SEO PROJECT FOR HOMESTAY IN COORG

Objectives: Client wanted to gain more visibility with Search Engine optimisation of their website specifically on Google.co.in, to attract more targeted traffic comprising of individuals, corporate groups and travellers searching for a homestay in Coorg using Google. Client was already advertising using Google Adwords, with a significant ad spend over the past couple of years.One of the objectives was also to reduce ad spend by ensuring traffic using ‘organic’ search traffic.

Our Solution: Our regular SEO process starts with an in-depth keyword research strategy to analyse all 'keyword' combinations - which the target audience would use to find the client's business.Based on that we shortlisted about 25 keywords and further filtered them to about 8 keywords that we could target in the first phase.Targeting relevant and viable keywords is an important part of our SEO process to ensure we are able to deliver results from ‘low hanging fruit’keywords and keep the client engaged for the long term objectives of ranking for their primary or

‘money-sales-generating’ keyword.

Our next process comprised of their website audit to find what was good and what required to be changed in terms of availability of relevant pages, the presence of relevant content in those pages,html errors, broken links and a dozen of other best practises as recommended by Google. Based on our initial keyword research, our team suggested additional pages & content to be introduced in the website for some keywords that they had found had high search volumes in Google but these

keywords where not directly related to the client’s business. For example for a keyword like 'Hotels in Coorg' - even though a 'homestay' is radically different in terms of the 'guest experience' –our team felt the client’s site could gain advantage of the traffic from these searches. By targeting this keyword – the client’s website could also help in educating visitors & travellers looking for accommodation in Coorg - but who otherwise may not be aware about a concept like a 'homestay'. We added some 'educative' content about the hotel options in Coorg and also added some advantages of staying in a homestay rather than a hotel. Apart from this, we corrected their Google Map listing, and also created a Google local business page (G+) linked to this map listing. We also initiated a campaign wherein all the guests of Bird Of Paradise Homestay would be invited to the Google maps local listing page to submit their positive reviews in order to increase the ‘authority’ of the client’s map listing.

The Result: By ticking all the right check boxes, we were able to gradually improve the search ranking of the website and when the latest Google Penguin update hit websites in the end of September 2014, the client's website 'jumped' straight to the second page of Google.co.in for their primary keyword 'Homestay in Coorg'. Before the start of the project their site was rankedabout 110th for this keyword and in about 5-6 months, we were able to hit the jackpot. As of December 2014, their site was ranking 6 in the first page for their target keyword and 12 for another target keyword ‘best hotels in Coorg’ – which otherwise was not even listing in 150 pages of search results in Google.co.in at the start of the project.

What Next: After achieving our primary goal, our team is now measuring the impact of keyword ranking, by using conversion tracking in Google analytics. We are able to measure which pages of the site that are doing well on search results are able to convert in terms of clicks (CTR) from the SERP’s (search engine result pages) and also the conversions (form sign-ups) on the client website. Using this data, we are planning our next round of keywords that we could target for our client andalso maintain the existing rankings.