Captain Experiences' Remarkable SEO Success in 2023: Triple-Digit Growth in Rankings and Organic Traffic and consolidating key markets
The Challenge
The innovative and driven Captain Experiences team faced challenges in scaling and expanding organic visibility in an already crowded digital landscape:
- Improving organic share of voice in their key markets
- Scaling organic success across hundreds of destinations
- Replicating their fishing charter success in an expansion to hunting guides
The Solution
Propellic delved deep intothe fishing and hunting industry sectors. Understanding the customer persona, their preferences, the drivers of success of established operators, and the latest market & algorithmic trends formed the foundation of the SEO strategy.
The Result
- 158% YOY increase in rankings in the Top 3 positions in Google
- 163% more Organic Traffic YOY
- Page 1 rankings for Galveston & Destin locations up 102% and 91% respectively, YOY.
- Hunting Guide landing pages’ Page 1 Rankings and Organic Traffic up 266% and 257% YOY, respectively
The Challenge
Captain Experiences emerged from a genuine necessity, the product of numerous years immersed in the outdoor adventures and myriad hours spent in the complexities of booking fishing and hunting trips. In 2019 Jonathan Newar experienced the challenging process of finding quality fishing guides.
By 2020 Captain Experiences was launched to stand as a beacon for fishing enthusiasts, simplifying the process of finding and booking their next adventure.
Captain Experiences, while already successful in several key markets, faced challenges in improving upon and scaling that digital success across all of their markets and into new services.
Their main challenges were:
- Improving organic share of voice in their key markets
- Scaling organic success across hundreds of destinations
- Replicating their fishing charter success in an expansion to hunting guides
Given the intense competition and the ever-evolving algorithms of search engines, Propellic needed to push boundaries and bring something new to the table.
The Solution
Propellic delved deep into the fishing and hunting industry sectors with two priorities in mind: secure top-performing markets; and identify the best scalable tactics. Understanding the customer persona, their preferences, the drivers of success of established operators, and the latest market & algorithmic trends helped form the foundation of the SEO strategy.
Page Template Optimization
Propellic’s team, led by an experienced Senior SEO Manager, produced detailed trend assessments based on correlated ranking factors and competitor insights. The resulting guidance was applied to page templates across hundreds of hunting and fishing destination pages. This ensured that key SEO and conversion needs were met while maintaining or improving user experience.
Ai-Powered Content Generation
Recognizing the need for content for broader organic success and the scalability of AI, Propellic employed AI tools to generate content at scale. Following very tight guidelines and with human QA at each step, the result was SEO-optimized content that resonated with the audience.
Website Url Structure Strategy
Propellic worked closely with the Captain Experiences team on how best to prepare captainexperiences.com for long-term organic success. The result was a detailed, data-driven URL structure that supported expansion goals while keeping platform limitations in check.
Lastly, we set up continuous monitoring of Campatin Experiences’ SEO performance and made regular adjustments based on the data.
The Results
After implementing our tailored SEO strategy, Captain Experiences began to see impressive results on their end which were confirmed with our own monitoring:
Growth in Top 3 Rankings:
In the first year, Propellic's strategies bore fruit as Captain Experiences saw their rankings in the top 3 Google results grow by a staggering 158% to 3,106.
Growth in Organic Traffic
Captain Experiences saw 163% more organic traffic in December 2023, YOY, maintaining >100K monthly organic visitors during their slow season.
Share of Voice Growth in Key Markets:
Galveston and Destin Page 1 rankings in Google increased 102% and 91% YOY to 313 and 218, respectively.
Hunting Guide Expansion Success:
Initial visibility improvements on Hunting Guide landing pages led to significant traffic growth in hunting season as Page 1 Rankings and Organic Traffic grew 266% and 257% YOY, respectively.
Surge in Organic Traffic & Top 3 Rankings Growth in 2023:
The graphs below illustrate the exponential growth of Captain Experiences' average organic traffic over the past five years, as well as the increase in organic keywords from 1 to 3.
*Source: ahrefs.com past 5 years of performance
