If you've worked on staff, there's a good chance that your pay stub was courtesy of ADP, the provider of payroll processing and human resource management systems. Yet as recently as last fall, visitors to the company's home page didn't see a “payroll link.” Sure, it was on the site, but you had to dig to find it, said David Means, ADP's senior director of Internet marketing.

The company had other Web challenges, too. Many of its different divisions and product offerings had their own Web sites so, while there were guidelines in place, you might not experience the same look and feel, depending on which site you came to. It was also difficult to navigate between sites.

Even more significant, the information on the sites wasn't always as useful as the company wanted it to be. “The site had no call to action, and it wasn't focused on the value or the solutions available for potential customers,” said Sandy Angevine, senior VP-marketing. “It was all information-driven rather than value-driven. Now it answers [visitors'] questions.”

The company did a complete redesign, bringing all its products and services under the same home page and content management system, while changing the focus of the site. Instead of just educating, the team wanted to make sure they were doing so in a way that would warrant consideration, create warm leads and keep the site ranking high on natural searches—the source of more than 75% of all ADP's site traffic.

Now, the site features navigation that focuses on getting people right to what they want within a click, and uses Flash to promote key messages and solutions—over and over again, if necessary. “A lot of times you see things in Flash but can't go back to them. Now visitors can go back and see them again,” Means said. Instead of random scrolling images, the site has numbered Flash images and messages that can scroll, but can also be clicked on.

Since implementing the new design, the site has seen a 20% reduction in its bounce rate, and people are finding what they are looking for more quickly, Means said.

“We're looking at analytics on a daily basis and updating some areas daily or weekly,” he said. “We're really watching that user experience.”

Expert commentary—Bill Rice, president, Web Marketing Association: ADP provides a number of payroll services for business. Each business used to have its own Web site, with a different look and feel. Now that they have moved to a single brand presence for the entire company, it's less fractured and easier for customers who may need more than one service. From a design perspective, the site has a very clean look and uses Flash effectively to increase navigation while helping the visitor to engage the site.