Client: Stillwater Music School
I audited and analyzed Stillwater Music School’s website and recommended ways they could improve their content findability, user experience, and content structure. If implemented, these recommendations are projected to lift class signups by ~15–35% and recover lost search visibility.
Audiences: Students, parents, donors, instructors, job seekers
Goals: Increase visibility and signups
Objectives: To find content gaps, assess findability, quality of content, and effectiveness of the course selection process.
Deliverables: I gave them a Next Steps action checklist with a detailed audit and analysis, and a content inventory that included SEO findings and recommendations.
Strengths: I found that the homepage clearly conveys the mission. The tone is welcoming and consistent. The content itself is very scannable. Human-centered language is used across the site. CTAs are clear and emotionally appropriate. Visuals enhance the content. Program descriptions are clear. Audiences (students, donors, parents) are clearly served. There is strong directional guidance.
Opportunities: I found some content on the site is outdated or misdirected. The site lacks personal stories/testimonials. Readability is college-level in places, too high for kids. There is no site search tool. The “What We Do” and “Our Programs” menu items have redundancies, causing confusion. There is no entry point for job seekers. The headlines lack punch. It is not easy to scan through the class schedule. According to my SEO analysis, keyword visibility has dropped sharply since Sept 2024. There are missing/empty H1 tags on many pages. Meta data are missing on most pages. The images lack alt text, and many are out of focus.
My recommendations:
Add personal stories & testimonials
Collect and feature stories from students, parents, or teachers with names, photos, and quotes to build trust and engagement.Fix metadata and content structure
Ensure every page has a proper <h1>, add missing meta data, and improve alt text for all meaningful images.Improve readability across pages
Simplify language to a 6th-grade reading level where appropriate—especially on staff, instructor, and instrument pages.Consolidate and streamline navigation
Merge redundant menu items (like “What We Do” and “Our Programs”), and remove unnecessary pages like the social media page.Add search functionality
Implement a sitewide search tool so it’s easier to find classes and instructors.Add a job-seeker entry point
Create a clear, optimized pathway for job seekers with a dedicated “Work With Us” page.
What I learned:
When organizations grow fast, they just start to pile on products/services without thinking of a degrading user experience. Not having a search tool is fine for some sites, but when you have a catalog of products/services to search through, you need search functionality. Search based on age, instrumnt, instructor, days/times, etc, would help increase signups through a better user experience. Also, having more compelling headers and enforced content models would improve SEO.
No search tool for classes.
Lots of wasted space and requires a lot of scrolling.
Navigation
Problems
Redundancy in main nav between “Our Programs” and “What We Do” leads to confusion and unnecessary pages.
“As Development Coordinator of Stillwater Music, I had the pleasure of working with Christine on a comprehensive content audit of our website. She delivered an in-depth, actionable analysis that was easy to apply and will have a lasting impact—and she did it with clear communication and faster-than-expected turnaround.
Christine was new to Stillwater but still approached the project with a clear understanding of our voice and purpose. She identified where our messaging was already strong—such as the clarity of our mission and calls-to-action—while also revealing key opportunities, like adding personal stories and testimonials. Her audit also gave us a roadmap for improving readability, making our content more inviting, and strengthening our SEO to regain lost keyword visibility. She spotted gaps in site functionality, including the absence of a search tool and optimized entry points for job seekers. Her skills in this area far exceed those of anyone on our team, so her insight was invaluable to us and has set the course for us to make meaningful improvements to our web presence.
What impressed me most was the level of detail. From missing meta descriptions and alt text, to navigation redundancies, Christine provided clear, prioritized recommendations we can act on immediately. Hunting down these issues would've taken me and my team hours.
Another thing I appreciated about Christine's audit was the actionable steps she outlined to remedy each point of friction. She made it so easy for us to go down the list and make the improvements she pointed out.
I recommend Christine to any organization seeking a guide to help you elevate your story and connect with your audience!”
Casey Padron, Development Coordinator, Stillwater Music