Case study · Fishing charter outfitter
Alaska Fish On Charters: a website that plans the trip before the call
An Alaska outfitter whose customers plan a trip months ahead from thousands of miles away, comparing species, seasons and prices. We built a site with a page for every trip, packages by month and a reservation inquiry on each one.
The results for Alaska Fish On Charters
A full-service outfitter on the Kenai Peninsula
Alaska Fish On Charters runs guided fishing trips out of Kenai, Alaska. Its guides fish salmon on the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers and halibut in Cook Inlet, and the company also arranges trophy trout fishing, fly-in trips and bear viewing.
It is more than a day charter. Guests can book a single half day on the river or a package of four to seven nights that combines lodging with several days of guided fishing. Fish processing and airline-approved boxes are included with the packages, so the catch goes home with the people who caught it.
The challenge: selling a trip to someone who has never been
An Alaska fishing trip is a big purchase made from far away. The customer is often planning months ahead, has usually never seen the Kenai River, and is comparing several outfitters at once. Before they will send an inquiry they need to know what they can catch in the week they have off, what a day costs, where they will sleep and what happens if they have to cancel.
That is a great deal of information, and the right answer changes with the calendar. King salmon, sockeye, silvers and halibut each have their own season and their own waters. A site that puts everything on a few long pages makes the visitor do the sorting, and a visitor who cannot find July will not book July.
What the new site had to do:
- Give each species and each kind of trip a page that answers the practical questions.
- Show what is in season month by month, so visitors can plan around their dates.
- Publish day rates and package prices instead of asking people to call for them.
- Put a reservation inquiry in reach on every page.
What we built
A large, well-organized site that works like a trip planner: choose a fish or a month, see what the trip involves and what it costs, then ask about dates.
A page for each trip and species.
King, red and silver salmon, halibut, trophy trout, fly-in fishing and bear viewing each have their own page, along with pages for specific waters such as the Kasilof River and Cook Inlet. Each one explains what to expect and how to book.
Packages laid out by month.
The packages page runs from May to September. Every package lists the nights of lodging, the days of guided fishing, the species and the price per person, so a visitor can compare a short stay with a full week at a glance.
A fishing calendar.
A month-by-month calendar shows which fish are running and where. It is the page a first-time visitor needs most, because it turns "I have a week in August" into a list of real options.
Published day rates.
Half-day and full-day prices are listed by species, with halibut and combination trips priced by port, plus fishing license fees. Visitors can work out a budget before they get in touch.
Lodging, guides and policies.
The lodges and rooms, the guides, client letters of recommendation, and the deposit and cancellation policy all have their own pages. These answer the trust questions that come with booking a trip in a place you have not seen.
A reservation inquiry on every page.
A short form asks for a name, contact details and whether the visitor wants a day trip or a package. It sits at the foot of each page beside the toll-free number, so the next step is always in view.
How the project ran
Discovery
We went through the trips, packages, lodging and seasons with the outfitter, and the questions guests ask most before they book.
Site structure and design
With this much content, the menu came first. We organized trips, packages, lodging and guides into clear groups, then designed the home page and a trip page for review.
Build and content
We built the site in WordPress and set up the trip pages, the monthly packages, the calendar, the rate tables and the inquiry form.
Launch and care
The site was tested on phones and desktops before launch. Rates, packages and dates can be updated each season.
The results
The site lets a visitor plan most of a trip before the first conversation. They can pick a month, see what is running, compare a day on the river with a week-long package and read the cancellation terms, all without waiting for a reply.
That changes the inquiries that come in. A request that says package trip, with dates and a species in mind, is far closer to a booking than a general question about fishing in Alaska, and the outfitter can answer it with availability instead of a brochure.
The depth of the site also helps it get found. Each species, river and trip type has a page of its own, which gives search engines a specific answer for the specific things anglers look up when they start planning.
Services on this project
Website Design
Page layouts designed around how this client's customers decide and buy.
Website Development
The build itself: fast, responsive pages and the custom features the project needed.
In the same line of work? See how we build charter and guide websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
What other charter captains and outfitters ask us about this project.
For most outfitters, yes. Alaska Fish On Charters lists its day rates and package prices in full. Travelers comparing outfitters tend to skip the ones that hide the number, and the people who do inquire already know the trip fits their budget.
If the trips are different, yes. Someone searching for halibut fishing out of Homer and someone searching for Kenai River silver salmon want different pages. One page per trip gives each search an answer. Our SEO page explains how those pages bring in visitors.
It can. This site uses a reservation inquiry, because multi-day packages with lodging are usually confirmed in a conversation. For single-day charters with fixed dates, we can add online booking with a deposit. We choose based on how you actually sell your trips.
Yes. Packages, rates and the calendar are ordinary pages that you or your staff can edit, and we can make the changes for you each season if you prefer.
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