MyTravel SEO - sorry spam (?) is done by ....

[getvisible]

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as you probably know I worked for MyTravel for a day before (a week before the hole in the accounts was found) but I left coz it looked like they didn't know their Ass (!) from their elbow.

Found out who was doing their SEO - Netbooster. I also looked over the SEO of Caterer.com who I believe had netbooster doing thier seo - they had hidden layers, small images - basically everything bad you could do - they did do.

I'm starting to see that the small one-man bands (usually affilaites) are far better at seo than these big companies. But perhaps they're not as good as "B.S." as the big boys though:

From their site"

MYTRAVEL.COM PORTAL SET TO FLY WITH WEB POSITIONING FROM NETBOOSTER

NetBooster, the leading Pan-European search engine optimisation company, today announced it has secured a contract with MyTravel.com, the travel portal launched in November 2001 by Airtours . By guaranteeing first page visibility on the leading search engines, NetBooster will position MyTravel.com ahead of the game in the hugely competitive online travel market, estimated to be worth 20 billion by 2006 . NetBooster's existing clients include IBM, Reed Business and Pfizer.

David Hales, Marketing Manager, MyTravel.com said, "We knew that we were entering a highly competitive and already well serviced market, as online travel has grown exponentially over the last few years. So coupled with the fact that at least 80% of Internet users visit search engines as a first point of call when researching products and services, the company realised that a search engine optimisation strategy would be a critical factor in its success."

He continues, "We found the search for our ideal reputable, web positioning company a difficult and challenging process. When a strong personal recommendation for NetBooster came our way, we approached them without hesitation. It is early stages

as yet, and we are approaching the end of the site optimisation phase, but we are
confident that the relationship with NetBooster will be an extremely beneficial one."

Providing customers with web pages that reflect their own personal holiday preferences is one of MyTravel.com's unique attributes in the online travel sector. The company views search engines as the 'virtual librarians' who will direct potential customers to the site to browse through magazine articles and independent travel guides as well as to book their holidays. MyTravel's SEO campaign by NetBooster will play a crucial role in the company's integrated CRM and marketing strategy.

Eric Renom, UK General Manager, NetBooster said, "This contract really challenges NetBooster's capabilities. With the ever-changing nature of web sites and the hugely competitive online travel landscape, we intend to make the MyTravel site really stand out. The site is very rich in content, which is a good ground for us to work on, and NetBooster will advise on future page design considerations to ensure the profile of the site remains high: this is essential in a market which attracted almost 6 million users in January 2002 alone."


About NetBooster

Established 3 years ago in Paris, London and Frankfurt, NetBooster has asserted itself as the leader of the European Web optimisation market, estimated by IDC to be worth over £818 million by 2003. The growth in the Internet (28 million sites, with over 2 billion Web pages and approximately 7 million new pages each day) necessitates the use of search tools for accessing information. Today, positioning on search tools is proving to be the strategy that is most frequently used by businesses (79%) to improve the visibility of their Web site. Due to advanced methods and unique expertise with search engines, NetBooster is able to guarantee its clients will appear on the first page of search engine results for their chosen key words.

Two out of three businesses opt for custom-made positioning, which provides high added value compared with automatic positioning, for the purpose of obtaining more relevant results (IDC, 2001)."

But they hide that page (http://www.netbooster.co.uk/PR_searc...g_mytravel.htm) with A REDIRECT!! you really do have to worry.

NB. this isn't a solitation for business - :-)

What do you think about the differences in seo skills between affilaites and "proper" seo companies?

[getvisible]

NetBooster is able to guarantee its clients will appear on the first page of search engine results for their chosen key words.

ok - random sample "cheap holidays in malaga" - one of Mytravel's target phrases??

#1 - Competitor
#2 - Indented result
#3 - Espot Affili
#4 - Competitor - poss same co as #1
#5 - Overture affiliate
#6 - (indented result of #5
#7 - Affiliate
#8 - Espot Affili (well done Richard)
#9 - Affiliate - (mind your head - hidden links at bottom)
# - Affiliate

So

Competitor 3/10 results
CPC Affiliates - 4/10
Affiliate - 3/10
Mytravel - Netbooster 0/10

V. interesting (perhaps this provides evidence that marketing managers should pay more to affiliates to reduce the risk of paying SEO consultants that will do anything to get short term results?)

[adigaskell]

My experience of seo companies is that they know very little and adopt short term approaches, such as doorway pages and keyword stuffing.

It certainly seems that many of these companies get contracts through their connections and networking ability rather than their seo ability.

There is certainly scope for allowing affiliates to do a great deal of seo work for you. Many merchants copy focuses on the customer and getting the sale, with search engine optimised content way down the list of priorities. That isn't to say that there still isn't plenty that can be done to improve serps but affiliates have greater flexibility I feel.