// case study / hospitality and tours

Sea The City Jet Ski: avg rank 15 to 3 on 100 keywords, high six-figure revenue lift.

Opened just a year before engagement. Within 12 months of working with Winston, surpassed every competitor on traffic and rankings. Average rank on 100 target keywords moved from 15 to 3. Revenue from organic search grew 105%.

Stack
WordPress, SEO tooling, Google Ads, Meta Ads, content ops
Time
Nov 2016 to ongoing ยท first 12 months reported
Output
Redesigned site, SEO program, paid media, content
Shipped
2016, ongoing
15 → 3 Average rank 100 target keywords, 12 months
+145% Organic traffic First 12 months
+105% Revenue from organic High six-figure increase
+158% New users Fresh audience growth

Context: a new tour operator in a crowded NYC market.

Sea The City Jet Ski opened in NYC about a year before the engagement started in November 2016. Crowded market, short booking windows, seasonal demand. The product is memorable. The challenge was getting tour-ready travelers to the site in the window when they are actually buying.

Within 12 months of the engagement, Sea The City surpassed every competitor on organic traffic and rankings for the target keyword set.

The approach: integrated SEO, paid, and content.

  • Site build for conversion. A conversion-tuned WordPress build with clear product pages for each tour and booking-focused calls to action.
  • SEO program. Keyword research across 100 target keywords covering NYC tour, jet ski, and booking intent. On-page optimization across every priority page.
  • Paid media. Google Ads and Meta Ads on high-intent tour queries during peak booking windows.
  • Content and influencer. Editorial content for organic and influencer partnerships for awareness.

What we shipped.

  • A conversion-tuned Sea The City site on WordPress.
  • SEO program across 100 target keywords.
  • Two blogs per month plus evergreen tour content.
  • Paid media program across Google and Meta.
  • Ecommerce tracking tied to booking revenue.
Average keyword rank on 100 target keywords, first 12 months
BEFORE rank 15 AFTER rank 3

Results detail.

Data: Google Analytics Universal, first 12 months of engagement.

  • Average rank on 100 target keywords15 → 3
  • Organic traffic+145%
  • New users+158%
  • Revenue from organic search+105%
  • Reported revenue lift categoryHigh six-figure
  • Sessions+145.90%
  • Bounce rate61.72%
  • Pages per session+39.26%
  • Ecommerce conversion rate+20.12%
  • Transactions+96.42%
Metrics sourced from Winston Digital's 2022 case studies deck and verified against Google Analytics reports at the time of engagement. Earlier reporting on this page included the client-reported 4x revenue growth and 6.73x ROAS across the broader engagement.

Why this engagement worked.

Integration and patience. SEO and paid ran as one program, not two retainers. The content calendar informed both sides, which means organic and paid compounded instead of cannibalizing. And the engagement did not stop at month 12. The site got better every year. The content library deepened every year. The paid account got smarter. That is the unlock.

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