Challenge: The organization had been adding pages and content to their web site during the three years following a redesign. The site consisted of more than 200 static pages, plus pages generated on the fly from content databases. In addition, their business focus and priorities had shifted. The site no longer accurately reflected their goals and audiences, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find key information.
Solution: Reviewed the new strategic plan, marketing plan, and internal team's ideas about needed changes. Evaluated the site for conformity with best practices for easy navigation and presentation of content. Reviewed site traffic statistics to identify most popular pages, topics searched and other data. Recommended changes in overall site structure and navigation scheme. Edited top-level and secondary-level static pages to improve presentation and readability of content.
Outcome: The organization's new site better reflected their brand and message, provided broader appeal to new market segments, and made it far easier for visitors to quickly find what they came to the site to get.
Challenge: The firm was growing rapidly, adding new services and revising their strategic plan. Their web site had not kept pace with their growth and they were dissatisfied with the look and content of the site, but not certain how to undertake a web site overhaul.
Solution: Conducted a web audit, comparing features and messaging of the firm's site with those of competitors and evaluating site for conformity with best practices for usability. Presented report to client team and reviewed the reasons for recommendations. Working with their external marketing firm, incorporated revised branding into content revisions for all pages on new site.
Outcome: All recommendations were accepted and incorporated into new design for site. The new site reflects the firm's momentum, vision, business strategy and market share.
Challenge: A significant source of leads for new business came from keyword ads placed on Google search results pages. The client was writing content for the landing pages that searches saw when they clicked on an ad. The client had significant internal marketing strength, but wanted stronger writing on the landing pages that would prompt more visitors to request the publication being offered.
Solution: Applied expertise in direct marketing to content and structure of landing page. Focused on product benefits and call to action. Made recommendations for changes in page design to help drive desired action.
Outcome: The client experienced a dramatic increase in the number of visitors to the landing page who provided information about themselves in order to receive the free publication.
Challenge: The marketing team for the company's web site wanted to improve its ability to sell internal products more effectively on the web site.
Solution: Trained the team in best practices for marketing on the site--how to write headlines, content that sells, and structure the page for selling.
Outcome: Team acquired needed skills and were able to continue on their own.
Challenge: The College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (A&S) at the University of Virginia graduates the vast majority of the University’s undergraduates. The Web site is an essential tool for providing information to a wide array of constituencies, including prospective students, enrolled students, faculty and administrators, parents, alumni, donors, and the local community.
The Web site had been recently re-designed, but new site presented many issues still to be resolved. Some of the problems were immediately evident, but the web team wanted to conduct research to uncover other problems and to validate its own concerns.
The site consists of approximately 1500 pages, not including the content of individual departments. The scale of the site posed a challenge as well, in conceptualizing and developing useful schematics for the site as a whole. Originally, the site had been based on the printed catalog and structured more on the University’s organizational model, rather than for ease of use by a variety of site visitors.
Solution: The solution involved a multifaceted approach. The overlying perspective was to structure the site to better serve key markets and constituencies, and to follow best practices for web usability. Research was vital to achieving goals. The A&S web team and I researched how the site was used, who used it, how they used it and what information they were seeking. I worked with the web team to conduct research that included:
- Careful examination of Web site traffic statistics, examining pages most frequently referenced, keywords used, seasonality, and other factors.
- User testing of undergraduate students, to observe how easy or difficult it was for them to find information that was frequently sought after (for example, a comprehensive list of degree programs), how they interacted with the site’s user interface and what their search strategies were.
- Pop-up survey that appeared when users arrived at the home page for Arts & Sciences, consisting of a couple of questions designed to learn more about who visitors were, and their interests.
- Web-based survey designed to refine the wording of the labels for some key navigation links.
- Conversations with stakeholders in the Dean’s office to clarify administrative priorities and key information related to advising, rules and regulations and other priorities.
While research was taking place, I met with the A&S web team to review results of each phase and to discuss what changes seemed to be indicated. When necessary, further research was conducted to learn more about areas that remained uncertain.
I introduced the team to a software application that greatly facilitated visualization of the site and modification of site architecture. That enabled the team to see how to structure the content architecture and navigation to reflect different constituencies/market segments.
The team was then able to focus on building the site to best serve the top priorities. Content was inventoried and linked to the content architecture map. When the revised architecture was in place, stakeholders approved it and the site navigation and content were overhauled. I managed the content revision process, writing new content, revising existing content and reformatting to conform to best practices for content usability.
Results: The site structure makes it far easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. User testing of the revised site showed that tasks were accomplished far more efficiently than had been the case with the old site. Site navigation is now far more transparent, with new links that more clearly indicate underlying content, and are consistent from page to page.
A site map was added to facilitate navigation. Page content is now easier to comprehend, and redundant content has been removed. The site makes it far easier for prospective students contemplating First Year/Freshman admission, transfer students, guidance counselors, parents and current undergraduates to find what they are looking for and to better understand the processes and procedures that apply to admission, coursework, selection of a major and minor area of study, and graduation.
The size of the site and the multifaceted nature of the institution and its markets dictate that work on the site takes place on an ongoing basis as revisions continue to better serve different markets and A&S goals. New priorities are emerging in response to the economic recession and severe budget reductions, and the web team continues to modify the site and create new content to meet new needs.
Services provided:
- Web site audit
- User testing
- Web usage data analysis
- Survey creation and analysis
- Consulting on usability best practices, site architecture, navigation, content
- Content inventory, writing and editing for conformity with best usability practices
- Introduction and use of software to facilitate architecture revisions
Contact me for a no-cost, no-obligation conversation about your marketing challenges.