Celtic Rambler For Sale
Personal Website
"By having this website, I was able to sell my RV directly to the buyer — for 61% more than dealers were willing to pay me. Despite it being the end of the camping season, I was able to sell it quickly to the first buyer that viewed it in person. He said it was a great help to see all the photos and have all the detailed information that was on the website."
The Business Case
The client has a large, top-of-the-line and expensive caravan (AKA trailer or RV) and specialised towing truck that he wants to sell. In the COVID era, he wants potential buyers to get a really good picture of what's on offer before they visit; he also wants to avoid people who might waste his time.
The Fix
Webflow Development
I built a one-page, multi-section, responsive website on Webflow that includes a photo gallery with lightbox links for enlarging the photos. There are plenty of tech specs for the exacting type of buyer and there are clear explanations of the many luxurious benefits of this high-end rig. I added a fun little illustration to appeal to the families and grandparents. An embedded map lets the website visitor know roughly where the rig is located and a secure contact form allows for email contact without opening the owner up to spam. This website enjoys free hosting on Webflow due to its small size and limited functionality - and the lack of need of a custom domain name.
User Experience (UX)
It's a small, straightforward website with the usual best practices built in. It's responsive with logical information structure and header hierarchy. All elements are minimum AA+ colour contrast, all images have alt text and the HTML is semantic for accessibility (visually impaired). UX testing was an accessibility audit (Webflow includes a handy tool for this) and a usability test with avid traveller with a visual impairment.
SEO + Visibility
Generally, the things that improve UX and accessibility count towards a website's google rankings. It's a very complicated algorithm (and no one knows exactly what's inside). The meta (search) tags here are written for certain keywords, as is the copy on the website itself. Technical SEO has been woven throughout, such as the code files have been minified (compressed) and the secure sockets layer (SSL) has be activated - but I don't expect we'll be needing the SEO. Showing up in google rankings takes time, sometimes even months. When the owner is ready to sell he's going to post links to this website on various caravanning forums and put up posters at the local caravan parks and supply shops...those posters will include a QR Code to this website. The SEO efforts aren't wasted, most of the things that are good for SEO also serve other purposes, be they security, site speed, user experience or on-site marketing copy.
Copywriting
I did all the copywriting on the site. It includes keywords, in the unlikely even the owner will need help from google rankings. The copy is mainly marketing copy, pitching the benefits of the rig and backing it up with the features and technical facts.