TEN, The Enthusiast Network, is the world’s premiere transmedia network of enthusiast brands including Motor Trend, Automobile, Surfer, and many others. TEN engaged iProspect to identify the cause of declining organic search traffic for their flagship Motor Trend brand. iProspect determined that there were two primary factors. First, Motor Trend’s cornerstone Buyer’s Guide content had been negatively impacted by Google’s Panda update. Second, TEN was seeing specific issues with load times for mobile pages, which was primarily caused by third-party advertisement server load - an element of the site that is critical to their business model.
The solution to TEN’s Motor Trend traffic challenge was a multi-disciplinary approach that included an ambitious content initiative, a comprehensive AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) implementation, and a host of more than a hundred technical and editorial/UX optimization sub-projects over the course of the larger effort.
The work began with a six-month overhaul of Motor Trend’s Buyer’s Guide content. This intensive redesign required the Motor Trend team to create unique content for hundreds of core site pages. To support and guide TEN’s subject matter expertise and editorial resources, iProspect provided the content framework including optimal word count, keyword trends, and development priority for makes and models based on search opportunities.
Complementing this enormous content effort, the team implemented AMP for all editorial content and also invested in redesigning the Buyer’s Guide templates into a mobile-first format. This time-intensive effort required the addition of specialized developer resources and AMP training for existing TEN team members. iProspect worked closely with the expanded team to clear several implementation hurdles including an early failed ad-test validation, developing an effective pre-check process for third-party content assets, and improving performance by identifying opportunities to increase engagement.
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