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6 signs that your SEO Agency is doing a bad job

SEO agency

There’s no dearth of digital marketing agencies in Goa and Mumbai claiming to offer the best SEO services. But not many people know that no SEO is better than bad SEO. An SEO agency that doesn’t know what it is doing can do serious and lasting damage to your website’s presence on search engines. Not everyone is an expert in the technicalities of SEO so it is easy to get fooled into thinking that what your SEO agency is doing is working for you. Digitally Scrambled reveals a few red flags that you need to watch out for:

1) Sending a Proposal that’s Not Tailored to Your Business

A good SEO Agency will always do its homework and tell you where you stand, what you’re doing right and wrong, and how it can help you improve your ranks on Google. They will also provide you with case studies and samples of how they helped other companies with their SEO in the past. An untailored proposal before the start of the project speaks volumes about the effort it will take once the project begins.

2) Promises of Unrealistic, Permanent, or Long-term Ranks

If your SEO agency in Goa promises that they can obtain the number one position for certain keywords permanently, that right there is a red flag! Your website ranks for various keywords and ranks constantly shift from the sheer volume of changes that websites and Google makes every second. The moment your competitors update their pages or make improvements to their websites, search engines like Google will update their result pages too.

3) Too Much Metadata

Metadata pertains to a page’s meta description and the meta keywords. Though Metadata was a huge part of SEO in the past, search engines have become more sophisticated and don’t rely on it too heavily for ranking anymore. That’s not to say that Metadata is useless it is a basic hygiene factor that every site should have. Meta descriptions do show up in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) so people can get an idea about what’s on a page before clicking the link. But, they won’t play a huge part in helping you rank above your competition.

4) Link Building being done the Old-fashioned Way

The best way to get links is by earning them, not buying into link schemes, however many SEO agencies in India practice cheap, dirty tactics to temporarily boost ranks and present impressive SEO reports. Making too many low-quality backlinks too fast is the quickest way to get penalized by Google. Bad SEO agencies blow up on one or two easy-to-rank keywords with a large amount of web spamming, instead of focusing on a larger number of achievable, profitable keywords, since clients don’t understand how SEO works. Google constantly looks out for such violators and if caught, the search engine may remove you from their index and may even your will lose your ad rank altogether, with no hope of ever recovering.

5) Promising a Set Number of Backlinks Every Month

A good SEO agency will never promise you a set number of backlinks. If they do, they probably use automated link-building software which is a bad technique. Good backlinks are hard to get and are very valuable as they are relevant to your business, drive traffic to your site, and significantly boost your ranks. Getting these takes a lot of work and no agency can guarantee an exact number without using dicey or black-hat techniques.

6) They are not High on Maintenance

Optimizing a website isn’t a one-time task, it’s a continuous process. One day you may be at the top and the next day you would have to fight with your competitors to get it back. Maintaining your SEO efforts consistently is of crucial importance or else your rankings will suffer. If your agency isn’t high on maintenance, you will find your ranks dropping, even with regular reports coming in every month.

These are just a few tips to help you find the best SEO agency to help you achieve your goals without getting you in trouble and wasting your marketing spend. Meanwhile, you can also read about Social Media Content Ideas. Make sure you know the agency you are considering and understand the plan they have to help you rank your business online.

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9 Marketing Tips for Hospitality Brands In The Covid Era

Hospitality

It is a well known fact that the hospitality industry is among the worst impacted sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even months after the pandemic hit, the industry still continues to stand on shaky ground. Studies say that the travel industry is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2022 and that consumer sentiments towards traveling will see improvements and declines as new safety protocols and practices emerges, weariness sets in as various countries around the world go through second and third waves of the virus.

Still, the hospitality industry has proven to be one of the most resilient industries and we can be quite certain that travelers will be back – booking tickets, checking in to hotels, booking Airbnbs and indulging in new travel experiences. Until then, here’s how your hospitality brand can stay in touch with consumers and market itself through Covid-19

  1. Re-evaluate your marketing assets – This slump is a good time to re-assess your USPs. Go through your past content, photographs, videos, blogs, presentations, articles. This is a great time to collate your data. Set aside the content you can use during these times. Study each piece diligently and analyze what got you the most hits on your website or the most views on your social media in the past. Studying data and your past content will give you a clear picture of what your audience love the most about your brand (and probably miss during these times).
  2. Record videos in the present time – Videos are excellent SEO silage. Besides, you never know what can come in handy in the future. Make videos of premises, of the staff, the Covid protocols being followed at your premises, embed videos in your blogs, choose the best quotes from the videos and turn them into individual posts for Instagram.
  3. Get feedback from customers and employees– Now would be an excellent time to get in touch with customers from your past seasons and employees of your establishment and get them to talk about your brand. You can record their interviews and use them for Instagram content.
  4. Create content that provides assurance and care – Given the current situation is not the best, customers might be apprehensive about booking a stay at your hotel. Make videos and specific posts about the sanitization of your area, social distancing on the premises, and how you abide by safety protocols and how you’re going above and beyond to ensure safety.
  5. Enhance your social media and digital marketing presence. Taking into consideration that people are spending more time on their devices since a lot of them are working from home. Looking into ways that will improve and boost your online presence. It’s important to remember that your tone of voice and message play a large part in making you appear thoughtful, caring or insensitive. Try not to solicit bookings and visits outright as this suggests that the brand cares more about bookings than safety and may be downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic. Rather, focus on what you do best at your property and let your audience decide whether it is safe for them to visit you.
  6. Revamp your website. While we are on the topic of social media, why not consider giving your website a facelift or get a new one? Get your hotel ready for the new “normal” season by revamping your site – something that a lot of brands put off indefinitely and never get around to.
  7. Do a professional photo shoot and video shoot – With little to no people visiting your establishment at the moment, it’s a great time to do a photo shoot. Photographers and videographers have also had a slump in business. This could serve two purposes and enhance business for the both of you.
  8. Revise your rates. Taking into consideration that people may not have the spending money they did before the Covid-19 Pandemic, maybe consider going through your rates and finding a balance that would help prospective clients. Look for add-ons you can provide to make your offerings more competitive when business resumes.
  9. Digital Marketing. If there are budget cuts you might want to consider PPC (Pay Per Click) Services. For hospitality brands that are looking to maximize ROI, PPC is the most effective as it targets people who are active searchers for the product or service you offer – rather than broadcasting a message to a large amount of people in the hopes that someone will make a booking.    

Got questions on how to market your hospitality brand in Goa? Simply drop us a comment or email us and we’ll be happy to schedule a free consultation.