The Business
Recognized for its dedicated and detailed termite pest control service, Xterm Pest Management is one of Central Florida's rising pest control companies. Their service area is all of Orange County, Florida, Orlando Metro-Area, and parts of Seminole, Lake, and Osceola Counties. The company's web site, XtermPest.com, was an excellent demonstration of design and function for a business, allowing customers to reach any page or topic of the site within 3 mouse clicks and received, at the time in August 2006, only received 703 hits / 27 visitors each day.
The Problem
Despite being a remarkable business, Xterm Pest Management was too new and its advertising plan was unfocused. There was no search engine optimization, lots of content tacked on -- instead of being properly added, and generalized content resulting in low visits to the web site.
The Approach
An almost standard requirement of all Pest Control companies world-wide is a focus on being eager to eliminate all pests, outright and to demonstrate how big of a problem these small things can be. However, the original web site we designed for them didn't match their current advertising plans that were focusing on the rising threat of pests problems in Florida. Now that we were charged with engaging in a new advertising plan for Xterm Pest Management, we refocused our plans on developing not just a new web site, but on a whole new web-savvy advertising model based on the new directives Xterm Pest Management laid out.
After a failed bid with several print advertisers that promised both online and offline results, and the phone company which gave "Fuzzy Math" on their advertising, Xterm Pest Management turned to us for help in August of 2006 to develop a new brand identity and marketing strategies for their online components. And after some initial research, we returned a plan that was aimed to take XtermPest.com from being #240 in the search engine results to the front page.
The next issue at hand was the search engine results. Xterm Pest Management needed search engine optimization and after researching the keywords, we focused our efforts on expanding Xterm's presence on the web by installing Site maps, creating pages on several high-profile web sites, various Web Directories, networking groups, and so forth.
Finally we addressed all the print advertising and company documents which had been sent to several different companies and individuals for work - resulting in wildly inconsistent designs and content. From work orders, to trucks, to print ads and more we would design one single uniformed appearance.
The Results
Based on information and recommendations and work from Orb Portals Studios, Xterm Pest Management immediately saw a jump in their results. From their dismal August 2006 stats of only 703 hits / 27 visitors each day, XtermPest.com jumped to 7285 hits / 140 visitors each day one month later and by the time December 2006 rolled around, they rose to 10132 hits / 628 visitors per day.
Likewise, their Google listing jumped from being #240 under Orlando Pest Control to #3 on the first page of results. On Yahoo, XtermPest.com ranks as #1 and on Microsoft's Live.com they come in at #2.
Improved site design
The first step was to address the web site's design and content, which while we had designed it solid, was littered with small errors and some glitches. To resolve this issue, we'd need revise the way their web site was designed, operated, and content placement. Our plan would be to create and implement the following changes to their web site.
- Simplicity - Many pages had content crammed from margin to margin, so we would Remove unnecessary components, without sacrificing effectiveness and use alternative methods to deliver the same content faster
- Centralize the Layout - XtermPest.com already had this, but it was leaning to the sides. The top header used to have more on the right hand side, while the content was shifting to the left. Our plan is to bring the focus dead-center on the content.
- Columns - Several pages had columns within columns. We reorganize that content into one column, that is aimed directly at its purpose and only that purpose.
- Improved page Header - The original header advertised the pest control and termite prevention services offered by Xterm Pest Management, but didn't stand out with their overall advertising campaign. Our new one allows us to focus it on one specific topic at a time.
- Solid Areas - Another major flaw in the old design we noticed was a lack of distinction between the header, navigation, content, side columns and footer. Once again we address all of these issues and laid out everything separately before creating one uniformed vision for the web site.
- Navigation - The site had become littered with Cute Icons, bright buttons, and inconsistent navigation. The rule here was less is more, and as such we reduced the sheer number of links to only what was needed and stand out.
- Logo - Xterm at this point had a logo we designed, but lacked visibility. altering the way it was used in the site allowed for their logo to move from being just a piece of art on the site to an identity.
- Text - Small text leads to eye strain, so naturally we bumped the fonts up a size and used standardized fonts.
- Colors - Strong colors should be used when something needs to stand out over everything else, as a result if all colors are strong, nothing stands out so we needed to focus colors on key content points.
- Rich Surfaces - a number of the graphics that needed to stand out were bland, so we redressed them with a bit of special effects and graphic arts.
- Content - We needed to reload the content so instead of being like traditional content, the information would be front loaded to drive visitors to read the text and people who skim content would get the information they need right away.
- Keywords - Nearly all of the keywords Xterm Pest Management wanted were not used in the web site, and all of which had to be addressed and placed into the content correctly.
Better results from search advertising
By increasing and optimizing the site for search engines, Xterm Pest Management can spend less time working on their web site and more time on advertising their business.
Success
While Xterm Pest Management continues to grow and struggle like any new business that just starts out, our work at Orb Portals Studios allows them to spend more of that time on their customers and service and save thousands that other advertisers would've gobbled up without guaranteed results.
Success doesn't happen overnight, but you shouldn't have to wait three to five years either.
Gallery of Work
Places of Interest
