Electron Microscopy Sciences: Generating non-brand organic traffic to drive net new sales

Electron Microscopy Sciences (EMS) is a leading source of products for all fields of microscopy, histology supplies, chemicals, and laboratory equipment. Established in 1969, the company is based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, USA. EMS is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive range of advanced microscopy equipment and consumables, and is committed to maintaining high-quality standards and providing exceptional customer service.

Challenge

After serving the company for 20 years, the EMS website was a prime candidate for an ecommerce upgrade.

• Flat site architecture with limited space for categorical or informational content, affecting organic search traffic.
• Product categories and subcategories combined on a single page, causing long scrolling and hindering keyword ranking due to competing information on the page.
• Desire to improve conversions and product discovery through updated navigation and search features.
• Aim to enhance SEO performance, reducing reliance on brand recognition and increasing organic traffic from non-brand keywords.
• Static page content made product & pricing updates very time consuming.
• Refresh the look and feel to modern web standards and optimize for mobile device screen sizes.

Solution

Tasked with creating a database-driven ecommerce website for EMS, Spinutech identified the nopCommerce platform as the ideal solution due to its end-to-end ecommerce features, design flexibility, plugin architecture, and high level of extensibility.

To develop a custom web design and taxonomy that optimized the user experience, the Spinutech team deployed a heat mapping tool on their previous website to chart how customers were navigating and using it. The data gathered using this tool signaled that users were overwhelmed by the previous website and relied heavily on the poor-functioning site search.

Starting with a complete outline of EMS’s products and categories along with the corresponding URL structure, the Spinutech team developed a crawlable and easily browsable product hierarchy with organic keywords in mind. The website taxonomy plan included navigation structure, category structure, URL paths, and structured data.

During the discovery process, EMS stakeholders expressed a keen interest in maintaining the product discoverability aspects of their previous website. The pages within the navigation of the new website were designed to move the user to their unique product/cart experience, where they would be served lists of related products and components in a list view.

Result

The redesigned EMS website boasts a modern look and feel, with a new and improved multi-device layout that supports sales via mobile and tablet. The deeper site architecture has better positioned EMS to rank for non-brand keywords. Seven months after launch, the website ranks for 26,591 total organic keywords, representing a 17% increase year-over-year. EMS also now ranks in the top 20 for 5,848 keywords, a 13% increase year-over-year. Of the top 1000 keywords driving traffic to the site, EMS’s average position has improved from 16.68 to 12.03. Continued SEO-driven optimizations will only further fuel the website’s organic growth.

Spinutech is a leading web design and development and digital marketing agency in the United States. Their experienced team of platform-certified developers build world-class websites tailored to the needs of their clients, partnering with internal experts in content, SEO, and other facets of digital marketing to elevate every element of their custom websites.