HOMETALK'S CATEGORIES RE-DESIGN
Every month, thousands of articles are posted on Hometalk. But when searching for content on Hometalk, users get lost. My task was to re-organize Hometalk's categories in order to improve users orientation and also to improve our search result rankings with close attention to SEO needs.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.
KEYWORDS RESEARCH BY CATEGORIES
Our goal was to target the best keywords for our new categories.
First, we started a spreadsheet with possible keywords to use as categories. Then we tested these keywords for their search volume each month/week/day. The keywords with the best search results and content on the site became Hometalk's new categories
COMPETITIVE CATEGORY PAGES RESEARCH
We wanted to see how our competitors do the job. We selected successful category pages and looked at different parameters such as word count above the fold, number of keywords and the expected traffic.
New site map proposal for Hometalk. Using 3 tiers to create simple and user-friendly breadcrumbs. Allowing the user to easily find his way around.
NEW CATEGORIES SLIDER
Hometalk's visitors didn't engage well with the old category slider. I designed background images with captions to please users' eyes and to attract attention.
TIER A
HOW TO
On the left Hometalk's old category page. On the right, the new version. With a clear header, bigger and more approachable categories links. Since this is a very general tier, it is hard to tell what is the visitor intention. For that reason, I divided the page into sections with different points of interest based on Hometalk's users' preferences.
TIER A
ROOMS & SPACES
TIER B
KITCHEN & DINING FURNITURE
TIER C
DESIGNING FOR ABOVE THE FOLD
This page will be the page users get to when they ask Google a question like 'How to clean my oven' or 'How to replace my kitchen cabinets'. We wanted to show the user with the answer to his question above the fold. Therefore, I added a clear title of what this page is about, simple breadcrumbs, intro paragraph, a link to a video or an article with the best answer and a section with 5 tips or steps about the subject of the page.
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