SEARCH PLANNING MEMORANDUM TO: WICHITA VILLACRES AND MAOREEN EVERY FROM: KELSEY GERNERT SUBJECT: SEARCH PLANNING DATE: JULY 11, 2015 Overview In an effort to increase traffic to our website and engage in new and effective marketing campaigns I have analyzed our current website performance, formed recommendations and devised a suggested plan of action. In this memo I will assess the current search engine optimization (SEO) level of Eco’s website. I will then go on to recommend a search plan which will include the following elements: a keyword traffic estimate, strategies for targeting, budget management recommendations, ad text creative messaging, and a forecast of potential results. Assessment Key Words Search I searched for ECO DMS under several key words and phrases that relate to their business. These phrases included: Category Terms: Aruba, Aruba DMC, Aruba DMC’s, Aruba incentive travel, Aruba corporate travel, Curacao DMC, Caribbean DMC, Dutch Caribbean DMC, and several others. Branded Terms: ECO DMS, ECO Destination Management Services. A sample of keyword search results are shown in Exhibit 1. What Companies Come Up In my search the primary companies that appeared were De Palm Tours, followed by Epic, and Red Sail Sports. Sunlinc appeared as another destination management company when the search was broadened to the rest of the Caribbean. These results were not surprising as De Palm, Epic and Red Sail are ECO DMS’s largest competitors in the Dutch West Indies. What the Listings Say None of the competitors for ECO DMS had pay per click ads at this time. Therefore pay per click advertising represents a possible opportunity for ECO to differentiate itself from its competitors and gain increased exposure. Search Savviness of Eco DMS Page 1 of 6
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SEARCH PLANNING MEMORANDUM
TO: WICHITA VILLACRES AND MAOREEN EVERYFROM: KELSEY GERNERTSUBJECT: SEARCH PLANNINGDATE: JULY 11, 2015
Overview
In an effort to increase traffic to our website and engage in new and effective marketing campaigns I have analyzed our current website performance, formed recommendations and devised a suggested plan of action. In this memo I will assess the current search engine optimization (SEO) level of Eco’s website. I will then go on to recommend a search plan which will include the following elements: a keyword traffic estimate, strategies for targeting, budget management recommendations, ad text creative messaging, and a forecast of potential results.
Assessment
Key Words Search
I searched for ECO DMS under several key words and phrases that relate to their business. These phrases included:
Category Terms: Aruba, Aruba DMC, Aruba DMC’s, Aruba incentive travel, Aruba corporate travel, Curacao DMC, Caribbean DMC, Dutch Caribbean DMC, and several others.
Branded Terms: ECO DMS, ECO Destination Management Services.
A sample of keyword search results are shown in Exhibit 1.
What Companies Come Up
In my search the primary companies that appeared were De Palm Tours, followed by Epic, and Red Sail Sports. Sunlinc appeared as another destination management company when the search was broadened to the rest of the Caribbean. These results were not surprising as De Palm, Epic and Red Sail are ECO DMS’s largest competitors in the Dutch West Indies.
What the Listings Say
None of the competitors for ECO DMS had pay per click ads at this time. Therefore pay per click advertising represents a possible opportunity for ECO to differentiate itself from its competitors and gain increased exposure.
Search Savviness of Eco DMS
Eco DMS is not yet search savvy. Despite appearing on the first page of all searches performed Eco was never once listed higher than our competitors except when searching for Eco branded terms. Below are some of the areas Eco could improve upon as well as specific recommendations to optimize the website.
Eco includes much of its vital content and keywords within pictures which make it unsearchable for search engines and suboptimal. See example page: http://www.ecodms.com/services.html
Eco’s tagline is “motivational experiences are our only business”. The keyword “motivational experiences” only appears once in the searchable section of the site. Eco could optimize its search results by repeating this phrase in other pages as well.
In order to increase optimization for the keyword “destination management” that keyword should also be repeated more on the site. Additionally, the text should be removed from the photos and put into a format readable by search engines (www.Moz.com).
During a deeper dive using www.seo-browser.com (see screen capture in Exhibit 2) I found that images on the website were not being assigned alternative text descriptions for the visual content. Due to this oversight images are lacking optimization for both web and image searches.
I suggest Eco expand the title tag to include the entire name of the company. Instead of it saying Eco DMS write Eco Destination Management Services. This will create a clearer impression for users and further optimize the page.
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A final means to optimize search-ability for Eco DMS would be to make sure more relevant keywords show up in the URL of the site. Spelling out Eco Destination Management Services in the link could help optimize the site.
Recommended Search Plan
Keyword Traffic Estimate
With the 20 selected keywords and the $4 a day budget it is estimated that creating an advertisement on Google will generate an additional 83 clicks on the website per day and over 41,000 additional exposures per day. I recommend the keywords contain phrases in English, Spanish and Dutch as these are the top three languages spoken in Eco’s client market. Keywords should not be so broad that they attract customers not interested in Eco’s services for example using the keyword Aruba. They should also not be branded keywords such as Eco DMS. If the consumer is already searching for Eco by name then it is redundant for Eco to attempt to target them with a paid advertisement.
Strategies for Targeting
Eco’s clients come from all over the world therefore there was no geographic restriction placed. I recommend including some negative keywords in order to ensure that those viewing the ad are part of the target demographic. Eco specializes in group incentive travel therefore those searching for family or couples vacations are outside of the target demographic. These undesirables may be weeded out through adding negative keywords such as couples, romantic, family, and honeymoon.
Budget Management
The daily budget was set at $4 a day. The total cost would be $1,460 per year. I set the budget at $4 because this is not a form of marketing that Eco has tried before and we may be hesitant to invest a large sum up front. At $4 a day Eco may monitor the data and see if this investment is effectively driving traffic to the site and from there choose if they would like to invest more or cancel the contract at no cost.
Ad Text Creative Messaging
Unfortunately the full name of the company, Eco Destination Management Services was too long for the headline and had to be shortened to Eco Destination Mgmt. This is undesirable as it is best to have as many keywords as possible in the title however it appears to be the best available option. The ad text should read: Aruba & Curaçao's Highest Rated DMC; followed by a specific ask such as: Request a proposal today! See Exhibit 3 for a sample advertisement.
Forecast of Results
If the keyword traffic estimate of an additional 83 clicks a day on the website proves correct that will mean an additional 2,490 visits to the website per month. Conservatively, if only 10% of those additional clicks request a proposal that would translate into an increase of 249 potential clients for Eco in just one month; for the minimal cost of $120.
Conclusion
Eco needs to increase their search engine optimization efforts. Competitors are consistently being ranked in search results above Eco and this is undesirable. Through implementing my optimization recommendations and investing in a small ad campaign Eco Destination Management Services should experience a meaningful increase in business.
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References
https://books.google.com/books/about/Web_Analytics_2_0.html?id=IykGCqV1v20C&hl=en
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development
http://www.seo-browser.com/index.php?CompanyName=&address=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecodms.com%2Fdestination.html&button0.x=52&button0.y=12&button0=Simple&g-recaptcha-response=03AHJ_VutMs7_Pv7Q4FIAD0LIjNzhyAc-wL6JEpGul5KmF04KvIX7ap3eE5LcxZ8AbPt35Qm4qJ_pE34YC3t36KvV2dqmPSTUe-NfISDulJup9lA5odPiJnm3rAi9pc0-_EFuH8lUTPY-B_-qtp_wOMcKMcOMY4-3uuz2WQJj-Psn11qCyPXQ1ugd7GB8-LBNAD3SriOCqcdIMe_cWFGvq7zzxHBMmoc1IV9_HNXq4T69UXv2zCB4TqxYfjeLb-F4Eil8KewvwAbmYG7tCmktw6ehT63-xRSAnFA1IVQxXtVsZOFhDvfdW5UKmN254KlLPE2ouIUGO3m14waaoBBIasfUgVPU0DX5F_cCeSVHbgxKOpFWE-2Ew_0A9jZozsp87ZBu-iXqVYS-_kcj59KfgVWgeOLDPlLnWVCAwyRfWnkAdLvfNwcnbK7ICrK549m6ncZ5NRZTb2FDX
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Exhibit 1: Keyword search results
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Exhibit 2: Seo-browser
Exhibit 3: Sample Ad that would be seen on the side bar in Google
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