Designing a fresh new website for one of the leading British playground designers

The client

Russell Play are national and international specialists when it comes to the creative design, manufacture and installation of commercial play areas for children of all ages.

The brief

Russell Play came to us with the commercial goal of a distinctive website that would help them stand out in a crowded market. We were challenged to both redesign and rebuild their existing website, with a laser focus on the user experience which needed a substantial overhaul. Although the Russell Play site is not an ecommerce website, the site mirrors the complexity of ecommerce with over 600 products to browse. Because of this, the website needed to act as a highly intuitive digital catalogue which ultimately encouraged potential customers to enquire for product details and quotes once they found what they were looking for. SEO was a crucial investment in order to primarily maintain and then increase the ranking of keywords and page titles to assist the overall performance of the new site.

The solution

To differentiate Russell Play from their competitors we introduced a vibrant colour palette, adding energy and zest to the website design and brand touchpoints. The new colours, complemented by fantastic lifestyle imagery of their products, work harmoniously to effectively represent Russell Play’s unrivalled portfolio of designs and products.

To create a smooth and uncomplicated user experience we restructured the website navigation and introduced Algolia smart search, allowing potential customers to find products, categories and key information quickly and efficiently. With SEO playing a pivotal role in the company’s existing website, we optimised the category pages and product category pages for relevant and popular search terms. We also advised the Russell Play team on keywords to include in future content, ensuring they could continue to deliver optimised copywriting following the launch.

The integration of a bespoke Salad content management system (CMS) also enabled Russell Play to edit page content quickly and easily, with the ability to view detailed analytics about the website from one central dashboard.

The result

The new website has overachieved when it comes to user-friendliness, providing potential customers with the autonomy to find products and information fluently. With bold call-to-actions throughout the website and a simple-to-use enquiry form on key pages, visitors can contact the team for product details and quotes from wherever they are browsing. The introduction of a new ‘Playground Projects’ section has proven an additional and very valuable promotional tool, highlighting the extent of their successful installations globally.

The reaction

“When we enquired about our website, Salad brought rebranding into the conversation which became a no-brainer from the get go. The new CMS has empowered our team to take ownership of one of our most important marketing channels and feedback both internally and externally has been hugely positive. We really felt like Salad became an extension of our team, which worked really well for us.

While competitors all look very similar, we took a distinctive route that’s helped us to stand out and inspire customers. Since the site launched, traffic has increased by 20% and we’ve doubled the number of qualified enquiries coming into the business!”

Chris Wellwood, Director at Russell Play