When we first visited Birchip Industrial Supplies, it was unclear what the main focus of the website was about. Website owner Robert Darby was working to promote products in his online store, but he also has a storefront location and participates in an affiliate advertising program. This left his homepage and his navigation menu cluttered, despite his careful organization.
Refining the details included on his homepage gave a clear focus to his website. Replacing the text buttons with picture links added visual interest and also shows a sampling of the products Birch Industrial has to offer at a glance.
Robert took the initiative to move the bulk of his affiliate links to another page as well as narrow down the number of affiliate links he promotes by selecting companies or services inline with his business. Not only does this serve to de-clutter his website but it ensures he is offering relevant recommendations to his website visitors and most importantly it has had the added benefit of increasing his commissions!
We switched the website style to Plaid Yellow in large part for the vertical navigation menu which made more sense for Robert as he wanted to retain a large number of pages which can look clunky in a horizontal navigation. The narrow banner also freed up valuable page real estate for informational text about the products offered by Birchip Industrial which also serves to improve his SEO.
In the weeks following the website redesign, Birchip Industrial Supplies experienced an increase in website visitors. While the increased site traffic did not result in increased online store sales, it did serve to increase foot traffic to their physical storefront where they saw increased sales. Robert tells us, “customers are viewing the products online then buying in store.” Considering both the size and high price point of much of their merchandise, this is to be expected. This knowledge makes focusing on optimizing his site for local search a priority for Robert.
If you would like your website to be considered for a design review and possible makeover, please submit your site address here and tell us why you should be selected.