American Counseling Association Website Redesign

American Counseling Association Website Redesign

Professional counselors help people gain personal insights, develop strategies and come up with real-life solutions to the problems and challenges they face in every area of life. Since 1952, the American Counseling Association (ACA) has provided education, community and professional development opportunities to its members, now totaling more than 58,000. ACA members serve people of all ages, in diverse practicing settings, across different modalities.

ACA is a thriving professional society. While all members are counselors, ACA has 19 divisions, four regions and 56 branches. The association has a rich offering of content and services on the website, including continuing education courses, a magazine, and seven journals. In addition, ACA is active on the advocacy front, pushing for states to pass the Counseling Compact — an agreement among states to legislatively recognize other states’ counseling licenses.

ACA serves students, new and experienced professional counselors, counselor educators, clinicians who practice in diverse settings (group, classroom, hospital, community agencies, prisons, and in private practice to name just a few), across the globe. How do you meet their needs, make it easy for them to find the proper resources, and spur them to action when needed?

CLIENT
American Counseling Association (ACA)

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Sitefinity

SERVICES
User Experience
Member Journeys
Content Strategy
Web Design
Development
Integration
Analytics Training
Search Engine Optimization

Awards
2024 Communicator Award

The Challenge

The ACA website was in need of an overhaul. The site was last redesigned in 2013 and in the intervening years, the design had become dated, wayfinding was difficult, and the site was hard for staff to maintain. With a new CEO, a new strategic plan, growing membership, and topics around mental health in the public eye, ACA knew they needed to take action.

Matrix Group was tasked with helping the association rethink the member journeys through the site, make ACA’s signature services more visible and accessible, better market their education and products, and encourage member participation in all aspects of the association.

The Solution

To rethink and transform the website, ACA turned to its longtime partner, Matrix Group International. Matrix Group has been ACA’s digital partner since 2011. ACA and Matrix Group worked together to:

  • Rethink the navigation and wayfinding. We made it easier to find information through navigation and search, especially the journals and ACA’s educational resources.
  • Create a new content strategy. Much of the content on landing pages was updated, we created a new section for the Counseling Compact (a key advocacy initiative), and recommended a Learn About Counseling section to educate the public about what counselors do and their enduring value to everyone.
  • Present the ACA brand in a fresh way. The new design has a modern aesthetic, and showcases that counseling is about people and connections.
  • Re-implement the content management system. The ACA site remains in the Sitefinity content management system, but we cleaned up the implementation, refreshed templates, created new content types, and provided training.
  • Refresh all integrations. Key to amazing and seamless member journeys is integrating an organization’s various web properties. There are smoother journeys between the website, the magazine (now part of the website), the journal vendor, the ACA community, and the ACA store.

The Result

  • ACA members report satisfaction with how the new site is organized, saying it’s so much easier to find information.
  • The ACA team is able to keep the website updated more easily, without help from outside parties. The staff say that pages are simple to set up and design.
  • The new Resource Center is now organized by topic, showing the ACA’s rich array of resources compiled over the years.
  • The ACA is able to focus attention on the Counseling Compact, arguably the most important advocacy initiative for the association in a generation. When all states sign on to the Counseling Compact, counselors will be able to see patients virtually, across state lines, thus expanding mental health services to all parts of the country.
  • The Learn About Counseling page of the website is the 11th most popular page on the site, helping to accomplish the ACA’s goal of educating the public about who counselors are, what they do, and the importance of their work.

It had been more than a decade since ACA’s website had been redesigned, and the site was definitely showing its age—the functionality wasn’t there and the design was tired. Matrix Group International acted as a true partner as we undertook this massive project. From concept, to design, to execution, the ACA and Matrix Group teams pushed each other to problem solve, get creative and build the site that the association and our members needed. Since relaunch, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re all proud to have a beautiful, functional site to show off!

— Stacy Brooks Whatley, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer - American Counseling Association