Internet Brands
I helped Internet Brand create a scalable content production process that drove organic traffic to their portfolio of top-tier brands.
At a glance: Content Production, SEO, Content Management, Leadership
The Challenge
While Internet Brand’s strength comes from the diversity and breadth of their portfolio companies, it also brings significant challenges when it comes to operationalizing content production. Not only do their sites cover a wide range of topic areas, they all each have their own editorial team, legacy processes, and unique content management systems. To get their sites to the next level, they needed a cost-efficient way to generate content at scale.
The Insight
Instead of relying on each site to manage their own content production separately, they needed to consolidate their workflow and technology into a single system. And while each site would still have full editorial control, the topic research, content briefs, copywriting, editing, and publishing would all be done through a centralized content team and workflow management system. And with a stable of remote freelance writers and editors, they could ramp production up or down for each site as needed.
The Work
As one of the founding members of this internal content team, I was instrumental in setting the strategy, workflow, and technology of this newly formed department. In addition to managing and training all of the SEO specialists, copywriters, and editors for the automotive vertical, I also helped with strategy for other sites including DoItYourself.com and VetInfo. And as part of the team responsible for providing requirements and feature requests for our custom-built internal content workflow software, I helped shape the technology that allowed us to scale production efficiently while still maintaining strict editorial control.
The Results
At the height of my time at Internet Brands, the content department was producing upwards of 1,000 pieces of content a month across 20+ sites. And CarsDirect, the primary site I managed, has grown organic traffic by over 200,000 pageviews a month. But even more impactful was the fact that each time Internet Brands acquired a new website, they could quickly integrate with our process and resources to reap the benefits of our well-oiled content engine.