Designed an SEO Powerhouse Resource Center bringing in $1M in partnerships

Summary

Working along side the strategic guidance of VP of Marketing Bill Swain and Director of Analytics Karolina Larsson, we launched a Resource Center to host our SEO-driven content, featuring dedicated landing pages for key topics and advertising spaces. This initiative led to partnerships with major companies like Intuit and QuickBooks, revolutionizing our approach to SEO and significantly boosting user engagement and revenue.

Impact

Established new partnerships with Intuit, QuickBooks and HelloFresh within months of launch.
Generated $1M in additional revenue.
Multiple companies, including MintMobile and Factor_, followed suit in adopting similar updates.

My Role

As Design Director, I collaborated with VP of Marketing, leading our design and SEO teams. My responsibilities included:

Coordinating with the VP of Marketing and our mid-level designer to develop user flows, page layouts, and views for both mobile and desktop.
Facilitating handoffs with web developers and engineers for seamless implementation.
Working with SEO content writers to ensure layouts and categories optimized for SEO were integrated from the start.
Modernizing older documents to align with the new pages, enhancing content relevance.
Leveraging existing FreeConferenceCall.com brand design systems and Bootstrap foundations to ensure quick build and easy updates.

Image of the homepage design and the dedicated "communication" category page

Research

We reviewed methods and tactics of competitors with top-ranking blogs, such as Zoom and Uber Conference, to understand their successful SEO approaches such as showcasing top platforms in the field which not only included their own products but others as well.
Delved into best practices in SEO to refine our content creation and website structuring strategies such as featuring keywords, linking out to additional blogs, landing pages and external pages.
Collaborated closely with SEO content writers, planning categories and formats to ensure all necessary elements were integrated from the outset, setting a solid foundation for our Resource Center, instead of having a list by recent post order which the previous blog featured.

Left image: Previous blog featuring posts sorted by recency only. Right: Dedicated finance section with SEO-focused posts, ads, and categories.

Iterations

We iterated designs focusing on user navigation and content discoverability, refining layouts to highlight top-ranked content and categories based on SEO performance data.

Learnings

The project underscored the critical role of cross-team collaboration in creating a successful SEO-driven initiative. It also highlighted the importance of email marketing in driving user engagement.

Working with content writers early on really streamlined category planning. Additionally, checking inn with lead developers ensured minimal custom code and that were were following their strong foundation they had built.
VP of Marketing Bill's discussions with partners were crucial for aligning our offerings with their needs, securing significant multi-month deals.

Success Story

This project not only established our dominance in organic search for key terms but also showcased the impact of cohesive design and SEO strategies in unlocking significant revenue opportunities. Our ability to adapt and innovate marked a pivotal moment in our digital marketing journey, making the Resource Center a key asset for our company and partners.