The Bay State Banner
Introduction
The Bay State Banner is an African American-owned news weekly that has been a vital voice for Boston’s Black and Latino communities since 1965. With an expanding digital footprint and a mission rooted in advocacy and education, the Banner needed a website that could keep up with its growing readership. Zion Webmedia stepped in to modernize their platform, improve site performance, and implement a focused SEO strategy — resulting in faster load times and a substantial increase in traffic.
Client Background
The Bay State Banner reports on political, economic, social, and cultural issues relevant to African Americans and English-speaking Latinos across New England. With an estimated 65,000 weekly print readers and over 120,000 monthly online readers, the Banner also publishes a national award-winning health publication, Be Healthy. In 2023, the paper was purchased by Ron Mitchell and André Stark, who are carrying forward its powerful legacy with a modern vision for digital expansion.
Project Objectives
- Revamp outdated site pages and add new functional layouts
- Improve loading speed and overall user experience
- Implement a comprehensive SEO strategy to drive traffic
- Provide ongoing support and maintenance for continuous optimization
The Solution
When we partnered with the Bay State Banner, their website was struggling with long load times, poor user navigation, and lacked proper search engine optimization. Our goal was to modernize the backend and frontend without disrupting the publication’s daily editorial flow.
- Website Maintenance: We rebuilt multiple web pages in lightweight HTML, reducing server bloat and improving load times. Elementor was used selectively for flexibility, while critical content-heavy areas were streamlined for speed.
- Technical SEO Implementation:
We conducted a deep technical audit and implemented:
- Canonical tags to avoid duplicate content
- Image compression and lazy loading
- Optimized page structure and headings
- Clean URLs, sitemap updates, and improved crawlability
- Performance & Security Upgrades:
- Integrated Cloudflare for CDN and caching
- Utilized WP-Forms for accessible, mobile-responsive contact forms
- Conducted regular speed tests and implemented backend cleanups
- Ongoing support and troubleshooting to keep the site secure and performing well
Results
- Faster Load Times: Homepage and internal articles now load in under 3 seconds
- Massive SEO Traffic Boost: Improved rankings and increased organic visits after technical cleanup and ongoing optimization
- User Experience Enhanced: Visitors now stay longer on-site and interact with more stories
- Reliable Maintenance: Continuous support has helped the editorial team avoid downtime or workflow disruptions
