Semantic, a company that designs, creates and optimises websites for visitor attractions around the world, has worked with Wildwood Trust, the UK’s leading native species rewilding charity, in order to create a new website.
Wildwood Trust, which is dedicated to the conservation of British wildlife, opened in 1999 and currently runs two wildlife parks, one in Canterbury, Kent and one in Escot in Devon. The parks are home to over 200 native animals and feature ancient woodland where guests can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar and more.
The goal of the website project was to make Wildwood come alive online by providing a straightforward and aesthetically pleasing layout, utilising high-quality images and videos to help showcase animals. The solution needed to work equally well on desktop and mobile devices and create an engaging experience for the user. The Wildwood team also needed the back office CMS to be user-friendly and intuitive.
Built on the LOOP platform
“We have just launched the Wildwood Trust and Park websites with Semantic,” says Wildwood Trust’s Sam Scott. “We have been so impressed. The whole process was professional, calm and friendly. Neil, James and Dan reassured us, supported us and made the whole, somewhat daunting process, a pleasure. We are thrilled with our new sites and look forward to future collaborations!”
Finding information about the attractions and activities available at Wildwood is now easy, thanks to the site’s simple navigation and clear menu options and submenus. Also, the website offers search tools, social networking links, and a newsletter sign-up option.
Many “attraction-specific” elements, including multi-location navigation, landing pages, filters, listings, directions, opening calendars, maps, and more are integrated into the new solution, which is built on Semantic’s LOOP platform.
LOOP enabled the to quickly develop the site while saving time and money by building on a collection of pre-built components. The extensive customizability has helped Wildwood create a clean and compelling website while also enabling the attraction to add new features, pages, and even locations as they expand and develop.
With a scalable platform, there is no worry about the site’s user numbers or future location additions. LOOP was created with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in mind to boost visibility and ranks. This will continue to be the case in the future thanks to an ongoing LOOP subscription.
A better user experience
Wildwood now has more room to concentrate on other important areas like memberships and booking experiences, thanks to the quick and inexpensive construction. Together with the website project, Access Gamma was adopted by Wildwood as its ticketing, POS, and accounting solution.
The Semantic team has seamlessly linked the booking and CRM APIs to create a dedicated bookings site alongside LOOP, enabling it to create a simplified booking procedure for visitors. Without going to a different ticketing system, users can quickly buy tickets and memberships, and make future reservations directly from the website. Guests can quickly and securely make reservations by viewing real-time availability.
“Semantic were integral in translating our new EPOS and CRM systems into a functioning website,” says Dan Farrow of Wildwood Trust. “Their team’s knowledge of user experience workflow and API integration, combined with a calm methodical approach, enabled Wildwood to achieve a ridiculous timeline for launching a new website with minimal bugs and issues. Would heartily recommend Neil, James, Dan and the team!”
Boosting revenue and more
The easy booking process, using the same design as the main LOOP website, will boost the Trust’s online performance, making the user journey quicker and simpler as well as bringing in upselling opportunities. Making bookings simple will increase conversion rates and revenue, and will also simplify data tracking and analysis.
A CMS that can keep up with the team’s marketing requirements, a more effective and user-friendly booking and purchasing process and an increase in visitor numbers and revenues have all been delivered as direct benefits of the Wildwood strategy.
Semantic also recently partnered with Yorkshire Wildlife Park, creating a single platform site that promotes the wildlife attraction and resolves issues created by the historical website.
