New site launch :)

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 11:49

We see to be cornering the market in restaurant sites - its an elaborate plan to make sure we always get fed at client meetings

Anyway, we're really pleased with this one - its jQuery rich and has a pretty interesting location finder and an enticing (our aim was to make you feel hungy!) menu section.

http://www.giraffe.net

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 12:05

Hah, you'd have to visit a Giraffe to understand the vibrant colour scheme

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 13:28

nIckEl101 said:
what cms are you using?

Its bespoke, but based on codeigniter

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 13:40

It actually beats wikipedia for the single term Giraffe

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 13:59

The font is under discussion - its not one we picked but its on all of their other material for the moment.

Cheers for the comments though

Some people get it, others less so. The client has had great feedback from their customers via twitter etc. I think its more apparent to anyone that's been to one of the restaurants, which are also very vibrant. We did 'sophisticated' with www.strada.co.uk but this brand is very different.

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 14:28

I haven't misunderstood it, I was just pointing out its easy to find if you know Giraffe.

The cost of SEO to compete against the guide sites like london-eating or squaremeal is prohibitive, thats why none of the big restaurant chains even try - the budget is better spent towards emarketing to existing customers and driving them through the door with emailed 2-4-1 offers that are also seeded on the likes of moneysavingexpert.com and the other voucher sites.

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 14:29

daz said:
Most people use Google as the equivalent of their address bar. Giraffe are a national chain, they are not too worried about "Oxford Restaurant" and showing up, just as McDonalds aren't worried about showing up when you type in "London fast food". Those terms are too specific for such large websites, and it is better left to sites like timeout or just-eat for people to zone in on their actual location.

If Giraffe has only one or two restaurants in a couple of locations, I'd totally agree with you though, but they don't. ;p

Exactly

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 15:59

gord said:
I'm just offering my advice.

.....
I'm just here to offer some criticism, and its totally up to you whether you take it on-board.

Fair enough, and in many instances I'd agree, however in this case the SEO market for restaurants is sewn up by the directory sites. It takes a huge budget to break into it with any sort of generic terms so its not worth trying.

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 15:59

Subliminal Aura said:
Looks like a web 2.0 wannabe site from a couple of years back.

Very dated indeed ... It gets worse as you stroll on to the Engage website.

BTW did anyone find the

" pretty interesting location finder "

I'm still looking, can't find it !

Haha, care to offer your own site as comparison?

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 16:32

To be fair thats a good call on the H1 tags - we made the title tags dynamic but cant harm to do the same with the headings. Ta for the tip

We're not an SEO company and dont offer it - we're only 4 strong so concentrate solely on what we know, ie code things correctly and advise the client that if they want proper SEO competitiveness to appoint a seperate SEO agency.

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 16:53

Subliminal Aura said:
How about this one...

http://www.mcbd.co.uk/

Released this time last year but it's now showing it's age.

Seen it, didn't see anything that a simple mashup created 2 years back couldn't do.

All I'm saying is that I cringed when I saw the flickr/twitter feeds - It was like someone had turned the clock back a few years

Meh, we're but tiny minnows compared to you guys in terms of resources and budgets. I suspect the average budgets we work to wouldn't get past the scoping stage with an agency the size of yours so I dont want to end up in an inter-agency slanging match when comparing apples with oranges!

Theres some lovely work on that site...however, if I did have the resources of 90 staff working on just 15 client accounts I wouldn't have chosen that site to demonstrate the best of it, and the attention to detail is a bit lacking, both on the site posted and the others I went to, but maybe we're a bit OCD.

Our site itself is due a refresh as it launched almost 2 years ago now, but I think its aged pretty well

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 17:15

PMWD said:
I really like both sites in this thread. Just one point on the giraffe site, I would have expected the engage link to open in a new window.

Cheers, and you're right about the link - fixed now

Sagalout · 2 Dec 2009 at 17:24

suarve said:
It's definately a very attractive site too look at. However, try turning off images and it's totally broken, so you get a black mark next to the accessibility check. Not as bad when javascript is disabaled though.

Yeah, all good points, and things we thought long and hard about, however the site does actually work with screen readers (as most are fine with javascript) and can be used without a mouse, so in the real world it is actually useable, unless someone has taken the decision to actually turn off javascript for their own reasons. I'm not saying it couldn't be better, but commercially you have to take a real world view at some point.