Lekker van bij ons: migration from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9

A platform that fits the market

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.

Lekker van bij ons noticed this evolution and started looking for a partner who could modernise their Drupal 7 platform and inspire and excite their users. A multidisciplinary iO team took on this task. The platform was transferred to the latest version of Drupal (9) and important new functionalities were added. This resulted in an impressive improvement in the UX.

Want to know more? Contact us

Challenge

VLAM wants to encourage consumers to buy local using Lekker van bij ons.

Solution

Migration from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9, recipe function and optimised search function, added new functions such as shopping list and accounts.

Improved UX

Before the start of this project, we had already built up a sustainable partnership with Lekker van bij ons. 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 Lekker van bij ons team 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, which weren’t 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 well and appearing lower in 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.

Featured snippets

A featured snippet is a featured response 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 ...).

A fresh love for local products

3844

registered users

15574

saved recipes

579

shopping lists

months time to market

Easier to find, more satisfied users and more repeat users

After our Drupal developers updated the front and back end of the Lekker van bij ons 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 Lekker van bij ons 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.

https://www.lekkervanbijons.be/wie-zijn-we

New functionalities

To increase the user-friendliness and the connection with Lekker van bij ons, we also added some new features. For example, users can now create their own account to save their favorite recipes easily.

The platform now offers personalised shopping lists. Now that the ingredients for every recipe have been converted into structured data, you can request a shopping list at the bottom of each recipe. The ingredients will then be added to the shopping list in your profile. If you add a new list of ingredients, the previous ingredients will remain and the new ones will simply be added to your personalised shopping list.

These new features not only make the process easier for users, but they also encourage them to come back to make favorite recipes again or to use the personalised shopping list. This means that Lekker van bij ons can keep up with the competition and the market.

The result for the customer

More user-friendly platform

Users are more involved with the Lekker van bij ons 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.

Do you have a Drupal project that’s in need of an update or would you like to give your users the best user experience?

Contact our experts and we will look at your needs and work out a winning strategy for your company.

Conclusion

Lekker van bij ons needed to upgrade to Drupal 9 to keep up with the market. We didn’t just settle for that, we went much further. Thanks to the new functionalities, Lekker van bij ons is enjoying greater user engagement and more returning users. Within 8 short weeks the platform was renewed and refreshed.

Thanks to the user-friendly layout, the Lekker van bij ons team can now work on their website by themselves, but naturally we will continue to support them with optimisations and new insights where necessary.

Curious to see the new Lekker van bij ons? Explore it yourself at www.lekkervanbijons.be