About Mereen-Johnson
Since 1905, Mereen-Johnson has been a leader in serving the building products industry with cutting-edge industrial woodworking machinery to address wood industry challenges such as labor shortages, safety, efficiency and quality. Incorporating today’s latest automation and robotics capabilities, the company’s heavy-duty machines and solutions are developed and manufactured in the USA.
Situation: An Outdated Website for a Legacy Industrial Brand Needed to Reflect Newer, Advanced Capabilities
The team at Mereen-Johnson felt they had outgrown their existing website and that it no longer represented their company and its future. Their expertise in automation and robotics was not apparent on the website, and in marketplace conversations, Mereen-Johnson’s towering reputation for manufacturing heavy-duty rip saws and other large-scale wood cutting machines tended to crowd out discussion of other strengths. In addition, a recent acquisition had expanded the range of products, and the acquired company’s website content needed to be integrated into the new website.
Solution: A Robust Website Redesign that Maintains Brand Equity While Expanding Content and Functionality
In alignment with Mereen-Johnson’s growth goals, Windmill created a UX strategy including robust mega menu design, content strategy/mapping and cross linking. A detailed site map proposed strategic industry and application pages to highlight, in greater depth, the areas that Mereen-Johnson focuses on and in which it is most profitable.
Our design and information architecture recommendations worked hand in hand to build upon the existing Mereen-Johnson brand and incorporate it into a website that positions the company as a key player in automation and robotics for the wood products industry and demonstrates their sophistication and prowess in building custom machinery. The information architecture recommendations incorporated content from two other web properties and were informed by search rankings and relevant competitor rankings. One of the other properties was sunsetted when the Mereen-Johnson site launched; a robust redirection strategy ensured that all the SEO value was captured.
We discussed product types in depth with Mereen-Johnson to ensure we understood the catalog inside and out, allowing us to make well-informed recommendations for how to best organize products from a UX standpoint. Landing pages covering Mereen Johnson’s expertise specific to certain industries, such as doors, windows, cabinetry and flooring, were designed to also house related products for each industry; this content had to be created from scratch. Windmill provided extensive copywriting and editing assistance for the project.
One challenge was that Mereen-Johnson’s product content was contained within PDFs rather than on HTML pages. For the new website, we broke these out into unique HTML product landing pages to give the website an e-commerce feel, with unique taxonomy sorting and filtering. We planned ahead to use the content entry budget wisely to ensure we could efficiently translate PDF content into the website.
The new taxonomy helps customers find content appropriate to their needs. The design of the new homepage reinforces this with icons representing major products categories positioned below the hero area that allow the user to easily tab between the categories, adding another visually interesting menu to the homepage, in addition to the traditional mega menu. Other nuances on the new website include a simplified logo, using only one SVG file, when the new website is viewed on a mobile device.
BEFORE
AFTER
In terms of content, the WordPress content management system with its native block editor serves as the primary tool for page and content creation. We created custom post types for machines and blog posts. WP All Import was used to do the bulk product upload, and we created different versions of the import spreadsheet to best serve the needs of the client as we collaborated with them during their content aggregation process. Another custom block highlights automation and robotics capabilities on any given individual project page. This repeatable block can be used over and over again, while allowing content edits that customize it for each page.
Results: More Inquiries, More Engagement and UX Designed to Reshape Perceptions
122% Increase in Engaged Sessions
140% Growth in New Users
39% Boost in Search Console Clicks
75% Rise in Search Console Impressions
The analytics show that during the first 60 days post launch, the number of new users increased and their engagement grew substantially compared to the 60 days before the redesigned website launched. New users increased 140%, engaged sessions increased 122%, clicks increased 39% and impressions increased 75%.
The new UX, new information architecture and expanded content are user friendly, and the website is also simpler for the client to update as the company continues to innovate. Of the website redesign process, they note that Windmill staff “did a great job,” did well at communicating and keeping the Mereen-Johnson team on task, and made the process “easier” than expected. The process also uncovered an area where they hope to improve going forward: taking more photos and videos of the machines they build.
By being grounded in Mereen-Johnson’s legacy as a market leader, but positioning the company to achieve the greater expansion into custom systems, automation, and robotics that represent its future, the new website showcases Mereen-Johnson’s ambition to be the “go-to” source for complete solutions in the wood industry.
Windmill Strategy is a web design company & digital marketing agency helping B2B industrial, automation, and manufacturing companies achieve increased visibility, higher quality leads, and greater marketing ROI through smarter web design. Our website design and B2B digital marketing approach goes beyond “more traffic,” seeking out better traffic, by gaining the attention of the specific niche groups of buyers and influencers that represent your best customers. We help our clients communicate and sell their complex products and services to multiple audiences – be it through web design or digital marketing and SEO. Working collaboratively with your in-house marketing and sales team, we design websites that drive leads and sales that result in overall business growth. Schedule a call to learn more.