Citi Singapore, the global bank’s division in Singapore, was looking to enhance its digital presence by overhauling its digital banking website. The objective was to provide a modern, user-centric experience with a focus on usability, accessibility, and content richness. With a growing number of digital banking customers, Citi needed to provide a seamless experience for their users across all devices while maintaining strong adherence to legal, compliance, and accessibility standards.
To meet the demands of a digitally fluent customer base, Citibank Singapore required a visually engaging, user-friendly website with informative, insightful content. Additionally, as a financial institution, adhering to stringent regulatory standards was paramount.
The challenge was multi-faceted:
- Website Overhaul: The existing website was outdated and difficult to navigate, with a confusing layout and long application processes.
- Content Strategy: Citi needed a comprehensive content strategy, including a robust CMS, to keep the website dynamic and up-to-date with relevant articles, blog posts, and support documentation.
- SEO and User Engagement: The team wanted to increase their digital footprint with a focus on SEO optimization to drive organic traffic and engage more users.
- Legal and Compliance: As a major financial institution, Citi had to ensure that all website content, from blog posts to customer support documents, complied with stringent industry regulations.
Digital employed a comprehensive, data-driven approach to overhaul Citi Singapore’s digital banking website. The key components of the solution were:
- End-to-End Content Strategy and Development
- Content Audit and Strategy: Digital began with a detailed audit of Citi’s existing content to identify gaps, outdated information, and opportunities for new material. The strategy was to provide clear, concise, and useful content for customers. A total of 60 articles were created, covering everything from financial tips to in-depth “How To” guides and FAQs, ensuring customers could easily find the information they needed.
- Life & Money Blog CMS: A customized CMS was developed for Citi’s “Life & Money” blog. This CMS allowed Citi’s content team to manage and publish articles with ease, while ensuring the platform could scale with future content updates.
- Design and User Experience (UX)
- Information Architecture Redesign: A full review of the website’s existing information architecture (IA) was conducted, leading to a reimagining of the site’s structure.
- Refresh of Citi’s Documentation Website: The comprehensive set of step-by-step guides explaining key banking processes (e.g., how to reset a PIN, how to apply for loans) was redesigned. These guides were fully integrated into the website, providing users with self-service solutions to common issues.
- SEO and Technical Optimization
- SEO Audit and Strategy: A comprehensive SEO audit was conducted, and a targeted SEO strategy was developed, focusing on optimizing key financial products and services. Digital implemented on-page SEO improvements such as meta tags, alt texts, internal linking strategies, and optimized header structures.
- Performance and Speed Optimization: Technical performance was a priority. The website was optimized for faster loading times through image compression, lazy loading of non-critical resources, and a content delivery network (CDN) to enhance global site speed.
Throughout the project, Digital worked closely with Citi’s legal and compliance teams to ensure that all content met the strict financial industry standards. This included reviewing content for regulatory requirements and ensuring data privacy protocols were adhered to in the site’s design and functionality.
The project was completed in three months, meeting Citi’s timeline for launching the new site in time for the key business quarter. The results were impressive:
- Website Traffic: Organic traffic to the site increased by 22% within the first six months following the launch.
- SEO Metrics: Citi’s SEO rankings improved for key financial terms, with a 35% increase in search engine visibility.
- Engagement: The “Life & Money” blog has achieved a 59% increase in user engagement over a 6-month period, with average time spent on articles growing by 29%. The redesign has also helped to reduce website bounce rates by 15% and has decreased form completion time.
- Customer Satisfaction: The client expressed their appreciation for Digital’s technical expertise, attention to detail, and ability to deliver the project on time and within scope.