JASON SHUEH

ACCELA

2018-2019

How Content Strategy Can Enhance a Website Revamp

How Content Strategy Can Enhance a Website Revamp

The Accela.com redesign showcases a few essential components in a lengthy website modernization project

Case Study Details

CONTENT TYPE: Web pages, Web design

COMPANY: Accela, a global digital permitting and licensing solution for governments

ROLE(S): Content Strategist, Editor, Copy Writer

YEAR(S): 2018-2019

Problem

ACCELA STOOD AT an inflection point in 2019. It’s government platform and digital solutions were moving into the cloud, and instead of case-by-case customer solutions, the government tech company had created a suite of “Civic Applications” to standardize and to enhance the efficiency of its digital licensing and permitting tools. The shift in product demanded a re-work of the company’s website, to update it with new content, a new look and a modern user experience.

Solution

AS A CONTENT strategist, I designed a site content plan. Working with the Accela’s senior brand, UX and marketing director, I conducted a content audit of Accela’s current site, collaborated with internal departments to identify goals, planned and produced editorial content for new pages, and facilitated the content editing and review.

Accela homepage
The landing page of Accela.com. Image | Accela

Process

1. GOALS: A major web redesign usually has multiple goals. At Accela, this entailed objectives in UX design, SEO, and updates in the site’s messaging. The primary goals of the content plan focused on the messaging and SEO. All main pages in the navigation needed an update (which established a checklist of page updates), and at the same time, SEO components like keywords, tags, meta data, image descriptions and other SEO components required enhancement. Goals for SEO included such metrics such as organic traffic totals, organic bounce rates, lead conversions and more.

2. WEBSITE CONTENT AUDIT: To coordinate everything a website content audit was a crucial next step. This entailed the creation of an exhaustive online spreadsheet that provided a report of nearly every web page, form, PDF download and other web resources. To compile this massive list of content it demanded a group effort in the marketing team, product marketing team and data science team. Google Analytics and other auditing tools can only tell you so much. Specific content owners needed to evaluate the content to see if met current product standards, style guidelines and reflected recent information about leadership and company information.

We needed a thorough review to understand…

  1. what content was worth keeping,
  2. what content needed minor updates,
  3. what content needed a re-write or re-structured
  4. what content was missing for a better user experience, and
  5. what content should be discarded.

3. CONTENT WORKFLOW: Once we understood our content needs, we assigned content owners to make the modifications. These modifications were noted in the spreadsheet, which then moved onto edits. Our designers and UX specialists would then design the pages for review and final approvals. The data science team was part of this review process and served as a strategic guide throughout.

4. TESTING, UPDATES & ITERATION: Once the new site went live, we conducted another review to ensure everything had published seamlessly, catching small issues and edits. Further, an ongoing set of content meetings for the site was established to constantly evaluate new opportunities to improve the site.

Results

AFTER THE RELAUNCH, Accela.com immediately saw a 20 percent spike in organic traffic, and there were increases in other key metrics across the board. This decreased the bounce rate on certain pages by as much as 50 percent as well. Further, we saw a trend of higher placement on targeted search engine results pages. In addition, the overall benefit to company was a fresh, usable site with the latest messaging and updated content.

Conclusion

"COLLABORATION" IS AN overused term in the corporate lexicon. Yet for this lengthy project — an endeavor that took nearly a year to complete — the need for collaboration was absolutely crucial. There were just so many moving parts, so much content that demanded expert attention, so much shepherding, that the work really represented the toils of an the entire company. The virtues of collaboration and organization fueled each other. Collaboration allowed the team to organize content, while organization — identifying and categorizing content — enabled further collaboration. Without this clarity it would have also been impossible to set the right goals and achieve them.

Case Study Details

CONTENT TYPE: Web pages, Web design

COMPANY: Accela, a global digital permitting and licensing solution for governments

ROLE(S): Content Strategist, Editor, Copy Writer

YEAR(S): 2018-2019

Problem

ACCELA STOOD AT an inflection point in 2019. It’s government platform and digital solutions were moving into the cloud, and instead of case-by-case customer solutions, the government tech company had created a suite of “Civic Applications” to standardize and to enhance the efficiency of its digital licensing and permitting tools. The shift in product demanded a re-work of the company’s website, to update it with new content, a new look and a modern user experience.

Solution

AS A CONTENT strategist, I designed a site content plan. Working with the Accela’s senior brand, UX and marketing director, I conducted a content audit of Accela’s current site, collaborated with internal departments to identify goals, planned and produced editorial content for new pages, and facilitated the content editing and review.

Accela homepage
The Accela homepage. Image | Accela

Process

1. GOALS: A major web redesign usually has multiple goals. At Accela, this entailed objectives in UX design, SEO, and updates in the site’s messaging. The primary goals of the content plan focused on the messaging and SEO. All main pages in the navigation needed an update (which established a checklist of page updates), and at the same time, SEO components like keywords, tags, meta data, image descriptions and other SEO components required enhancement. Goals for SEO included such metrics such as organic traffic totals, organic bounce rates, lead conversions and more.

2. WEBSITE CONTENT AUDIT: To coordinate everything a website content audit was a crucial next step. This entailed the creation of an exhaustive online spreadsheet that provided a report of nearly every web page, form, PDF download and other web resources. To compile this massive list of content it demanded a group effort in the marketing team, product marketing team and data science team. Google Analytics and other auditing tools can only tell you so much. Specific content owners needed to evaluate the content to see if met current product standards, style guidelines and reflected recent information about leadership and company information.

We needed a thorough review to understand…

  1. what content was worth keeping,
  2. what content needed minor updates,
  3. what content needed a re-write or re-structured
  4. what content was missing for a better user experience, and
  5. what content should be discarded.

3. CONTENT WORKFLOW: Once we understood our content needs, we assigned content owners to make the modifications. These modifications were noted in the spreadsheet, which then moved onto edits. Our designers and UX specialists would then design the pages for review and final approvals. The data science team was part of this review process and served as a strategic guide throughout.

4. TESTING, UPDATES & ITERATION: Once the new site went live, we conducted another review to ensure everything had published seamlessly, catching small issues and edits. Further, an ongoing set of content meetings for the site was established to constantly evaluate new opportunities to improve the site.

Results

AFTER THE RELAUNCH, Accela.com immediately saw a 20 percent spike in organic traffic, and there were increases in other key metrics across the board. This decreased the bounce rate on certain pages by as much as 50 percent as well. Further, we saw a trend of higher placement on targeted search engine results pages. In addition, the overall benefit to company was a fresh, usable site with the latest messaging and updated content.

Conclusion

"COLLABORATION" IS AN overused term in the corporate lexicon. Yet for this lengthy project — an endeavor that took nearly a year to complete — the need for collaboration was absolutely crucial. There were just so many moving parts, so much content that demanded expert attention, so much shepherding, that the work really represented the toils of an the entire company. The virtues of collaboration and organization fueled each other. Collaboration allowed the team to organize content, while organization — identifying and categorizing content — enabled further collaboration. Without this clarity it would have also been impossible to set the right goals and achieve them.