Project Background:

Our client operates a robust network of regional websites to support their global presence, catering to diverse audiences in multiple languages. The footer, a critical component of these websites, serves as a key navigation tool and a platform for essential information such as corporate links, legal notices, and regional contact details.

However, the existing footer design has become outdated, lacking responsiveness and optimization for modern user behavior on both desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, its current structure does not fully support best practices for SEO, potentially limiting the websites’ visibility and performance in search engine rankings.

To address these issues, the client initiated a project to redesign and implement a new footer, aligning with the latest design trends, enhancing functionality, and strengthening their digital presence in Taiwan and globally.

Challenge:

1. SEO Performance: The existing footer design does not support optimal SEO practices, limiting the client’s ability to improve search engine visibility and rankings across their multi-language websites.
2. Responsiveness Issues: The current footer lacks a fully responsive layout, leading to inconsistent user experiences on desktop and mobile devices. This inconsistency affects usability and engagement, particularly in regions with a high proportion of mobile users.
3. Brand Consistency: Ensuring uniform branding across all international sites is a challenge due to variations in regional requirements and localized content, which can result in a fragmented user experience.
4. Technical Complexity: Integrating a redesigned footer into an existing AEM framework with support for multiple languages and regions requires meticulous planning, development, and testing to ensure smooth implementation and functionality.
5. Content Scalability: Managing dynamic and scalable content across multiple language sites while adhering to the client’s design and performance standards adds another layer of complexity to the project.

Our Solution:

To address the client’s challenges and meet project objectives, we propose the following solutions:

1. Custom AEM Footer Component: Develop a new, fully responsive footer component and experience fragment in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) to ensure a seamless user experience across all devices.
2. Multilingual Content Integration: Support 10 language variations by leveraging AEM’s powerful multilingual content capabilities to deliver localized experiences seamlessly while maintaining a uniform design.
3. SEO-Optimized Structure: Implement a footer design aligned with SEO best practices, including clean HTML structure, accessible links, and metadata enhancements to improve search engine visibility and rankings.
4. Responsive Design: Ensure the new footer adapts perfectly to different screen sizes, providing a consistent and intuitive user experience for both desktop and mobile users.
5. Branding Alignment: Utilized Adobe Experience Cloud tools to align the footer with the client’s global branding guidelines, ensuring a unified look and feel across all international sites, including Taiwan.
6. Streamlined Implementation with AEM as a Cloud Service: Leverage AEM as a Cloud Service to efficiently deploy and manage the footer redesign across the client’s extensive network of regional sites, ensuring stability and performance.
7. Comprehensive Testing and Rollout: Conduct thorough QA testing to ensure the footer performs flawlessly across all language sites and devices. A phased rollout will minimize disruption and ensure a smooth transition.

Before and After Comparison:

1. Modern, Responsive Design: Modern, fully responsive footer design providing a seamless user experience across all devices (desktop and mobile).
   • Previous footer
     
   • New footer
     
2. Consistent Global Branding: Branding is now unified across all 10 language variations, providing a consistent global presence.
   • 
3. Interactive Hover Effects: New hover effects on footer links enhance interactivity, making the navigation more engaging and improving overall user experience.
   • Hover effect of title: Underline
     
   • Hover effect of sub-titles: Bold
     

Conclusion

The footer redesign was a success, receiving positive feedback from users. The updated, responsive design improved both aesthetics and usability, catering to modern browsing habits on desktop and mobile devices. AEM’s cloud-based features streamlined content management across 10 languages, including localized versions for Taiwan, enabling efficient updates. The SEO enhancements also boosted site visibility, driving increased traffic and improving user engagement.