Case: Technical Audit and Editorial Team Training for Ґвара Медіа

Ґвара Медіа — a Kharkiv-based media organization covering the war, life in the region, and socially important topics in two languages — Ukrainian and English. Website traffic grew in 2023, but then began to fluctuate, while the number of keywords the website ranked for stopped growing.

Goals

Understand the reasons behind the unstable traffic dynamics, fix technical issues, and teach the editorial team to independently write and optimize content for search — so the results do not depend on ongoing external support.

Starting Point — Before the Work Began

The audit revealed:

  • Content issues: weak keyword targeting — some articles ranked for keywords that were not related to the topic of the content at all
  • Technical issues: missing image alt tags, mobile speed issues, and pages without a correct canonical version
  • Metadata: meta descriptions were missing from almost all pages; subheadings were marked up incorrectly or in the wrong order — the title often simply duplicated the H1
  • The team lacked a systematic approach to working with keywords and SEO analysis tools (Ahrefs and similar tools)

What We Did

We conducted a full technical SEO audit with prioritized fixes and developer support during implementation.

We also conducted a separate audit for compliance with Google News and Google Discover requirements — checking the news sitemap, article structure, tags, headings, and structured data, as well as providing recommendations for the publishing strategy and E-E-A-T.

We conducted the training “How to Write Content to Rank at the Top of Google” — two webinars using examples from Ґвара Медіа’s own content. We covered common issues: missing descriptions, incorrect heading hierarchy, ineffective use of links (external vs. internal, anchor vs. non-anchor), common image alt-text mistakes, content structure, and the use of visual elements. We also showed the team how to use Ahrefs and similar tools to independently research keywords.

End Point — Results

The editorial team received a technically optimized website and a clear set of recommendations, demonstrating the potential to grow traffic by optimizing existing and new content.

The main outcome of the training is that the team can now independently research keywords and optimize content for search using professional SEO tools, without the need for ongoing external support for basic tasks.

A technical audit solves problems here and now, while training gives the editorial team long-term independence. A team that understands why the title should not duplicate the H1 and why a description is needed stops repeating the same mistakes in every new piece of content.