Case goals and results

With the pandemic causing a seismic swing towards digitisation and cooking platforms popping up like mushrooms, staying relevant is quite a challenge. Competition is fierce and users expect an excellent experience. LVBO noticed this evolution and sought to harness the full potential of a platform built and operated using Drupal 9.

Before the start of this project, we had already built up a sustainable partnership with them. Supporting them during a project where we could combine our different expertise served to strengthen our relationship.

We assembled a multidisciplinary team of UX designers, Drupal developers, product owners, copywriters, email marketers and SEO marketers to work within iO, but this project was not a one-sided performance. The LVBO were key contributors to the update of their platform. This is, of course, how we at iO prefer to work: as real partners.

*Hello, structured data*
During the platform update, we mainly focused on the recipes and extra functionalities. The old recipes were mainly disorganised lists, not immediately visible to Google. Ingredients were not displayed in a uniform and organised way which was confusing for both users and critically, also for Google. This resulted in pages performing less and appearing further down the list of search results.

Structured data helps you perform better in Google. One of the most obvious advantages of the implementation of a strong information architecture and the use of structured data is that a page has more chance of getting the highly prized featured snippet.

Such a featured snippet responds to a search query that appears at the top of Google's search results. To get to this #0 position, your content needs to offer as complete as possible answers to searchers' questions. It is therefore important to provide objective information, but also to have good information architecture. And don't forget the structured data. Google uses this to understand what the page is about (reviews, recipes ...).

We structured our recipe and product pages as follows:

- Recipe detail: https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/recepten/kip-moambe (The related recipes/articles on this detail page also use elasticsearch to find matching recipes)
- Recipe overview: https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/recepten
- Article overview: https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/ideeen-en-tips
- Article detail: https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/ideeen-en-tips/zelf-donuts-maken
- Product overview: https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/producten
- Product detail: https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/producten/bier

There are also a number of subsites that can be managed separately and are part of the multisite.
- https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/producten/bier
- https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/fruit
- https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/producten/vis
- https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/producten/konijn

From there we also link the recipes to the main website, which means we can manage them in one place.

*The technical specs*
- Drupal 9
- Visual building tool: https://www.drupal.org/project/io_builder
- Data migration from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9
- Elasticsearch integration for the recipe & article finder (as well as all related functionalities on detail pages)
- Structured ingredient / recipe setup
- Ingredients and units of measurement are now standardised. In the past, we would use tablespoon, tbsp. , Tbsp. , Tb. , T, … The new system makes sure these units are used in the same consistent way.
- Available in 2 languages
- Yoast SEO integration → A powerful SEO module that provides its users with advice on keywords, alt tags and other SEO elements that impact organic traffic.
- Mobile-first (UX) design
- Up to quality standards such as performance, SEO, accessibility and GDPR compliance
- Account creation using email / Google / Facebook
- Account zone with favourite recipes and shopping list

*Easier to find, more satisfied users and more repeat users*
After our Drupal developers updated the front and back end of the LVBO platform to Drupal 9, it was time for our colleagues to show their expertise. With an eye on the end user and the performance of the website, they took 4 months to present a new and improved LVBO site to the target group.

Converting an ingredient list from 12,000 unclear elements to 1,984 unique elements for uniform use throughout the site took a lot of teamwork. But the results are impressive: the information architecture has made a leap in the right direction and the end user can count on unambiguous information.

*The result: a more user-friendly platform*
Users are more involved with the LVBO website. Visitors can now use their personal account to recreate recipes and build personal shopping lists. We recorded a lot of interest and enthusiasm around the platform shortly after the launch. In the first three weeks the website had 550 registered users who already saved 2356 recipes and made 92 shopping lists. By now, the number of registered users is in the thousands, tens of thousands of recipes have been saved and there are over 500 shopping lists made.

Thanks to the new functionalities, LVBO is enjoying greater user engagement and more returning users who are clearly hungry for more. Within 8 short weeks the platform was renewed and refreshed and the team can now work on their website by themselves, but naturally we will continue to support them with optimisations and new insights where necessary.