Plain sailing as boat hire company reaches top of Google

Herbert Woods is one of the leading boat hire companies on the Norfolk Broads. Each year, around 7.6 million tourists visit the area, creating an extremely competitive marketplace. As an already respected boat yard, Herbert Woods asked us to increase their performance online and attract visitors who might be searching for boating trips in advance of their holiday. We focused our attention on a robust digital marketing strategy designed to deliver results.

We spotted a number of technical SEO issues that were holding the site back. To get a clear picture of what was happening, we performed an SEO audit on the site and found other critical issues. We used these findings to develop a robust organic search strategy, which included going back and fixing incorrect redirects, inconsistent URL structure and internal linking. We also created multiple new landing pages targeting long-tail search terms such as ‘winter boat hire on the Broads’. These pages went on to dominate the top positions in search and increased revenue.  

After we made these changes, Google took note. Organic traffic jumped up 50% year-on-year, and the website went on to achieve page one listings on Google for ‘Norfolk Broads boat hire’, ‘winter boat holidays Norfolk Broads’, ‘luxury boating holidays Norfolk Broads’ and rankings on page two of Google for ‘pet-friendly boating holidays Norfolk Broads’. Most importantly, sales went through the roof – Herbert Woods smashed their revenue targets by 21% only six months into the 12-month campaign.