Situations and Objectives

WeatherGard Windows had a problem. They were spending thousands of dollars each month on traditional advertising and experiencing consistently diminishing results.

Instead of blindly pumping more money into stagnant advertising mediums, they increased their investment in paid search advertising and hired Your Search Advisor to develop an integrated Search Engine Optimization strategy.

Their website was recently built by an Ann Arbor-based web design company, who were also responsible for implementing the approved recommendations. The website templates were XHTML compliant and accessible to search engines but the content was not optimized for the keywords and phrases that potential customers are typing into search engines.

About the Company

WeatherGard Windows is headquarted in Oak Park, MI. They manufacture and install vinyl replacement windows, siding, entry doors, roofing and insulation for residential and commercial customers throughout southeast Michigan.

The company and staff take pride in providing quality and unparalleled customer service. Their A+ Better Business Bureau rating is a testament to their commitment to their customers.

Solutions and Strategies

We recommended the following tactics in order to improve the relevance and credibility of the client’s site. The on-site implementation was managed by the original design firm.

Keyword Research

Prior to recommending any specific SEO strategies, Your Search Advisor conducted thorough keyword research and analysis to determine which keywords (and variations of those keywords) consumers were actually typing into search engines.

Each page on the WeatherGard website was assigned 2-3 targeted keyword phrases based on:

• Traffic Opportunity – Based on search volume as measured by several sources
• Competitive Presence – Calculated using the number of competitors targeting the same keywords

Content Optimization

Once we identified the targeted keywords, we provided specific recommendations for each page of copy on the website. Correct placement of keywords is essential for improving a page’s relevance.

The client wanted to maintain a knowledgeable, experienced voice without sounding robotic with obvious keyword repetition. By overlaying the search-friendly content structure with a user-friendly tone, we were able to strike the right balance.

De-Duplication of Content

As with many industries, WeatherGard’s product descriptions were copied verbatim from the manufacturers’ catalogs and other websites. While this simplified the copywriting process when the site was built, the longer-term outlook was not as positive. Because the copy matched other sites nearly word-for-word in many cases, Google and other search engines filtered WeatherGardWindows.com pages out of their search results.

By re-writing much of the content and eliminating the duplicated content, the client’s web pages were significantly more appealing to search engines.

Blog Strategy

Service businesses typically find it challenging to consistently generate fresh, relevant content for a brochure-style website. WeatherGard was no different. We recommended that they start a company blog to showcase how-to’s, home improvement resources, featured clients, testimonials, and project photos.

The resulting blog is integrated into the main website and frequently updated. I often remind clients that a stagnant blog is worse than no blog at all, since it demonstrates a lack of commitment. The WeatherGard Windows team is continually motivated by the increase in traffic and leads that the blog generates.

The Results Speak For Themselves

The approved changes to the WeatherGard website were made in April and May of 2009. Fortunately, the client has website analytics data going back more than 18 months so we can compare year-over-year traffic and leads to determine SEO results.

For SEO measurement purposes, we only consider organic (non-paid), non-branded (no company name keywords) traffic from search engines:

• May 2009 vs. May 2008: +150%
• June 2009 vs. June 2008: +264%
• July 2009 vs. July 2008: +427%