How a Website Redesign Tripled iACT’s Organic Search Traffic in 5 Weeks
Client: iACT · Industry: International nonprofit · Platform: Wix · Launched: September 2026
Five weeks after we launched iACT’s new website, their team reached out with some good news: their organic search traffic had tripled, and engaged sessions were double their monthly goal.
iACT is an international nonprofit that partners with refugee and conflict-affected communities around the world, and I had the honor of redesigning their website this fall. Their marketing company had just pulled the numbers, and iACT wanted me to see them. Total sessions were up 41%, and visitors were staying on the site 24% longer.
I’ve built websites for more than 12 years, and I’ll admit that email made my week. Not because the numbers were big, but because they proved something I tell every client: a beautiful website isn’t the goal. A website that works is.
Here’s how we got there.
Meet iACT
iACT is a community-led humanitarian nonprofit working in some of the hardest places in the world. More than 5,000 kids play in its Refugees United Soccer Academy every year, and more than 1,800 attend its Little Ripples preschools. Its work has been recognized by the Aurora Prize, the Clooney Foundation for Justice and the UEFA Foundation.
This is an organization doing extraordinary work. Their website just wasn’t keeping up with them.
The problem wasn’t how it looked
When iACT came to me, their site actually looked good. The photography was beautiful, and the brand felt warm and human. If you’d glanced at it, you might have wondered why they wanted a redesign at all.
But the problems were underneath.
People couldn’t find what they needed. Important pages were tucked inside other pages. A donor checking iACT’s financials, a partner organization trying to understand how iACT works, or a reporter looking for press materials all had to go digging. Most people won’t dig. They just leave.
Behind the scenes, the website had some important issues. Its SEO setup made it harder for search engines to discover and understand key pages, and slow loading times created unnecessary friction for visitors. These were things we could improve without losing the warmth and personality of iACT's brand.
For a nonprofit, those missed connections matter. Every person who struggles to find information or leaves before taking action could be a potential donor, volunteer or partner the organization never gets to reach.
Keep what works, rebuild the rest
We made an early decision not to throw out iACT’s look. It was working, and their supporters recognized it. So we kept the warmth and the photography and rebuilt everything else.
The biggest change was navigation. We reorganized the whole site into four clear paths: About Us, Our Work, Get Involved and Publications. Pages that used to be hard to find, like financials, locations, careers and internships, each individual program, press, and reports and papers, are now one click from anywhere on the site.
Next, we made giving effortless. “Donate Now” now sits in a bar at the top of every page, in the homepage hero and in the footer, so a ready donor never has to look for it.
Then we rebuilt the homepage to move people from story to action. It opens with the mission, shows the impact in real numbers and ends with four ways to get involved: donate, volunteer, partner or subscribe. Every visitor has a clear next step.
We also put iACT’s credibility where people could see it. The old homepage showed two badges. The new one has a full awards section with 16 recognitions, plus Candid Platinum Transparency and Charity Navigator Four-Star seals. People want to know an organization is trustworthy before they give, and now the proof is right there on the homepage.
iACT's original website The redesigned iACT website
Finally, the part nobody sees: SEO and speed. I rebuilt the site’s search foundation from the ground up, including page titles, meta descriptions, structured data that tells Google exactly who iACT is and what it does, image alt text, a clean site structure, and redirects so nothing from the old site got lost. I also cleaned up the build so pages load faster.
We launched in mid-September, in time for ticket sales for impACT26, iACT’s annual event.
What happened next
The numbers started moving almost immediately:
Organic search traffic tripled (+203%)
Form submissions grew 7x, from 2 to 14 in 30 days
Visitors increased 55%
Total sessions grew 41%, from 1,434 to 2,020
Average visit time rose 24%, to 84 seconds
Engaged sessions hit 2,013, double iACT’s goal of 1,000
More people were discovering iACT through organic search, spending more time on the website and submitting forms to connect with the organization. Seeing those improvements so soon after launch was incredibly rewarding.
The work didn’t change. Who can find it did.
iACT’s programs were already changing lives long before this redesign. Kids were already playing soccer in refugee camps. Preschools were already running, led by the communities they serve.
What changed is how many people can find that work, understand it and decide to be part of it.
That’s what a website should do for an organization like iACT. It shouldn’t be the story. It should get people to the story.
Visit the iACT website here.
Request a website project consultation here.
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