Solufeed is a long-established company that produces speciality fertilisers. They approached 101 in 2010 to produce a new website as they wanted to explore new opportunities for their business. Solufeed has been a valued client ever since.
Background
First registered in 1946, Solufeed was the brand name of a single ICI fertilizer for the then infant hydroponics industry. Today Solufeed is focused on speciality fertilisers for the horticulture, agriculture, amenity and, more recently, consumer sectors. Fertiliser products now include water soluble, foliar, organic and chelated micronutrient formulations. All supported by an enviable commercial, logistical and technical service.
Solufeed approached 101 in 2010 to produce a new website for them. Our experience in the agricultural sector and the ability to talk their language was an important factor for them. Since the original site was built, specific pages have been added for eight language variants together with a new online shop aimed at the amateur gardener. Solufeed also uses Smart Messenger to broadcast an email newsletter to customers and potential customers worldwide.
The Brief
Solufeed required a new website which serviced both their UK and International customer bases. The website needed to showcase their products and encourage potential customers to make an enquiry. They were also very keen to improve their ranking in search engines, particularly Google.
Other than being listed under their own name 'Solufeed' in Google they had no significant search engine presence under any meaningful keywords. An important requirement therefore was to gain higher ranked listing for some specific searches.
The Solution
The fully content-managed site was designed to separate the UK and international aspect of their operations. Within the UK area a complete product directory was created which can be sorted by type and applicable crop. Ensuring a good hierarchical structure made improving the SEO position much more straightforward as the search engine spiders could easily traverse the site.
We also included a blog as 'News' and encouraged the publishing of regular and current informational articles. This also has a very positive effect on search engine position, particularly if the articles are referenced in other sites. The other main element was to make adding and amending the in-page metadata, i.e. title, keywords and description very easy.
In this way, the initial site made very rapid progress in getting listed in the search engines. Since then 101 have created 8 mini websites in different languages. All of which are content managed by the representative in each county. These are used to complement the international aspect of the Solufeed business.
At around the same time Solufeed also made a significant move into the consumer market and 101 have created an online shop for amateur gardeners and allotment owners. We are currently exploring online marketing strategies to further enhance the move into this new market.
What Our Client Said
"We are very pleased with the website designed for us by 101 and have had some excellent feedback from our clients. 101 have been great with advice and tips on how to get into the search engines and within a few days of going live we were on page one of Google for four of the keywords we were targeting.
"In addition, the reporting on Smart Messenger really helps us to see who is reading our newsletters and which areas they are mainly interested in."
