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Our Answers to the Makeover
Challenge
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Makeover of Yahoo Store |
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For
branding, we went with a new logo and added a golfer in mid swing in the
upper right of the page. Text and products appear to float over him while
he enjoys the benefits of his great golf deals. We made certain that even
at 800 pixels wide (shown above) there are plenty of products visible above
the fold, and thumbnails are big enough to be instantly recognizable as golf
products. We revamped the page so that it now scales to fit any screen size
from 800 x 600 up. We added color and coded it so that it helps the eyes
identify what is a price, what's a link, what is a headline and so forth.
For SEO we made sure that all headlines and link text
were plain text styled in CSS, not text rendered as images. Rendered text
is the Yahoo! Store default, but search engines can't "read" images. We also
gave each page its own unique TITLE tag, and META description and keywords.
In addition, instead of using short product names as the headlines for inner
pages, we expanded the headlines using H1 heading text styled in CSS so it
doesn't look clunky.
To guide users interest, we added a right column showing
specials, new items and best sellers. We attacked the navigation problem
by creating top-level categories called Shop-by-Category, Shop-by-Brand,
Our Greatest Deals, Golf Gifts and Info Desk (the customer service pages).
For interest, top level categories are shown in large yellow text and sub
categories are bullet listed below in white text with tiny golf balls forming
the bullets.
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The Makeover Challenge
The original site had a number of problems, but the most serious was poor
branding. Designed for 800 x 600 resolution, below is what you saw on the
opening screen without scrolling. There was nothing visible above the
fold to establish what the site was about short of taking the time to read
the text. Internet surfers simply don't do that. If the site doesn't
look like what they are seeking they back button out before they
read the first word.
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| Before
Makeover |
After branding,
the next challenge was to inject some life and color into the site. Outside
of product photos, there was little but dark green and black..
SEO wasn't all that
bad, but there was work to do in that arena too.
Product thumbnails were too small to be easily understood.
Navigation was limited and inconsistent. Layout and color were needed to
guide the eyes.
Visit the site
and see how you think it compares with the old version (opens in new window).
While you're there, click on ANIMALS or CHILDREN and see how the menus expand
to show inner category detail.
Better yet, look at the sales graph to the left, captured
right from the Yahoo! statistics section. We've blanked out the actual dollar
amounts for obvious reasons, but the percentages are easy enough to see.
The grey bar to the left represents sales from April through June of 2005.
The makeover was completed April 1 of 2006, and after-makeover sales are
in the yellow bar to the right. You see a four-fold increase in sales, actually
eclipsing the Christmas 2005 peak. |
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| Phones |
| Toll Free
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800.448.6399 |
| Boston
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617.723.3339 |
| Fax |
617.723.7557 |
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Page URL:
www.etproductions.com/portfolio/grgode-yahoo-store-makeover.html
Copyright © ET! Productions & J. K. Hollomon, Jr., 2001.
Excerpts from original site, © 1998/99. All rights
reserved.
Last revision:
Saturday, 08-Jan-2005 14:07:42 PST |
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ET
Productions
160 East Berkeley St, Suite 312
Boston, MA 02118
| Phones: |
| Toll
Free |
800-448-6399 |
| Boston
Area |
617-723-3339 |
| Fax |
617-723-7557 |
e-mail
ETpro@etproductions.com
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