Growing with Google – The last decade in search

Established in early 1999, White Chalk Road was one of the first dedicated online and search marketing business in Australia.

Google was launched in 1998 with White Chalk Road forming less than 12 months later – allowing us to grow with Google through algorithm changes, technological advances and industry trends.

When we mention that we understand Google – we mean it.

Our founder Charles Ryder now instils over 20 years of experience dedicated to search marketing in all members of the White Chalk Road team.

Let’s recap on the last decade of White Chalk Road and Google Search.

The Inspiration Behind Our Name

The inspiration for our company name was a painting by WA artist Greg Baker from a scene in WA’s South West.

The painting had one meaning:

‘a road less travelled.’

Back in 1999, SEO and online marketing was a new world, growing and adapting following the industry reliance on traditional channels such as print, radio and tv.

White Chalk Road represented a visionary idea to see beyond the norm and help businesses achieve results from marketing in the online space.

As digital channels and technology have continued to evolve, and marketing possibilities broadened online, White Chalk Road has continued to innovate and search for greater online opportunities and marketing success for clients.

The vision to walk a path less travelled and find a unique offering, to lead, rather than following the crowd, continues to drive White Chalk Road’s growth and remains true to the agency’s origins. Unlike many agencies that operate in our field, White Chalk Road follow a different approach to provide marketing success for our clients.

“We don’t build websites; we create audiences and turn them into customers”
– Charles Ryder, Founding Director

The Growth of White Chalk Road and Google Search

As a company which formed just a few months after Google, we’re grown with Google and their endless daily algorithm changes. We’ve adapted to every change, every industry trend, and every advancement in website capability and search marketing strategy.

To give you a quick recap of White Chalk Road and the past 10 years in search marketing, we’ve highlighted the past 10 years of achievements with Google’s Year In Search reviews.

2010: Time to Practice What We Preach

A decade after forming, White Chalk Road hires its first full-time Marketing Manager to implement a Marketing and Communications Plan. For a marketing agency ourselves, this ensured we always ‘practise what we preach’ to our clients.

The new marketing plan allowed our business to grow, expand into new markets and spread our knowledge with industry talks and marketing workshops.

2011: Expanding Internationally with Global Tourism

White Chalk Road signed on our first major SEO contract with an Australia-wide brand to help implement an online marketing strategy. The strategy helped the brand to grow their business online and engage with clients in a new way.

Additionally, White Chalk Road developed and implemented a search engine optimisation strategy with an overseas-based tourism operator to improve user experience and reach new markets. We capitalised on emerging trends and industry knowledge to develop a holistic approach to online marketing for the brand.

2012: Taking Localised Geo-Targeting to the Next Level

Now implementing SEO strategies for national and international brands, White Chalk Road introduces geo-targeting planning and strategy to ensure maximum reach online. These strategies focused on meeting the needs of existing customers and locales while helping these brands to expand into new locations. The geo-targeting changes were implemented around the same time that Google made some changes to local search – with Local SEO changing a lot since.

2013: Optimising For Global Search Traffic

With rapid growth expanding the White Chalk Road team over the past three years, we looked to capitalise on the increased interest by taking on additional international clients, optimising their website for global search traffic.

Understanding the cultural differences between countries, White Chalk Road continued to help these businesses satisfy the needs of their current clients while developing strategies for new markets. These global strategies were made more challenging as Google was testing new result pages in different locales, such as format changes in Europe.

2014: Spreading Our Knowledge at Local Workshops

White Chalk Road’s CEO, Charles Ryder, gave a talk on the future of SEO at the 2014 Australian Marketing Institute’s Marketing and Business Networking Congress.

Charles also led an ‘ask the Expert’ roundtable at the 2014 Online Retailer Roadshow in Perth, and contributed to the Expert Panel the StreetSmart eCommerce Workshops in Perth on October 2014.

Additionally, White Chalk Road was the winner and received the Online Business Award at the 2014 Belmont Small Business Awards.

2015: White Chalk Road Head to Google HQ in Sydney

In March of 2015, White Chalk Road was named one of Perth’s most influential businesses at the Local Chambers award for Business Excellence 2015.

White Chalk Road was also selected by Google as one of only 16 Australasian SEM agencies to attend a free 3-day, inaugural, Google Partners Business Coaching Program at Google HQ Sydney. At the event, White Chalk Road learnt from the best providing comfort to our team and clients knowing that we are well supported by Google.

2016: White Chalk Road Become the Go-To for Digital Marketing Training

White Chalk Road introduce digital marketing training courses for Google Analytics to the public, including training to WA Police – Community Division and follow-up Measurement Plan and Google Tag Manager implementation for their Neighbourhood Watch and Goodbye Graffiti sites.

In 2016, White Chalk Road also became one of the only agencies in Perth to become a Google Premier Partner – a level of recognition that is reserved for Google’s most valued agencies. This achievement helped to solidify our position as one of Australia’s most proficient Google Ads management providers.

2017: Expanding Our Office with Additional Service Offerings

White Chalk Road moves into a larger and better-suited office building in Burswood, WA.

The company also completes our full migration to all things computing ‘cloud-based’, high-speed Vocus fibre and fully integrated applications – including client-based tools such as our Agency Dashboard.

2018: Leading the Way with A Unique ROI Forecast Tool

White Chalk Road’s founding director, Charles Ryder, develops a unique Break-even Analysis tool to more accurately forecasting ROI break-even points for clients on new search marketing campaigns. This is an agency leading analysis tool which is used inhouse to better understand the potential and forecast results for clients.

2019: White Chalk Road Celebrates 20 Years in Business

The White Chalk Road team celebrates 20 years in business at a special event in March at a Burswood venue. Charles Ryder extends his unique Break-even analysis tool to a full-featured, interactive, “Position, Traffic & ROI Forecasting Simulation Tool” to assist Search Marketing Managers and select business clients to make sound ROI driven search marketing investment decisions.

2020: Scotty Collins Joins as A Business Partner

White Chalk Road’s founding director, Charles Ryder, takes on Scotty Collins as a business partner and makes him Managing Director. Charles moves gracefully into semi-retirement, while still maintaining an active connection with all things strategic at White Chalk Road.

So, What’s Next for White Chalk Road?

To better serve our Perth and Australian clients, White Chalk Road have moved into a new central Perth office. Expanding our team and service offerings, White Chalk Road will continue as one of Australia’s leading dedicated SEO and Paid Search specialist agencies.

Our new office is located at 5/59 Parry Street Perth WA 6000

To keep up to date with what’s happening at White Chalk Road, make sure you check out our blog and follow us on Facebook where we post regular updates and industry news.