Web Design Case Study

Introduction

It is often too easy to write about a project just after it has launched, declare success, and then move on. However, at Strategies we want to forge long-term relationships with our clients and think that it is important to be able to demonstrate ongoing success, even 2 years after the project was completed. This case study is one such example.

The Go Ultra Low (GUL) was launched back in 2014. Originally designed, built and hosted by another agency. Strategies were then asked to take over the hosting and maintenance of the website in the middle of 2015 when the relationship with that company broke down.

We moved the website on to Strategies infrastructure in Hampshire in July 2015. However, as time passed it became apparent that the website was not fit for purpose. The general visual design of the website still looked good there were a lot of inherent problems with how the website was built which was causing problems with user-engagement, load speed, Google rankings and traffic, as well as general maintenance of the website.

After a full review of the situation in 2017 GUL decided it was time to make the changes that were needed and the result has been fantastic. But before we look at the results let’s have a look at the issues the website faced and what we needed to do to fix them.

The challenge

Even though the graphs design element of the website was fairly old we believed it still looked good. However, that was about the only part of the website project that worked well.

The issues the website included:

Poor messaging – The website was not giving clear information to its users
Poor website build – The website was built in a confusing manner which made it hard to update, hard to use, and hard for Google to understand
Poor user journey – The website had a very poor journey and possessed many orphaned (unlinked) pages and pages with dead-end content.
Limited Site Structure – There was nowhere for new content to go
No interactive tools – No easy way to judge if an EV was a better choice for the individual
Difficult to add new content – The way the website was built made adding new content a complicated process
Poor calls-to-action and user engagement – Although set up to encourage more people to explore the benefits of electric vehicle ownership there was very little encouraging.
Limited website navigation – People rarely visited more than one or two pages of the website
Poor mobile experience – The website was very limited on mobiles and even broken on some devises
No thought to SEO – The website builders did not consider Google traffic at all

What we did

Before doing anything we conducted a full review of the website in order to highlight the issues with the website and layout the best way to fix the problems across the website as a whole. This meant tackling a significant number of smaller tasks throughout the website rebuild.

The solutions that we adopted included:

Website messaging

We made sure that all important messages used consistent keywords and phraseology
We worked the messages into the user journey and site structure
We had to make sure that the interactive tool placement and (CTAs) which reinforce messages are all used and positioned well

Website rebuild

We had to redesign the website and rebuild it using the new theme
We modified the homepage design (layout) to make sure that all important content was contained and that all key signposts were in place

Improved user journey

We ensured that the new user-journey did not try to force users down a particular route
Ensured that all pages link to other relevant pages and not lead users down dead-ends
We made sure that the navigation and CTAs were clearly labelled and easy to find
Made sure that answers to unconverted consumers most common questions are always easy to find

Improved site structure

We modified the site structure as per our recommendations
We reviewed each section and made sure that the content was purely relevant to each section

Integrate interactive tools

We made it a priority to feature the tools on a redesigned website homepage
We also created a separate page for each tool so we could optimise each one to generate traffic from organic search
We positioned the tools in relevant sections of the website and some tools in multiple sections
We created widgets and placed them across relevant parts of the website
During the build we made sure we could use the interactive tools as part of the conversion funnel leading visitors towards a CTA

New content sections

We created a new “Ownership” section to accommodate the new content
We updated the design of the new section so the information could be simply and clearly categorised
To ensure this new section was visited we included signposts around the website such as widgets or full-width content boxes directing visitors to this new section
We made sure that the content was added with an overall goal so that it serves to direct users to the agreed website CTA, i.e. make sure that it forms a successful part of the overall conversion funnel

Significantly improve calls-to-action and user engagement

Where possible we added a call-to-action that was relevant to each page
Improved the important “book a test drive” CTA
Featured a newsletter sign-up form on more pages
Introduced more, “softer” CTAs that are relevant to users at the start of the buying cycle and that link into the main consumer “concerns”
To ensure we were tracking all of the improved conversions after the site went live we set-up relevant goals and event tracking within GA

Improve website navigation

We redesigned the navigation as part of an overall website redesign
We also modified the menu content to reflect the site structure change recommendations
Implemented sidebar navigation
Reviewed the footer navigation design and usage

Improved mobile experience

We fixed the usability issues across multiple platforms to ensure the site worked as well on mobile and tablet as it did desktop.

Significantly improve SEO

After conducting a full SEO review, audit, and keyword research program we made sure each page was dedicated to a particular and typical visitor question or need
Ensure that every page was properly optimised for its chosen keyword
That every page followed Google best practice in relation to URLs, h tags, meta content, images and keyword density.
All technical SEO issues were cleared up, including redirects, orphaned pages, site speed, and broken links.

Results

The performance of the website has been fantastic. User-engagement is up, a testament to how much easier it is to use, new content is now added on a regular basis, helping to constantly improve the website, and traffic is significantly up.

Traffic

There was an immediate and significant increase in traffic from search engines once the new website was launched with monthly users going from 2,500 to 7,500 within a month. Moreover, traffic has continued to grow year on year with traffic now around 12,000 users per month.

GUL Analytics

This fantastic growth in traffic almost 2 years after we launched the new site shows that the work we do is for the long term and something that we can all be proud of.