“Fresh and welcoming” new website for Manchester Cathedral

Website launch with the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, Warren Smith, Lord Lieutenant of Manchester and the Dean, the Very Revd Rogers Govender

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Manchester Cathedral’s new website has had over 50,000 page views in its first month.

The website, designed by RO Web Solutions, was launched in November 2010.

The new site is easier to navigate, contains a wealth of pictures, some specially commissioned videos showing the cathedral in action, and news and events modules that are filtered through to different parts of the site.

The website will make it easier for the cathedral to target information to different groups of users: regular worshippers and volunteers, visitors to Manchester, people interested in educational visits, exhibitions and lectures, concert goers, and visitors with a special interest in history.

The site also makes use of the striking branding of the cathedral, with its characteristic strong red and yellow colours. Different banners have been created for each section of the site to illustrate the variety of activities and events that are central to the life of the cathedral week by week, month by month.

Director of Communications for Manchester Cathedral, David Marshall, said: “We are delighted with the new cathedral website that was developed on time and on budget with our Partners Rochdale Online. The old site was tired looking and did not reflect the cathedral’s important place as a centre of worship and mission in the city of Manchester. The new site is fresh and welcoming and will help us get our messages across to the diverse communities that make up the city of Manchester.”

Ian Kimber, Technical Director at Rochdale Online, said: “RO Web Solutions have worked extensively with the Diocese Communications Department over the last few years, creating a bespoke content management system for the main Diocesan website, www.manchester.anglican.org.

"Since then, the communications staff have become proficient in the use of this system to create a feature-rich and varied website that is bursting with content and information.

“To take advantage of all the functionality of that system, and the experience built up by the communications department in using it, we proposed that the new Manchester Cathedral be built on the back of the same framework. This allowed us to create a complete solution quickly, at low cost, requiring no extra training or knowledge by Diocesan staff to manage.

“The system is flexible enough to allow a fully customised look and feel, and the new site's visual theme was developed in conjunction with the Manchester Cathedral official branding guidelines.”

Visit the new website here: http://www.manchestercathedral.org/