ten-four
The Tech Buyer’s Guru, or TBG for short, is a Portland-based tech website that provides “hands-on, hard-hitting advice on a wide range of technology products.” Since their founding in 2013, TBG has provided advice for thousands of readers regarding hundreds of products. With a fast growing audience and an increasing need to be able to quickly create new content to keep readers engaged and coming back, TBG came to us for help.
30.77%
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24%
Being able to reach your site’s readers wherever they are has become a vital aspect of website design and development and was one of the main goals for The Tech Buyer’s Guru when they approached us to rebuild their site. From the site’s launch in 2013 to initial design discussions in early 2015, TBG’s mobile readership had increased 50%. Working with our frequent design collaborator Yoshini Gunawardena, we helped shape the direction of the user interface to ensure consistency and a solid user experience across device types. A focus on photography was high on TBG’s wish list, so we made sure to use large photos and have flexible options for placement of imagery within articles, all while maintaining a responsive design.
Beyond TBG’s initial requirements and goals, we recommended more granular tracking of user actions through Google Analytics Events, with which we were able to help TBG examine user search behaviors and requests. As a result, they have been able to update their product recommendations to match user preferences, driving key metrics ever forward.
When I presented a goal to ten-four, I got not only the options I had envisioned, but many others that I had never thought of.
Within three months of re-launching the site in July 2015, bounce rate decreased 28% across all devices, including 35% and 34% decreases for mobile and tablet, respectively. In the same time period, the average session duration increased by over 60%, mobile and tablet readership share increased by 11% and 15%, respectively, and returning visitors increased by 18%. In other words, readers stay more often, stay for longer, do so on mobile devices more than ever, and keep coming back. These immediate results showcase the power of a clean responsive design and how the ease of content creation will keep your site fresh and your readers interested. Getting users to a site is only half the battle; keeping them on the site is where good web design is critical.
Since then, bounce rate has continued to drop, with mobile leading the way with a staggering 44% drop since launch. Average session durations remain stable and mobile continues to grow in readership share, now up by 25% since launch, even as reader count has increased by 68% and pageviews have increased by 90%. We continue to work with TBG on new site features and ways to keep their readers engaged and expect the site’s success, particularly on mobile devices, to grow.
