Codastar Help Smart Inventory Service Grow Their Business

Case Study: SEO, PPC and Web Marketing

The Brief

The Brief

Smart Inventory Service offer property inventory services in London and the South East.

They came to Codastar because they were unhappy with their previous experiences with website design and web marketing. What they were spending with other firms was producing meagre results and wasting the company’s money. Their website was not all it could be, the SEO campaigns and Pay-Per-Click advertising being done on their behalf were not seeing decent returns, and Smart were losing confidence in the whole process.

The Solution

The Solution

Codastar took everything apart to see what was being done – and what was going wrong for the firm. Every aspect of the Smart Inventory Service website was reviewed – the design, the coding, the user experience and navigation. There were several issues we found. For one, the site had not been optimized for viewing on different platforms, and so limited the audience. We also examined the SEO and PPC campaigns and found some worrying techniques being used.

With everything catalogued we produced a report for Smart detailing what needed doing. Steve Hickling, the firm’s owner, contracted us to implement all of our recommendations.

The site we created is fully responsive to any device it is viewed from, insuring Smart can welcome every audience. After gathering extensive user experience data (using software that tracks where people try to click on the page) we developed the perfect layout for the content, information and calls-to-action. The site is now giving visitors the best user experience.

We also included embedded feedback from Feefo – helping with the firm’s credibility by providing genuine independent testimonials from clients. These results also go to Google, helping the search engine determine the quality of the company. Everything is about improving visitors’ experience of the site and Smart’s ranking in search results.

Alongside the website we provided SEO and pay-per-click programmes for Smart. We researched the optimum keywords for the company, its services and audience before developing the best strategies to implement them.

The Results

The Results

For the modest investment of overhauling their website and SEO/PPC marketing, Smart have seen incredible growth thanks to the increased traffic finding them online. The firm’s target area is expanding – Kent, Surrey, Essex… The company has grown from 3 to 8 employees, with the hiring ongoing. The website is now generating £10,000 of new business each month, and the new clients are offering the firm continued, regular business.

from
3 to 8
employees

£10,000 of
new business each month

Increased traffic to website

Responsive New Website

New Smart Inventory Website

Company owner Steve Hickling comments

Since Codastar re-made our website and started a SEO and PPC campaign we have noticed a huge increase in visits to our website and last month had nearly 1,000 hits with an impressive average sticky time of 3 minutes.

In terms of business generated, we have at least 40 new landlords book us to carry out inventory check ins and check out reports with an average value of £110 per job or £4,400 per month. In addition, we are getting 3-4 new letting agents every month worth £6000 of business over the last 2 months.

Steve Hickling MAIIC
Director

SEO – Examples of Rankings Achieved

To the right are some current Google rankings for Smart. By testing and fine tuning what is working best out of our SEO tactics, these results are improving all the time.

There are a lot of details to get right behind the scenes, but doing so really gives results.

KeywordsRanking 30/10/14
inventory clerk london1
inventory clerk surrey2
inventory company kent2
inventory clerk kent3
inventory services kent3
inventory check out7
inventory company london4
inventory companies in london4
inventory check5
inventory company surrey3
inventory services surrey3
inventory check in5
inventory services london3
property inventory london7
inventory clerk9
Property Inventory Services8
inventory company6
inventory81

And the results are described by Steve Hickling

[We] recently secured the business from a housing association who have a stock of 1,500 properties and are giving us an average of 60 jobs per month. The reason we got this business is that they were let down by their existing inventory company and typed into Google ‘inventory company London’ and we came up number one on the first page – the rest is history. In two months their turnover with us is over £6,000.

Steve Hickling MAIIC
Director

Icon Pay per click

Pay-Per-Click

These adverts can offer significant returns, and as long as they are doing just that they offer companies real value. So it was important for us to set them up properly for Smart.

We knew we had to get the keyword research spot on to maximise the effectiveness of the ads. The only keywords you want to include are the ones that genuine prospects are most likely to be entering and clicking on (it’s pay per click, remember).

For the same reason, we do the audience research and make sure the times and places the ads appear are right for the firm’s core market.

And again it’s all about testing – trying out different ads to find the most effective one before the campaign starts proper, and following up with ongoing tests to see how things are working for the firm further down the line. With everything set up by us these ads are driving targeted traffic to the Smart Inventory Service site.

Smart Inventory Google PPC

Smart Inventory PPC Ad

The Future

The Future

What with the website redesign and the SEO and PPC campaigns, the result for Smart is growth, with the firm taking on more employees and finding new business. Smart attracts 3-4 new letting agents a month, and each of these represents several ongoing jobs for the firm.

Codastar are still testing new areas for the company. Smart have been so pleased with the results so far that they have asked us to develop a mobile app for them, allowing clients to book online from any device. With the firm looking to expand their client base into the counties around London, we have been targeting these areas and getting Smart noticed – the firm and their reputation are going from strength to strength.