New website by Smeders to better service our distributors
After many years of good service, the 77 Lubricants website called for a complete redo. “With more and more people looking up information with their smartphone, our website was not giving an optimal mobile experience”, Pieter Kruijff from 77 Lubricants explains. “And distributors worldwide couldn’t always find our product details through Google. On top of that, our company was also going through a rebranding. We had plenty of tell-tales that our website needed an outright overhaul.”
A good functioning website is key. “All our international distributors place their order through our website. It’s also where they’ll read our latest news”, Kruijff tells. “So when we renewed our branding, the website also needed a redesign. We work with the Zeeman Reclamegroep BV from Den Helder for 10 years now. And since their merger last year with Smeders, Frank Buschman now helped us with tackling the technical issues.”
Completely accessible through Google
“Their old website was built with the state of the art technology of that time”, Buschman says. “Only, times change, and now we’re all using smartphones. Their new website needed a responsive design to improve the mobile experience”, Buschman points out. “And securing your website with HTTPS is now the standard. This gives the user a safer experience and secondly, Google sees this as an important ranking factor in determining the search results.”
Accessibility via Google was another focus for Smeders: “Product details locked in PDF format, are difficult for Google to show in the search results. And for smartphone users, PDF’s are problematic to read and figure out. So, we put the product information as product pages on the website. New QR-codes on the products now link directly to these pages, for easy reference.”
Kruijff is satisfied with the end result. “It’s great working with Smeders, they did a great job. The feedback from the market is very positive, specifically about our new lubricant advisor. Distributors can now quickly find the right lubricant to use for their application.”
Supporting distributors in upcoming markets
“Our website should be a tool that makes the lives of our distributors easier”, Kruijff says. “So, our website should always be improving. A new feature that we’re working on with Smeders, is making the website available for distributors through white labelling. As we sell in over 90 countries, we come across willing distributors that operate without their own website. With white labelling, a distributor can make his own version of our website. By uploading text and pictures and selecting a few options, he fills the website with his own content and branding. This way, we can help these distributors with getting their own website and rapidly establish our brand presence in these countries.”