Background
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 identified challenge centers around the need to optimize the navigation structure to achieve two primary objectives: firstly, to establish deep-links leading to all primary and top-level subcategory pages, thereby minimizing crawl depth for search engine bots.
Secondly, the goal is to 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.
Solution
I conducted in-depth research on e-commerce website navigations, referencing reputable sources such as Baymard and articles from Nielsen Norman Group. Engaging with insights and best practices, I iterated through potential solutions, aiming to discern the most effective navigation strategy for enhancing SEO.
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.
Work
Product Design
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