This web site design was created for Northwest Scuba.

Project Details:

Northwest scuba was having difficulties determining the effectiveness of their website as a business tool. They had received complaints from customers who were having difficulty finding relevant information, navigating through the website, and in general were dissatisfied with their online experience with Northwest Scuba.

Recognizing that their existing website was failing as a business tool, Northwest Scuba contacted Caldwell Creative to evaluate, plan, and build a website that would help grow their business and provide an effective online communication tool.

Caldwell Creative helped Northwest Scuba to:

> Increase google search engine traffic by 17,525.00%*
> Increase cumulative search engine traffic by 4,040.84%*
> Increase referring websites by 1,748.23%*
> Increase average time spent on site by 75.52%*
> Increase page views by 97.66%*
> Increase average pages viewed per visit by 37.94%*

*Data compared is from the first 31 days after launch of new site to data recorded from July 1st to 31st prior to launch.

Visit northwestscuba.com

How did Caldwell Creative do it?

One of the first thing we do with any web project to collect data on site usage. Installing a web analytics tool we were capable of collecting data. Northwest Scuba could now see how many visitors they were getting and how those visitors were finding and using the website. We could see what content was the most important to Northwest Scuba's online clientele. This data also allowed us to create a benchmark for comparing the existing website solution to data that we would collect after we launched the new website.

Early research uncovered several issues with site structure & organization, technical issues relating to how the site was built, search engine issues, visual branding issues, and lack of communication objectives.

When a potential visitor performs a web search they are looking for specific information. If they click on a search result that doesn't provide them with information directly related to that search they will more often than not leave the page. Creating pages that focus on specific information, products, & services we enhanced the likely hood of visitors finding exactly the right information and choosing Northwest Scuba as their Edmonton scuba shop.

The other problem was the type of content that was offered on the website. Visitors coming to northwestscuba.com were looking for information. Detailed information required to make informed buying decisions was not offered on the existing site. By creating relevant content and information to educate visitors we enable northwestscuba.com to be an educational service tool for the customers. This does several things for Northwest Scuba on the business end. Customers who come into the store after visiting the site would know about the equipment and what features are important to them. A customer who already knows what features are important and why they are important will not require the significant time typically required by staff to educate the customer in store. A customer with this information is also be in a better position to make a final purchasing decision because they are past the initial information search in the purchasing process. For customers who haven't visited the website also benefit from the website. All of the pages on northwestscuba.com are nicely formatted for printing. This allows staff to provide customers with a printed pages describing the equipment they are looking at and the features that may be of importance to them. This information also helps position Northwest Scuba as a credible and service oriented business in the scuba industry while improving salesmanship and sales efficiency. To see an example visit the buoyancy control device page on northwestscuba.com.

The next major issue was technical implementation. Search engines like websites that are built a specific way and a well constructed site helps search engines display relevant content for specific searches performed by the people who use them. A well built web site will help each page on the site appear higher on the lists generated by search engines like google. There are also international web standards that help ensure that your website will display properly in all the different browsers. By following these best practices and ensuring the new site was built using these standards we ensure that the new site will look its best no matter which browser your visitors are using. One of the key objectives with Northwest Scuba was to turn the website into a usable business tool. Part of that involved ensuring that store staff & visitors could print out any page from the site & have it look great and be readable.

The final and potentially most important aspect of the site is what it's trying to communicate about Northwest Scuba. The existing site was leaving visitors with the impression that Northwest Scuba wasn't professional, didn't have the information visitors were looking for, or what makes Northwest Scuba different from it's competition. By talking with Northwest Scuba owners, staff, students, instructors, and customers we found out what exactly this company was all about. Northwest Scuba wanted to be professional, to provide better service, to engage its audience, and to promote the enjoyment of scuba diving. Customers were looking for a site that helped them to learn about scuba diving, the equipment, the experience, and the information needed about the courses offered. All of this was summed up in the phrase "Don't just talk about it. Experience it! Everything on the site helps promote these ideas, from the design, to the content, to the features on the site. In short Northwest Scuba now had a website that was more than just a presence on the web. Northwest Scuba has a successful business tool.