Boating Georgian Bay Announces Updated Marina Directory
OutdoorHub 05.01.12
http://www.BoatingGeorgianBay.com , a leading Ontario boating directory that specializes in Georgian Bay cruising information and draws a worldwide audience with over 5,000 daily hits from web surfers seeking everything and anything about boating, has just updated its comprehensive Marina Directory data base, to ensure that boaters have all the latest information when cruising Georgian Bay. The Directory includes contact information, slips, transient docking, repairs, accommodations, shopping facilities, marina depth, gas & diesel availability, maximum boat length and pump out availability. Many of the marina attributes are also included on the Mobile site versionhttp://www.BoatingGeorgianBay.com/mobile/ so boaters traveling with Smart phones can get to critical information like weather, marina data and emergency contacts quickly.
“Updating our Georgian Bay & North Channel marina directory is a big undertaking that we do every spring,” says Mark Coles a senior partner in First Page SEO http://www.first-page-seo.com the company that owns the Boating Georgian Bay online website. “We contact every marina by phone to verify their listing information once per year and then we keep it up to date throughout the year by gathering local knowledge and updating on an ongoing basis. We also try to visit most marinas in person once a year to drop off information postcards. It takes about two weeks to do the yearly telephone update and one of our guys is on the road visiting marinas for about two weeks of the year as well. Most would be surprised to learn that there are 112 marinas on Georgian Bay and the North Channel and they represent 10,709 slips this year. It doesn’t seem like there are that many marinas when you are cruising and dropping anchor … but they are there when you need them, nicely spaced out all around the Bay. We have found that there have been many changes in the marina industry on Georgian Bay since the last boating season. This includes ownership and name changes but also things like water depth and the number of transient slips changes greatly,” adds Coles.
Although Boating Georgian Bay’s focus is on Georgian Bay cruising, in fact, viewers tune in from all over the world to update themselves on the latest in boating news, editorial content and yachting accessories. “We attend many of the major North American boat shows looking for great new boat products and accessories that would be of interest to our audience. This past year, we have attended the Annapolis, Lauderdale, Miami and Toronto boat shows. The site has fresh content or news added almost every single day of the year. We’re out there socially as well on Twitter, You Tube and Google Plus, gathering and sharing information. It’s the only boating site that we know of that is completely current, and we are able to do that thanks to our advertisers and our in-house web programmers that work on all of our sites on day to day basis,” says Coles.
The most popular pages on the Boating Georgian Bay web site are Weather, What’s New, Marinas, Blog and Boat Stuff according to Coles.”There are also many research resources on the site, including the largest data base of recorded ship wrecks on Georgian Bay, painstakingly gathered from many sources including books and marine museums,” says Coles. This year, the site will be adding monthly surveys so boaters can share their views on things that may influence the use of their boats. “We did one last year on mooring buoy implementation in the 30,000 Island Park harbours and got some really useful feedback from cruisers that we hope the government will pay attention to,” reports Coles.
Boating Georgian Bay is a Lieutenant Sponsor of the Great Loop Cruising Association and a Gold Sponsor of the Georgian Bay Tug Fest and promotes the web site widely, including their own brand of environmentally friendly multi-purpose boat cleaner that uses no phosphates or solvents called Boating Georgian Bay Seriously Great Boat Cleaner.
