|
Promotion Tip:
Web Site Promotion Success Story
by Larisa Thomason,
Senior Web Analyst,
Keynote NetMechanic
It's always a pleasure when NetMechanic customers and newsletter subscribers contact us with their success stories. Perhaps a certain technique from a newsletter story helped make their page better, or maybe HTML Toolbox virtually eliminated the tedious process of code debugging.
But we don't often hear a compelling story like the one told by Larry Fleshman, VP of Multimedia - Technology at Phase Five Technologies, Inc. in Ponoka, Alberta. Phase Five is a full-service Web design and media company that uses the Power Pack tool for all its Web clients. When we contacted him for more information, he agreed to share his web site promotion success story with other newsletter subscribers.
"This Stuff Really Works!"
Larry emphasized the most important aspect of Search Engine Power Pack: "This stuff really works!"
He should know, because he credits Power Pack with saving at least one of Phase Five's clients from bankruptcy. It's a travel promotion site, so that statement isn't as extreme as it sounds. Bankruptcy was a real possibility. Remember what happened to travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks?
Phase Five signed its new client (we'll call the company the Alberta Rocky Mountain Travel or, ARMT for short) in the months following Sept. 11. ARMT was desperately trying to promote travel to the Canadian Rocky Mountains (located in the province of Alberta in Western Canada), but wasn't having much success.
Phase Five quickly realized that ARMT had several major problems:
- An ineffective Web site and promotion strategy
- Very competitive keyword categories
- The post-Sept. 11 travel slump
During a booming economy, when consumers have a lot of discretionary spending, travel sells well. ARMT's Web site and promotion weaknesses weren't a big problem, but as soon as the travel market deteriorated, the weaknesses became critical.
Web Site Promotion Strategy In Action
Phase Five had to redesign the client's Web site so it could be promoted more easily. It needed more content because content is what sells, whether you're talking about a Web site, a TV show, a newspaper, or even a simple conversation between friends. Without content, there's no effective communication.
So a critical part of this redesign process was determining what content to include and which keywords and keyword phrases should be targeted. It was a tough call: consider the number of people who search on "Rocky Mountain vacations" or simply "Rocky Mountains." A search at Google on either phrase returns thousands of Web pages in the search results. Since most people don't have the time or patience to browse through thousands of pages, success hinges on appearing near the top of the search results.
Phase Five's design team made extensive use of Power Pack's Keyword Selection Tool and Page Primer during this phase of development. Power Pack helped the team select the most useful keywords and then include them on individual Web pages in a way that best appealed to search engine ranking algorithms.
And it worked!
"This Region Had Its Best Year Ever"
After the redesign, Phase Five reports that ARMT travel sites (there's a family of sites and subsites promoting different areas in the Alberta region) consistently rank near the top of the
search engines - even though the online travel market is incredibly competitive and congested.
One of the clearest indications of success is the amount of traffic at the main site. Past history indicated that ARMT could expect a couple of hundred hits per week during January and February - the slowest months. But the Power Pack suite of tools has drastically increased those numbers.
Not doubled, not tripled…. a tenfold increase in traffic during the slowest part of the year!
Right now, ARMT is getting 1200-1500 hits per week to their sites. Larry notes that they're getting "…summer results in the winter, during the slowest period. Imagine what it will be this summer!"
Other sites have reason to be envious. Although the entire travel industry still suffers, ARMT had its best year ever. Similar Canadian travel sites just haven't had the same results from their sites and Phase Five credits Power Pack for making that possible:
"After September 11, most regional travel destinations were on the verge of bankruptcy. Using the NetMechanic suite of web site promotion tools, we were able to reach new target markets and save an entire community whose income is completely dependent on tourism."
Wow. We do get compliments from our customers, but we've never been credited with saving an entire region's economy before!
"It's Dirt Cheap"
So ok. You may think that just about any tool or strategy will work if you throw enough money at it.
Well, that doesn't seem to work for government spending and it's not really true for online businesses either. Search Engine Power Pack has proved so useful and cost effective (they actually used the term "dirt cheap" to describe it) that Phase Five uses it for all their design clients!
None of the clients complain because they're thrilled with the results:
"When it is important for our clients to be in the Top 10 or 20 returns from a Web search, we rely on the NetMechanic suite of tools to achieve the results necessary."
Clients are surprised to pay so little for a tool that returns so much - especially since some have already spent thousands. Larry described another client who approached Phase Five for help. The client already had a site, but it wasn't going anywhere - even though they had paid another company $3500 (US dollars) just to create their keywords and META tags.
"Learned It In An Afternoon"
Those are some amazing stories, but if you're a beginning webmaster, you may still be intimidated by the tool. After all, these guys are design professionals! Of course they can use the tool!
What about regular people? What about you personally?
We asked Larry about that during the interview. Did his team have problems using the tool at first and how would they rate the learning curve. He gave us an example:
"We have a 16-year-old production assistant here in the office who started this week. She learned to use Power Pack yesterday afternoon."
Power Pack comes with user instructions bundled with the tools. For more information, visit our online tutorial that gives you step-by-step instructions on how to use Power Pack. You can also read about search engine promotion in general at our online search engine optimization tutorial.
If you're still confused, contact our technical support for help. Even professional designers need help sometimes and the Phase Five designers are no exception:
"I would like to applaud the NetMechanic staff for the excellent service we receive on a consistent basis. Whenever we have needed their help, they have always been there and responded in a truly timely manner."
"Our Client List Just Keeps Growing!"
Too often, Web designers believe that their primary goal is just to design a Web site and hand it off to their client. What happens after that isn't their concern, but it concerns the client greatly! A client is not getting the service they're paying for - and they deserve - if they're left with a site they can't promote.
Promotion has to be considered during the design process! When it's an afterthought, you're probably looking at an expensive redesign and a lot of lost sales in the meantime.
When you can deliver an attractive, functional Web site that draws visitors, you're offering your client a full-service design solution.
Phase Five realizes that. It's one reason they use Power Pack tools during each step of the design process. It's a strategy that pays off:
"Because of the consistent results we're able to achieve with the NetMechanic suite of tools, our client list just keeps growing!!"
It's a win/win/win situation: NetMechanic provides the tools, Phase Five produces results that attract clients, and the clients achieve their promotion objectives.
Isn't about time you tried Search Engine Power Pack on your site?
Note: If you've had a success story related to your Web site and you'd like to share it,
tell us about it.
|
