The Challenge
- visitamarillo.com is the central marketing hub for the Amarillo Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and the local destination marketing office (DMO).
- The goal was to drive more traffic to the website to increase interest and awareness of Amarillo as a top tourism destination for both conventions and travelers.
- A multitude of website issues was impacting their rank.
The Solution
- Implementation of SimpleView CMS to simplify content organization and delivery.
- Fix the confusing structure of the website and URL structure.
- Identify missed keywords and content/topic opportunities and themes.
- Improve and optimize page layouts.
- Create a dynamic editorial calendar leveraging well-researched keywords and topics to attract visitors from outside the area.
The Results
- Within three months, Visit Amarillo doubled organic traffic.
- Vastly improved user experience and site navigability.
- Capitalized on trending topics and previously untapped audiences.
- The CVB team has a concise editorial strategy targeting top-ranking keywords and topics of interest to visitors.
The Challenge
Visit Amarillo is a vehicle for the Amarillo CVB, funded exclusively by the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax. As such, the website does not sell experiences; its mission is to provide information to attract visitors and events to the area.
As one of the CVB’s primary marketing initiatives, Visit Amarillo needed to improve. Despite good visibility, the site was not performing well in organic search, especially compared to similar sites in other Texas regions.
We identified several reasons for this, including image optimization issues, page layouts, repetitive content, multiple redirects, and missed opportunities pertaining to trending search terms and topics.
The ultimate goal of our engagement was to boost search engine visibility and drive traffic to Visit Amarillo. By improving the user experience and making the site more relevant from a visitor’s perspective, Visit Amarillo would become a driving force to raise Amarillo’s profile as a prime tourist destination.
The Solution
Visit Amarillo certainly wasn’t lacking for content, but there was a lot of overlap—and plenty of missed opportunities.
Large sections of the website didn’t serve any useful purpose. Some, like the media gallery, were actually hurting their rank due to overlarge images and slow load speeds. Too many redirect chains, broken links, 404s, and non-secure http URLs were also a problem but were immediately identified during the initial website quality assessment and technical analysis.
We identified many gaps in Visit Amarillo’s keyword strategy by looking at other top Amarillo websites and Texas guide websites. We picked up on popular search topics and found many themes to capitalize on that would excite visitors from outside the area.
Using targeted keyword research, we developed high-level pages around trending topics like Outdoor Amarillo and Amarillo B&Bs.
We found many existing pages were either cannibalizing other pages on the site or did not have optimized or unique page titles or URLs. We selected a target keyword for each page and provided detailed recommendations for optimization, complete with new page titles, H1/H2 headings, heading structures, secondary keywords, and more.
Additionally, we identified pages that should be either deleted or merged, as the content was quite similar in some cases.
The Results
During the website quality assessment and technical analysis, we immediately identified the most significant website issues impacting Visit Amarillo’s performance. In addressing these key points—many of which were quick fixes—the CVB achieved value and saw measurable results almost immediately. Not even three months into our engagement, the organization enjoyed double organic traffic and significantly improved ranking.
Content optimization allowed Visit Amarillo to improve existing content without having to create new content to improve keyword rankings.
Using keyword research and analysis from competitors, we provided the client with an editorial calendar with 24 topics designed to attract visitors from outside the area who might not have otherwise considered visiting Amarillo. Topics of interest we identified include camping, hiking, ghost towns/abandoned towns, and stargazing—a huge attraction for international travelers.
For example, did you know that Amarillo is home to Palo Duro Canyon, one of the best places in Texas for stargazing? To attract stargazers looking for the next hot dark skies destination, we optimized with “stargazing in Texas” (KD 8, Volume 250), drawing a previously untapped and highly engaged audience.
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