Daneswood
Exeter Web Design and Digital Marketing Agency - we've built over 900 websites for businesses, charities and public bodies. We specialise in Web development, eCommerce, Digital marketing, Branding, Positioning, Design and Print. Based in Exeter, in Devon, we have clients across the UK. Contact us for help making your marketing more effective.
We are thrilled to announce that a Daneswood client – Somerset company Habitat Aid – has won the prestigious Website of the Year at the Garden Media Guild Awards 2018, the so-called gardening ‘Oscars’.
The website we designed for Habitat Aid was recognized for its outstanding quality and content. The awards are one of the biggest events of the horticultural calendar, rivalling that of the Chelsea Flower Show in its significance for those who tweet, write, blog, photograph and broadcast about gardening, attracting entries from the country’s leading gardening trend-watchers and setters.
Nick Mann, Habitat Aid’s founder, said:
“I’m so pleased. Creating our new look website has taken many, many hours of patient work, and I hope it’s an interesting and helpful place for people to come to. Our developers from Exeter, Daneswood, have been excellent.”
Nick Mann, founder of Habitat Aid, pictured here with his trophy for winning ‘Garden Website of the Year’ at the Garden Media Guild Awards 2018. Photo by Jane Lloyd photography
Habitat Aid is an online shop that sells native plant and seed species for woodland and hedging, wildflowers, exotic ‘trees for bees’, pond plants, heritage fruit varieties, meadow seed and bulbs. They source them from nice British nurseries, growers and harvesters and they give half of their profits from online sales to small science based UK conservation charities.
Clare Foggett, chair of the Garden Media Guild, said:
“It’s fantastic that so many of this year’s winning entries highlight the force for good that gardening can be and across such a diverse range of platforms, from social media and blogs to traditional stalwart TV programmes and long-standing print magazines. The entire world of gardening media is in a wonderful position to make people aware of gardening’s social, environmental and health benefits, and we have a responsibility to do that too.”
The Garden Media Awards were hosted at The Savoy in London by Sophie Raworth. Photo by Jane Lloyd photography.
We have worked with Nick on his website for many years, providing the initial site overhaul and shop redesign on the Magento 1.9 ecommerce platform. We created a new navigational architecture and as Nick’s products are highly specialist we employed bespoke filtering of products within the shop. Nick recognised early on the importance of Google, and so we optimised the products as we went along, rather than just key pages, so thoroughly establishing good SEO.
The award luncheon at The Savoy for the winners. Photo by Jane Lloyd photography
What makes the site really shine however is Nick’s investment in his copy. There are no basic product listings here, as Nick really knows his native British plants and sets about describing them and their benefits well, plus photos, sometimes video, diagrams and spec drawings. The website design allows him to present his knowledgeable content in a digestible and user-friendly way. Thus adding best practice to good ecommerce design.
We are so pleased that Nick’s efforts in maintaining and improving his website as he goes, has been recognised and applauded at such a prestigious level within the gardening industry. We love having Habitat Aid on our portfolio, as it is a great example of how genuine digital communication can drive sales, especially when motivated by a deep rooted passion for improving the habitat of the British garden.
