Alder Hey Children’s Charity – Website Rebuild and Content Management Optimisation

The Client: Alder Hey Children’s Charity 

Alder Hey Children’s Charity is dedicated to raising crucial funds to transform Alder Hey Children’s Hospital into a world-class, patient-friendly facility for the 330,000 patients and families they serve annually.  

Championing their vision to support the building of a healthier future for children and young people, Alder Hey focus their efforts to raise money to support life-saving medical equipment and facilities, ensuring that every child experiences the magic of Alder Hey during their hospital stay. 

What was the problem? 

When Alder Hey first approached Netmatters, the goal was to upgrade their existing website, which was running on an outdated Umbraco structure.  

As their current version was several years old, the initial plan involved bringing the website up to date with the most recent version through an extensive codebase upgrade. 

However, our team soon realised that this upgrade alone was not the best answer to Alder Hey’s needs. Instead, we suggested a move to a more flexible WordPress site build. This would give the client more control over their content and would open up the opportunity to offer their online presence a fresh, engaging redesign.

What was our solution? 

A new WordPress site would allow for increased customisation options and simplified content management for Alder Hey's internal marketing team, which would add up into saved time and stress. It was also a chance to give the site design an updated design. 
 
Our design team took the charity’s existing brand guidelines and worked closely with the marketing team to adapt them for a new look – one that made the most of Alder Hey’s existing assets in a new way. Our goal was a site that looked bright, family-friendly and engaging, and that communicated the heart of the children’s charity on arrival in an easy-to-navigate final product. The development phase spanned approximately 5 months, during which we built the entire site based on an initial theme as a cost-effective foundation that aligned with Alder Hey Children’s Charity budget constraints. This approach allowed us to adapt the design to reflect the brand's identity and manipulate widgets to ensure easy access to the information their clients needed.

During this phase, we utilised our dedicated digital marketing team to work in sync with our design team to focus on laying the groundwork for seamless SEO integration. 

What was the result 

The culmination of this journey resulted in Alder Hey Children’s Charity now boasting a high-performing and aesthetically pleasing website that not only meets the charity's evolving needs, but also ensures a seamless user experience for their audience and kind supporters. 

The new site is bright, engaging, friendly, and immediately recognisable as Alder Hey. Now, Alder Hey Children’s Charity have a website that is designed for their purpose, and as such, the charity has witnessed a noticeable increase in engagement, particularly from mobile users.  

The successful collaboration between Netmatters and Alder Hey Children’s Charity has not only addressed the immediate challenges first faced when they looked to update their website but has progressed and established a new and efficient platform for their continued success, digital presence, and worthy cause. The digital team at Alder Hey Children’s Charity had this to say:

“Here at Alder Hey Children’s Charity we have undergone a big upgrade to our website, switching our CMS from Umbraco to WordPress, completely redesigning our website and updating our web content in the process. We have worked with Netmatters on the migration of our website and the full rebuild. This has included switching from one hosting provider to another and, from a digital perspective, all the additional considerations and implications that come with such a big project. At this stage, we are pleased with the outcome of the build and the SEO work undertaken alongside it. With that in mind, we are happy to be maintaining our relationship with Netmatters into the future. Based on our experience so far, we would recommend the Netmatters team to others.” 

Netmatters: Helping Develop Websites That Matter 

Highlighting the transformative power of strategic website redevelopment, we’re thrilled to work alongside Alder Hey Children’s Charity, helping build upon their online presence and improve their ability to connect with and serve their community. 

Now, Alder Hey Children’s Charity have the solution they needed, and you can view our other case studies to find out exactly how we’re helping businesses and charities around the world. 

If you are keen on developing a new website to drive leads for your business or are simply unsure on how to optimise your current site – we are here to help! 

Our business consultants are always on-hand for a free consultation to discuss your requirements and concerns.  

Contact us today and book your free consultation by calling 01603 704020 or fill out the form below to discuss the bespoke requirements of your business.