Gallucci’s new mobile website and SEO strategy improves leads by 420%

Founded in Tacoma, WA in 1988, Gallucci’s Catering began by producing boxed lunches for local schools and offices. Today, they are one of the premier catering companies in the Puget Sound area, having catered thousands of weddings, celebrations, and corporate events over the past 25 years.

Challenge

Gallucci’s website was only a few years old, yet was already outdated because it wasn’t built for mobile. In fact, their unresponsive site was actually costing them business by not engaging visitors. Based on customer research and interviews with Gallucci’s customers, VereNorth knew that their audience was trending mobile, and that people plan weddings, parties, and events using smartphones and tablets. Gallucci’s old site was not only difficult to view on mobile devices, but also made it difficult for customers to find using Internet search. Both issues added up to a less than favorable first impression.

Another challenge was an overall lack of metrics about their site. Gallucci’s didn’t know if their current marketing was working as hard as it could because they didn’t have good information to back up their decisions.

Solution

Services provided: Mobile optimization, ongoing SEO, development, Internet marketing, content consulting, analytics, conversion rate optimization, and user experience.

Gallucci’s hired VereNorth in late 2013 to help increase organic search and Internet leads. VereNorth’s first priority was redesigning their website to be mobile-friendly so it could provide a more intuitive user experience. The team also optimized the website’s code, site speed, and URL structure to improve the mobile experience as well as search rankings.

“VereNorth showed us that a website needs to do more than just look good. It needs to work well on mobile devices while also providing tangible data we can use to improve our marketing and our business.”

Results

The creation of a mobile site, plus SEO optimization and measurement, has had a huge positive affect on Gallucci’s business. Since the launch of the new site, the company has seen significant growth in leads and overall traffic including:

Qualified leads increase 21% year over year.
Organic leads increased 420%.
Overall leads grew 142% from all sources.
Mobile leads grew 135%.
Mobile traffic grew 40% each month.

VereNorth monthly analytics reports further allow Gallucci’s to make more informed marketing choices. This data tells them where users are coming from, what pages they are looking at, and what content they need.

Final Thoughts

Mobile-friendly, or responsive, websites are a must these days. Smartphone use, including mobile search and sales, continues to increase, so companies that rely on search are at a disadvantage if their site is not optimized for mobile. But a site re-launch alone is not enough. It’s critical that you continue to measure how visitors use your site, and then use that data to further improve site performance. In this way, a re-launch is the gift that keeps on giving.

It’s a lesson that Gallucci’s marketing coordinator Polly Buis has learned well:

“We didn’t realize how much our old website was holding us back. Our new responsive site has increased quality leads and led to significantly more traffic and greater awareness of our company. VereNorth has helped us bring in a lot of business. We couldn’t ask for a better partnership. You focus on my marketing so I can focus on my customers.”