Independence Visitor Center

Philadelphia Visitors’ Center
Independence Visitor Center
http://www.independencevisitorcenter.com

COMPANY
The Independence Visitor Center, which opened in November 2001, is a state-of-the art facility located at the heart of Independence Mall offering visitors to historic Philadelphia extensive services and tourism information. The Center provides the millions of visitors who travel to Philadelphia with a free comprehensive orientation to the culture, history, shopping and dining options presented throughout the Greater Philadelphia region in an environment that is welcoming and convenient for travelers.

REQUIREMENTS
The previous Web presence did not effectively represent the Center nor support the Independence Visitor Center Corporation’s goal of promoting it as the first stop in the Philadelphia region. In 2003, IVCC sought an agency to redesign and develop the Web site to meet their needs.

The new site needed to have an improved design, more straightforward navigation, and added features and functionality. Additionally, the site needed increased visibility on the Internet. IVCC chose to work with ADI because of our ability to provide them with the design and functionality as well as a strategic Internet marketing plan.

SOLUTIONS
ADI created a site to capture the look and feel of the Independence Visitor Center while highlighting their services. The site features a Flash slide show on the home page as well as a Virtual Tour page. The new content includes a section just for kids with fun things for families to do in Philadelphia—with a treasure hunt.

When the Web site went live in the Fall of 2003, ADI optimized the Web site for increased positioning on the search engines.

RESULTS
As a result of building the site to include the latest search engine friendly features and optimizing the content of the Web site for improved ranking for targeted keywords, the visibility of the site tripled. As of September 2004, the number of Web visitors has increased by 16%. The share of those familiar with the IVC has risen since the summer and fall of 2003.

Since December 2003, the ranking of the Web site for the targeted keywords has gone from:

• 15 First Place Rankings to 28 First Place Rankings
• 31 Top Five Rankings to 60 Top Five Rankings
• 81 Top Ten Rankings to 84 Top Ten Rankings
• 39 Top Twenty Rankings to 106 Top Twenty Rankings
• 46 Top Thirty Rankings to 128 Top Thirty Rankings

Some of IndependenceVisitorCener.com first page rankings in Google are:

• Attractions in Philadelphia, position 4
• Independence Hall, position 7
• Independence National Historic Park, position 10
• Philadelphia Group Tours, positions 1 and 2
• Philadelphia Tour, position 7
• Philadelphia Tours, positions 6 and 7
• Philadelphia Visitor Center, position 2
• Philadelphia Visitors Center, position 2
• Visit Philadelphia, position 7

BENEFITS
The new Web presence for the visitor center gives area travelers a reason to visit the center. This is not your ordinary visitors center—and the Web site shows this.