Background
Murphy’s Camping on the Ocean is a small family operated campground located 80 km east of Halifax on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. In operation since 1960, Murphy’s Camping has become a vacation retreat for families and friends, providing a rustic camping experience. It offers 25 unserviced tent sites, 12 serviced RV sites, 10 seasonal sites, and 5 rental units.
Problem
Website traffic for Murphy’s Camping had flat lined at approximately 10 000 visits per year from 2009 to 2011. This is shown in the chart below.
The website consistently ranked on the 2nd page of Google Search Results in position 12 to 20 for relevant search terms, such as “campgrounds in nova scotia” and “nova scotia camping”. This was far from ideal, and action was needed to increase website traffic.
Solution
One solution which was implemented was a website redesign with a strong focus on search engine optimization (SEO). The website was rebuilt from the ground up, using best practices in search engine optimization.
Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools were implemented with the website so that website traffic could be easily monitored and statistics could be retrieved. The website was built with these tools in mind so that desired measures could be retrieved, such as conversions. A conversion is any desired action that is useful to your business. In the case of Murphy’s Camping, reservation requests are the most important conversion. A user visiting the website and completing the online submission form to reserve a campsite is considered a highly valuable interaction with the website, resulting in direct revenue which can be easily tracked using Google Analytics.
Improvement
The website for Murphy’s Camping on the Ocean now consistently ranks on the 1st page of Google Search Results in position 4 to 7 for relevant search terms, such as “campgrounds in nova scotia” and “nova scotia camping”.
Results
The results are very evident as shown in the table below. Organic website traffic is on target to exceed 18 000 visits by the end of 2014.
*Conversion data was not available for 2011. Therefore, conversions for 2011 were extrapolated using the average conversion rate from 2012 to 2014. The formulas used for this calculation are shown in the appendix. Since the conversion rate has held nearly constant at roughly 1.7% from 2012 to 2014, I am confident the estimation for 2011 is reasonably accurate.
The average conversion value for Murphy’s Camping on the Ocean has been previously calculated to be $117.60. Using this average conversion value, it is easy to calculate the total conversion value. That is, how much revenue organic website traffic has provided.
Conclusion
As you can see from the table above, revenue has increased as a direct result of increased organic website traffic. The increased revenue over the 3 year period since the website redesign totals more than $30 000! For a small business with only two full time staff, $30 000 is not chump change. Search engine optimization works!
Appendix
- Organic website traffic includes only website visits which are non-paid.
- Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools are available for free from Google.
- Formulas used for extrapolating 2011 conversions
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