QUARK EXPEDITIONS
Redesigning a Polar Travel Blog with UX and SEO improvements
CHALLENGE
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Increase SEO link equity, boost Domain Authority and Keyword Ranking
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Improve User Experience
MY ROLE
Research, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Stakeholder Relations
Introduction & Discovery
Quark Expeditions is a polar cruise operator that has taken explorers to the Arctic and Antarctic for over 30 years. A business goal for this fiscal year was to prioritize SEO optimization and user experience for the blog, hence this project was born.
Blog Home (Pre-redesign)
Blog Post page (Pre-redesign)
To gather additional information on improving SEO and boosting keyword ranking/domain authority, I interviewed an SEO Strategist working as a freelancer with Quark Expeditions. After discussing ways where SEO and UX can strike a balance, I've made notes of what should be leveraged in the wireframe.
FINDING #1
Article progress tracker on blog post pages for desktop users
This will leverage H2's used in the post (Improves SEO) and assists users in navigating through the blog post (Improves UX).
FINDING #2
Call to Action button in header
To increase the chances of conversion and improve search engine ranking.
FINDING #3
Create an "About the Author" page
An author bio shows expertise, authority and trust (E-A-T) which will improve search engine visibility for blog content.
Competitive Analysis
After analyzing the blogs of two competitors (not necessarily competitors, but businesses that have a great blog presence), I discovered a few notable workflow processes and design treatments.
COMPETITOR #1
COMPETITOR #2
Ideation & Wireframing
I started by sketching a user flow of the blog to determine how many pages need to be designed from scratch vs. re-designed. Although it's a fairly simple flow, sketching this on paper greatly assisted me in coming to a decision. The following pages need to be created:
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Category Listing
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Author Bio
Using the user flow as a base, I sketched multiple variations and chose the winning concept to take to the digital wireframing process. I created low-fidelity wireframes for Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile while keeping in mind the findings from my interview with the SEO Strategist.
Prototype
After getting stakeholder approval for the low-fidelity wireframes, I created the prototypes for each screen size referencing the Quark Expeditions web style guide. A few design and layout changes were made during the prototyping process (which were presented to and approved by stakeholders).
Blog Home (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
Category/Listing Page (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
Blog Post (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
About the Author (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
Due to the nature of the project and deadlines that were not in my control, I wasn't able to test these prototypes with users before handing them off to the development team. Ah! you can't win them all.
Conclusion
This was a successful project and a great learning experience when it came to SEO optimization. Moving forward, I'll keep the SEO learnings in mind while designing wireframes/prototypes, which will allow me to further create better experiences.
In hindsight, If I would change something, it would be to user-test the prototypes before handing them off for development. This wasn't possible due to close deadlines, but I would have loved to analyze and improve the design more if it meant it would create a better experience.
Project Outcome
+29.54% increase in sessions YoY (expected +22%)
+4 in Domain Rank (expected +2)