The challenge
Celestine Rowland, President of Galway Cultural Institute (GCI) and Galway Business School (GBS) met with Disquiet Dog’s Richard Bradford at an international conference in 2015.
You know, we really don’t come up on Google searches”, Celestine said.
“Well I’m sure you’re appearing somewhere, probably just not high enough to notice”, Richard replied.
“No, no, you don’t understand. We really don’t appear anywhere. It’s like we’re invisible!
Loving a challenge at Disquiet Dog, we investigated. Celestine was right. Though their new website looked beautiful, it was written using code that effectively hid the site from Google.
Not so good if you’d hoped to reach those thousands of people worldwide who are actively looking for an English or business course in Ireland.
Both the English language school (GCI) and the business school (GBS) had separate websites. The one was every bit as invisible as the other.
What we did
It was necessary to rebuild the sites from scratch. What we didn’t want was for the new versions to be anything less than optimal. We completed keyword audits, full technical website audits with recommended site maps and a shopping list of functions for their web developers to implement.
Fast forward to the completion of the sites, and Disquiet Dog came back to check the quality of the implementation and pick up the baton to make sure the site continued to evolve and position this renowned international school where it deserved to be.
For the past two years, we’ve also been providing monthly digital marketing support to Cosmina, Celestine, Padraig and the team behind the scenes at GCI & GBS.
We transfer knowledge, help create or check new content and ensure the website, social media and other digital assets do the best job of raising awareness amongst students and overseas agents.
This brings in enough bookings to cover the cost of the digital marketing, plus a healthy return on investment.
What we think of the team at GCI and GBS
These are some of the best people on the planet. We love them for their unerring work ethic, their genuine care for students and staff, their desire to tread gently and make the world a better place, and their eternal positivity and craic’ing sense of humour.
And also, Galway. A gem of a city on the rugged west coast of Ireland. What’s not to like?
What impact have we had?
How has our work with GCI & GBS helped over the last four years, and what do they think of us?
Here’s marketing manager, Cosmina Talos:
It was love at first sight!
I treasured Richard’s approachability and the ease of talking to him about our schools’ digital strategies and the inherent challenges from the first moment.
Although we had invested heavily in a new, state-of-the-art website , our amazing school was still held back from attaining its merited digital footprint and simply ‘be present’ on the world wide web.
To be honest, in theory we all know how important SEO, being in Google eyes and content writing are, but we are naively surprised as to why it’s not happening.
Richard, Mar and everyone at Disquiet Dog have empowered us to become better at our jobs, to develop dormant skills within our team and to enhance our digital footprint, and with such ease!
Their ongoing support, expert knowledge and skilled insight into effectively building our brand online has been tremendous. We are now well positioned online and delighted that students all over the world visit our website and inquire about the programmes we offer.
Cosmina Talos, Marketing Manager, Galway Cultural Institute
Here are the services GCI and GBS have used to get their custom solution: