Boat Stock (formerly Boating Scout) is an online directory and resource for all things boating in North America. It is rich with keyword-focused content for boaters, making it a traffic-driving engine. We worked with Boat Stock to develop a content strategy and responsive platform where users could discover, explore and share.
Personalized user experiences
BoatingScout is built with Laravel to allow for personalized user experiences across the site. The site houses many types of data, which are cross-referenced to deliver related content that feel personalized and encourages longer site visits. The addition user accounts and the ability to favourite content created a community of loyal return users.
Curated content first
The foundation of almost all content marketing campaigns is simple — more content means more traffic. We worked with BoatingScout to develop a sustainable content strategy that would satisfy both users and search engines. The interplay of these two are essential to long term growth because quality content must capture organic search traffic, but also offer enough intrinsic value that users want to stay and come back. The two major content drivers on the website were enhanced directory listings and long-form blogs related to the boating industry.
Directory listings
The Boating Scout directory offers users something that they cannot get from traditional Google listings. It aims to provide boaters with nuggets of additional information that is specifically useful to boaters like parking capacity and fees at boat launches, what kind of gas is available at service centres, and directions things like small public launches that would never be listed in the Yellow Pages. Boating Scout is not attempting to re-invent the wheel, but simply package information for an extemely specific audience so it can speak directly to their needs instead of indirectly to everyone.
Targeted articles
The long-form articles on BoatingScout are highly targeted. They are written with an understanding of both who they are targeting, and what they are interested in. Each article is hand-crafted to offer valuable insight and in-depth information on each topic to provide users with the answers to the questions they are searching for. These articles generate a significant amount of organic traffic, who stay on the site for longer-than-average visits to read and share the relevant information.