Building TruckSmarter.com
In Oct ‘23, we launched a new website for TruckSmarter, a startup that helps truck drivers run their businesses. In six months, a team of four researched, developed a narrative, concepted, developed brand architecture, got buy-in, wrote, designed, optimized, and built it.
Results: 4X the site’s daily users and 329% organic growth, during a freight recession.
Dani Lindsey, Brand Lead & Design
Steph Lederer, Copywriting & Content
Su Nijhawan, SEO & Performance Marketing
Santiago Ramos, Digital Product Design
The opportunity
Since the launch of our previous site, we’d introduced new products and new branding and the site had not been optimized for search engines. This presented opportunities for UX, storytelling, and SEO.
Process
The first thing we did was outline a fast but doable timeline and conduct a thorough site audit.
Strategy
To build a site that served brand and business goals, we workshopped a new strategy. To inform that strategy, we built a flywheel outlining the phases of interaction with our brand.
UX & stakeholder feedback
Before developing content, we had to rethink the brand architecture and build alignment among stakeholders. So we met with stakeholders and spent countless hours ironing out how to best organize our offerings for easy navigation.
CEO vs. CFO vision alignment
Building the UX
Getting all the feedback
Brand & storytelling
We rebuilt the site from the ground up, infusing it with the newly created Brand Identity so it looked and felt like it was coming from us, not just any company. Here are a few examples of its evolution.
New site
Original site
Original HP Hero
New HP Hero
Original Product Page Hero
New Product Page Herp
SEO strategy
We worked closely with an SEO expert to increase organic traffic through improved visibility and user experience. From a copy POV, I prioritized:
On-page copy optimizations, including organic keywords
Off-page content optimizations, including alt tags and meta descriptions
Increasing the number of organic keywords
Maintaining quality and original content for higher rankings
Understanding updates to Google Search, including AI Overviews
Impact:
Increased organic traffic 4X the site’s daily users
Increased volume of organic keywords through the TruckSmarter Blog
Increased visibility by bringing TruckSmarter into the first 3-6 non-sponsored search results on Google for non-branded high search keywords: freight factoring, truck load board, and free load board
Increasing keywords
Once launched, I hired and managed a brilliant SEO writer to populate the blog with high quality content that aligned with Google’s recent “helpful content” update. Our strategy was to interview drivers regularly to deliver original, authoritative content that was new, helpful, and indexed on search.
Role: Blog strategy & direction
Writer: Jean Han
Results
In six months, the new site became the top growth driver for TruckSmarter, outpacing competitors during a freight recession:
Increased organic traffic 4X the site’s daily users
Increased active users from 20K to 149K
Increased volume of organic keywords through the TruckSmarter Blog
Increased visibility, bringing TruckSmarter into the first 3-6 non-sponsored search results on Google for non-branded high search keywords: freight factoring, truck load board, and free load board
