GPS Central is a leading private retailer in Western Canada for GPS devices & accessories, metal detectors, amateur radios, and endless more electronics. While their site continued to drive sales, the outdated design and platform was discouraging some shoppers from completing their purchases. 

GPS Central was founded in 2001 and was one of the first online GPS retailers in Canada. Their deep product knowledge and excellent customer service made them a trusted go-to for anyone looking for vehicle navigation, handheld navigation devices or vehicle tracking. Over time their product lines have expanded to include fleet vehicle tracking, metal detecting and amateur radios. What didn't adapt and change with their times was their website. 

Example customer testimonial: Our website has always been a key source of sales for our business. Some clients want to come in and view the products in our showroom but most are comfortable buying online. We don't have an in-house development team and have been wary about making too many changes on our own that could disrupt the steady stream of sales that we get online. ~ George Valentine, CEO at GPS Central

Built on Dreamweaver, the website design and framework was over a decade old. Team members had to log in to the ftp server directly to publish updates to the site presenting a huge security risk and while it was still driving sales, it was time for a refresh. As part of this website redesign project we also helped to migrate GPS Central -- and their thousands of products -- from Dreamweaver over to WordPress. 

Outdated Website Designs Hurt Trust

Through emails and social media comments we'd see first-hand feedback from potential clients that the website design of GPS Central was sending the wrong message. While it was fast loading and contained loads of helpful information, the dated website design and checkout process wasn't building trust with visitors. Even worse, it was not mobile responsive and the checkout process on a mobile device was a challenge. 

Lack of Mobile Friendliness was Hurting Search Rankings

We noticed a slow and steady decline in the search results for the mobile site, likely due to Google's mobile-first indexing and ranking. Google Search Console regularly gave alerts that this site was not mobile friendly and we were starting to see the impact of that. We knew that it was time to provide a better mobile experience so that visitors could use the site on their mobile device without getting frustrated at the poor user experience. 

SEO Strategy: Consolidate Outdated Product Pages

GPS Central had two decades of product pages of discontinued products still live on the site. These pages were doing well and bringing in visitors organically, but those visitors were not converting. As part of the website redesign, we evaluated and re-mapped many of these old pages so that they redirected to the most recent module of that product or to the product category. 

The Result: Increased Website Conversion Rate + Improved User Experience

Comparing the two months after the launch with the same period the previous year (to control for seasonality), we saw a 37% increase in website conversion rate. 

While conversation rates on all devices increased, the conversion rates on mobile devices nearly doubled showing that the new design was working to provide a better experience to those who were visiting on their mobile device. 

Client testimonial, if different from or in addition to the one above.