SEAK Expert Witness Directory

Objective: Keep a paid directory fast, findable, and earning

SEAK, Inc. of Falmouth, Massachusetts, runs a set of online directories where attorneys search for expert witnesses, independent medical examiners, and file reviewers. The experts and firms listed in them pay for their profiles, and can buy featured placements and advertising on top.

That makes the website the product. Searches have to return the right people quickly, profiles have to renew and upgrade without friction, and advertising has to be easy to sell. When SEAK came to Web Ascender in 2017, it had an existing Ruby on Rails application and needed a team to take it over and grow it.

What Web Ascender Did

2017 to 2019: Take over, stabilize, refresh

• A clean takeover - we moved the application to new servers with backups and error monitoring, and added a small content management system
• A redesign - a refreshed look for the directory and new sidebar banner ads that gave SEAK a new product to sell

2020 to 2023: Better search and discoverability

• Rebuilt search - a search engine built on Elasticsearch so attorneys find the right expert faster
• An SEO audit - wireframes for the homepage and keyword pages, followed by keyword and specialty landing pages, sitemaps, and metrics tracking
• Registration and sign-in - conference registration forms, new signup and renewal forms, and two-factor login

2024 to 2026: Revenue features and a managed platform

• Dynamic pricing and new ad products - featured-listing pricing that adjusts, plus spotlight and platinum ad placements that can be sold separately
• Profile tools for members - a renewals and upgrades page, listing headlines, expiration reminders, and an image cropper
• Sharper search filters - narrow-your-search filters and exact-match search
• Admin tools - impersonation for support, spam protection, and new reports
• Modern infrastructure - a Rails upgrade, a move to new hosting, and Stripe for payments
• A security review - an independent audit of the application with recommendations, followed by implementation of the findings
• Managed support - an ongoing monthly engagement with regular status calls

The Outcome

SEAK has had the same development team since 2017, through more than ten years of continuous improvement. Attorneys get search that finds the right expert, experts get tools to manage and upgrade their own listings, and SEAK gets new products to sell and a platform that keeps up with traffic, payments, and security. Because the team that built each feature also runs the application, changes reach production quickly and with full knowledge of how the pieces fit.

In 2025 compared with 2024:

• 54% more visitors (259,758 to 400,930)
• 34% more organic search traffic (300,862 to 404,471 sessions), and 53% more than in 2023
• 40% more “email this expert” clicks (28,393 to 39,729), with clicks to members’ own websites up 36%