Project Summary
Hanningfield Process Systems have been an Impact client for over 10 years, and we are their Support & Maintenance partner.
They needed a new modern, responsive website, with better usability, a stronger product focus, and that would protect their established search rankings.
We delivered an easy to use and manage responsive WordPress website, built around a strong user experience for their global audience. Products are given greater focus with bold imagery, and easy to digest product information. A thorough and careful migration process was followed to protect their established rankings.
What We Did
- Briefing Workshop
- Discovery & Strategy Workshops
- High Fidelity UX Wireframes & Prototypes
- Mobile & Desktop UI Design & Style guide
- Bespoke WordPress Theme Development
- SEO Best Practice
- Integrated With Campaign Monitor
- Events Management
- WordPress Training & Team Onboarding
- Ongoing Support & Maintenance
- WordPress Managed Hosting
Challenge & Objectives
Hanningfield decided it was time to redevelop their website, as the old site was not responsive, was looking dated, and they wanted to give it a stronger product focus. This needed to be achieved whilst making the user experience better for those visiting the site, and those managing it day-to-day.
The old site performed well in organic search, so ensuring the preservation of rankings and their solid backlink profile was of great importance.
Key objectives:
- A fully responsive website
- A modern look and feel
- Stronger product focus
- Improved user experience
- Easy to manage and update
- Protect established organic search rankings
Wireframes & Visual Design
The process began with a workshop to identify the website and stakeholder requirements.
From the findings of the workshop, we were able to wireframe the key page templates for desktop and mobile views, showing the client where important features would sit in relation to each other, and how user journeys would flow through the site.
Once the client was happy with these, we moved on to the visual design, again, for both desktop and mobile, giving the client how their new responsive website would appear on different devices.
Information Architecture
Whilst certain key page types were to be carried over from the old site, others where to be consolidated or moved for a better user experience; primarily in the about and resources sections.
The about section is used to display the important quality assurance and accreditations expected of a business in their industry. It is also home to their environmental and quality policies, company profile, and manufacturing processes.
We also made the resources section more user friendly, bringing together all of the information someone could need, in a range of formats.
- Brochures with downloadable pdfs
- Technical articles
- Case studies
- A video library
- A glossary - for technical and industry terms
Each of these sections was broken down into categories, to make accessing the right information easy.
Eye Catching Modern Homepage
The homepage needed to be more visually interesting to capture the attention of those arriving on the site. We created a video hero, using a professional video that Hanningfield had commissioned via a third party media company. The homepage and pages across the site, makes greater use of high quality imagery.
There is a very clear onward journey from the homepage, to products, along with strong social proof in the form of the highly recognisable logos of the brands they work with.
Greater Product Focus
The new site was designed with placing greater focus on products and services in mind. The top level products page and navigation, break out the 4 core product area categories that Hanningfield’s products sit under.
These four areas then take users to product pages for each product type, giving users:
- key information
- features & benefits
- technical information
- brochures
- videos
- specific models available
There is a specification table on page, dynamically pulling through key information on all of the models available of that product type, for easy comparison. There is a ‘request more information’ form on each page, and for those looking to request a quote, there is a link to an RFQ form.
From here, users looking for full information on a specific model of product, can then navigate to a page for that model, to access even greater detail. Once again, any related brochures, videos and technical specification details are dynamically pulled through, and a contact form, and link to request a quote are present on each page.
Professional product photography is used to bring this section to life.
A similar approach was taken to the Services section, although here the same structure wasn’t required. Hannigfield’s Technical services are split out into their 4 areas, each with a page given greater detail on what watch service involves.
Industry Spotlights
Hanningfield manufacturer and service numerous industries, but have a particular focus on 6 core industries. The industries page, breaks these out, with each industry having its own page, highlighting Hannigfield’s experience products and other information relevant to a user looking for evidence of sector specific expertise.
Each of these pages also displays the logos of some of Hannigfield’s customers within each vertical. This offers users great validation and evidence that Hannigfield are hugely experienced in these sectors, and trusted by some of the biggest brands.
The industries section can grow with Hanningfield, allowing them to add further industry pages, as they wish.
Making Contact Simpler For Users Worldwide
The contact page includes the usual form a user would expect to see, but also a separate Global Agent Search, so users can find their nearest agent worldwide.
There is also a country selector drop down in the header, for the various Hanningfield locations – which updates the contact number in the header to the one for the location selected.
News & Exhibitions
The previous news page wasn’t very user friendly or easy to navigate. To address this, we added a search and included featured images and excerpts, to make it easier to view and digest. We also created a newsletter sign up call to action, helping Hanningfield to grow their marketing audience, and keep them up-to-date on new products and services.
The Exhibitions pages make use of Events Calendar Pro. Users can view upcoming events, as well as past events. Upcoming events pages make it easy for a user to add event details straight to their calendar with a single click.
Technology & Plugins
- Gravity Forms - to manage form data and personalisation
- Campaign Monitor integration - for email automation
- Elementor - for easy on-brand page building for the Hanningfield team
- ACF - for several custom post types to manage Hanningfield's product catalogue
- Yoast - for ongoing SEO efforts
- Google Tag Manager - for ease of implementing tools and tracking
- Events Calendar Pro - to manage the Exhibitions section
A Focus On Organic Search
As mentioned previously, protecting Hanningfield’s organic rankings and backlink profile was high on the agenda.
We ensured important pages in terms of backlinks, and ranking keywords, were preserved, and careful redirect mapping was carried out.
More granular goal tracking was implemented, to help Hanningfield assess their best converting channels, and to make sure that they are providing their audience with the right materials, at the various stages of their buying journey.
Results
The website has been a great success, with Hannigfield and their client’s delighted with the new look and feel. Usability has improved greatly for both website visitors, and the Hanningfield team who manage the site day to day.
The old site performed well in organic search, so ensuring the preservation of rankings and their solid backlink profile was of great importance.
Organic keyword rankings and traffic haven’t experienced any decline with the migration, and Users, Sessions and Pageviews have all experienced year-on-year growth.
