A large society publisher that recently migrated to a new platform experienced a significant loss in organic traffic compared to the performance of their previous journal sites. Following efforts to identify gaps in metadata architecture and distribution, Maverick was asked to evaluate mainstream search engine optimization to recapture organic traffic.
REVIEW
The project involved a discovery phase devoted to reviewing current documentation on relevant qualitative and quantitative metrics of scholarly SEO. The goal was to identify gaps and prepare a remediation plan based on findings. The remediation plan was intended to focus on adjustments to website architecture and/or content markup. The evaluation disclosed findings that resulted in a pivot to a new approach to assess features of the platform that were inhibiting traffic.
RESULTS
The final product confirmed the integrity of existing practices, reaffirming the effectiveness of the metadata and discovery conventions. It also identified other factors unbeknownst to the publisher that were having an impact on traffic. Efforts to mitigate the issue are now under way.
The client indicated that the process was educational and highly collaborative, and that Maverick was very flexible in pivoting approaches as new information surfaced, which was critical — “It gave me piece of mind that I hadn’t missed something.”