Case Study:
Scaling West Elm’s Organic Growth Through Content Strategy + On-Site Optimization
Role: Senior Digital Analyst (Contract)
Company: Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (West Elm)
Focus: Content strategy, on-site content optimization, SEO performance improvements
Timeline: ~6 months (Aug 2024–Jan 2025)
The challenge:
West Elm’s organic performance depended heavily on a large set of high-value pages—especially category and product-adjacent experiences where customers are researching, comparing, and deciding what to buy.
The opportunity wasn’t just “write more content,” but to make existing pages clearer, more discoverable, and more useful—while staying tightly aligned to brand voice.
What I owned
I served as a hybrid content strategy + SEO lead, responsible for:
Setting content priorities based on performance signals and customer intent
Writing/creating content briefs for page updates and new work
Providing on-page optimization guidance (structure, internal linking, metadata, and targeted copy edits)
Building reporting and decision systems to support ongoing iteration
Partnering cross-functionally to align on what mattered most and ship consistently
My approach
1) Prioritize the work that moves the needle
I used a refresh-first approach: identify which high-impact pages to improve vs. what net-new content would actually earn its keep. That meant combining performance signals with customer intent and competitive context to create a simple roadmap: refresh, build, or deprioritize.
2) Build briefs that make execution easy
To speed execution and improve quality, I created clear briefs and guidelines that made it easy for partners to ship consistent work. Briefs focused on:
Customer intent and key questions to answer
Page structure and content modules
Internal linking recommendations
Metadata updates and copy refinements
Quality standards (clarity, scannability, voice)
3) Treat optimization like an ongoing system, not a one-time pass
Instead of “set it and forget it,” I worked in cycles—ship updates, measure impact, and feed insights into the next round of work. This created a repeatable loop that improved both quality and speed over time.
Results
Within ~6 months, this approach contributed to measurable organic improvements:
+6% YoY increase in organic clicks
+34% growth in top-3 keyword rankings
+10% growth in total ranking keywords
+1.5% YoY improvement in average position
What I'm Proud of:
Turning “SEO recommendations” into practical, brand-safe, launch-ready content guidance
Creating a prioritization/briefing system that helped stakeholders move faster with less confusion
Using performance signals to drive decisions—so work improved over time, not just shipped
“I had the pleasure of managing Veronica during her time at William Sonoma, where she consistently demonstrated an exceptional blend of analytical rigor, creativity, and strategic insight while working on the West Elm brand. Veronica quickly became a go-to expert for all things content. Her ability to uncover key consumer behaviors and optimize our natural search resulted in measurable improvements in traffic, engagement, and conversion rates for West Elm. Veronica is a great communicator who works cross-functionally with ease. She’s proactive and data-driven and helped us stay ahead in a competitive retail environment. I highly recommend Veronica–anyone would be lucky to work with her.”
Vijay Vasu | Director of SEO | Williams Sonoma
