If you help potential customers find the information they are searching for, you can grow traffic to your website.
One example of this opportunity is content we developed with our client 360 CHICAGO. This iconic Chicago attraction is an observation deck on the 94th floor of 875 N Michigan Avenue (still known by many as the former John Hancock building) with 360° views of the skyline and lakefront 1000 feet above the Magnificent Mile.
Use Content to Improve your SEO Rankings
While working through an SEO plan for this attraction, we noticed a meaningful volume of searches for “360 CHICAGO vs. Skydeck.” These searchers were trying to decide which observation deck to visit—either 360 CHICAGO or the competitor, Skydeck—an observation deck at Willis Tower. This search term has high commercial intent, meaning searchers are interested in purchasing tickets, but are looking for more information to validate their choice.
The Plan
There were blog posts on the internet already taking advantage of this key term to help searchers make this purchase decision between 360 CHICAGO and Skydeck. These searches were generating hundreds of searches every month, just for this one phrase. In addition, thousands of searches were going to Skydeck to find the information to answer their questions.
To achieve our fair share of the traffic from this search phrase, we developed our own 360 CHICAGO vs Skydeck blog post to help readers find the comparison information they were looking for.
Creating a Better Page
To create our own version of a 360 CHICAGO vs. Skydeck blog post that directly answered questions people were searching for, we took the following steps:
- We used available search data and on-page SEO techniques to ensure that we were using words that would help us rank well while also directly addressing popular search queries.
- We looked at FAQs and the top questions online to be as helpful to readers as possible, such as answering questions like: “Which tower has the best views?”, or “What are the wait times?”
- We researched secondary queries that searchers could use to find information about the competitor online such as “Chicago Skydeck,” “Skydeck tickets,” and “Willis Tower.”
- To reduce the bias of writing a post about 360 CHICAGO vs. Skydeck, we used direct quotes from traveler reviews to give credibility to our post.
- We made the post more engaging by using good photography throughout the post.
- We added buttons and links to the layout to facilitate conversion to a sale of tickets for 360 CHICAGO.
See the 360 CHICAGO vs. Skydeck article
The Results
SEO improvements take time and never happen overnight. However, after two months, we saw the following outcomes:
- 360 CHICAGO moved up from #8 to #1 ranking on search results for the term “360 CHICAGO vs. Skydeck.”
- Increased positions for additional competitive terms
- Achieved 1199 page views, of which 81% of the searches landed directly on this blog post.
- A conversion rate of just over 1%—an acceptable start for a new mid-funnel page.
- The post has already risen to one of the top landing pages for 360 CHICAGO.
With the right strategy, content—even blog posts—can help you reach more people and create additional revenue.
