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Driving Local Demand: How GPS Transformed a Baltimore Parking Garage into a Digital Destination for Sports and Entertainment Fans

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  • SEO
  • Content Strategy
  • CMS Optimization
  • Conversion Rate Optimization
  • Productionalization
  • Content Syndication
  • WordPress Stack

“GPS brought a new level of insight and execution to our digital presence. Their work on the sports portal transformed our underused traffic into loyal users and revenue. They helped us rethink our customer journey, align our content with real user demand, and ultimately drive meaningful sales growth from a previously overlooked segment.”

— HPG Leadership

The Challenge: Breaking Through Saturation in Stadium Parking Search

Harbor Park Garage, one of Baltimore’s most prominent parking facilities located in the city’s Inner Harbor, was already well-positioned in terms of partnerships and geography. The business was consistently capturing ~45% of localized parking searches and driving 8,000 monthly unique visitors to its website. However, growth had plateaued. While the garage had built strong relationships with nearby garages and businesses, it lacked a scalable digital product strategy to take advantage of untapped market opportunities.

With professional sports teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles drawing thousands of fans to the stadiums, and with concerts and events happening regularly at nearby venues, it was clear that user intent existed. But much of that demand was going unfulfilled.

GPS was brought in to lead a full-funnel digital transformation focused on expanding the parking discovery experience and improving conversion around event-driven parking demand. The initiative required a synthesis of UX design, technical SEO, and content-led growth in order to meet user expectations, boost visibility, and increase revenue from parking reservations and related affiliate opportunities.

The Solution: A Stadium Portal Built for Discovery, Utility, and Conversion

The project began with a comprehensive audit of site analytics and keyword data. GPS identified a clear trend: Baltimore-area searches for “stadium parking” and specific venue or team-based parking queries were generating upwards of 10,000 impressions per month. Despite this, the Harbor Park Garage website lacked relevant landing pages that aligned with these high-intent searches. Users were bouncing, not converting, or simply never arriving.

To solve this, GPS spearheaded the development of a fully-integrated stadium portal designed to:

  • Serve as a hub for parking around local sports and entertainment venues
  • Capture search intent for high-traffic event-related keywords
  • Convert that intent into reservations and affiliate-driven purchases

Key Deliverables:

  • UX and Front-End Design: Created wireframes and UX flows that emphasized location awareness, fast access to game-day parking options, and intuitive mobile use.
  • Content Architecture: Deployed a pillar and cluster content strategy. The core pillar pages focused on the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, while clusters supported them with:
    • Individual game breakdowns
    • Stadium maps and FAQs
    • Nearby restaurants, fan gear, and parking garage options
    • Real-time event calendars for each team and venue
  • Copywriting and SEO: GPS authored and deployed all written content, ensuring each page had:
    • High-value keywords
    • Readability optimized for mobile users
    • Strategic placement of CTAs for parking reservations
  • Schema and Structured Data: Integrated detailed JSON-LD schema for events, FAQs, and locations to improve visibility in rich search results.
  • Affiliate Monetization: Integrated e-commerce links for sports merchandise related to the Ravens and Orioles, allowing the garage to monetize fan engagement beyond parking sales.
  • Analytics and Conversion Tracking: Implemented detailed user journey tracking and defined success metrics for portal traffic, conversions, bounce rates, and affiliate sales.

The Results: A Performance-Driven Experience That Delivered

The timing of the launch was ideal: mid-season for the Ravens and during a playoff push for the Orioles. The portal launched at a time of peak demand, giving the new experience immediate visibility among high-intent users.

Performance Highlights (First 1.5 Months):

  • 25K search impressions
  • 2.5K unique visitors
  • CSAT score of 92% based on user feedback from on-site surveys

Sustained Impact (3-Month Rolling Average):

  • 3.2K unique visitors/month, now contributing to 4.3% of all parking-related sales for the business
  • $2,000/month in affiliate revenue from merchandise links
  • Reduced bounce rate by 27% across the portal
  • Increased parking conversion rate by 18% compared to non-portal pages

This initiative showcased how traditional local businesses can blend product design, SEO, and affiliate strategy to build scalable and monetizable digital experiences. The stadium portal has since become a blueprint for additional venue-specific expansions across Baltimore and other high-footfall areas.

GPS continues to iterate on the portal, test new features, and expand the content offering to include real-time alerts, seasonal parking passes, and integrated mapping.

Sources:

  1. Google Keyword Planner. “Baltimore stadium parking volume trends.” https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/
  2. Statista. “Average attendance of NFL and MLB games by team.” https://www.statista.com/statistics/193532/average-attendance-of-mlb-teams-since-2008/
  3. BrightLocal. “Local search trends for service-based businesses.” https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
  4. Shopify Blog. “How to Use Affiliate Marketing to Drive Revenue.” https://www.shopify.com/blog/affiliate-marketing