It was hard for us to decide to tell this story. Moreover, we want to publish its first part - the successful one. But there is also a sad continuation about how careless movements with the site can lead to trouble.
Why are you reading this?
- Not to repeat, because smart people learn from the mistakes of others.
- To understand that even if you no longer cooperate with the agency, then during a certain period you paid for the services. And if you are satisfied with the result, then the prolonged action will be long, after all the joint efforts.
The site is a child that needs to be taken care of all the time. There is an opinion that every year - one and a half the site becomes outdated. And you need to make certain changes, not even in order to break sharply ahead of competitors. And to keep the already won positions.
Everything is interconnected in digital. A good landing page enhances the effect of contextual advertising (we have already talked about this in articles on the SPRAVA blog). Great photos or videos say more than a thousand words. But if these photos are on a banner from the Nativity of Christ of some year, then the negative impression on the site visitor will be stronger. As experience shows, the clients of our customers most likely think like this: “The content on the site has not been updated for a long time, I see a promotion from the year before last. Maybe these people also relate to their business?”
So read to the end.
A fairy tale about how you can bury an already spent promotion budget
Once upon a time there was a country complex for recreation from a hotel, a restaurant, various banquet halls and lounges, and a huge range of services for recreation. And there was a garden, and Instagram places, and outdoor pools. And very, very good food. Also, the complex was well located. Just 15 minutes drive from the main tourist center of Ukraine. Everything was there, but there were problems with the promotion of such a complex: the site is too old, and advertising would be necessary.
For a year and a half of work with the agency, the site acquired a new concept and became unlike a thousand and one web resources of competitors. And several language versions were introduced, and advertising was given for as many as 5 segments of the target audience. And they used tricks, and made new landing pages, and achieved excellent results. If we talk in the world of the customer, then orders for events, overnight stays, and family vacations on weekends were scheduled. And there were more brand queries on Google, and word of mouth slowly began to work.
The agency and the customer parted on such a high note that after writing a case with a detailed presentation of all the ideas, works, conclusions, the agency was contacted again and again - who doesn’t want this?
And nothing foreshadowed trouble. But ... the customer's marketers have changed. In just six months, they managed to successfully bury all efforts. How did they do it? And let's see.
Why is the system important in website promotion and what will happen if it is broken
- Refused content that answered questions from potential guests.
On each landing page, the amount of content has been reduced. Previously, each page was designed as a landing page, we tried to achieve the maximum completeness of the answer. The main feature was this - people want to hold an event, and they get to the page for this. And everything is on that page: about renting halls, rooms where people can stay, what they can do in their free time, promotions and special offers. How much does it cost per person, what can you take with you, what to agree on, are there coffee breaks, are there photo zones.
The customer considered that there was too much content and cut the content on the page. Accordingly, the user began to receive fewer answers to questions.
Advice. You can ask a question to the agency with which you worked on what principle each boarding pass was filled with, what guided it, how it was optimized. And if the conversions of such a landing page are high, then there is no need to break what worked.
- Didn't respect seasonality. It's autumn, and in the header of the site you can see children in the summer pool. The site admin panel is designed in such a way that all blocks can be swapped, and what is relevant can be easily moved up. So why not do it?
Advice. In the hospitality business, the wow factor and emotions are crucial. And if you place banners and special offers for autumn children's holidays or romantic weekends at the end of summer, you will win. Make appropriate pictures in advance. Let there be several options for each season.
- They stopped monitoring the relevance of offers. Now there are several promotions on the site, the term of which has long expired.
In November, it is important to publish special offers for the New Year, so that users can see whether there will be corporate parties, whether there will be a New Year's Eve, how much it will cost, who to talk to in order to "score" certain dates and make a pre-order. If you are not sure about the operation of the enterprise due to coronavirus events, it is better to be honest about it. And come up with a takeaway banquet service, for example. And be sure to hide irrelevant banners.
- New photos significantly slowed down the loading of the site.
Those photos that were uploaded on their own turned out to be unacceptably heavy. Website loading speed is one of the Google ranking factors. How everything happens. Google once indexed the site and realized that it was hard to open, indexed it a second time. Third time. And then the site just … disappeared from the tops of the search engine.
For six months of our work, the site was in the top for the queries “out-of-town hotels in Lviv”, “where to stay overnight on the Kyiv-ChOP highway”, “wedding in Lviv hotels”, “out-of-town hotels in Lviv”. Now the user, who is still waiting for the site to open, finds some fragments there, does not receive information about what he needs, and leaves.
There will be no advice here. Because you already understood everything. A chain of three seemingly unrelated actions led to the fall of the site in searches.
The reason that you broke up with the contractor may be 2 things: you are unhappy with the result or you are satisfied with it, but the stars aligned. And if the second option is yours, then you should not break what you have been doing all this time with your SEO specialist. At least until you find another, because you may not even know what result your actions will lead to.
Raise emails, clarify why this content is important, make any changes together with someone who is not alien to Google's ranking principles. Otherwise, this case will become yours. And then somewhere in the world one SEO specialist or an entire agency will be sad :)
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