There are certain online marketing efforts which are either risky or useless.  Focusing on these activities is, at best, a distraction that doesn’t contribute to a long-lasting and solid online marketing presence.  These efforts are like swimming laps in the SEO loser pool — a waste of a hotel’s time and energy.

Keep in mind, my marketing advice here is for hotels, resorts, inns and property managers.  Maybe if you are selling hats some of this stuff works.

Swimming Laps in the SEO Loser Pool was conceived after reading an excellent article by Jill Whalen: Is Most of SEO Just a Boondogle?, which points out efforts which may not produce results.  (Here is a good followup).  The real inspiration behind this post is some recent aggravation we have experienced around each these issues recently.

Loser Lane #1: Link Trading

It is hard to believe webmasters are still link trading. Google has made it clear you shouldn’t do this.  Experts agree that linking to “bad neighborhoods” is dangerous.  It doesn’t really work and the risk of getting penalized is real.

Just last week, I had a discussion with lodging manager who had just been wiped out of Google — even for their business name, OUCH!  I believe that the contributing factor  was an enormous link trading campaign — there was a “links” page on their website pointing to dozens of lame lodging websites and dozens of unrelated websites. (If you are curious, click here to see a scaled screenshot of page. )

Even if link trading works (for now) and gets you better results, we do not believe it is worth attempting due to the risk involved.

Head Injury image by flattop341

Loser Lane #2: SEO on a Poor Website

A healthy percentage of the companies that contact Blizzard for SEO help have very poor websites.  Sometimes they want to discuss SEO and are not open to discussing the overall problems with their website.  Forget SEO for a moment, and consider that doubling the visitors to your website still won’t be profitable if your website doesn’t convert.  It is the definition of throwing good money after bad.

Here is an example: I was working with a hotel recently that shows 10,000 visitors didn’t equal a single booking!

• 10,000 Visits to site.
• 5,700 Visited a second page (the other 4,300 bounced!)
• 2,700 Entered the Booking Engine to look at availability.
• 165 Clicked “Book Now”
• 165 Dropped out of the Booking Process
• 0 Actually booked online.

This hotel doesn’t need more SEO!  They need to lower their 43% bounce rate AND improve their 0% conversion rate.  They need a better booking engine.

Decrepit Hotel Pool photo by: jonathanb1989

Loser Lane #3: Metatag Keywords

Good God, enough with the metatag keywords already. It is so 1999.  I recently received this from a customer who said an SEO consultant had recommended, and I quote:

“it is best to fill out some of your metatags with more/better keywords as the existing ones are insufficient to be competitive, especially the “keyword” section of source code”

Metatag keywords don’t make a difference in Google, stop talking about them.  One could argue that they help in Yahoo, but, that is moot now that Yahoo announced it will private label Bing.

Make sure you read the most excellent comments at the Search Engine Rankings Factor — you will have to scroll down to “Keywords Used in Meta Keyword Tag” since it is at the bottom of the list because it is so, uh, lame.

Rundown Hotel Photo by: Nrico

Loser Lane #4: Junk links

A junky link has the following characteristics, typically all of them:

• It is from an unrelated site
• It won’t send a qualified visitor
• It is free

People do link building, using dozens, hundreds or even thousands of these junky links thinking it will help them in Google.  There is some controversy here!  It may help.  I don’t think it does.  I also think that Google is doing everything possible to minimize the impact from these, so, the future is not bright for this activity.  Instead, get quality links that will send qualified visitors.  Still want to get some crappy links? Here are some places you can waste your time in: Here and  Here.

The best way to get out of the SEO loser pool is to focus on the basics: good content, good photos, easy to use website, listings from websites that send quality traffic, good booking engine and good reviews.

Even as I conclude this post, a few more loser lap lanes come to mind… I will save that for another day.

 

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