About the Company

The Standing Wheelchair Company (Saginaw, MI) helps disabled people lead more normal lives by manufacturing custom standing wheelchairs in a variety of configurations. It is truly a life-changing product. As the only American manufacturer of a manual standing wheelchair, they wanted to let more people know about how their products can help relieve many serious medical conditions associated with prolonged sitting and the benefits of standing that the rest of us take for granted.

Quite possibly the friendliest folks you’ll ever meet, The Standing Company’s situation is familiar to a lot of small and medium-sized businesses. They did not have a way to measure how many people come to their website and what they did when they got there. They knew they needed to generate more business from their website, they just didn’t know how to do it themselves.

Situation and Objectives

The company’s website was developed several years ago and has remained basically stagnant since the developer is no longer in the business. The site needed some updates and refinements but there was not enough in the budget to build a new site from scratch. The clients also knew that their competitors were somehow outranking them in search engine results for keywords related to their products.

They wanted to increase email and phone inquiries and sales leads. They also wanted to enhance some of the outdated design elements and content structures on the existing website.

Solutions and Strategies

Your Search Advisor was hired to develop an SEO strategy and implement the approved recommendations on the website in the fall of 2008. In partnership with the client, we developed and implemented an integrated SEO strategy that included the following elements:

Website Analytics

Prior to the SEO engagement, the client did not have a website analytics package. This means they did not have any information about how many visitors their website received, how they got there, or what they did on the site. Our first step was to install Google Analytics on each page of their site and configure conversion tracking so they could see exactly how many people came to their site and submitted a lead.

We established a baseline before any changes were made to determine the overall effectiveness of the SEO efforts. This data was extremely valuable to the client because it allowed them to better understand the types of content their visitors wanted to see on the website. The site usage data also helped identify obstacles on the site that got in the way of visitors who were trying to find information.

SEO Strategy Development

We developed a customized SEO strategy that included:

• On-site optimization of the existing structural and content elements
• Content development
• Content distribution
• Local search marketing
• Social media strategy
• Optimized public relations

Additionally, we trained their team members to update the website content themselves based on the established SEO principles and keyword recommendations.

Keyword Research

Your Search Advisor conducted extensive keyword research and analysis to determine the terms searched by wheelchair users and their caretakers, physicians, and insurance case managers. These distinct audiences have different search engine usage patterns and responded to different types of content.

We analyzed keyword search volume and competitive presence across a variety of search engines and identified the words and phrases that potential customers are using to find similar but less beneficial products. These keywords were then mapped to individual pages on the client’s website for on-site optimization tactics.

Implementation and Site Updates

We updated the website structure to allow search engine crawlers to access all of the site’s content and navigation elements. Previously, much of the content and internal links were embedded in images or JavaScript structures that were not visible to the crawlers. We revised the existing copy with the targeted keywords in mind and we added a semantic markup structure to provide a hierarchy of content within each page.

Content Generation and Syndication

Based on keyword research, site analytics data, and audience analysis, we developed content for three different types of visitors: patients, doctors, and insurance case managers. This also allowed us to target a larger set of keywords. The new content covered an array of topics and included articles, product descriptions, FAQ sections, a photo gallery, competitive product comparison pages, and a resource section for additional reading.

Off the site, we trained and encouraged the client’s internal marketing team on how to create and distribute search-optimized press releases and manage their listings in local search engines. Additionally, we worked with company employees and standing wheelchair users to create a presence within social media sites such as Flickr, YouTube, and contributed knowledge to several related Wikipedia articles.

The Results Speak For Themselves

The implementation of the approved strategies began in early October 2008. The “heavy lifting” phase was completed by the end of the month, which was followed by content generation and syndication efforts from November through February.

• Between October ’08 and May ’09, organic search engine traffic to the website increased 42%.
• Email leads increased 68% during the same time period.
• Organic search engine traffic and leads are continuing to climb as the new content attracts links from other websites.