Winding Waters River Expeditions | Case Study

The Challenge

Winding Waters came to the work with something most operators would envy: a flawless

reputation and two decades of goodwill. The gap was reach. The site earned attention from

people who already knew the name, but it was not yet working hard for the guest who searches

for Hells Canyon rafting without knowing who runs the best trip on the river. Five things were

holding that reach back.

• Strong brand recognition, but underused commercial reach. Traffic skewed toward branded
• and informational searches, with thin capture of the high-intent terms guests use when they
• are ready to book.
• Competing Hells Canyon and Grande Ronde pages that split their own ranking authority,
• with little of the behind-the-scenes detail search engines use to understand a trip.
• A gap between marketing and bookings that made it hard to see which efforts actually
• drove reservations.
• A reputation engine running on idle. A perfect 5.0-star rating across 100 reviews, but few
• new reviews coming in to keep it current.
• A Google Business Profile that still pulled real local demand, yet had gone quiet on posting
• since late winter.
  

What We Did

The program focused on three fronts that compound on each other: search visibility, conversion,

and reputation.

Search visibility

• Consolidated the competing pages with redirects and clear hub pages, so the site stopped
• splitting its own authority.
• Ran a technical cleanup and added structured data, the behind-the-scenes markup that
• helps Google understand each trip, its location, its FAQs, and its reviews. Rewrote page
• titles, descriptions, and image alt text.
• Optimized the Hells Canyon content ahead of the June search peak, with trip comparisons,
• pricing, and seasonal availability ready before demand arrived.
• Pushed the striking-distance pages, the ones sitting just off page one, with sharper titles,
• guest-question FAQs, and internal links.

Conversion and reputation

• Grounded the messaging in deep guest research, so the brand voice matches the people
• who value these trips most.
• Began reactivating the review ask and the Google Business Profile posting cadence to
• keep the reputation fresh and visible.
• Started closing the gap between marketing and bookings, so the team can see, and prove,
• the revenue its visibility is creating.
  

The results

1. Search visibility climbing

Google impressions rose from 72,152 to 91,034, a 26% gain, and organic clicks grew from 954

to 1,052. More people saw Winding Waters in search, and more of them clicked through.

2. From page three to page one

Average search position improved from 28.8 to 14.0. In plain terms, the trips moved from the

bottom of page three to the front of page one for the terms that matter most to bookings.

3. Traffic growth across the board

Total site sessions grew 80% year over year, from 2,046 to 3,682. Organic sessions rose 14%,

from 1,187 to 1,353.

4. Deeper, broader rankings

Winding Waters now ranks for 80 organic keywords, up 13 in a month, holds 20 top-three

rankings, up 4, and has earned 405 referring domains against a domain rating of 32. The

footprint is getting both wider and stronger.

5.Local demand showing up on Google

Winding Waters now ranks for 80 organic keywords, up 13 in a month, holds 20 top-three

rankings, up 4, and has earned 405 referring domains against a domain rating of 32. The

footprint is getting both wider and stronger.

6. A reputation worth amplifying

The trips speak for themselves: a perfect 5.0-star rating across 100 Google reviews, 166

reviews on TripAdvisor, and the number one outdoor-activity ranking in Joseph, Oregon. It is a

foundation the next phase of work is built to keep fresh.

“The trip, the guides, the food, the gear, the knowledge, everything about this company is amazing. The owner of the business really cares about her clients’ experience and seemingly is always working to improve it.”

Cordell Reynolds, Google review

Why the Reviews Read the Way They Do

Numbers explain the visibility. They do not explain why guests cry on the last day, which, by the

team’s own account, almost all of them do. That part comes from how Winding Waters is built.

Robin Pace runs the company guide-first. In her words, she puts the guides before the clients

and before the money, because guides who feel cared for give everything to the people in their

boat. The trips are all-inclusive in the fullest sense. Veterans, families, LGBTQIA+ guests,

indigenous youth, older adults, and first-timers share the same water and, by the end, often the

same group text.

Then there is the food, which surprises nearly everyone. The beef served on the river is raised

on the family farm a mile from town, part of a closed-loop kitchen where trip leftovers feed the

farm’s pigs and the cycle comes back to the table the following season. As Robin puts it, life

cycle, all sourced local.

The throughline of the marketing work is simple: help the right guests find a trip this good before

someone else’s ad does.

Looking Ahead

The momentum is real. The next moves turn visibility into booked trips. ResmarkWeb is

reactivating the post-trip review ask, resuming a steady Google Business Profile posting

cadence, and closing the marketing-to-booking measurement gap, so Winding Waters can

finally see, and prove, the revenue its visibility is driving. With guest text messaging coming

online and the Hells Canyon season at its peak, the goal is straightforward: fill the calendar and capture the demand the search work has built.

Key Takeaways for Tour Operators

1. A great reputation is a starting line, not a finish. Pair it with search visibility to reach guests

who have not heard your name yet.

2. Consolidate competing pages so your own content stops splitting its authority.

3. Clean technical work and structured data help search engines tell your story for you.

4. Optimize seasonal content ahead of the demand curve, not during it.

5. Fix measurement early. You cannot prove the return on bookings you cannot trace.

Ready to Grow Your Bookings?

The momentum is real. The next moves turn visibility into booked trips. ResmarkWeb is

reactivating the post-trip review ask, resuming a steady Google Business Profile posting

cadence, and closing the marketing-to-booking measurement gap, so Winding Waters can

finally see, and prove, the revenue its visibility is driving. With guest text messaging coming

online and the Hells Canyon season at its peak, the goal is straightforward: fill the calendar and capture the demand the search work has built.