Web + SEO: VisLit.org
May 2013–March 2018
The Challenge: The Toledo Museum of Art needed to quickly create a web portal for its visual literacy initiative. There were many requirements outlined in the project brief, among them:
An overview on visual literacy at the Museum
A section for downloadable visual literacy resources
A contact form for those who wished to engage further with TMA
A space dedicated to visual literacy-related videos
The web portal also needed to support the 2014 International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) conference, which the Toledo Museum of Art hosted in Fall 2014. Not only were there time constraints, there were budget limitations for the project as well.
In addition to this being one of my first projects as TMA’s new Social Media and Digital Communications Manager, I was also directed to have the Toledo Museum of Art appear as the top Google search result for the search term “visual literacy.”
The Solution: Given the needs of the web portal and the timeline to launch the site, Squarespace was selected as the content management system on which the site would be built. Squarespace provided flexibility to build visually engaging pages quickly, while supporting the specific actions TMA wanted visitors to take while on the website. The Museum had Madhouse design a customized Squarespace template that reinforced the new branding the agency created for its visual literacy initiative. The CMS also made it easy to add new content, which played a critical role in the SEO strategy.
The Result: VisLit.org was launched within a month and half of my start date at the Toledo Museum of Art. Within six months of launch, VisLit.org became the top search result for “visual literacy” on Google. It also played an important role in the success of the 2014 IVLA conference as a key communications tool before, during and after the four-day event.
The web portal became a go-to resource for educators, museum professionals and researchers interested in visual literacy during the five years it was active. VisLit.org was retired in 2018 with the launch of the Museum’s redesigned website.