Background
Lighthouse NINE Group, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development and organizational effectiveness, invested significant time in content marketing. They published over 50 blog articles but were uncertain if their efforts were getting the results they should. Despite the content, they were not seeing a corresponding increase in website traffic and were unsure of the effectiveness of their SEO strategy. Even though each partner at Lighthouse NINE Group was a content expert in their category.
Lighthouse NINE Group needed to optimize its online presence to attract more organic traffic and ensure that its content reached a wider audience. The goal was to increase organic search clicks, improve its website’s SEO health, and enhance overall site performance.
Our Work
SEO Audit and Analysis
We began with an SEO audit to identify why the current content marketing plan was not performing as expected and how we could develop solutions and a content marketing plan for the future. In the audit we identified several issues:
- Low Organic Traffic
- The blog posts were not driving significant traffic. Most clicks were from branded searches related to “Lighthouse9,” with minimal presence in broader search terms related to their expertise.
- Site Health Issues
- The website had a lower site health score due to missing SEO data, poor internal linking, and large code files. There were 941 warnings, which could be reduced significantly with targeted improvements.
- On-Page SEO Problems
- Improper tagging, misused H1 titles, and many orphan pages and broken links affected the site’s performance.
- Technical SEO Flaws
- Issues with metadata, missing alt tags, and site speed were identified, impacting the site’s ability to rank well in search results.
- Backlink Quality
- Although Lighthouse NINE had over 2,000 backlinks, many were from low-quality sites, which could mislead SEO reports.
Implementation and Optimization
Using AHREFS, we analyzed the Lighthouse NINE Group website, developed a plan to tackle the significant issues, and optimized their website to appear in organic searches. This plan included:
- Meta Descriptions Update
- All meta descriptions were reviewed and updated to better reflect each page’s content, improving click-through rates from search engines.
- Broken links were updated or removed.
- Creation of Category Pages
- New category pages were created to better organize the blog content, making the site easier for users and search engines to navigate.
- Blog Post Organization
- The blog posts were reorganized and linked to relevant category pages, enhancing internal linking and reducing the number of orphan pages.
- Author Bios and Pages Update
- All author bios and pages were updated to add more context and credibility to the content, improving SEO by providing more structured data.
- Sidebar Optimization
- The sidebar on blog posts was updated to feature related articles, encouraging visitors to explore more content on the site and increasing session duration.
Results
In comparing results from the three months before the work was complete and the three months after, Lighthouse NINE Group had positive results in increased site traffic and organic search:
- 25% Increase in Organic Search Clicks
- The updates led to a significant increase in organic search traffic, with a 25% rise in clicks within a short period.
- Improved Ahrefs Score
- The site’s Ahrefs score improved dramatically from 54 to 99, indicating a stronger overall SEO health and higher domain authority.
- Enhanced User Experience
- The reorganization of content and improved site navigation resulted in better user engagement, with visitors spending more time on the site and exploring multiple pages.
Caitlin Dyk
Esther Fraser