🌟 Finding #1: User Demographics and Geographic Reach
The predominant user demographic consists mainly of newcomers to the site, that is, new users to the website are 76% more than current active users. With the majority originating from the Bay Area, United States. Following visitors from within the California region, (31.85%) the next largest group of visitors are from New York (1.85%). 

Fig 1: Segmentation of users by region; showing percentage of users from different cities. 

🌟 Finding #2: Device Usage and Traffic Sources
‍The primary source of traffic is organic searches. Desktop visits account for 62.6% of users, while mobile visits make up 37.5%.

Fig 2: Table and chart showing the sources of traffic to the website.

🤔 Strategic Recommendation: Tailor content to the interests and needs of users from other places.
By placing a greater emphasis on the traditional arts and cultural traditions that ACTA promotes, we can reach a wider audience across the country, who aren’t from California but are interested in different folk and traditional art. 

🌟 Finding #3: Page-Specific Issue
The 8th-ranking top page view loads a “Page not found” error, with 64 views within the last 28 days. The page has 1.52 views per user, higher than other top pages which hover around 1.2, and has a deficient engagement time of 4 seconds compared to roughly 50 seconds for other top pages. Through path exploration, we found that the “Page not found” errors tend to load from attempts to view the “Tawanda muChinyakara” page.

Fig 3: List of top pages visited by the users on the website.

Fig 4: The exploration path located the “page not found” errors.

🤔 Operational  Recommendation: Audit and update links on the site and in campaigns
Conduct a thorough audit to identify and rectify incorrect links on the website, and address the "Page not found" errors, particularly linked to the “Tawanda muChinyakara” page, ensuring accurate and up-to-date links. 

🌟 Findings #1: ACTA employs a general keyword strategy that is at odds with the specific keywords that actually drive user traffic. 
‍
Keywords impact search engine optimization because they are indicative of what potential users are searching to find your organization. A mismatch between a website’s keyword strategy and the target user group’s preferred keywords can negatively impact a website’s search engine optimization. Analysis of the keywords being highlighted in the content of the ACTA website as compared to the keywords which are driving traffic to the ACTA website reveals that ACTA should shift its focus away from general keywords to specific terms and phrases to attract users who are interested in the arts. 

Fig 5.

- A search of actaonline.org on WordTracker revealed that ACTA’s website ranks high when it comes to specific keywords, such as the names of specific artists or art forms (Fig 4). 
‍
- However, rote analysis of copy on the ACTA homepage clearly favors general references to “cultural traditions'', “artists” and “organizations” (Fig 5). 

- The disparity between the keywords that ACTA is prioritizing as compared to the keywords for which ACTA is a primary resource may be impacting ACTA’s visibility to potential users who would otherwise come across ACTA’s organization through a search of these specific terms. 

- It is reasonable to infer that those searching for specific artists or art forms are likely to comprise a key group of target users that ACTA is hoping to reach, people with a general interest in traditional arts

🤔 Recommendation 1.a: Supplement or replace general terms with specific keywords to attract users who may find ACTA through interest in a specific artist or art form. 
‍
General search terms speak more to ACTA’s overall mission and are likely to attract users seeking support from ACTA. Leveraging specific keywords such as the names of artists, art forms, and organizations that ACTA has worked with and supported in the past is likely to attract users who have an interest in the arts (and are therefore more likely to be searching up particular artists, etc.)
To optimize both categories of search terms, we recommend calling attention to these specific terms as examples after the inclusion of the general term (e.g., “We have distributed more than $7 million in grants to more than 1,660 artists and organizations throughout the state, such as Marion Coleman and the Inspired Sound Initiative.”)

Fig 6.

🌟 Recommendation #1.b: Enable Google Search Console tool to gain additional insights into web traffic data.

Google Search Console is a free tool offered by Google that provides data and analytics about factors affecting a website’s placement in Google Search results. One set of data available in Google Search Console is traffic data, which includes information about what search queries are driving user traffic to the website. Enabling this tool on the backend of ACTA’s website will allow ACTA to gain valuable insight into how users are using Google Search to find their organization. ACTA can in turn leverage these insights into a tailored keyword strategy. 

🌟 Findings #2: ACTA’s site speed rating is negatively impacted by load speed issues that are specifically related to image content. 
‍
Site speed measures how long it takes for content on a website to load. It is analyzed along dimensions such as First Contentful Paint (how long it takes for the first piece of content to load), Largest Contentful Paint (how long it takes for the largest piece of content to load), and Speed Index (how long it takes for all contents of a page to populate). A low site speed may impact a website’s search engine optimization because users are less likely to wait for a page to load in order to engage with it. 

Fig 7.a: Summary of insights from Google Page Speed Insights tool, identifying ACTA’s Largest Contentful Paint and Speed Index as the factors primarily contributing to slow site speeds on the actaonline.org homepage.

Fig 7.b: Summary of recommendations from Google Page Speed Insights tool, recommending technical improvements be made to the placement and integration of images on the ACTA website in order to improve site speed. 

- Analysis of site speed on the actaonline.org homepage revealed that while ACTA’s overall site speed rating is above average, it is being brought down by load speed issues which are specifically related to image content. In particular, ACTA’s LCP and Speed Index are both in need of improvement and contributing to the website’s slow site speed (Fig. 6.a.). 
‍
- Further analysis subsequently indicates that many of the slow site speed issues are caused by the way images are being used and distributed on the website, such as the image format, size, and encoding (Fig. 6.b.) 

- Slow site speeds stemming from how images are integrated on the ACTA website could have particularly egregious effects on ACTA’s SEO, since users who are interested in the arts are arguably more likely to be looking for visual content as much as (if not more than) text content 

🌟 Recommendation #2:  Ensure images are following recommended guidelines for size, format, and encoding in order to optimize site speed

Google Page Speed Insights identified three technical dimensions along which image integration can be improved on the ACTA website: 

1. Utilize Next-Gen Formats: Newer image formats like WebP or AVIF offer better image compression than traditional formats like JPEG and PNG without sacrificing image quality. Better compression means less content to load, thereby increasing site speed. WordPress plugins like PerformanceLab can automatically convert JPEGs and PNGs to these next-gen formats. 

2. Properly Size Images:Images should be sized at the back-end for the size they appear on the front-end interface; uploading images that are larger than necessary on the back-end wastes valuable time and space when loading the images to the front-end. 

3. Efficiently Encode Images:
As WPRocket puts it, “efficiently encoding images means optimizing images to reduce their file size without compromising quality”. Many strategies can be employed to ensure images are efficiently encoded - these include some already discussed above, such as resizing and using next-gen formats, alongside other tools like content delivery networks and strategies like lazy loading. 

Implementing these technical improvements will certainly allow ACTA to leverage the visual assets on the ACTA website to a greater extent in support of its ultimate goals of growth and visibility. 

🌟 Findings #3: ACTA’s site speed rating is negatively impacted by load speed issues that are specifically related to image content. 
‍
Although ACTA generally performed well in the on-site category of our SEO audit, the audit revealed sub-optimal performance of the ACTA website with respect to three key HTML elements - meta description, use of HTML headings, and image alt-text. In particular: 

- Meta Description: the meta description of the actaonline.org website is 237 characters long, well exceeding the recommended length of 160 characters by almost 80 characters 

- HTML Headings: Headings help the search engine crawlers differentiate between content on the page. Ideally, headings are applied not according to aesthetic but rather to create a content hierarchy. Auditing the HTML of the ACTA website reveals that headings are not used to create logical content hierarchy – for example, H1 appears as the subtitle rather than the title of the page.

- Image Alt-Text: in addition to being important for accessibility, image alt-text is also used by search engine crawlers to identify the content in graphics. Without the text, crawlers will not pick up this content, while picking up this content will improve a website’s authority. On the ACTA website, alt-text is used inconsistently and when it is applied it is not labeled with an alt-text tag in the HTML.  

🌟 Recommendation #3: Revise on-site HTML elements to reflect SEO best practices.

While  none of the “fail” items in the On-Site dimension category are individually as significant as the previous two findings, in combination they represent an overall need to improve the on-site HTML elements to reflect SEO best practices. In order to do this, ACTA should:

- Shorten the website’s meta description so it falls within the 70 - 160 recommended character range
‍
- Use the HTML header tags not to create visual interest but rather to create a content hierarchy according to HTML best practices (including using only one H1 per page for the highest piece of content and nesting headings according to their level)
‍
- Ensure that all images have descriptive alt-text that is tagged via proper html structure (i.e., <img src=”[link]” alt=”[alt text]”>

🌟 Findings #4: ACTA’s site speed rating is negatively impacted by load speed issues that are specifically related to image content. 
‍
A review of the Knowledge panel showed some missing information including the link to some social media accounts. Adding this information could benefit the SEO and appearance of ACTA on search results.

Fig 9: ACTA Current Knowledge Panel

Fig 10: Social media platforms that ACTA has

🌟 Recommendation #4: 

Create a Google Business (https://www.google.com/business/) account so that you can update this information, such as social accounts, in the Knowledge Panel. 

🌟 Findings #1: Overly-designed posts do not perform as well as posts that are not design and/or that are simple in their design
‍
- Of the eight posts that were made on the @caltradarts account over July 2023 - December 2023, three included no text over the image, three had minimal text over the image, and two were “designed” (i.e., featuring small image(s) within a frame with significant text around them)

-Together, the eight posts garnered an average of 39 likes. However, when looking just at the five less “designed” posts, the average number of likes jumps up to 46 likes, an 18% increase. These numbers indicate a trending preference for posts that prioritize visual content and minimize the appearance of words over visual content during the July 2023 - December 2023 period. 

- Quantitative analysis of all-time posts on the feed corroborates this trend - consider the post in Fig. 11 as compared to the post in Fig. 10. Although they both include a combination of text and words, the full-width image in Fig. 12 and the minimalistic text overlay garnered 76 likes as compared to the designed frame of Fig. 9 which garnered only 11.

Fig 11 & Fig 12

🤔 Recommendation #1: Prioritize imagery and, if using text, prioritize concise statements of the content of the post.
‍
Being that ACTA is an organization focused on traditional arts, we recommend that ACTA leverage the maximum potential of relevant visual content and let the images speak for themselves when considering social media strategy. 

Key guidelines include: allowing images to take up the full width, if not the full frame, of the post; and including concise text with minimal, clean styling

Where “designed” posts are recommended (e.g., to convey information about grants), we recommend including these posts in the Story feature and then archiving them under a highlight so users may refer back to them without disrupting the overall flow and content of the ACTA grid feed 

Refer to Figure 13 for a mockup demonstrating how these strategies might be implemented for a future ACTA post 

🌟 Finding #2: Users prefer posts about the ACTA community as compared to posts that are a call to action for the audience.

Of the eight posts that were made during the July 2023 - December 2023 period, two posts were calls for audience action - one being a call for donations, the other being a call for survey participants (Fig. 13.a. and Fig. 13.b.). These two posts garnered an average of 15 likes and 285 total impressions. Comparatively, the average number of likes of the eight posts was 39 while the average number of total impressions across the eight posts was 528.

These numbers represent over double the amount of average likes, and an 85% increase in average impressions for posts that convey information about the ACTA community as opposed to calling for audience action. 

Fig 13 a. & b.

🌟 Recommendation #2: Leverage the ACTA Instagram primarily as a place to share information about the community rather than calling for audience action. 
‍
- Our findings indicate that users prefer to see stories of the real people that comprise ACTA when they come to the ACTA Instagram, rather than being called to act by participating in a survey or donating 

- One hypothesis for this is that sharing information allows users to stay in the app, while asking for donations or for help completing a survey requires users to exit the app; however, further testing is needed to confirm whether this is correct

- Regardless, as ACTA reevaluates its content strategy, our recommendations include using the Instagram channel primarily as a tool highlighting the members of the ACTA community and their stories - these could be anything from employees, organizations, artists, communities

- Refer again to Figure 13 for a mockup demonstrating how these strategies might be implemented for a future ACTA post 

🌟 Recommendation #3: 
‍
‍- For posts and announcements that require audience action, use of stories with links that lead to relevant webpage might be beneficial. 

- Incorporate more videos to showcase art and people. By uploading reels of performances of artists , we can boost engagement and views. By leveraging more uploads of short-form video content, instagram content can tap into a wider audience. 

-Leverage native IG tools - stories, hashtags/account tags -> (growing audience).