Search Engine Marketing | Ranking At The Top | Whistler Blackcomb

Naturally, I've chosen to follow a ski related company due to my draw to the sport. I had a professional relationship with Vail Resorts for 12 years during my athletic career. Specifically, Heavenly Resort in Lake Tahoe. Since I represented myself, I maintained a close relationship with the Marketing team and always had a passion for the field. Heavenly is owned and operated by Vail Resorts. Vail Resorts recently acquired Whistler Blackcomb in Canada, and their search engine marketing is the focus of my week 4 assignment.

My first example is for the search string "whistler blackcomb". As seen in the example below, the paid ad appears first. Their site is also the first organic result. The results are complimented by social links on the right, with the copy coming from Wikipedia. Between the paid search result and organic result is a recent weather report. These snow condition reports are important to skiers and boarders, and can help add value to any ads purchased on this SERP for people interested in possibly skiing here.

The ad title is has a clear call-to-action, and also gives customers a reason to click the ad (to save 30%). The ad copy caters to the audience looking for deals, and gives the user a great idea of where they will land if they click. The result even offers sitelink extensions that allow users to land directly on a specific page that eliminates the path to conversion, and improves user experience for customers that are in the buying phase. This also shortens the conversion funnel for Whistler Blackcomb.

The first organic result is very similar to the paid ad, but doesn't have as many "buy ready" keywords in the title and copy. This would attract a user that is still in the consideration stage, but the search string may signal that they are prospects for the Whistler Blackcomb ski area. This organic result also features sitelink extensions with an internal search bar. However, these sitelinks offer more informational pages that the paid ad doesn't. Again, this is consistent with which type of behavior that each result is targeting.

The social media pages results for Whistler Blackcomb also appear on the first SERP. Their Twitter page is the third result, and Facebook page (not pictured) is the fourth result. Wikipedia is sandwiched between these two results.

Pictured below is a screenshot of a free search results information tool, SEM Rush. The same search string was used to see the volume of search results, possible ad copies for the results, the estimated cost per click for the ads, and competitiveness for the search string.

This analysis shows that Whistler/Blackcomb doesn't have much competition on this search string. This may be due to the specificity of the search. The search has been trending lately because of winter. They have consistently used ads throughout the year with the exception of March and May. Another interesting note is the Cost Per Click distribution being higher in Mexico, UK, and France. They are paying more per click in foreign countries.

The social media channels (seen below) are used as informational outlets rather than direct selling. The purpose of these channels are to drive engagement, entertainment, and information rather than conversions. Their Facebook page has over 280,000 likes, and their Twitter has over 82,000 followers. The Facebook page also boasts 4.7 out of 5 stars, which can also improve search engine rankings

Overall, I believe Vail Resorts and Whistler/Blackcomb have a great digital strategy. While not mentioned above, two huge advantages they have over the competition the support of the Vail Corporation, and their groundbreaking engagement/retention tool called EpicMix. This tool also leverages the superpower of social sharing with bragging rights and added value and convenience of having professional photographers available at every mountain. If I were to offer one improvement, I would either have a Rich Media item on the SERP that offers Live Webcams of the mountain, or at least a sitelink extension to one. This may improve relevancy and user experience.