Rebranding ComputerMinds - Part 2: SEO analysis, planning and Information Architecture
Adam Ferris
Before I could actually start designing, we needed a clear understanding of exactly what we wanted from the new site. We conducted a full SEO analysis to see which content was popular on our existing site and what was not often read and could be consolidated. We also discussed the current state of our business and the direction we wanted to be heading in. We were taking on more and more big development projects and this was something that needed to be reflected and showcased on the site. On the old site, Drupal training was sitting most prominent on the homepage but this analysis highlighted that there are other services that we offer that should sit more prominently.
It’s all well and good showing the logos of clients, but these don’t really mean anything if we’re not showing what work we did with them. On our old site we were able to add case studies, but they were buried and not often showcased. SEO analysis also revealed they were also not often visited. We are proud of the work we were doing so moving forward we needed to create a prominent section to showcase this work with case studies.
Although in a business that is not very visual (code isn’t that interesting visually) we were aware that the old site lacked engagement. With the new site, I wanted to address this by looking at every opportunity in which we could engage visitors visually by using screenshots of sites that we’d built or by other means.
Once we were clear on what we wanted to show, we next needed to decide on how best to structure the site to show it. From our earlier SEO analysis we were able to highlight the most important top-level menu items and also conclude a popular and important section of the site that was not represented at the top level - Contact. Although it was available on the site, aside from simple information in the footer, it was deeper down in the menu and as it was such a popular and important page it needed representing at the top-level.
As our client list grew and grew over the years, our approach to work evolved and changed. We are proud of our approach and explaining our agile workflow and our often-used 'Tiles' to new clients could be made easier with an accompanying page on the site. We decided as this page was important, it would become a top-level item.
One final thought on the menu of the old site was its unnecessary complexity. We concluded that there was no need for buried menu items so decided we would make it super-simple on the new site. Below is a diagram showing just how simple the plan was.
Our SEO analysis along with fresh research also highlighted how indexing had changed since our last website was built and we were able to move forward by not using keywords so heavily. This pleased me, as from a design perspective I wasn’t too happy with the repetition of the word Drupal all over our site.
We also wanted to create dynamic, creative content across the site and keep things fresh throughout by constantly reviewing our pages. Although we were always adding new articles about all things Drupal, this was an excellent opportunity to both build on our SEO position and interact with the community by writing articles even more regularly.
