The problem

Soon after I joined, I spotted more than 100 404 errors a week across a multi-region website. Plenty of people had seen them. Nobody owned them.

What I did

• Audited everything that could plausibly be guilty: content, Search Console, Tag Manager, the CMS, hosting and the repository.
• Found the culprit: pages were being set to draft or deleted without Google being told, so the index and the site slowly drifted apart.
• Compared a snapshot of the Search Console index with the real sitemap, then cleaned up the drafts and deleted pages.
• Set up a monthly 404 report for every regional content manager. The SEO agency ran it first; we now run it in-house, and I trained a colleague to run it without me.

The result

From over 100 a week to about 10 to 15 a month, across the global site and 17 regional ones. The fix is a routine, not a heroic weekend, which is the point.

The problem

My audit found we had no access to the repository, the files or the code base. A simple update took over a month, the agency had quietly subcontracted another agency, and nobody covered our time zones.

What I did

• Reported it to my line manager, who asked me to run the search. I called six agencies, compared them and shortlisted three for detailed quotes.
• Split the judging: she assessed cost, I assessed communication, workflow and architecture. We chose a global agency on reputation, accessibility expertise (WCAG, W3C) and support across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
• Wrote the migration plan, briefed every regional content manager and agreed contingencies, including a full backup without code access. The old agency kept the repository keys, so this was a careful, basic migration.
• Picked a low-traffic window and watched it with the agency until everything was confirmed. About 50 to 60 image and document URLs had moved wrongly; a bulk correction fixed them with no visible impact.
• Afterwards, set up a GitHub repository and a Jira and Confluence board, so the company finally owns its own code and documentation.

The result

The global site and 17 regional sites (10 in Europe, 3 in the Americas, 4 in Asia Pacific) moved with no impact on search visibility.

The problem

The site needed a more modern look and message, and the regional content managers are not a technical team. Any redesign had to be something they could reuse alone.

What I did

• Proposed the visual changes from a user experience and interface point of view, made front-end mockups, presented them and adjusted until they were approved in full.
• Turned the approved designs into reusable bespoke blocks, so regional teams build pages without writing code.
• Set up a QA process for publication, so news can be prepared in advance.
• Now moving the site from Advanced Custom Fields to native Gutenberg, for more flexibility.

The result

The global site is refreshed. A page that took about two weeks now takes about one, and every region has started using some of the blocks. Regional alignment is still in progress, and I will say so before you ask.