Situation:

The Winehouse Bar & Bistro, located in Hampton Roads, Virginia had a continuing problem with its company web presence. The problem: the website was used as nothing more than an electronic business card. It did not provide any reason for customers to read about the business or any function to give customers a reason to return to the site. In short, the website was nothing more than directions for the customers that already new about the business.

Additionally, website traffic was anemic at best garnering no more than 15-20 unique visits a day averaging less than 1 page view per visit. The owner had a desire to articulate certain concepts relative to the wine industry so her customer base could benefit from her knowledge as well as understand a little more about her product philosophy. When broken down, the main issues were as follows:

1. No Integrated Brand: Relatively poor design with inadequate use of logo integrated colors. The brand itself was not highlighted or described by the design was, in fact, obscured by an inconsistent use of color and shapes.
2. No Focused Keyword Approach: Generally speaking, a keyword strategy did not exist. The few examples of positive SERP results were the result of obscure references within the body text that had very little relationship to the product topic thus providing no real value from organic search results.
3. Internal Linking Structure: The internal linking structure was inconsistent and nondescript offering to SEO value and in many cases providing varying paths to the same content.
4. Little Organic Search Traffic: Website volume was very poor and existing traffic was result of customers with preexisting knowledge of the restaurant thus offering no potential to stimulate growth.
5. No Use of Social Media: No integration of social media within the site nor any use of social media offsite.
6. No Use of Article Marketing Onsite or Offsite: The business had a wealth of topically relevant content available but had no vehicle for publishing.

The business owner did have many ideas (or wants and desires) related to the business internet presence. Most of the needs stemmed from a desire to better connect with her client base, establish a more meaningful relationship online and even attract new customers. She was very aware of social media and, in fact, had her own Facebook account she used for personal relationships, but had no idea how to utilize something similar for the business. The following is a breakdown of the clients main goals and/or needs:

1. Increase Traffic and Business Exposure: Above all else, the business owner wants more people to discover the resaurant on their own. If someone does a search on Google for wine bar norfolk, The Winehouse Bar & Bistro should the first to be seen.
2. Enhanced Mechanisms for Communication: The new website should include not only an ability to make short event announcements, but will need to engage the users interest. A mechanism to easily publish articles as well as capture contact information and publish routine email newsletters.
3. Professional Look and Feel: The restaurant is beautiful inside. The website needs to reflect the same quality.
4. Low Cost of Ownership: Need to keep recurring costs to a minimum as well as upfront licensing fees.

Actions

Multiple aspects of the website and general online branding strategy needed to be attacked including architecture of the entire website to allow for greater functionality, flexibility and search engine friendliness. The following actions were taken:

1. Platform: The need for both low upfront licensing costs and limited recurring costs (TCO) somewhat dictated the website CMS platform to be open source in nature. In addition to a clean and professional design, a simple mechanism for publishing information in blog style was also required. Because of this, the Wordpress Platform 2.8 was selected with industry leader Bluehost.com as the hosting provider. The front page style would be modified to incorporate both the needs of restaurant style descriptions and the new functions of published content.
2. Design: Content flow was modified to reflect a classic “magazine” style publishing site incorporating key aspects of the restaurant itself as well as highlighting topics of interest for the reader. This approach provided an additional brand enhancement as a content expert in the field of wine and food. The colors of both the dining room interior and logo were also incorporated to provide a consistent look and feel.
3. Keyword Strategy: Keyword success was limited to business specific searches providing no additional brand exposure and no traffic. Keyword list derived based on most common searches in the area related to wine bar and restaurant. Additional long tail words incorporated related to broader wine industry terms.
4. Social Media: Social Media sites selected based upon relevance to venue as well as interest to the owner. Multiple sites were incorporated using ping.fm to facilitate simple updates and output integrated into main website.
5. Content: Custom content developed providing for rich keyword relation and a broader scope of topics. Additional agreements established for offsite publications in regional online publications providing for greater exposure. Owner was trained on article publishing.
6. Backlink: Both free and paid for strategies were used to establish a broader base of one way text links to the main website.
7. Added Functions: Incorporated online reservation system and email campaign manager capabilities.
8. SEF Index: The internal indexing structure was optimized for maximum SE exposure.
9. Local Search: Broad platforms providing local business search (ie. Google) were setup providing function was provided without cost.
10. Text Link Ad Space: To offset cost of hosting, text link ad space was sold on monthly term.

The two most important elements of the actions taken (as it relates to SERP not function) were the overall platform re-architecture and the onsite/offsite content development. In simple terms, the website needed to be structured to allow search engines proper visibility. Once done, adequate and contextually appropriate content needed to be incorporated insuring the correct “eyeballs” were captured.

Results

The project was a tremendous success. Within three months of launch, the average daily pageviews increased by 400% with a #1 placement for the term “norfolk wine bar”. The owner was delighted by the design and how well it integrated into the overall feel of the business. Additional first page placement achieved for “hampton roads wine bar” which provided even broader exposure. Brand identity and awareness increased rapidly.

Resulting SEO Based Improvements

In providing a platform for the owner to publish articles and content, additional traffic was achieved via long tail key words related to newly published content (i.e. french wine classification). This created an entirely new avenue for brand exposure at a national and even international level.

Additionally, the website previously unused by customers was now a host to an email campaign list of over 1000 customers no more than 6 months after launch; growing at a rate of 100 new members a month. The use of the new system has shown to increase event baed turnouts by greater than 20% over the previously used methods.

Most importantly, with the subtle inclusion of text link advertising the total monthly cost of new hosting and email campaign services were negated making the TCO almost nothing.

The business brand now has a consistent look and feel, the function for the customer has increased and exposure is now simply dictated by how often the business owner feels like publishing new ideas.

New website design can be seen at www.mywinehouse.com