Visit Ptuj – City of Culture

web design — web development

A complete website renovation to promote a key cultural city increases its traffic by 200%.

Overview

Rich in culture and tradition with its ten-day-long spring carnival and excellent museums revealing a medieval heritage, Ptuj is the oldest recorded city in Slovenia but was underrated.

As part of the operation to improve the development of the tourist offer of leading tourist destinations, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, Ptuj Tourist Office carrying all related activities to increase the visibility of their city got involved in the campaign with the aim to improve the image and discoverability of Ptuj and its surroundings.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Website strategy
User Experience design (UX)
User interface design (UI)
Programming
Websites & Apps

Client

VISIT PTUJ

The Challenge

The client wished for a comprehensive renovation of their existing website to improve the quality of the city’s online presence as a tourist destination within Slovenia and beyond.

The primary goal was to touch foreign and domestic visitors, and city residents to inspire and motivate them to discover the city, increasing the possibility of choosing Ptuj as a preferred tourist destination, and growing the consumption of services and packages there. For better targeting, the website had to be available in four languages.

The portal’s structure had to be completely redefined to properly address three levels of communication, introducing the city and its surroundings, the main supporting products by category (city & culture, health & well-being, gastronomy, outdoor activities), and everything related to Ptuj’s events.

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WIREFRAMING

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WIREFRAMING 2

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Our solution

Our team started with strategic planning keeping the client’s expectations at the core of the project. We analyzed the customer search process and purchase cycle, elaborated keyword analysis, prepared a whole new website concept, along with optimal landing pages. We provided a comprehensive visual image upgrade and user experience based on the client’s starting points and in compliance with the brand’s visual identity.

A big focus was put on developing the website’s functionality as well as content planning and execution. We investigated a new, attractive domain name for the international audience.

The website got fully redesigned, functionally and technically adapted for optimal use on all screens and tablets keeping a mobile-first as a prerequisite. As part of the technical implementation, we opted for a fully-custom frontend and backend programming and integrated adapted CRM systems alongside ensuring the technical optimization.

The results

All client’s goals were achieved and our collaboration marked a considerable improvement in the user experience of the website for B2C and B2B target audiences and brand awareness elevation. A massive improvement in search engine position also resulted in a 200% growth of the web traffic.

The successful visual image upgrade of the website and the technical optimization of the website according to all SEO indicators resulted in an yearly significant growth on all levels: an increase in the number of sessions by +55% (close to 100,000), a total number of unique visitors: 66,000, a total of 250,000 page views, a longer average session duration on site, and a larger number of visited pages per session. This massive digital transformation positively contributed to an increase of visitors to the city of Ptuj.

Despite the client’s initial wish to become independent after the website renovation, our collaboration carried on, maintaining the best possible performance for their website. This allowed the continuous improvement of functionality and experience, setting Ptuj’s website as one of the trendsetters in the industry.