How do you quadruple a site’s traffic in less than 8 months?
Through smart design, partnered with some savvy
front-end development decisions
Background
Move the technology forward a decade to increase traffic
MovieTimes.com had last received a major design update around 2006 and was in need of a serious overhaul if it were to remain competitive.
Demographics & Use
Before the redesign, the average MovieTimes user skewed older (around 50+) and utilized the site primarily for informational purposes, rarely purchasing tickets during their visits or clicking on any relevant advertisements.
Objective
In early 2016 when I was approached, the directives to drive the site forward were clear:
- Boost traffic and attract new advertisers
- Lengthen the time users spent on the site and increase the average number of pages visits, and
- Differentiate the site design from major competitors to encourage user loyalty and direct sales
Here's what we did to get there:
SEO Strategy
In order soak up more of the market share and to compete with major competitors' (Fandango and others) considerable resources, we had to rely on smart, effective technology-driven solutions. We employed an SEO strategy that helped us capture the long tail with new, enriched site content, raised our popularity in specialized local searches for movie tickets and increased the site's overall popularity.
You are definitely on a small screen.
You are definitely on a medium screen.
You are definitely on a large screen.
UI and UX:
Indicators of trust and quality
The most apparent change to the site was how the site looks and behaves. Today's sophisticated users expect professional visual design as well as a flawless, bug-free experience. Meeting these expectations is essential in cultivating their confidence and habitual use of a website.
The Growing Mobile Audience
As our audience began to grow with our successful redesign, we noticed that more than 60% of organic searches by our users came from mobile devices, specifically Smartphone users. While we had already incorporated responsive design in the MovieTimes reboot, our approach hadn’t necessarily been mobile-first. Now, with the numbers showing the greatest growth among mobile users, we knew we had to make all pages look remarkable on mobile screens, with enhancements available on the desktop site.
Intuitive and modern visual design patterns convey predictability, fluidity, and dependability; and ultimately garner trust from users during their visit. While redesigning MovieTimes, we strove to provide a frictionless ticket purchasing, given our constraints. Through partnership with MovieTickets.com, we were able to condense the experience for most users down to two clicks from discovery to purchase.
Visually speaking, the overall design of MovieTimes had to be simplified to allow for content to pop. Vibrant movie posters, film stills, press images, and videos are center stage as the surrounding design elements are only seen when needed. You could say the best design of this site is the design you don't see.
Connecting mobile users to content faster
Accelerated Mobile Pages &
Facebook Instant Articles
Just as we were rolling out our mobile redesign, fast loading pages like Google-backed Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Facebook's Instant Article's were becoming popular and guaranteed higher placement in search and feed rankings. We jumped at the opportunity to follow their guides and build MovieTimes AMPs and Instant Articles. Adopting these fast-loading pages not only boosted our rankings overall, they also primed us to better compete with much older sites.
In the end, the new changes have resulted in:
Better Traffic Flow
Easier Navigation
SEO Ranking Improvement
Social Media Strategy & Plan of Attack
In addition to the site, we beefed up our social media presence with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in order to cover all bases for SEO and feed discoverability. Each social network works differently and the treatment for each account had to reflect that. With ongoing, concerted effort, MovieTimes' social media presence continues to grow. Facebook alone has grown from 100 to nearly 2500 likes in the span of 4 months.