Case study · Salty Bowline Charter Company

His Book Now button now books the trip

The old site sent guests to other sites to book. Now every trip, price and calendar is on his own site, and he says sending us what we needed took under 10 minutes.

Where: Islamorada, FL
What they run: Fishing charters and cruises
Old site: Shopify store
Live in: 10 days

See saltybowline.com

Before and after: the old website, on a phone

Before and after: the website we built, on a phone

Nick AproOwner, Salty Bowline Charter Company, Islamorada

What was wrong with the old site

We told him about the dead link and the phone number in our first text, before he was a client.

Old site:
Book Now led to a photo page
The Book Now buttons went to the Boat Gallery page, not to a calendar. There a guest had to tap Book Now again, and that opened FishingBooker or Boat Booker.
Old site:
One boat's Book Now hit a dead page
The Contender's Book Now buttons went to a Boat Booker address that no longer worked. A guest who wanted that boat got a page-not-found screen.
Old site:
The phone number didn't match
The footer showed one number and dialed another. The Captains and FAQ pages printed the other number too, so one business had two numbers.
Old site:
Trips had no pages, and prices hid
No trip had a page of its own. The only prices were inside a closed FAQ answer. They covered the cruises and a boat rental, not the fishing trips.
Old site:
The top of the page looked like a store
On a computer, the first screen was a tall logo band, a photo, and icons for search, log-in and cart. The menu hid behind a small icon. Book Now sat further down.

Where Book Now takes a guest: before — The old button opened a slideshow of the boat. The new one opens his trips, with a price on each.

Where Book Now takes a guest: after — The old button opened a slideshow of the boat. The new one opens his trips, with a price on each.

Finding the price: before — The rates used to sit in a closed FAQ. Now each trip shows its price right next to Book Now.

Finding the price: after — The rates used to sit in a closed FAQ. Now each trip shows its price right next to Book Now.

Why it's easier to book now

Here's what changed for a guest.

Old site:Book Now, a boat gallery, then another site

New site:Book Now, pick a trip, pick a date, all on his site

Each extra step, and each new site, is one more place a guest can drop off.

Old site:Rates in a closed FAQ

New site:A price on every trip card

A parent can see what the day costs before picking up the phone.

Old site:Pages about the boats, with trips picked elsewhere

New site:Five kinds of day, from kids to tarpon to sandbars

A family on vacation is choosing a day out, so the site starts there.

Old site:No guest reviews on the home page

New site:Google's 5.0 stars up top, and reviews sorted by what a guest is asking

Tap "Bringing the kids?" or "Never fished before?" and you read a guest who did just that.

Old site:A number that dialed a different line

New site:One number, one tap, on every page

Plenty of guests want to talk to a person first, so the number has to work.

What Google sees now

He told us his FishingBooker page comes up above his own site when you search his name. These changes are what give his site the chance to beat it.

Before

saltybowline.com

Salty Bowline Charter Co.

None. The old home page gave Google no summary, so it had to pick its own words.

After

saltybowline.com

Salty Bowline Charter Co. | Islamorada fishing charters & adventures

Islamorada fishing charters and sandbar, sunset and eco cruises for families, first-timers and serious anglers, aboard a 2024 Caymas and a restored Contender.

The town is in the title
The old home page title was only the business name. Now it says what he runs and where, in the words guests type.
A page for each kind of trip
Five trip pages, each with its town in the title, like "Tarpon in Islamorada, FL". The old site had no trip pages to show in a search.
Each page says what it's about
On the old site, only the store's product pages had one. Now every public page tells Google what it's about.
Trips and prices Google can read
Each trip page labels the trip, its price and its dock in code guests never see. The FAQ page does the same for its answers.
Old links still work
Every old address now leads to the page that took its place, or to the home page. A saved link or an old Google result doesn't end on an error.

The PageSpeed scores

On a phone, the old home page took 5.4 to 8.1 seconds to show its main picture. Now it takes 1.8, and the home page scores 100.

Old site

On a phone

80

Speed

92

Easy to use

96

Best practices

92

SEO

Main picture shows in 5.4 s

On a computer

100

Speed

95

Easy to use

96

Best practices

92

SEO

Main picture shows in 0.8 s

New site

On a phone

100

Speed

100

Easy to use

100

Best practices

100

SEO

Main picture shows in 1.8 s

On a computer

100

Speed

100

Easy to use

100

Best practices

100

SEO

Main picture shows in 0.6 s

Speed on a phone, on the pages that sell

Boat Gallery, now Gallery
70
99
FAQs
74
100
Captains, now About
79
98

The reports themselves: old site — From Google’s PageSpeed Insights, on a phone.

The reports themselves: new site — From Google’s PageSpeed Insights, on a phone.

Scores from Google’s PageSpeed Insights, home page. They move a few points from run to run.

What we did on top

His boats stay in step across three sites
He still takes trips on FishingBooker and Boat Booker, so we tied them to his site, one calendar per boat. A trip booked there closes that time on his site, and a trip booked on his site closes it there.
A design cut from his own badge
The wave bands across the site come from his logo badge, and the colors are the ones on his brand sheet. We matched his brand, not a stock look.
His gear moved onto his own site
All 8 pieces now sit on his site, with their colors and sizes. A guest picks one and sends the request by email.