Description:VisitGalveston.com – the all-new ‘official destination website for Galveston Island’ – has seen tremendous success since its launch in the fall of 2021. The website boasts a comprehensive range of innovative features such as a personalized experience builder, filterable calendar of events, user-generated content galleries, controllable LIVE webcams, 360 virtual tours, and much more. Pairing these features with an imagery-focused, mobile-first design and engaging content has directly resulted in capturing 3.8M+ unique visitors, 9.2M+ pageviews, and a low average bounce rate of 27.7% since launch. Strategically sharing content across our social media channels to an audience of an impressive 791K+ people has proven to be one of the most impactful methods of distribution, and ongoing technological improvements are expected to see these positive trends continue.
Objectives:
Visit Galveston, formerly known as the Galveston Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, needed a new website to establish a cohesive brand identity and gain full ownership of its online presence after a 21-year relationship ended with a for-profit company.
The objectives of the new Visit Galveston website were to become the top source of information for organic searches related to the island and showcase Galveston's attractions, hotels, and events through free local businesses. The website aimed to promote Galveston's diverse offerings and establish it as a premier Gulf Coast tourism destination.
The strategic approach incorporated existing branding elements while introducing new creative and content initiatives. The website's content decisions were informed by keyword analysis and historical web traffic reports. The design focused on creating an enhanced user experience with editorial-style features, engaging assets and user-generated content. The website is built on a Craft CMS, which includes a system-wide search service for finding elements via keyword search. Dynamic functionality, such as the Experience Builder, personalized itineraries, group mapping, social media sharing buttons, current weather and live webcams, was implemented to help visitors plan their trips effectively.
The results of VisitGalveston.com website demonstrate that the site successfully achieved its objectives:
2022 (January 1-December 31)
ALL USERS
-2,258,784 total sessions
-1,695,843 new users
-4,349,685 pageviews
-27.32% bounce rate
-1:51 time-on-site
-12,186 Visitor Guide Requests
-416 Wedding Submissions
-694 Visit Galveston Savings Pass Sign Ups
-188,823 Partner Referrals
ORGANIC
-866,503 total organic sessions
-618,228 new users
-1,843,149 pageviews
-108,732 Partner Referrals
Project Costs: $85,000.00
https://www.visitgalveston.com/In-house or Agency: In-house