Hogalids Hedgehogs web site is designed and built by
Mike Dugen in 2007
When taking on the project there were a number of issues that needed addressing.
1. Re-design the site, with an emphasis on helping new visitors find the playgroup.
2. Have a prominent "Notices" section, so we can update everyone about new information
3. Improve the Google lists. In 2007 the web site wasn't even listed in Google!
The web site was coded by hand, and while it was a great learning opportunity for me, I'm never going to code a site entirely using "Notepad" again. These days I specialise in building Drupal web sites. However at the end of the process we had a new site which included an interactive map showing the location of the Playgroup, and the various ways to get to the group. This addressed points 1 & 2.
Next was the Google ranking. Previously we used a "free" web hosting provider, that displayed adverts next to our web pages. These adverts caused issues with Google, and basically made the whole site invisible to the Google servers when they visited our site.
We set out to move the web site to a new Web-Host provider, which would not hinder the Google robots. This addressed the main technical stumbling block, and once this was resolved we were listed in Google. Next was to see if we could get a higher listing in Google.
We identified 3 main searches we wanted to rank for
English playgroup Stockholm Playgroup Stockholm Playgroup Sodermalm
Most of the sites that were listed in those search results were blog posts talking about a visit to the playgroup, or were listing of playgroups in Sweden. Over the course of the next two weeks, I contacted those sites, and ask them to include a link to our new site.
Since then we have constantly been listed at the top of those 3 searches, and usually we're listed in the top 5 for broad searches such as
Playgroup Sweden English speaking Playgroup Note there is no reference to Sweden or Stockholm in this last search query. This means we're listed in the top 5 for "English speaking Playgroup" anywhere in the world!
