Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) is a Pioneer Valley based non-profit whose mission is to promote the use of locally grown and manufactured food and value added products. Although, CISA has an excellent reputation in the local community through its Local Hero campaign, its has made little use of the internet and social media as a vehicle for its marketing efforts. As a component of my internship, I was asked to complete an SEO audit and make suggestions about how CISA might increase its visibility on the internet.

1. Erik Jonsberg
GCC Student Intern
September 13, 2013

2.  Generate revenue through monetary conversions
 Donations
 Emergency Farm Fund
 Senior Farm Share
 Planned Giving
 Local Hero memberships
 Community memberships
 Fulfill requirements of grants
 Provide marketing and other resources to local farmers
 Foster community with consumers, farmers and local
food activists
 Be the voice of the local food movement in the Pioneer
Valley
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

3.  Increase web based monetary conversions
 donations by 25% over one year
 community memberships by 25% over one year
 Local Hero memberships by 25% over one year
 Increase farmer/producer usage of resource pages by 50% over
one year
 Increase Facebook referrals/likes by 25% over one year
 Increase overall site traffic by 25% over one year
 Rationale for one year timeframe
 Adequate time frame for documenting effects of SEO
 Represents one full crop cycle
 Control for seasonal fluctuations in site traffic
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

4. Strengths
Good content
• Press
• Recipes etc.
• Events
• Classifieds
• Farmer resources
• Farm Fresh is awesome resource
• Local food calculator
Attractive site
• Nice graphics
• Pleasing overall design
Opportunities
• CISA positioned to be the voice of the local
food movement in the Pioneer Valley
• Clearing house of information for farmers
and consumers
• Voice opinions on important food topics
• Foster a community of like-minded
consumers and farmers
• Educate the public
• Few, if any, competitors on the internet
Threats
• To much reliance on Farm Fresh is
ultimately hurting the site and detracting
from other important resources.
Weaknesses
Difficult to navigate
• Deep map
• Important content hidden in menus
• Search bar hidden on bottom of page
Confusing structure
• Categories don't always make sense
• Donation pages are confusing
Poor integration with social media
Web development is decentralized
• Donations and other monetary conversions
are tracked outside Google Analytics
No event tracking
Farm Fresh is separate domain
S W
TO
SWOT Analysis
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

5. • Equal distribution of
major sources
• Small percentage of
traffic to campaigns
indicates under-
utilization of feature
• Total hits low compared
to Farm Fresh indicates
loss of traffic to that site
• Peaks correspond to:
• Taste the view
• Restaurant Days
• Food Calculator
• Food safety rules
Traffic Sources
Overview
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

6. Organic
Searches
• Most of the people
who visit the site
already know about
CISA
• Visitors using Google
to avoid typing URL,
not for search
• Keywords unclear and
underutilized
• Research long tail
keywords and include
in copy and links.
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

7. Referrals
• Most referrals are from
Facebook and Farm
Fresh
• Not much traffic from
linking sites.
• Cultivate high
authority external
links:
• WWLP
• WRSI
• Mass.gov
• Colleges
• Member farms
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

8. Direct
• High overall
bounce rate
• Bounce rate from
home page
indicative of users
going off site to
Farm Fresh and/or
not finding what
they want
• Only farmer
resource is Food
Safety
• Donation pages
absent
• Connect to social
media to promote
pages/events
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

9. Campaigns
• Could be a good
measure of initiatives
• Usage is unclear
• Only spike in traffic
was related to an
email dated 8/22/13
• LH Challenge appears
to be well tracked
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

10. • Majority of visitors bounce at home page
• Better integration of CISA and Farm Fresh sites
• In page analytics * is an excellent resource for studying where
people navigate on your site
*you will need to be logged into Google Analytics to view this link
Traffic Flow
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

11.  Data
 CISA has 2,229 “likes” with 49 conversations
 Current strategy includes a “page”
 Facebook not well integrated with website
 Implications
 Few people connect Facebook page with CISA website
 Social media is under-utilized
 Strategy
 Link Facebook to buylocalfood.org through “like” buttons,
comments, conversations and links
 Cross post to Twitter and blog
 Utilize Facebook Ads to increase page “likes” and site hits
 Research “groups” on Facebook on related topics and increase
“likes” by participating as the voice of CISA.
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

12.  External links can be researched at Open Site Explorer
 Bloggers are talking about you
 Feedburner
 Wordpress
 Blog spot
 Grist
 You're in the news
 Masslive (Republican)
 Grist
 Boston Globe magazine
 Boost page/domain authority by cultivating high quality
links
 Increase links per page and use keywords as anchor text to
attract backlinks
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

13.  Search is primary traffic source
 Many keywords are from long tail
 Majority of known keyword phrases include “farmer”
and “market”
 Strategy should include incentives to bring visitors
back to CISA
 Member benefits
 Noteworthy items on CISA site
 Link to “comments” section on CISA site
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

14. • Farm Fresh receives exponentially more hits because it
includes RI and CT, however it includes many CISA links
• In page analytics* shows that 33% are clicking on Resources,
which includes a link to buylocalfood.com
• Fix bad links and provide incentives for trackbacks to CISA
*you will need to be logged into Google Analytics to view this link
Traffic Flow
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

15.  Google cache shows no images
 Redirects are 302 Temporary
 Monetary conversion pages are difficult to
navigate
 Titles need keywords
 Site search bar is at bottom of page
 Navigation bar is deep and confusing
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013

16.  Improve design of
donation/membership pages
 Navigation structure
 One click payments
 Improve overall site design to facilitate
length of stay
 Deep to shallow
 Polls, quizzes
 Opportunities to provide feedback
 Internal link structure
 Identify target Keywords…
 Research long tail key words
 Increase key word usage in copy
 Utilize tags
 Improve readability and interactivity of
resource pages
 Fillable forms
 Links to outside resources
 Convert .pdf to .html
 Increase opportunities for community
involvement/feedback
 Facebook integration
 Blog
 Guest contributors
 Opportunity for discussion
 Increased producer/consumer
participation
 Forums
 Increase crawlability by major search
engines
 Better integration of farmfresh.org
and buylocalfood.org
 Decrease bounce rate
 Longer length of stay
 Reach out to domains with high
authority
 More links per page
 Link anchor text with key words
Erik Jonsberg
September 13, 2013