Background
Auction Technology Group (ATG) is a leading provider of online auction marketplaces and technology solutions. ATG owns and operates several prominent marketplaces, including Proxibid, which connects buyers and sellers across various asset categories, and BidSpotter, a platform for industrial and commercial auctions.
These marketplaces offer comprehensive tools for auction management, marketing, and data analytics, enhancing the auction experience for both auctioneers and bidders. By leveraging advanced technology, ATG ensures efficient, accessible, and engaging auction events that maximize participation and revenue.
Context
Proxibid is an online marketplace that facilitates live and timed bidding on a wide range of items, including but not limited to heavy equipment, industrial machinery, classic cars, antiques, collectibles, and more. The platform acts as an intermediary, connecting buyers and sellers in a virtual auction environment.
Proxibid provides a secure and transparent bidding process, enabling users from around the world to participate in auctions in real time. The platform often hosts auctions conducted by various auction houses, sellers, and dealers. Participants can place bids, monitor auctions, and, if successful, purchase items through the online platform.
Problem
In the overarching redesign of the Proxibid website, the primary and mega navigation components have emerged as crucial areas for improvement in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The lack of subcategory links in the primary navigation hindered SEO, making it difficult for pages to be ranked effectively. As a result, most pages were not indexed or ranked at all, significantly reducing visibility and discoverability in search engine results. This navigation issue impacted the overall search engine performance and user experience.
User Experience Challenge
The lack of subcategory links in the primary navigation made it difficult for users to easily find the items they were searching for. This navigation issue hindered the user experience, causing frustration and inefficiency as users had to spend more time and effort locating specific products within the broader categories.
Footer
The footer was included in redesigning the primary navigation to ensure a cohesive user experience across the site. The primary navigation and the footer are crucial for effective site navigation, usability, and SEO. By redesigning them together, consistency in design, structure, and functionality is achieved, leading to improved user engagement and better search engine ranking.
Goals
Business Goals: Optimize the navigation structure to achieve two primary objectives: establish deep links leading to all primary and top-level subcategory pages, thereby minimizing crawl depth for search engine bots.
User Experience Goals: Enhance the user experience (UX) by facilitating swift access to subcategories, ensuring that users can efficiently navigate and locate relevant information within the website. The imperative lies in streamlining the navigation system to align with SEO best practices while concurrently providing an improved and expedient user journey.
Competitor Analysis
I conducted extensive competitor analysis on navigation structures of leading e-commerce competitors, including Target, eBay, Home Depot, Ritchie Bros., and Craftsman. Additionally, I reviewed research articles detailing best practices for e-commerce website navigation from reputable sources such as Baymard Institute and Nielsen Norman Group.
By engaging with these insights and best practices, I iterated through potential solutions to identify the most effective navigation strategy for enhancing SEO and improving user experience.
Concept Iterations
Solution
I proposed implementing an exposed navigation strategy to address the identified challenges in the Proxibid website redesign. This involved incorporating direct links to category and subcategory pages within the mega navigation.
This strategic approach is designed to enhance SEO performance, as Google will more readily crawl and index these pages, thereby positively influencing keyword rankings. Furthermore, the addition of subcategory links directly in the navigation serves to streamline the user journey, significantly reducing the number of clicks required for conversion.
Notably, expanding the number of navigation category links from 16 to 160+ is anticipated to increase category exposure by a minimum of 10 times, providing users with enhanced visibility and accessibility to a broader range of relevant content.
Metrics
The implementation of an exposed navigation, featuring links to category and subcategory pages within the mega navigation, has yielded substantial success metrics. Notably, the mega navigation achieved a remarkable 36.2% increase, reaching an all-time high in keyword rankings.
Furthermore, it secured a position within the top 20, marking a notable 15.6% improvement, also representing an all-time high. These metrics signify the effectiveness of the strategy in enhancing the platform's visibility and ranking for relevant keywords, underscoring the positive impact of the navigation enhancements on overall search engine performance.
Reflective Learnings
Conducting the Proxibid website redesign presented several challenges, particularly in aligning SEO improvements with user experience (UX) goals. One key difficulty was addressing the limited subcategory links within the primary navigation, which negatively impacted both search engine rankings and the user’s ability to locate specific products. Compounding the issue was the task of balancing a more extensive, exposed navigation system with maintaining a streamlined, intuitive user journey.
Although the expanded navigation dramatically increased visibility and keyword rankings, a more phased approach to testing might have allowed for real-time adjustments to avoid overwhelming users with too many options. Additionally, earlier user testing with prototypes could have helped identify navigation inefficiencies before the full rollout. Going forward, incorporating continuous feedback loops and iterative improvements could enhance both usability and SEO outcomes.
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