Web Design and Development
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Case Study: ICSS Inc.

Web Design, Web Development, SEO, Content Editing

ICSS Inc. is a control systems company located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. They specialize in performing industrial control systems integrations, and they provide technical support and training on those systems. Their customers consist mainly of electric utilities, oil refineries, paper mills and other industrial facilities. They were a central part of the efforts to restore utilities to operation in New Orleans after the devastating 2005 hurricane season.

ICSS Inc.

Our Mission

Gilbert Greber, General Manager of Sales and Marketing for ICSS Inc., approached us with some very specific concerns, an aggressive time table and a blank slate on which to come up with the best strategy for approaching his new Web site. ICSS had limited Web exposure; they weren't receiving the attention and credence that should come with being online. They relied up to that point on in-house efforts, and they recognized their software and limited knowledge prevented them from having a professional site that met their business needs. Reputation were not an issue, but Gilbert recognized Web sites function as a measure of legitimacy, and he wanted to make sure ICSS did not suffer due to the current lack of professionalism.

We focused our attention on business processes, ways his sales people would use the site to maximize their customer face time. Together, we explored ways ICSS could differentiate itself from competitors with less knowledge and experience. We looked at how we could stage his site for best search engine response, and we discussed interactive components to give his customers private information access and allow them to make specific requests through the site.

Preproduction

We spent a great deal of time researching the industry and the competition, and we brainstormed ways to outperform others in search engine results and perceived legitimacy. We discovered during the course of our investigations that a few notable competitors were actually using deceptive techniques to artificially boost search engine results. We made it one of our goals to prove we could beat the cheating sites with ethical SEO techniques. We also discovered many of ICSS competitors were all-show/no-substance. They sold parts, but were unable to position themselves as knowledge leaders. This gave our direction and strategy even more focus; it was a perfect personae to project!

Production

We worked with Gilbert and ICSS very closely to come up with an interface that would suit the intended audience well. We went through a number of layouts before selecting the one that would become the new site. The site needed an industial, no-frills feel, but enough of an edge that visitors would connect with it visually during the course of use.

We put together a glossary application that would allow ICSS employees to create categories, terms and definitions. We created this to help ICSS meet three goals. First, it conveys a sense of expert-level knowledge. The entire glossary text was written by ICSS, and was unique to the Web. Second, it serves a useful purpose to visitors, who can use it as a reference (with pictures) for their own day-to-day needs. Finally, we posited something this useful and rich in content was going to result in a search engine boost. We were correct!

Post-launch Analysis

We had a number of objectives to achieve with this site. We wanted to create a professional presence that rivaled larger control system companies. We wanted to convey a sense of industry authority. We wanted to create a site that would be easy to maintain, with the flexibility to evolve significantly in the future. Finally, we wanted to position the site for a favorable initial response from search engines.

Our goal for user feedback was near-unanimous favorable consideration for the general look and feel and ease of finding information. At the time of launch, both our solicited feedback and that gathered by ICSS made it clear we'd achieved this qualitative objective.

Probably our greatest accomplishment involved search engine response. We targeted placement within the top 30 search results for four critical keywords and phrases. We ended up with 23 high priority phrase results, 12 of which were #1 returns and 21 of which showed up somewhere on page one!

As a result, total customer enquiries tripled soon after the site went live, and the site was declared a positive investment less than six months after becoming operational.

Testimonial