Background
Leonard Construction and Design in Auckland were rebranding to LC Designer Homes, to:
(a) emphasise the design aspect of their service, and
(b) focus on a new target market of luxury bespoke homes.
Problem
The previous website was functioning well in terms of Google rankings and generating enquiries, but as the target market had shifted it was attracting enquiries that were no longer relevant to the business.
Words by Cornelia had written the SEO website content for the previous content, and Trisha Cupra at Quokka Creative (my go-to web designer) had created the previous website. LC Designer Homes approached both of us to work on the new website, but were understandably concerned that a new website with new keywords and also a new domain could negatively impact search engine rankings.
Solution
I had a briefing meeting with Michelle at LC Designer Homes to understand their new target market, and the services they were offering (existing and new). Together, we also looked at competitors’ websites and identfied what we did and didn’t like about them, to get a feel for what was needed in terms of both the content, and the look and feel of the website.
From that, I conducted an in-depth keyword brainstorm, collaborating with Michelle. This resulted in 37 pages of relevant keywords and URLs to run through the keyword research tool, which created over 27,000 rows of keyword data. I manually sifted through this data to formulate the keyword strategy for the new website. Once the client had signed off the keyword strategy, I set to work on the website copywriting, liaising with Michelle as needed to ask questions and obtain further information.
The website copywriting work was tackled in a specific order, so that the things I learned in one section would enable me to write other sections in an informed way. In this instance, it meant writing the Services sub-pages first, because the information I learned from that then allowed me to write the main Services page, and also the Home page. Also, writing the content in sections and gaining client approval along the way means a big project is broken down, and also lessens the need for revisions.
Michelle also bounced ideas off me, relating to the choice of colours and fonts for the website. It’s great to be involved in the website project as a whole, that way the words are in harmony with the visual aspects of a site.
Also, having worked with Trisha at Quokka Creative on numerous websites before, it meant that Trisha is skilled with laying out my words so they form a coherent and attractive part of the design. Too many web designers see the words as an annoyance, or clutter, yet they’re so vital for SEO!
Outcome
The outcome is best described by Michelle at LC Designer Homes in her own words:
“182% increase in new users and a 215% increase in page views”
“Cornelia wrote our previous website for us, and it performed well on search engines. However, as we were rebranding our business; refocusing on a new target market; and moving to a new website domain, a re-write was necessary. But I was nervous about making changes to the content and losing our Google rankings in the process.
Cornelia worked with us on the new content, and advised us on how we could achieve our branding and marketing objectives, but without losing search engine rankings. It was also important to us that our new website looked slick and uncluttered – in other words not too wordy – yet at the same time I know the search engines like a certain amount of content. So Cornelia worked closely with our web designer to make sure the copy was laid out in a way that tied in with the imagery on the website, so it’s got that clean look, but still with a decent word count.
Has Cornelia been successful with maintaining our Google rankings? Absolutely – and then some! I’ve been monitoring the results of the new website closely, and the visitor numbers and average session durations are consistently up on the same period last year. We’ve even seen 182% increases in new users; a 215% increase in page views; and an 83% increase in the average session duration. We’re getting great feedback, reach, and engagement – and a reasonable number of leads are coming through already.
Working with Cornelia was really easy – as we’ve worked together before, it was simple to pick up where we’d left off last time. And Cornelia was able to transform our words in a way that suited our new brand and new target market. Outsourcing this type of work is awesome – it can be a real burden doing it yourself.
What I really like about Cornelia’s copywriting is that the keywords for SEO (search engine optimisation) are weaved naturally into the copy she writes. She puts the reader first and foremost, using a tone that reflects our business, yet the copy is still really amazing for SEO.
Cornelia also liaised with our web designer on the visual aspects of our website. For example, giving ideas on our new brand colours; providing feedback on our new logo; and sharing ideas on how to incorporate some of the imagery so that our new website would look slick but would also be user friendly.
I would definitely recommend Cornelia to any business that’s serious about getting the most out of their online presence.” June 2020
