Organic growth: The SEO strategy behind Inc. and Fast Company’s CMS integration

Inc. and Fast Company have great content covering important business and innovation topics, but existing SEO rankings were limiting organic traffic to that content. This challenge was further complicated by a search engine penalty that caused their sites to lose ranking. Although Mansueto quickly identified and resolved the underlying issue, the damage to their SEO was already done.

To facilitate SEO, optimize content discoverability and provide a seamless user experience, Mansueto sought to re-architect the content organization systems of Inc.com and FastCompany.com into a unified CMS. This integration was essential for streamlining operations and capitalizing on the strengths of both brands.

• Conduct a comprehensive content and SEO audit for both Inc.com and FastCompany.com
• Develop an SEO-optimized site taxonomy
• Create a unified content data structure
• Establish unified labeling systems and guidelines for editorial staff
• Plan and prepare for migration to a single CMS

• Investigate the intersection of users between Inc.com and FastCompany.com to better understand their needs and preferences
• Identify SEO improvement opportunities and assess the potential impacts of taxonomy changes
• Agree on common terminology and organizing principles to maintain coherence
• Document and share updated taxonomy guidelines with the editorial and technology teams for ongoing use

The project was divided into three key stages to achieve the goals of merging Inc.com and FastCompany.com into a unified CMS platform: assessment, development and delivery.

The team began by meeting with stakeholders from both Inc.com and FastCompany.com to gather insights and understand editorial styles and audience usage. They reviewed existing research, conducted a detailed content survey, and performed site traffic and SEO analysis to identify user interactions and potential SEO opportunities. They also evaluated the existing technological landscape, including content management systems, data structures and publishing workflows.

In this stage, the team consolidated their findings into a comprehensive recommendations document. They presented this to the wider editorial and business stakeholder audience, outlining the proposed changes and benefits to ensure alignment with the proposed approach. From there, they identified technical, user and SEO testing needed to validate the solution.

Stage three focused on developing and implementing detailed recommendations for mapping content into a unified schema and labeling system for CMS content migration. This ensured consistency across both brands. The team drafted data-driven SEO editorial guidelines for naming and tagging content and provided documented instructions on applying the new system to future content. Finally, they conducted training sessions to teach the editorial staff how to use the guidelines in their work and answer any questions they had.

The implementation of new taxonomy and tagging systems provided accurate analytics and insights, offering a clearer understanding of user journeys through the websites. By relabeling design-related content from niche descriptors to widely understood cultural descriptors, we eliminated user and SEO confusion. This strategic SEO enhancement improved scores and rankings, contributing to better visibility and reach for both brands. As a result, organic search increased by approximately 67% YoY for each company, and FastCompany.com achieved a 97% YoY increase in direct traffic.

The consolidation of Inc.com and Fastcompany.com into a single CMS platform resulted in significant technical cost savings of 50% for Mansueto Ventures. Enhancements to metadata management streamlined the content retrieval process, boosting internal search result accuracy by 200%. Additionally, platform and process optimizations reduced the time required for sales content curation by 300%.

These improvements significantly enhanced the user experience, making content more accessible and engaging. By unifying the CMS platforms, Mansueto Ventures achieved substantial cost savings, operational efficiencies and strategic growth. This initiative’s success proves transformative results are possible with the right approach and partners.

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