Archive for April, 2011

15
Apr 2011

CVS Cruise Victoria Website Report…

Posted by Steve  >  Search Engine Optimization, Web Design & Strategy
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Of all the websites we have created over the past ten years, possibly no one company has benefited more than CVS Cruise Victoria, whose website graded at an extremely low 9/100 when we began working on it. Unfortunately, we do not have an example to show you and even doing a search on Wayback does not show anything ever existed before we re-designed it but there was a web page…

With only a small budget available, the design was constrained to an html site and evolved only slightly visually over a three years period.

However, today the CVS Cruise Victoria website has a grading of 89/100, which means that of the millions of websites that have previously been evaluated, the algorithm we employ to measure these analytics has calculated that this site now scores higher than 89% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness.

As mentioned above and because I want to make sure I state this clearly, this is an increase from 9/100 from the date we began optimizing and working on CVS Cruise Victoria in June, 2008. An increase of almost 900% in less than three years.

Visitation to the web site has increased by 66.50% year over year and the bounce rate is down by 25.38%.

CVS Cruise Victoria did not have a Blog, and after several suggestions, we finally talked the management into creating a Free Blog on Blogspot, even though it is not as good as virtually any other option, it does work… and was implemented in a fashion that the client could update on their own. Now, when we analyze that Blog, we find that their Blog now grades globally at  37.13 which is based on a measurement of the traffic levels to the blog and the number and quality of links pointing at it.

Optimizing that content from the Blog to assist the overall ranking of the website was a key step in achieving the higher grading, by allowing the maximum exposure of the valuable content every website has – which provides the best chance possible of drawing traffic from the web and web searches. In essence, this is about maximizing your ROC – return on content.

After coaching the management at CVS Cruise Victoria over a three year period, the site managed to collect a total of 328 inbound links to the website, from an initial total of 7.

One of the most important measures for a website is how many other sites link to it. The more links the better. Having links to a website from authoritative resources on the Internet helps that website rank higher in search engines since these links are an indication that your website is trustworthy and contains good content.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standard way to easily deliver content to visitors after they’ve left your website but they’re still interested in your subject. RSS is commonly used with blogs, news feeds, and other formatted news or other sources of information, so when we included the Blog and linked it to the website, CVS gained the integration of this feature, driving MORE traffic to the website.

Alexa is an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings. When they crawled the website in late 2010, they found that the site had increased to rank within the top 11.68 % of all websites.

When we began work on this web site, the site ranked 73.46% of all web sites, which is quite a low score – which means we increased the sites online visibility by 61%.

So, overall, although this company would not share their sales figures with us, we think it is fair to state that with the overall success of the website, that we have helped them increase sales significantly over the past three years.

What does bother me, although it is every clients right, is that the client decided they could now update it themselves and this is one of the areas I do take exception with… we try very hard to become partners with our clients but every now and then it does not work out as we hoped and this is one of those occasions.

We wish CVS Cruise Victoria Good Luck.

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A note added on September 1, 2011. We just checked the grading of this website and it has now declined to 77/100 from a high of 89/100 and has fallen below the Top 14% of all global websites… that’s a fairly substantial fall in grading over a period of less than a year and goes to show how much maintenance is needed on a website.


11
Apr 2011

How effective is your website?

Posted by Steve  >  Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design & Strategy
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Your website is your virtual storefront… and accessible worldwide. There is no other communication vehicle which provides such a wide range of access to potential customers.

It becomes your brand identity, your voice to the world.

And unlike print material, your website is a dynamic vehicle through which you have the opportunity to provide timely information for all your customers. A good website uses this leverage to engage with customers, extend the reach of a brand and – most importantly – sell more product.

Your website has the luxury of being able to host as much content as is relevant to your brand, your customers and your business objectives and a good website provides visitors with detailed information about your product, your company, your story and how to contact you. And of course, you want them to discover whatever information they are seeking or provide them information on how to reach you to answer their questions….

Over the past few years with the explosion of social media and WordPress, there are now additional ways to update your website with relevant content far more efficiently than just a few years ago.

Creating a website which fully integrates social media, WordPress and RSS Feeds, allowing one post to be multi-purposed, optimized content across a broad spectrum of media and be 100% trackable, unlike print media or television, is the way to go today and we believe this requires the skills of an experienced marketer and a well thought out marketing strategy.

Using the full power of your website integrated with social media allows you to get your message out quickly and efficiently and retain the analytics to track return on investment.

Of course, there are strategies which work more effectively than others and optimizing your website by giving visibility to your best selling products and providing an easy path to purchase those products on your home page is key to converting visitors. A great website asks for the sale by including a compelling Call-to-Action up front.

Our goal with our website design is to helps companies make the most of their websites by creating a thoughtfully designed site map which is goal oriented and ensures that the site is driving and attracting new traffic, converting visitors to buyers, increasing sales and extending the reach of your brand.

We provide full reports on websites for a nominal fee to give clients a snapshot of what they are doing right and what areas they need work on. If you would like to know how your website is doing and in what areas it could use some assistance, drop us an email at steve@stephenroper.com or visit our website to check around for yourself.

6
Apr 2011

Swan Lake Re-Design…

Posted by Steve  >  Branding, Non Profit, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design & Strategy
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A couple of years back we were asked to re-design the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary website. Above we have provided a snapshot of what the original site looked like and our re-design.

We are very pleased with the results of the new design.

Here’s some of the stats regarding the new design and what it means to the Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary.

Visitation over the first year of the new design increased by 78% and a full 65% of those are New Visitors.

For a non-profit organization, reaching new markets is critically important as anyone who has received a direct mail package from most non-profits knows… you cannot keep going back to your membership for more funds to support the organization time and again… non-profits MUST find new members and offer them something which they find compelling enough to support.

The re-design of the website positions Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary for the future… integrating a variety of social media options including Facebook. Considering the increase in visitation and our 216 Facebook Friends, we’re pretty pleased with the results as well.

The Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary consists of two distinct areas;

  • marshy lowlands surrounding Swan Lake
  • rocky, oak-forested highlands of Christmas Hill

Swan Lake
The marsh around Swan Lake provides good habitat for many birds and small animals, including muskrat, river otter and mink. They make their homes in the rock walls, marsh grasses and cattails beside the lake. Swan Lake’s water comes from a large watershed to the north and the east, which includes Blenkinsop Lake. The water drains west from the lake into the Colquitz River and drains into the Pacific Ocean at Portage Inlet.

Christmas Hill
The highland environment of Christmas Hill is in marked contrast to the lowlands of Swan Lake. The glacially moulded rock faces, the vernal (seasonal) pond and the majestic view from the hilltop are of special interest to visitors. The meadows surrounding Christmas Hill bloom with a sea of wildflowers in the spring. The Swan Lake and Christmas Hill sections are connected by a trail corridor. A 2.5-kilometre loop trail, that includes two wharves and a floating walkway, provide access to the lake area.

Swan Lake History
The lake was formed 12,000 years ago when the last glacier receded. Swan Lake was rescued from oblivion just a few decades ago. During most of its recent history it was a dumping ground for raw sewage, dairy farms and a winery. Cleanup began in the 1970′s and today the lake is a rich habitat for a variety of wildlife.

The Nature Sanctuary Society
Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary is a nature education centre. It is a registered charitable organization run by the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary Society. The lands and facilities are owned by the Corporation of the District of Saanich, and the Nature Sanctuary Society operates through a land management agreement with Saanich since June, 1975.