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Google Punishes Cheaters
For years I've been warning innkeepers about the dangers of trying to trick the search engines. I've implored innkeepers to obtain professional web sites which perform naturally well in the search engines and also convert lookers into bookers. Yet, many aggressive webmasters (or desperate innkeepers) have ignored those warnings and tried to cheat their way to the top of the search engine listings. More often than not, the result is an unprofessional web site which performs adequately well in the search engines but is unimpressive to the potential guest. Well, everything is about to change -- or already has depending on when you read this report.
On September 22nd, 2005, Google began to take action against web sites with what they call, "spammy content" such as hidden text, hidden links, link exchange programs, duplicate web sites (two domains with the same content) and keyword stuffing. Over a six week period Google performed four major updates to their index with the final update going live over the next week. Essentially, Google has reshuffled the deck and the result could help you, hurt you or destroy you.
Am I being over dramatic? In a word, NO. If you're an innkeeper, I don't need to tell you that a vast majority of your reservations come from the internet. What you may not know is that a vast majority of those referrals come from Google. Like it or not, Google is by far the most popular search engine in use and your positions on Google can and do have an enormous impact on your bottom line. So in our next section, I'm going to show you how to see into the future -- to see what your positions on Google will be come next week and maybe for some time to come.
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Winners, Survivors and Losers
Come next week, your positions on Google will either improve, deteriorate or disappear (if you've been caught cheating). If you'd like to see into the future and know now what your positions will be, here's what you do.
Perform some standard searches on Google and see where you come up. A lot of innkeepers try searching on phrases like, "romantic hideaway bed and breakfast in southern california" but that isn't the least bit realistic. Instead, here's some examples for a fictitious inn from Sacramento. Just follow this example by replacing the information with your own:
sacramento bed and breakfast
bed and breakfast in sacramento
sacramento california bed and breakfast
bed and breakfast in sacramento california
So go to Google and write down your positions for each of the phrases you choose. Now, go over to the Google's Future Index and perform the same searches -- see anything different? Hopefully all you'll notice are minor changes in your positions. If you're seeing the exact same results on both the current Google and Future Index for all search phrases then the Future Index has already been incorporated into the current index.
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Which are you?
A major engineer from Google has publicly stated that this will be the last of the big updates. From now on, the Google index will periodically receive minor updates which are much less drastic. What this means is that we're going to see a lot more "flux" in the Google search results over the coming years. Honestly, it's about time. But let's talk about your web site and how this will affect you personally (or may already have).
If your site disappeared from the Google search results (we're talking nowhere in the top ten pages), you've got serious problems and it's time to hire a professional. Who you hire at this point should be very carefully considered as it was the aggressive (and cheap) SEO companies who were hit hardest by these changes. It's also not going to be an inexpensive venture and may require starting from scratch with an entirely new web site. Look on the bright side -- you may have needed one anyway. See the final section on where to go for help.
If your search engine positions improved, hurray for you and congratulations! Now, make sure your web site has professional photos and a professional design so that you're converting every potential guest who visits your web site. Depending on how much your positions improved -- you may have a lot more traffic coming to that site of yours.
If your search engine positions dropped off but you can still find them then you haven't done anything terribly wrong but you also haven't done everything right. Time to hire a professional to reevaluate your web site.
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Who You Gonna Call?
The place to start is with one of the major internet marketing companies within our industry such as: (by year established) White Stone Marketing, Third Millennium Marketing, Blizzard Internet, Savvy Innkeeper and Acorn Internet. Each of these companies has been working in the field of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a number of years and should be able to improve your positions on Google.
Some of the more knowledgeable of you may have noticed the inclusion of my own company in there which I mention with hesitation for the following reason. After over ten years as the second largest internet marketing company in the B&B industry (under the name Moriah) we went back to our roots of just my wife and I. We now handle original web site design, promotion and consulting for an exclusive group of clients under the name White Stone Marketing. If you're serious about investing into your internet marketing, go ahead and drop me a line. If you're looking for a quick fix, I highly recommend one of the other companies I've listed above.
One final note. There are a ton of webmasters out there but that doesn't make them SEO experts and some do more harm than good. Furthermore, every time I've seen an innkeeper go outside of our industry for SEO they always end up hiring some sleaze ball company who charges them a fortune for pure garbage. Here's a tip: if they mention "meta tags" chances are they don't know what they're doing. Other than that, stick with the companies I've mentioned above and you'll most likely come out okay. If you get into a real bind, drop me a line and I'll see if I can help.
Best of luck to you all. I'll keep you posted as things change.
