Blue Fish Aquarium is an aquarium and pet store in the Greater Grand Rapids area in Michigan. With a well-trained staff seasoned by years of hands-on experience, Blue Fish’s service is unparalleled. They also boast the largest inventory of pets and pet products in West Michigan.

Operating since 1992, Blue Fish has grown tremendously from just a showroom to a fully functioning, large-scale pet store and aquarium shop. From fish to reptiles to related pet products, and even a wide range of pond equipment, there is nothing one cannot find to fit his needs.

In 2014, Blue Fish decided to step into the digital world with a bang. The goal was to grow an already successful business online. Moreover, they wanted their customers to be able to access their products more easily through their website.

However, there was a catch – they needed some help. According to Jeff, the store owner, his team didn’t have time to manage the website. The business was so massive that there was already too much for the team to handle. That’s when New Media Retailer stepped onto the scene and took all their digital worries away.

Website Requirements

Blue Fish Aquarium had a website that wasn’t doing them much good. The website was not optimized for search engines, so it was not attracting new visitors efficiently. There was also another problem: the UI.

The missing piece to the puzzle: A fresh look for the site

According to Jeff, the website and its appearance was outdated.

“Our presence was always about ten years behind with the look we wanted. We had good intentions with our previous site. We knew the story we wanted to tell. Our original website featured a specials page, individual pages for different aquarium sections that we carried, a staff page, services page, and an FAQ page. Our product page consisted of a few logos for the top brands we carried, but nothing beyond that.” –Jeff

He added: “We knew what we wanted to say but couldn’t display it in the way we wanted or in a way that would generate leads for our business.”

The requirements were clear: A brand new website with a fresh look, engaging features, and most importantly, SEO.

Choosing New Media Retailer

To accomplish these goals, Blue Fish Aquarium sought a reliable agency. After receiving a referral for New Media Retailer from a distributor, Blue Fish Aquarium was eager to learn more.

Robert from NMR connected with Jeff at Blue Fish to discuss their website needs. He suggested additions like a catalog that lists all the products available in-store. He also recommended an individual product detail page for each product. These pages provide necessary details about the product that a potential customer would be interested to learn. Last, Blue Fish Aquarium would be paired with a marketing specialist to free time and effort for the store staff.

These recommendations convinced Jeff that New Media Retailer was the agency for which he was looking.

A Website from Scratch

NMR rebuilt the Blue Fish Aquarium website from scratch, incorporating all the features that had been previously missing. The new website now has a better design, improved user experience, a product catalog, and a separate page for every product on the site.

Incorporating the most important feature: SEO

You can create a beautiful website with a plethora of information for your customers, but it won’t render any result without visitors. That’s where SEO comes in.

NMR’s implementation of cutting-edge SEO techniques is designed to attract visitors searching for relevant products, brands, and businesses.

With one-on-one customer service and a knowledgeable marketing specialist, the Blue Fish website used these SEO techniques to drive visits online and, in turn, to the store. As a result, the online traffic to Blue Fish’s website has increased by leaps and bounds.

A growing portion of sales now originate from website traffic. Earlier, customers were usually introduced to Blue Fish Aquarium either by word of mouth or via social media. Now, more and more people are discovering Blue Fish Aquarium through its website.

Jeff, the owner, was amazed at how well both the business and website were doing.

“We could tell pretty quickly that NMR was doing what they said they could for us. We always ask new customers how they found out about Blue Fish Aquarium, and it soon changed from mainly finding us by social media, word of mouth, and drive-by to more and more finding us via the website. That was pretty eye-opening!”

Jeff went on to add that customers are now better informed when they walk in the door, after visiting the website.

“This has helped us immensely – saving time for the customer and ourselves!”

The Results: Visible Improvements

“In the past three months, we’ve had 660 clicks to our website after typing in “125 gallon aquarium” on Google. They found us by typing in a search term that had nothing to do with our business name!”

“We really like the customer service and technical support we receive from NMR. We are not sure we deal with another business at the moment that we hold in higher regard for the way they approach business and take care of us. We liked the individual attention and customer service we received from NMR and the follow through with information given by each person we have dealt with.” – Jeff, owner Blue Fish Aquarium