Booked Solid
Princess Lodges grows Internet revenue 480%
Client: Princess Alaska Lodges
Web Site: www.princesslodges.com
Challenge: Grow site traffic, build a solid Internet marketing strategy, improve search engine rankings and increase conversion rates for visitors to PrincessLodges.com.
Answer: Build a new, easier-to-use site. Optimize it for the best traffic-generating terms in Princess Lodges’ industry, and then conduct an ongoing search engine optimization campaign that includes link popularity, content strategies and continuing site performance reviews.
Background: Great Lodges, No Traffic
Princess Lodges is the Alaska tour and lodges division of Princess Cruise Lines. With five luxury hotels and lodges throughout Alaska, and a wide range of rail tours, they offer visitors a great way to see the state. Their web site, though, was not performing.
In 2002 Robert Morgenstern, Princess Lodges Asset Marketing Manager, contacted Portent. The project? Improve the search engine rank of PrincessLodges.com, and make the site a more powerful selling tool.
Solved: Usable Design, SEO-Ready
We worked with Princess Lodges to create a new, more text-driven, content-rich site. The new site’s architecture simplifies choosing a hotel, and provides an easy link to the hotel booking engine. It also brings most site content to the upper levels of the site structure, thereby making Princesslodges.com a far more viable search engine marketing candidate. Built around our unique keyword mining algorithms, the new site anticipated user demand and the best search engine keywords.
We also launched a conservative, bargain-hunting pay-per-click campaign using Google Adwords. This campaign targeted regional and tour-specific terms, as well as other low-cost keyword opportunities.
Portent launched the new Princesslodges.com in March of 2003. Since then, we’ve continuously monitored site traffic, ranking and performance. With hard data indicating consumer wants and demand, Princess Lodges and Portent have added new features and content to the site.
Top Rank, Higher Traffic, Higher Revenues
The numbers speak for themselves. Princesslodges.com has seen a steady rise in their Google search rank, traffic, and Internet revenue:
| Reservations Increase | Revenue Increase | Visitors/Mo.* | “Alaska Hotels” Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/01-9/02 | 4,000 | 20+ | ||
| 9/02-9/03 | 77% | 79% | 5,813 | Top 15 |
| 9/03-9/04 | 243% | 286% | 8,114 | Top 3 |
* Site traffic statistics are per month. 2001-2002 statistics are estimated, based on WebTrends reporting – actual 2001-2002 statistics may have been lower.
Princess Lodges has seen their Internet bookings grow by over 300% in less than two years. Princesslodges.com gets twice as many unique visitors per month. What generated this growth?
First, improved search ranking has generated far more traffic: The Princess Lodges site is now in Google’s top five natural search results for:
- Alaska hotels (#1 as of 9/04)
- Alaska vacations (#2 as of 9/04)
- Alaska tours (#3 as of 9/04)
- Alaska lodges (#1 as of 9/04)
Second, Adwords supplemented this traffic for niche terms.
Third, the new Princess Lodges site design offers a far easier browsing experience. While site visits doubled, reservations tripled – visitors are now far more likely to make a reservation from PrincessLodges.com.
In early 2004, Portent added a new rail tours reservations system. The new e-commerce system sees triple the conversion rate of average online booking systems, and captured an additional increase in revenue. The total increase in Internet revenue between 2001 and 2004? Over 480%
With a complete Internet marketing strategy, Portent helped Princess Lodges website become the fastest growing source of revenue for their tours and lodges.
For more information contact:
Ian Lurie
Portent Interactive
206.575.3740
Contact Portent online
