Case Study · Think Tank · Content Migration & SEO
Centre for Liberal Strategies: rebuilding trust, authority, and a global research archive
The Centre for Liberal Strategies lost access to their digital archive—home to two decades of political analysis by leading European thinkers, including Chairman Ivan Krastev (contributor to The New York Times and The Guardian).
- Client
- Centre for Liberal Strategies
- Category
- Think Tank · Content Migration & SEO
Project Snapshot
Restoring a national research archive
From forensic content recovery to a modern CMS and SEO foundation, the Centre’s new site keeps decades of scholarship visible to journalists, policymakers, and readers worldwide.
The goal was not recovery alone, but long-term authority preservation in search, media, and policy circles.
- Articles Recovered 2,000+
- Website Status 100% Live
- SEO Implementation Complete
Focus
- Website Migration
- Content Recovery
- CMS Implementation
- SEO Strategy
- UX Design
- Technical SEO
- Site Architecture
- Performance Optimisation
The challenge
Losing a domain meant risking decades of institutional memory, global citations, and media credibility. The task was not just technical recovery. It was to ensure that:
- Historical research remained discoverable and citable
- Search authority transferred cleanly without dilution
- Editorial teams could publish confidently without risking regressions
Key architectural decisions
- Forensic content recovery to preserve historical URLs, citations, and search equity
- CMS migration and information architecture designed for long-form research and policy analysis
- Search-first UX and taxonomy prioritising discoverability over aesthetics
- Technical SEO and performance optimisation to meet Core Web Vitals without compromising content depth
- Editorial governance and training to protect authority long after launch
Implementation
Recovery and rebuild happened in sprints—first validating the archive, then architecting a new platform designed for longevity.
- Conducted forensic recovery of the full archive via the Wayback Machine, validating content integrity before structured CMS import.
- Mapped historical URLs to a modern information architecture with redirects, canonical tags, and structured categories.
- Designed a responsive front-end with search, topic hubs, and author pages to surface high-value research.
- Rolled out technical SEO improvements—meta data, schema, internal links, XML sitemaps, and automated image optimisation.
- Optimised load speed through caching, asset compression, and a global CDN.
- Configured analytics, search console, and uptime monitoring to track recovery health and audience behaviour.
- Delivered hands-on training, documentation, and governance guidelines to future-proof publishing workflows.
Results
- Restored the Think Tank’s full digital footprint with 2,000+ articles live on a secure domain.
- Improved navigation and search, making decades of scholarship accessible to journalists and policymakers.
- Re-established organic visibility through comprehensive on-page and technical SEO.
- Launched a performant, mobile-optimised experience that meets modern Core Web Vitals benchmarks.
- Implemented a scalable CMS and editorial toolkit to support future reports, briefs, and commentary.
The platform now safeguards decades of research while giving the organisation a future-proof publishing system. One that supports policy briefs, interviews, and long-form commentary without compromising authority.
Conclusion
This engagement combined forensic recovery, modern publishing architecture, and SEO discipline to protect institutional knowledge at scale. The Centre for Liberal Strategies regained its digital footing without sacrificing credibility. And now has a platform built to support the next chapter of its global policy work.
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