No longer an Ugly Belgian Website: Combell presents renewed website Davy Brocatus
You can strike the website of dancer and media personality Davy Brocatus from the list of Ugly Belgian Websites. Our jury bombed his previous website as the unfortunate winner. Naturally, that included a nice prize. And what a prize it was!
Davy's website, completely renewed by Combell, is everything a personal website should be. Go to davybrocatus.be and discover for yourself the biggest makeover in the world of Internet. Or read here on our blog how Combell took charge of the website.
How it all started: the search for Ugly Belgian Websites
First, a short throwback: a few months ago, Combell started looking for Ugly Belgian Websites. You know; those sites that jump off your screen, but for all the wrong reasons. Anyone could nominate gems of websites.
A jury, with Ugly Belgian Houses founder Hannes Coudenys in the lead, gave the website of Davy Brocatus, known as a judge in 'Stars on the Dance Floor' among others, the fewest points. And thus, the victory! As organizer, Combell gave Davy everything but a consolation prize. How about a complete redesign plus hosting of his website? Because that was, um, necessary.
Less chaos, more clarity
Behind the scenes, a lot of work went into renewing Davy's website. Combell took care - exceptionally! - of the design and copy. For the development, we could count on one of our many partners.
With Combell, we had one goal from the beginning: Davy first! A personal website should focus on you as a person and what you stand for.
We did this by creating less chaos (read: none) and more clarity. By redrawing the hierarchy, you immediately find out who Davy Brocatus is, what he can do for you and how to contact him.
No more busy carousel, welcome overview and tranquility
The texts were rewritten, including English translations, in a playful but readable font. The website's story and various calls to action are sure to get his website visitors excited. Hurry, because Davy's dance classes will be booked up soon! 😉
Of course, the famous dancer was closely involved in our plans. We listened to Davy's wishes and translated them into a professional website. Brocatus did have to say goodbye to his stampeded carousel full of info. In its place, he got an activating "hero section" with a professional photo at the top of his website. The only slider you still see is the one with other images in it. The animations and stock photos? Delete!
Why red?
Davy's involvement is also why red is still the main color of the website. After all, it is Davy's
corporate identity. The eye also wants something - and preferably no pain - so we chose pleasant shades of red, suitable for a screen. Together with the gray tones, the site has a calm color balance.
Also on a technical level, we are in good hands with Combell
At Combell, we did not only take care of the design. On a technical level, davybrocatus.be is also fully optimized. Just surf to the website with your smartphone or tablet. From now on, the site is fully mobile friendly. Hear that, Hannes Coudenys & Co? 😄
Not only a website that works perfectly on mobile devices is a must, so is a fast loading time of your website. The higher your performance the better. Google is that strict about slow websites. Thanks to Combell's work, Davy's website loads even faster than before. That improvement, combined with our SEO optimisations, will make the site score even better in all kinds of online search results.
Davy does it safely
We already wrote that Davy chose a secure website with an SSL certificate at the time, but you still ended up with an insecure version. That problem, too, is gone. Thanks to the Combell team, you now always land on the secure version of Davy's site - including https and a lock in the address bar. You'll even notice a correct cookie banner. Hello, being GDPR-proof!
New home for Davy's domain name, hosting and mailboxes
Combell has also thought about the future of Davy's personal website. Indeed, as market leader, we are not just another web hosting company. With us, you can register your domain names and link mail addresses to them. Davy's mailboxes now run on Combell's reliable and local servers.
Via his website, Davy not only wants you to get to know him better. He wants to make you dance in his dance studio or let you stay overnight in the luxurious suites of his B&B. Combell's budget-friendly business web hosting fits perfectly with the limited size of Davy's website.
Davy is now number one in our list of favorite dancers dressed in red, you won't see him in the list of Ugly Belgian Websites 😀.
Davy responds, "From something bad, also comes something good"
Finally, we let Davy Brocatus himself talk about his revamped website. The makeover gets "a big ten" from the well-known judge.
Davy: "I've already won several questionable awards, but with the Ugly Belgian Websites one, I only had things to gain. Thanks to the redesign, my online business card is completely up to date and well-organized.
I'm also happy that my favorite color has remained, which is literally my red thread. So you see: something good comes out of everything bad! (laughs) The collaboration with Combell? It went very smoothly and professionally. Thanks to them, davybrocatus.be 2.0 is online."
