Startup San Diego Re-Design & Optimization

Problem: The original Startup San Diego website was outdated, and many of the pictures and graphics were also not updated. The overall website needed a newer, modern look that reflected the current state of the organization. There was also a separate San Diego Startup Week website that drove traffic away from the main organization’s site.

Method: With the help of my graphic design intern and a small team of developers, we were able to redesign the whole site, focus on the user experience, SEO, and set up Google Analytics.

Design: Created a Figma wireframe with the new pages and branded colors, all with the end user in mind: startups, founders/entrepreneurs, and student talent.
SEO: focused on updating and optimizing the pillar pages, meta descriptions, images, alt tags, link building, and revitalized the blogs.
Google Analytics: We set up Google Analytics 4 to the website to make sure which pages were most popular and the journey map of each visitor.
San Diego Startup Week: We decided to combine SDSW under the Startup San Diego url in order to consolidate and boost traffic to the organizations site.

Result: We saw a 33% increase in site visitors, with an average of 4,500-5,000 unique visitors per month. As well as increase in form fills for potential sponsors and community sponsorships, averaging, 3-5 submissions each month. We also received esteemed approval from Startup San Diego stakeholders and the board for the new design.