The Challenge
A client’s niche-industry website was supposed to be supported by on-site advertisement sales, but the ads weren’t selling and the site wasn’t being trafficked despite the large collection of quality content on the site. After a cursory review, we quickly determined that the root cause of their issue was a confusing navigation scheme coupled with uninspiring website design and branding.
Results
After rebranding and redesigning their website's front-end, we integrated it into the existing content management system, allowing the client to re-pitch their advertisement leads, which resulted in them selling out of their entire ad inventory before the new site had even launched. In addition to being more attractive, the new website we created is also much more user-friendly. The content that was so difficult to find within the previous iteration of the site is now easy to navigate and discover. We also built the new site responsively, so it works seamlessly across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices. Site traffic and time spent on site have both gone up significantly and now the site can support itself through advertisement sales as was originally intended.
What We Did
Upon review of the existing site, the problems were fairly self-evident, requiring us to do minimal research before digging in to solve the problem. First, we took stock of how the existing content management system was set up to see if anything was salvageable and what would need to be reworked.
From there, we created new branding that more closely aligned with the niche industry the website catered to. In addition to developing a new logo, we worked with a professional photographer to provide a comprehensive library of unique photos that could be used throughout the website and put together a look and feel that would carry over to the new site.
After receiving sign-off on the new brand identity elements, we went through our proven web design and development process (Planning, Sitemap, Wireframe, Design, Development, Testing, Training, and Launch) for a seamless transition from the old site to the new.
And as we do for all website projects, we made a responsive website built on clean, best-practice code that is inherently SEO-friendly.
-
Logo Redesign and Rebranding
Created a new branding suite that aligned with the industry and client's environment
-
Responsive Website Design & Development
A beautiful new custom website was made with a user-friendly navigation and design
-
Built-in SEO
Improvements were made to meta content, site structure and mobile friendliness to ensure search engine friendliness.
-
Photoshoot Art Direction
Created a shot list and directed the photographer to ensure the photoshoot resulted in useable and appropriate photography
Why It Worked
The client’s original site was poorly designed to fit their needs, but on the Bright Side, the client already had great content and great sales leads. They just needed a more marketable and more useable product.
Once the site was rebranded and redesigned properly, the rest fell into place. The once unsellable ad inventory sold out before the new site even launched based on the design and interface improvements, and site visitors that had once left the website almost immediately upon arrival, started spending time actually accessing the content and exploring the site, dramatically improving both page visits by user and time per user on the site.