Form+Function Case Study

Online Sales Skyrocket for Santa Fe Lighting Company

Client: Form+Function

Services: Web Design and Search Engine Optimization

Product: Contemporary Lighting

URL: www.formplusfunction.com

Report Date: December 2005

When Form+Function, a large online lighting supplier, wanted to improve its Website and sales, the company approached our SEO team at TKG. They needed to enhance the site’s administration capabilities in order to make optimization efforts easier, as well as increase usability.

Strategy
Form+Function’s first goal was to gain accessibility, increase usability, and increase their ability to manage sales. This was accomplished by providing them with a slight re-design of the existing site, with a site map and 404 error page to allow users to find what they needed more quickly. Also added was a robots.txt file, privacy policy, hours of operation, showroom info, and feedback return. A privacy policy and feedback return allowed users to feel confident about submitting their personal information as well as having a way to reach someone if needed.

The SEO side of the project included identifying and aggressively pursuing keyword phrases that web users type into a search engine to find the company’s products, a link building campaign that would link Form+Function to the most reputable directories, and analytics that would help determine what further steps would be taken.

Tactics
We created a monthly statistics report for Form+Function that detailed traffic, sales and referrals from the Search Engines. As the effects of the initial optimization and re-design began to take shape, the decision was made to position Form+Function as an industry leader, using ongoing optimization and link-building, and further market research including continual competitive analysis and ongoing keyword analysis. As a final move, we revised the design of the site based upon user traffic. The site now includes additional search features as well as improved sales management.

Results
Form+Function at first saw some decrease in their return visitors and sales. This decrease lead us to study the analytics closely to determine where customers were leaving the site. The fact that Form+Function had decided to go with an aggressive analytics program allowed us to drill down to correct the problem. The statistics showed that the secondary navigation was much more popular with users than was the primary. Not only that, but many users were leaving when they saw a prompt for international shoppers in the checkout process. This exemplifies why a good analytics program is so vital for a site to succeed. Orders went from 205 in June to 314 by December. Search engine referrals also increased, as conversions which saw the largest increase: 82%, from 291 to 529 in December.