Yerba Buena Gardens turns to TeamworksCom for a new website

Today, Yerba Buena Gardens is centerpiece of San Francisco’s cultural, convention and visitor district. In and around YBG, visitors can discover renowned galleries, museums, cafes, restaurants and theaters, all cradled by landscaped lawns, public art, and award-winning architecture.

A challenging past and changing future.

What was once was part of a challenged neighborhood, Yerba Buena Gardens | YBG is now part of an 87-acre urban redevelopment project that includes a mix of:

• | Housing
• | Open space
• | Cultural facilities
• | Children’s facilities
• | Convention center
• | Commercial development

For over 20 years, families have flocked from around the Bay Area, and around the world, to see the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and waterfall, revel in hundreds of free outdoor performances at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and experience the Children’s Garden, Play Circle and Children’s Creativity Museum.

People of all ages enjoy ice skating, bowling, the historic carousel, as well as the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the new SFMOMA, restaurants and shopping at Jessie Square and Yerba Buena Lane. And best of all, Yerba Buena Gardens instills community pride as a public park open to everyone in the community for free.

A timely online opportunity.

YBG was considering a concentrated effort to revisit their messaging, content, and facility rental processes in order to develop a new, modern + mobile optimized website that supported a comprehensive list of requirements.

They were seeking an experienced and qualified partner to help them present the unique value of this loved and cherished San Francisco public resource. YBG was also undergoing a period of transition as stewardship of the park would soon be passed to a new conservancy that would have oversight, management and fiscal responsibility for this popular SF destination.

A website, launched in 2013, had served the needs of YBG until it became outdated and increased their online risk of a failed visitor experience. Moving forward, their primary strategic goals included:

1. | Disclose the management transition + conservancy oversight
2. | Highlight new tenants + attractions
3. | Improve application + management of permits for events
4. | Enhance visibility of YBG events and the popular Gardens Festival
5. | Mitigate SEO penalties or diminished ranking
6. | Replace + upgrade aging underlying web technologies

A structured process to a successful outcome.

Teamworkscom | TWC was retained and engaged by YBG to provide a comprehensive, multi-phase program to create their new website and more. TWC’s program began with a thorough audit and analysis of YBG’s online presence including their website, social media profiles and all content.

Using a number of tools and structured techniques to analyze website visitors, content, SEO, conversions and performance, TWC identified opportunities for improvement that included recommendations to simplify the content organization and user experience.

Data details expose opportunity.

TWC’s analysis evaluated current site metrics including:

• | Domain authority
• | Site traffic
• | Most visited content
• | Average time on page
• | Referral sources—including Social
• | Key search terms
• | Device access
• | Overall online marketing effectiveness
• | And more

By understanding and sharing these data points with YBG, TWC mitigated the loss of existing visitor traffic and identified areas that needed attention.

TWC also evaluated all content and images in the old website to assess SEO compliance and optimization across headers, pages, content, supporting copy and images. And by focusing on user personas that TWC defined, they were able to better structure how site visitors navigate and consume site content. They also evaluated opportunities and made recommendations for improving conversions on essential content such as event permit applications, subscriptions and visitor inquiries.

Let’s get technical about it.

A technical analysis was also conducted to understand critical site performance information including:

• Page + site load speeds
• Hosting quality
• SSL + CDN
• Link + URL structure
• Backlink quality
• Content addition frequency
• And more

Each of the audit components helped TWC uncover what components or content worked well and what areas needed to be revisited or reimagined. TWC then summarized and reported their analysis to provide guidance and understanding on how to architect a better performing website.

A website requirement list like no other.

Our audit, planning and discovery process also disclosed important attributes and requirement that included:

• Simplify content presentation + access
• Update all tenant information + links
• Provide one-click access to owned, tenant + neighbor calendars
• Update messaging to reflect unique experiences, events + facilities
• Update all photography
• Accommodate + highlight key recurring events
• Incorporate blog for building community + driving traffic
• Reduce complexity of event permit application
• Capture all necessary data with auto-notification
• Integrate all past blog content
• Mitigate SEO penalty or domain authority reduction
• Enable responsive delivery to mobile devices
• Enable one-click, measurable, social-sharing
• Set up new, Tier-1 hosting service
• Optimize fast site performance
• Integrate Marketing Automation platform
• Integrate Secure Socket Layer | SSL security
• Integrate robust Content Management System | CMS
• Provide integrated tools for performance + content analysis

An outcome that exceeded expectations.

Andrew Bryant, President of MJMMG, who serves as the management resource for assisting the City of San Francisco in planning, operations and future development at YBG, added:

Online marketing expertise is within reach.

TeamworksCom specializes in website solutions and content marketing services. They help their customers express their unique value through integrated online marketing strategies and targeted, creative content that attracts prospects and helps convert them into qualified leads.

Paul Pruneau, President of TeamworksCom, shared this about the new Yerba Buena Gardens website:

“We really appreciated the opportunity to work with Yerba Buena Gardens because it’s such a visible and well loved public space. The relationship and work that we’ve developed with the entire YBG team has been both terrific and rewarding.

The YBG team challenged us to a higher level to deliver our best work. And we look forward to helping them continue their success with a content marketing program to attract site visitors, enhance lead generation and increase revenue for facility rentals.”

Ready to take your brand to the next level?

Would you like to position your brand, express your value, and develop a website that’s optimized for search and converts qualified leads?

To learn more about our strategic approach to integrated online marketing, contact us online or just give us a call at 415.789.5830.

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