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Children's Defense Fund

"Our website is one of the most visible aspects of Children’s Defense Fund. We asked for — and got — a website that positions CDF to leverage this pivotal moment in American politics to make significant strides for children."

- Heidi Hess, Director of Online Communications, Children's Defense Fund

About Children's Defense Fund

Well into their fourth decade, Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) is the foremost national proponent of policies and programs that provide children with the resources they need to succeed. CDF champions policies that will lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education, and a moral and spiritual foundation.  

The challenge

OmniStudio completely redesigned and developed CDF’s web assets in 2008 in partnership with RedEngine Digital (SEO and Web Analytics) based on the following challenges:

  • Clearly define website audiences and their goals. Then translate those attributes into the best website usability, accessibility, and design aesthetics
  • Drive increased new, qualified traffic through search engine optimization
  • Reorganize, optimize, and migrate a large amount of documents, resources, and data based on a new taxonomy to enable easier content access
  • Integrate CDF’s constituent relationship management system with a content management system
  • Ensure the CDF’s hard-fought brand building was crisp and consistent across national and regional and web properties

The solution

Audience research and discovery to prioritize website audiences and key usability elements for those audiences

  • Partnered with OgilvyPR for rebranding that included new logo, colors, styles makeover photography, messaging and slogan
  • Partnered with RedEngine Digital early in the process to integrate search engine optimization (SEO) recommendations though the entire process to ensure “search engine friendly” site and high rank for top program issues
  • Created a new user experience with a usable, user-centric design; better content differentiation and user cuing; unique feel to set CDF apart
  • Integrated Convio CMS with the existing Convio Online Marketing (COM) setup; and enhanced the implementation of COM modules for a tighter integration with the main site’s user experience  

Results

Launched the new site in January 2009 and overall site visits from 2008 to 2009 increased 12 percent

  • Email conversion rate increased from 2.0 percent to 8.5 percent; Google organic search visits increased 23 percent; Google listing now includes CDF program links
  • Average time on site up 15 percent; bounce rate improved 1.37 percent
  • Facebook page use has doubled the page views since 2008; 26 percent increase in fans per day; 440 percent increase in visits from Facebook to site from 2008 to 2009
  • A wide range of keyword phrases (e.g. “ending child poverty” and “child advocacy”)  increased in rank from low or nonexistent to top 5 on Google in most cases
  • Improved internal site traffic and better staff understanding of content organization and integration, resulting in less time to maintain the site, often due to dynamically driven and related content automation

 

Related links

Children's Defense Fund | Convio