so we specified a WordPress 3 CMS (content management system).
We customised this to suit their image and provided training through written notes and screencasts.
They launched the site in August 2010, shortly before being judged for a national conservation award.
We also provided them with a hosting package to meet their needs.
Link: British Moorlands
W A Smith Joiners, Nairn
BROCHURE WEBSITE
W A Smith is an established joiners and carpenters in Nairn, and owner Robin came to us following a recommendation by one of our existing customers.
W A Smith Joiners wanted to convey the high quality in their work through their website
Robin takes a lot of pride in his work and he showed us round some of the properties he had refurbished recently.
We could see quite clearly that his work was finished to a high standard and we wanted to reflect that in his website.
Robin gave us free range on the design and we decided a large image on the front page would show off his work well.
To keep the site contained within the image, we used javascript and CSS to build sliding image gallery.
Robin had just one word to say when we showed him the site for the first time: “Beautiful,” he said.
Link: W A Smith, Joiners, Nairn
Textology, Forres, Moray
BROCHURE WEBSITE
Canary Dwarf is delighted to announce the launch of a new service with its own dedicated website.
Textology makes integrating SMS into your marketing strategy easy and powerful.
Textology deals specifically with SMS text messaging as a business marketing and information distribution tool.
Marc Hindley of Canary Dwarf, said: “SMS is still a powerful medium. Despite the huge rise in popularity amongsth social networks, we are still experiencing a rise in the use of text messaging.”
“It’s a handy, fast communication service. It doesn’t require software, expensive phones or technical nous. Everybody has a mobile phone, and everybody knows how to send a text message.”
The text messaging platform will supply information on demand, on subscription, on location and on schedule. It’s flexibility allows us to work with any requirement. We are able to build applications specific to business needs or use ready-made service for tight budgets.
Businesses can use it in high profile marketing campaigns, or just to fix problems in their workflow. For example a five-digit number can be advertised that will allow users to ’subscribe’ to updates. Or a business could use it privately amongst customers to have an automated appointment reminder service, “potentially saving them lost revenue from missed appointments, he added”
“We have partnered with a leading infrastructure provider with a robust connection to all UK mobile phone networks.”
Link: Textoloy SMS applications
Seaforth Windows, Lhanbryde, Moray
“Excellent in a word. Page 1 on Google in areas I aimed for from the day site went live and phone and enquires flowing.”
- Alan Duncan, Seaforth Windows
BROCHURE SITE WITH FEEDBACK MODULE
When Seaforth Windows came to us, they had a long list of problems with their existing website. It was difficult to update, it wasn’t listed in Google and, worst of all, owner Alan Duncan wasn’t getting much business from it.
Seaforth Windows shot straight to page one of Google search for desired keywords
Seaforth Windows prides itself on an excellent reputation for customer service, value for money and quality of products, so it was our priority to make that clear on his website. We proposed a brand new build with semantic code for search engine friendliness, usability and accessibility. We rewrote all the copy, added some proper images, and made contact easier with tailored ‘calls to action’.
We built an online review system so customers could leave star ratings and reviews as Alan has built a solid reputation from reviews left by his existing customer base.
We were delighted to learn that Seaforth Windows was listed on page one of Google for Alan’s desired keywords when the site went live and that Alan was beginning to receive calls and emails from his new site.
Canary Dwarf proprietor Marc Hindley said: “Working with Alan was refreshing. He is clearly committed to providing really good customer service and quality workmanship.
“Within the budget, we created a product that proved its worth within the first week of going live.
Alan left a glowing report for Canary Dwarf on Free Index, a web business directory: “Excellent in a word. Page 1 on Google in areas I aimed for from the day site went live and phone and enquires flowing,”
He also gave us five stars for Customer Service, Value for Money and Quality.
Link: Seaforth Windows – uPVC windows, doors, facias, soffits and guttering, from Inverness to Aberdeen.
UK Marine Services, Buckie, Moray
“The expertise of Canary Dwarf would be a great asset to any business requiring this type of service to promote their business. – Ken Wood, UK Marine Services
CUSTOM WORDPRESS CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
UK Marine Services needed to impress clients in major oil and shipping companies
UK Marine Services is the trading name of Ken Wood in Buckie. He has an enviable CV which lists most major oil companies, and a list of certification longer than your proverbial arm.
Ken’s website was launched in February to meet demand from the oil industry as it prepares new tenders for marine services.
We prepared a customised layout using WordPress CMS and installed it on our award-winning webserver platform.
Ken told us the website was an ‘instant success’, and wrote the following email to us following the launch of his new marketing tool:
“Many thanks for helping me to create my website which has been an instant success due to the professional manner in which you have set it up.
“Canary Dwarf was my first choice because i was impressed with their experienced response, flexibility and timescale along with competitive costings.
“The key points of success is to their excellent performance standards and established business experience which introduced a lot of business avenues and ideas.
Read more | UK Marine Services
ScrubVac Cleaning Equipment, Forres, Moray
“Canary Dwarf offer a one-to-one experience that big companies cannot match” – Jeff Bradford, ScrubVac
VPASP ECOMMERCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
ScrubVac Cleaning Equipment is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of cleaning appliances, parts and accessories.
They came to us in late 2009 looking for a new ecommerce website. They had been running their own ISP-hosted solution for a while and had uploaded thousands of products individually, some of them many times! It was true to say that they had seriously outgrown the capabilities of their site.
ScrubVac needed a site that would help them manage their catalogue of over 40,000 products.
With a customer base that spreads across the industrial, commercial and household sectors, ScrubVac’s ecommerce site needed to be user-friendly and adaptable. Customers needed to be able to locate products easily, and staff needed to be able to manage their online stock with ease.
We specified our affiliate ecommerce CMS (content management system) from VPASP which proved to be an ideal solution. Comfortably serving all 40,000+ products, with additional facilities such as discount codes, gift vouchers, multiple payment options, European VAT rates, worldwide shipping calculation, secure SSL shopping cart and much more.
Behind the scenes, ScrubVac have the facility to control their catalogue through the comprehensive but easy-to-use control panel, which allows them to edit their stock and their content with ease.
Asked why ScrubVac chose Canary Dwarf for their ecommerce project, managing director Jeff Bradford said: “I wanted to have a local company do the project, i did get prices over the web from other companies initially just for a guide, but in the end price was only a small factor in my decision.
“I explained to Marc what I wanted and how much control I needed myself. We required an unlimited categories and products with a fresh clean look. Marc made my old site seem like a car boot sale, compared to the fresh new approach he has brought to the site now.”
Marc Hindley of Canary Dwarf, said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity of working with Jeff and his team at ScrubVac. Like us, they take great pride in customer service and that was clear from time spent in their office and depot.”
CuddlyBums, Forres
“I’ve been delighted with every aspects of Marc’s involvement in the building of the CuddlyBums website and can’t recommend him highly enough” – Mandy Gillies, CuddlyBums
CUSTOM WORDPRESS CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Mandy Gillies has been Moray’s official cloth nappy advisor for two years. She wanted a website that would increase her business and allow her to showcase her products professionally.
We built a customised WordPress site that will allow Mandy to update her content easily. We added plugins to enhance searchability and installed analytics software to measure traffic and performance. We helped Mandy set up a Facebook page to build a parent community and seek informal advice from her. We also organised a photo shoot and two of her seven kids feature in the masthead design.
CuddlyBums wanted a professional image for their cloth nappy business
Mandy said: “Marc came to me on personal recommendation. We met in my not-so-quiet home for a photo shoot with my rather uncooperative models but he worked tirelessly till we had the perfect photos.
“I was very impressed with his choice of background and layout for the website. He has been on hand to help with all the questions I’ve had on what to put in to the site, what not to put in and even gave me a personal training session on how to upload my own photographs and information to the site.
“I’ve been delighted with every aspects of Marc’s involvement in the building of the CuddlyBums website and can’t recommend him highly enough.”
Link: CuddlyBums
Highland Paper and The Papershed, Forres
Highland Paper uses two sites to serve the wholesale and retail arms of their business
BESPOKE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Highland Paper is a well-established stationery supplies family-run business serving the Highlands and Moray. It is run by Peter Dick and his son Stewart and Melanie Redican.
Peter has worked in the paper industry for over thirty years having been managing director of Bunzl Fine Paper and chairman of Donald Murray Paper.
Stewart specified a catalogue-type site for his trade clients to view his range of stock. We advised on various usability issues and wrote a bespoke content management system so Stewart could add his own products and photographs at his convenience.
We built the site to be compliant with search engines and added a module to post special offers to the front page.
Stewart recently opened a retail shop on Toolbooth Street in Forres, and he wanted a separate site for this.
We built a mini brochure site, with a design which complements the Highland Paper site.
Highland Paper have a growing mailing list, and to service this we designed a newsletter template and gave him access to our CreateSend newsletter application, a tried and tested which makes creating and sending a newsletter easy and professional.
Link: highlandpaper.com | thepapershed.com
Highland Foundation for Wildlife
Highland Foundation for Wildlife wanted to be able to edit their website when following migrating birds.
BESPOKE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The Highland Foundation for Wildlife came to us when their website grew too large to manage themselves. Over several years it has recorded some of Scotland’s key wildlife progresses, such as the introduction of sea eagles and the GPS tracking of osprey and golden eagle.
Website owner Roy Dennis had built up a large online resource of animals and birds. His work includes attaching satellite transmitters to migrating birds and tracking their migrations around the world.
Roy needed a better system of managing his website. We specified a bespoke content management system to allow him to login to his website on a daily basis, but he also wanted to update his website when travelling.
Link: roydennis.org
Pure Rush, Forres, Moray
Pure Rush wanted an ecommerce solution that would expand with the extreme sports catalogue
CUSTOM VPASP ECOMMERCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
When Pure Rush sealed a deal to import and distribute the Zooter land yachts, they turned to us for an ecommerce website which could handle their stock control and take payments securely.
We presented them with a tailored solution which enabled them to log in and edit their catalogue.
Our shopping cart softare allows them to give gift cards and discount coupons which can used at checkout, and we integrated the system with their chosen payment processor.
Pure Rush asked us to meet a tight deadline, which we did. Once the site was live, we helped them set up a social media strategy to spread the word in the extreme sports community.
Pure Rush are the sole official UK distributor for the UK and Ireland. It is owned and operated by husband and wife team Brendan and Illana Vickers, who are both keen land sailors and extreme sports fans.
Link: pure-rush.co.uk
As U Like It, Forres, Moray
As U Like It wanted to be able to sell their cupcakes, greetings cards and scrapbooks online
CUSTOM VPASP ECOMMERCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
As U Like It are a small craft bakery in Forres. They supply bespoke gift cards and cupcakes, as well as a line of personalised scrapbooks.
They came to us when they decided to sell their products online. They needed an attractive website and an effective ecommerce set-up.
Canary Dwarf specified its partner shopping solution, VP-ASP and configured it to allow products to be re-organised by the customer to co-incide with special promotions or dates.
We integrated it with their preferred payment provider and hosted it on one of our stable server platforms.
Before launch, we provided offline marketing to get them local press coverage.
Link: asulikeit.co.uk
Vital Signs
Vital Signs wanted better findability in search engines and to be able to update their own content
BESPOKE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Vital Signs wanted a better search engine presence for their new website. Canary Dwarf identified opportunities to improve their content, backlinks and local search results.
We took a brief from a PDF design and translated it the web with CSS coding and marked up the code semantically to aid search engine compliance. We added their two branches to the Google Local Business Center, giving them better local search results, and installed Google Analytics to track their traffic
They wanted to be able to update their own content, so we wrote them a bespoke content management system (CMS) to allow this.
We also provided an efficient newsletter management system which helped them increase targeted marketing to their growing client base. They prepare their newsletter in the on-site CMS and manage their client database of 800+ subscribers through Canary Dwarf’s newsletter manament system.
Link: vital-signs.net
Moray Firth Live
Moray Firth Live relies on social media to distribute its news
CUSTOM WORDPRESS CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
Moray Firth Live is an internal project. It is built on the Wordpress blogging platform, using a three-colomn customised theme and several Wordpress plug-ins.
It uses social media sites such as Twitter and bit.ly to distribute news and Flickr and YouTube to host videos and photographs.
It hosts news, events and information from the Moray Firth area.
Because it’s based on Wordpress, it can be edited from anywhere with an internet connection, and we are integrating new technical features which will make it a model news distribution platform.
Link: morayfirthlive.com
Fonthill Bed and Breakfast, Nairn
Fonthill wanted a simple website that said it all in one page.
SINGLE-PAGE BROCHURE WEBSITE
Fonthill is a small bed and breakfast in Nairn and wanted a simple one-page website that that said it all.
Although there are a few other pages, the main content is indeed contained on one page, and this is an increasingly popular format.
As website owners lose their fear of the ‘fold’ and consumers prove their happiness to use the scrollbar, single page websites are scoring high in usability tests.
Fonthill also uses a simple web-based bookings record, where each enquiry and contact details are recorded into a databse for future use. This makes it easy for them to expand on their infrastructure to form a fully-fledged customer response management
Link: fonthill-nairn.co.uk
Cairngorm Auto Repairs, Aviemore
Cairngorm Auto Repairs wanted an internt presence for their small sales and service centre.
BESPOKE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Cairngorm Auto Repairs is a garage in Aviemore. It services and MoTs cars and vans and has a smal selection of vehicles for sale.
Garage owner Ronnie Alexander wanted an internet presence for his garage, and wanted to be display the cars he has for sale on his forecourt.
We designed a simple front page for the service centre and wrote a bespoke CMS for the car sales department. This allowed them to add, edit and remove his vehicles from his computer at home.
We also optimised his site to make the site findable for ‘car sales aviemore’
Link: cairngormautorepairsltd.co.uk
Stuck in a Doorway
Stuck in a Doorway gets 1,8m visits every year
CHARITABLE SOCIAL NETWORK
Stuck in a Doorway is a self-help resource site for sufferers of Obseesive Compulsive Disporder, or OCD.
The people behind it came to us to form a community after being unable to find anything on the internet where they could discuss their embarrassing disorder.
We researched the ‘market’ for the committee and implemented a vBulletin message board.
The message board received plaudits from sufferers and professionals and is now often referred to by clinical psychologists and publications.
Link: stuckinadoorway.org
