CONTENT STRATEGY · INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE · 2026
Where the narrative actually lives.
The framework was locked. The problem was that nothing on the website knew it existed.
ROLE
Head of Writing Studio
COMPANY
Global data-infrastructure company
OUTPUT
Sitemap · AEO structure · Phased plan
01 — THE SITUATION
A narrative with no address
the company's thought leadership framework had three themes and a clear ambition, but the site is organized by product. The themes sat scattered across product pages with a footer link to the company's editorial hub.
Meanwhile, buyers had started their research somewhere the architecture didn't account for: AI answer engines, which cite pages rather than rank them.
02 — WHAT I BUILT
A layer above the products
A proposed sitemap layering theme-level canonical pages above the existing product navigation — so nothing product marketing owns has to move, and qualified traffic feeds down into it.
CANONICAL HOMES
One page per theme
Theme-level pages sit above product navigation, giving the framework a citable address without moving anything product marketing owns.
ANSWER-ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Built to be cited
Structured for the engines buyers now start with — pages that answer questions cleanly enough to be quoted, rather than chase keyword rank.
THE ARGUMENT
First-party evidence
Argued from our own analytics rather than industry assertion, with a phased plan where each stage ships something real and earns the next.
03 — OUTCOME
The thesis traveled
Approved by the SVP of Marketing, who extended the thesis across four marketing workstreams. Ownership of web content strategy now sits with the Writing Studio.
A point of view only compounds when it has a canonical place to live.