Our Big Kitchen +28.82% Increase in Organic Search Traffic
Six months post the transformation of Our Big Kitchen’s (OBK) website – a CSR charity we stand behind via our client, Reckitt – we performed an in-depth audit of the site’s performance. Our intention was to pinpoint opportunities for additional optimisation. What did we find? A 28.82% boost in organic traffic to OBK’s website in June 2023, compared to the same period last year!
However, the compelling part of the story isn’t the increase in traffic. Instead, it’s the catalyst of this result.
What’s particularly interesting is that we didn’t actively engage in OBK’s SEO initiatives during or after the redesign, yet the user-focused approach continued to bear fruit. This experience stands as a testament to prioritising user experience and the value of maintaining an up-to-date website.
Case Study at a Glance
- +28.82% Increase in Organic Search Traffic YoY
“We’re very grateful to the partnership that Reckitt has with Vine because that’s given us an opportunity to have a new website that has gotten fantastic results over time.”
Our Big Kitchen’s Bond Over Cooking Meals For People In Need
OBK is a non-profit industrial kitchen bringing together people of all backgrounds to prepare nutritious meals for distribution to underserved communities across Sydney. In 2022 alone, OBK volunteers collaborated to make 120,000 meals that helped nourish our fellow disadvantaged Australians.
Key Challenges Solved
Our Big Kitchen (OBK), based in Bondi, fills a significant need, preparing and distributing over 250,000 meals each year to more than 30 charities. Yet, they were facing a challenge. Their website, an essential tool in reaching their audiences, didn’t reflect their value proposition.
“Consumers judge the quality of your products or services by the quality of your site. Therefore, the design of your website can make or break brand loyalty and ensuring websites are modern and up to date is critical.”
In OBK’s case, their mission, their efforts, and the quality of their service needed to shine through their website.
Their team aspired for a website that would not only reflect their mission authentically but would also stimulate user engagement. This was particularly important for their two main audience segments: corporations seeking team-building sessions and sponsorships, and individuals looking to book events or make donations.
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Our Solution
When OBK approached us at Vine Digital, they had a nearly complete new website design in hand. Their request was straightforward: they needed our help to integrate this design into EditorX, a responsive Wix platform requiring a specialist skillset.
After a thorough analysis of the new design, we identified areas where UX/UI and content enhancement considerations were needed for the website to be successful at launch.
Goals and Audience: Tailoring the Approach
OBK’s primary goal with its website redesign was twofold. First, it was to create a platform that could accurately embody and convey their purpose, mission, and objectives in a modern and engaging manner. Second, it was to simplify the booking process for the diverse services they offer, making it more accessible and user-friendly.
To meet these goals, it was essential to understand and cater to the needs of their two distinct audiences:
1. The primary audience: Corporates, which included PAs, CSR managers, and CEOs. This group primarily used desktops to interact with OBK’s website, intending to book team-building sessions and arrange sponsorships.
To engage this audience effectively, it was crucial to present clear information on OBK’s social impact, opportunities for team-building, and sponsorship benefits. The user journey needed to facilitate seamless booking experiences and promote effortless engagement with OBK’s initiatives.
2. The secondary audience: Individuals, encompassing families, friends, and groups. These users, interacting with OBK’s website through both mobile and desktop, sought to book events, make donations, and purchase cookie dough.
For this audience, the focus was on streamlining navigation, simplifying booking and donation processes, and showcasing the significant difference their contributions could make to OBK’s mission.
The strategy was, therefore, to refine and implement the existing design to serve these two distinct audiences effectively. It involved optimising the UX for the varied needs of the corporates and individuals, ensuring the website was not just a mirror of OBK’s mission but also a tool to facilitate engagement, donations, and bookings.
In essence, the overarching goal was to transform OBK’s website into an engaging, user-centric platform that effectively conveyed OBK’s mission while catering to the diverse needs of their audience, encouraging more bookings and interactions.
When Our Big Kitchen approached Vine Digital, they already had a solid design foundation in place. However, as an experienced digital marketing agency, we saw opportunities to further elevate the design and user experience (UX), focusing particularly on form optimisation.
Our team dived into the existing design, examining each element meticulously. We adjusted a few elements to improve the UX, aiming for an intuitive and smooth browsing experience for the website’s users. Attention was given to the small details that sometimes are overlooked but can greatly affect the overall user experience. Elements like button placements, form layouts, and navigation were tweaked for optimal usability and functionality.
A significant part of our work centred on the efficient implementation of the website design into EditorX, an advanced CMS platform. As we predominantly worked with WordPress and Shopify, EditorX was relatively new to us. However, we rose to the challenge, leveraging our adaptable technical skills to successfully integrate the design into the platform.
A key feature of the website design was the user forms. These forms are the main pathway for OBK’s audiences to interact with them, book services, and contribute to their mission. We placed extra emphasis on designing these forms to ensure they provided the best possible user experience. The forms were optimised for ease of use, clarity, and functionality, reducing friction in the user journey and making it simpler for both corporate and individual users to engage with OBK’s services.
In essence, our work centred around the mantra of “Respect the Design, Optimise the Experience”. We didn’t aim to reinvent the wheel – the design was largely in place when we joined. Rather, our focus was on taking an existing design and elevating it to a new level, enhancing usability while respecting the original creative vision, and then successfully integrating this design into the EditorX platform.
As part of our preparation for OBK’s website launch, we undertook a critical step: building a strong SEO foundation. Recognising that user engagement and online visibility go hand in hand, we aimed to optimise the website in a way that it ranks higher in search engine results, thereby increasing its reach.
Another task we helped OBK with was enriching the website with additional content. Our primary focus was to ensure the website was published with all the content components optimised.
In addition to content, we delved into the backend of the website to optimise the metadata. This involved fine-tuning the title tags, the meta descriptions, and ensuring the proper use of alt text for images. By targeting the right keywords in these areas, we aimed to make the website more appealing to search engine algorithms.
Apart from SEO, another critical facet of our preparation involved setting up Google Analytics (GA & GA4) goals. We understood the need for OBK to monitor their website’s performance accurately and, hence, we helped them define the right GA goals. This enabled OBK to measure the effectiveness of their future campaigns and gain insights into user behaviour.
Overall, the effort put into laying a robust SEO foundation and setting up effective analytics was aimed at ensuring the OBK website would hit the ground running post-launch, reaching and engaging its intended audience effectively.
Business Impact
Our work with OBK has demonstrated that the true success of a project often extends beyond quantifiable metrics. Indeed, the results of our collaboration have been impressive in terms of statistics. For instance, in June 2023, organic search users increased by 28.25% compared to the previous year. When we analysed the performance for H1 2023 against the same period in 2022, organic search users had similarly surged by 28.82%.
These positive trends can largely be attributed to the foundational SEO work conducted during the website’s redesign. It’s gratifying to see that our concerted efforts to enhance the site’s visibility and improve user engagement were fruitful.
However, we believe the true success of our collaboration with OBK lies beyond these numbers.
The redesigned website now accurately reflects OBK’s mission, values, and objectives, while exuding their brand voice.
The revised design and optimised user experience have significantly improved the ease with which users can engage with the site. Whether it’s Corporations booking team-building sessions, or families and individuals booking events, donating, or buying cookie dough—the site now caters to the needs of all its users more effectively.
But the most significant impact is perhaps how our work has further enabled OBK to serve their noble mission. Our joint efforts have not only made this local charity more visible online, but they’ve also resulted in more bookings and a wider reach. Consequently, OBK can now better fulfil their commitment to the community, connecting more individuals through their kitchen.
Seeing the increased capability of OBK to extend their altruistic work to a larger audience reaffirms the profound impact that well-implemented digital strategies can have on an organisation’s service potential.
This project underscores the importance of our work and reinvigorates our commitment to help our clients not just grow, but thrive.
In retrospect, we’re incredibly proud to have contributed to this project. It has been an honour to work with OBK, and we’re excited to see how their digital presence continues to support and expand their community service in the years to come.
LESSONS LEARNED AND FUTURE PLANS
As we conclude this case study, our focus is firmly on the future. Our successful collaboration with OBK on their website redesign has led to an exciting continuation of our partnership. OBK has chosen to engage us again for their digital marketing needs, opening a new chapter in our collective journey.
Looking ahead, we’re enthusiastic about the multitude of tasks to tackle. We will focus on further optimising their SEO performance, expanding their social media visibility, and enhancing the website’s conversion rate. With the right analytics tools now in place, we’re in an excellent position to measure, refine, and improve their digital strategies effectively.
As digital marketers, it’s not just about the numbers or the technology for us—it’s about the people we can reach and the real-world impact we can make. The chance to continue supporting OBK’s noble mission is an opportunity we relish. We’re excited to witness their growth and contribute to their vision in this digital era.
In closing, we are eager and prepared to step into this new phase of our partnership with OBK, leveraging our digital marketing expertise to help them continue to make a meaningful difference in their community.
