Increasing Revenue and Engagement Through a Strategic Redesign & Infrastructure update

Background

Our client is a network of agriculture-focused news websites serving an audience of American farmers and agricultural professionals. Their platform publishes industry news, insights, and reports, making engagement and advertising revenue key business drivers.

However, their previous website was limiting revenue potential due to a couple of major pain points including a lack of advertising space, an outdated design, and slow speeds on the front and back end.

To overcome these challenges, Global AG partnered with our team to deliver a full-scale transformation of their platform —from design and user experience enhancements to technical upgrades and infrastructure improvements. Our approach modernised the site, optimised ad placements to increase revenue, and ensured seamless content accessibility across devices.

Challenges & Objectives

Key Challenges

• Limited Advertising Space – The previous design constrained the number of ads that could be displayed without disrupting the user experience.
• Outdated, Non-Responsive Design – The site wasn’t optimised for mobile and tablet users, leading to poor engagement.
• Scalability Issues – The existing platform was difficult to manage, slowing down content updates and reducing operational efficiency.
• Speed - slow loading on the front and back end hindered content creation and negatively affected SEO.

Project Goals

Increase ad revenue by introducing more advertising placements in a way that felt organic and non-intrusive.

• Enhance user engagement by improving content visibility and navigation.
• Ensure full responsiveness across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
• Create a flexible design system that could accommodate multiple sub-brands while maintaining a consistent look and feel.
• Show Metrics to advertising partners to see how their ads preform.

Our Approach

Strategic Ad Placement Without Disrupting UX

To maximise advertising revenue while maintaining a user-friendly experience, we:

• ✅ Tested multiple ad layouts through iterative design refinements to find the right balance between visibility and readability.
• ✅ Introduced new content formats that seamlessly integrated sponsored content such as sponsor logos, banners, chips, Industry showcases and optimised layout.
• ✅ Enhanced content distribution by displaying more articles per page, increasing the number of impressions per visit.

A Flexible, Modern Design System

To ensure a cohesive yet adaptable look across all sub-brands, we:

• 🎨 Developed a neutral colour palette (grey, black, and white) and giving each sub-brand its own highlight colour that complies with WCAG contrast standards. We also make sure they looked great together so the brand as a whole is cohesive.
• 📰 Revised the page structure to prioritise content, including a featured post section at the top displaying four key articles above the fold.
• 📱 Designed for responsiveness, creating tailored layouts for desktop, tablet, and mobile to optimise readability and engagement across devices. This made the development process smooth and gave everyone involved a clear vision of the end goal.

Improved Navigation & Content Discovery

To keep users engaged and encourage deeper browsing, we:

• 📌 Redesigned the menu for clearer category organisation, including a .
• 🔗 Added metadata elements (tags and categories) to help users find relevant articles easily.
• Updated search that allows for easier content discovery, grouped by type; article, sponsor and events.

Technical Execution

CMS Migration: From Legacy PHP to Craft CMS

• The old platform had performance issues and limited content management capabilities.
• We migrated all existing content, user data, and media assets from a legacy PHP CMS to Craft CMS, improving site speed, editorial workflow, and SEO performance.
• The new CMS provided more flexibility, allowing editors to easily update content, organise advertising, and track engagement metrics.

Custom Craft CMS Plugins for Advanced Functionality

To enhance the site’s capabilities, we built several custom Craft CMS plugins, including:

• An ad management system to track impressions and clicks, allowing the client to provide advertisers with detailed performance reports.
• An improved media library with enhanced image search, making it faster for editors to find and manage images.
• Automated content categorisation, tagging articles dynamically to improve content discovery.

Hosting Migration: From AWS to UpCloud

• We migrated from AWS to UpCloud, creating a custom-built hosting infrastructure tailored for high-traffic demands.
• This resulted in:
  • 🚀 Faster page load speeds on both frontend and backend.
  • 💰 Lower hosting costs while maintaining scalability.
  • 🔄 Improved reliability and uptime, ensuring a seamless user experience.

Results & Impact

📈 Higher User Engagement & Revenue

• More ad placements, leading to increased advertising revenue.
• More impressions and clicks per advert, allowing the client to provide clear performance reports to advertisers.
• Increased time on site due to improved content discovery.

⚡ Enhanced Performance & Usability

• A faster site, improving both SEO rankings and user experience.
• The backend was significantly optimised, especially for image searches, making content management much more efficient.
• The client reported that the site is now far easier to use, streamlining their workflow.

🔄 Ongoing Collaboration

We continue to work with Global AG to implement new features and further refine the platform, ensuring it evolves alongside their business needs.

Conclusion

Through a carefully balanced approach to advertising, user experience, and performance, we transformed Global AG’s platform into a more profitable and scalable solution. The redesign not only modernised their site but also increased engagement, ad revenue, and usability—ensuring long-term growth.