Overview
If you were to say that organic traffic at Storyblocks wasn't that big of a deal, someone would immediately whip their head towards you, raise an eyebrow, and administer a good dose of evil eye in your direction.
So maybe that's an overstatement, but it's not too far from the truth.
Organic traffic is a huge deal around these parts. 42% of all traffic to the three sub-domains is driven by organic search—making it our greatest source of traffic to the sites that combined have over 30 million page views as of September this year.
You might say we care very much about SEO. And with good reason. It's our greatest source of dollar signs.
Yet we all know SEO isn't a simple, one-size-fits-all strategy to driving site traffic. But we're aware of some key levers that can be pulled to influence those numbers and rankings. Content being a major factor. And how do you create more content to support SEO goals? A blog is a good place to start.
This is where I come in.
I approached redesigning the existing blogs with a clear process:
- Assess
- Research
- Map
- Wireframe
- Mockup
- Iterate
1. Assess
With a new brand and site architecture in the works, there were some key issues with the three different blogs we were running that could no longer be overlooked.
Problems:
- Clunky, outdated, and unintuitive designs
- Poor search functionality
- Lack of clear content hierarchy
The plan was to move our three blog domains (content.videoblocks.com; blog.graphicstock.com; blog.audioblocks.com) into one core blog domain (blog.storyblocks.com) that would house content for all three product offerings we have: stock video, images, and audio.
The objectives of the blog are simple:
- Educate and inspire future and current users
- Drive traffic to the site through direct links from the blog
- Improve SEO rankings to support organic traffic to the blog and core site
The new design had to solve the existing problems of the blog, as well as address the blog objectives to drive us into the future.
2. Research
Research was two-fold. We assessed what our competitors were up to, and also what other content producers offered in terms of site layout and organization. Some questions we wanted to answer:
How is the content organized (site architecture)?
What drives users to not only explore the content, but to also click-through to the actual product?
How is the problem of visual hierarchy solved?
Who employs up-to-date web designs and best-practices?
What opportunities are our competitors missing out on?
These findings influenced how we would move to the next step.
3. Map
This is where we spent the most time. How would we map out the user flow of the site so that users could quickly find the content they were most interested in and could also explore new content they didn't know they were interested in?
How do we please users who are more interested in one product offering over another? How do we encourage exploring audio if a user is initially interested in images? Or vice versa? Or how about interacting with all three offerings?
How do we create unity across the site architecture so that the experience make sense from one page to another?
We communicated with all stakeholders in this blog—the SEO team, the email team, and the content marketing team.
Site mapping the user flow.
4. Wireframe
Having a clear sense of site architecture and organization of a user's flow throughout the site, we were ready to wireframe, wireframe, wireframe. We sketched out competitors' sites, our existing sites, our quick brainstorm ideas. We sketched it all and we moved quickly—keeping in mind that your idea isn't always going to be your best.
Once a layout was workshopped with the Content Marketing team—we were ready to proceed to high fidelity mockups.
Wireframing competitors and looking for improvements.
5. Mockup
While everything leading up to this moment is essential, the moment you get to start putting sketches to pixels is exhilarating. Using the wireframes and site maps, I could begin working out the UI design of the blog in Sketch—and start finding the problems.
On September 18, 2017 we launched a new name, a new logo, new colors—the whole brand identity package—and this was our first foray into visualizing what that new brand would portray. It was our first place to create a voice.
I was able to prototype the user flow into Invision and catch inconsistencies. With high-fi mockups, those unfamiliar with design were able to finally see what yellow would like in the real (digital) world. It creates an excellent tool for communicating ideas to the strategy team and to the developer.
6. Iterate
The whole point of design isn't to accept an assignment, make something pretty, and move on. Fully embodying design thinking involves circling back to your step one: assess—or reassess if you will. Because if it's beautiful, but not useful, then it's not truly design.
The goals of this blog redesign were straightforward, but the challenges proved to move fast. The redesign of how we deliver our content was being determined side-by-side with how we were to present our new brand identity to the masses, rather than following it. So while the original intent of the new blog was to marry the three products into one resource, instead we've chosen to implement the new design site by site.
The core products took the same approach. Though the newly branded products were all rebranded to fall under one new umbrella name, Storyblocks, two of the actual domains themselves maintained the same name—Storyblocks Images and Audioblocks—yet adopted the new brand identity that was considered in the new blog visual identity. So we divided up the original site architecture, and made it work for each individual category—video, images, and audio—then applied the newly designed theme to each separate blog domain.
While it can be tough to make adjustments to original ideas, that is the nature of design. We do not design in a vacuum; we design in the real world with real constraints. So how is it performing? The client—our SEO team—is thrilled. The site is easy to navigate, makes the content enjoyable to read, and easy to find what you're looking for. So far, it's been a success. The monthly traffic to the blogs has lifted by 263% and growing.
Check out the gallery of designs.
Like what you see? I'm always open to new opportunities to grow and challenge myself. Please don't hesitate to reach out.