Warning Signs Your Marketing Agency Is Incompetent: A Cautionary Tale

In the digital age, effective marketing is the lifeline of every successful business. As a business owner, when you invest in digital marketing, you trust that your marketing agency is competent and can provide significant results. However, not all agencies are created equal, and sometimes, they can severely underperform, costing you time, money, and potential growth.

Let’s delve into a real-world example of how a company’s digital marketing efforts went awry and what we can learn from their mistakes.

Website Redesign Warning Signs

1. Site Speed Is Killing Your Business

Your website is the virtual doorway to your business, and if it takes 11-18 seconds to load, you’re in serious trouble. Why is site speed so vital? Consider these facts:

• The Problem: This business’s site took a staggering 11-18 seconds to load its home page. It takes a full 10 seconds before the main image on the homepage loads.
• Why It Matters: According to data from Walmart, a 1% increase in revenue can result from merely decreasing site speed by 0.1 seconds. Moreover, 40% of visitors will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Slow site speed directly impacts the user experience and your bottom line.

Expecting users to wait over 10 seconds for your page to start to be viewable is a recipe for failure.

2. No 301 Redirects on Old URLs to Preserve SEO Rankings

• SEO Value Transfer: When you redesign a website, URLs often change. Without implementing a 301 redirect, search engines treat the new URL as a completely new page, disregarding any SEO value the old URL might have had. A 301 redirect passes approximately 90-99% of the link equity (SEO value) from the old URL to the new one, preserving your hard-earned rankings.
• Avoiding Duplicate Content: Without proper redirects, both old and new URLs might get indexed, leading to duplicate content issues. This can confuse search engines and dilute your SEO efforts.
• Smooth Navigation: Imagine a user clicking a link to your site from a search engine or another site, only to find a 404 error because the page has been moved or deleted. 301 redirects ensure that users are automatically taken to the correct new location of the content they’re seeking, providing a seamless experience.
• Conserving Social Shares: If your old URLs have been shared on social media or other platforms, those links lead to the correct pages, preserving the social proof and engagement associated with your content.

This particular business had several pages that ranked very high and generated thousands of visits which boosted their site SEO. When redesigned these pages were ignored resulting in a loss of SEO value and a bad user experience

Google Ads Warning Signs

When examing a Google Ads campaign professionals look first at the account setup. This is the foundation for having a successful Google Ads campaign and driving lower costs to improve ROI.

• The Problem: The Google Ads were not only set up unprofessionally, but they also resulted in a waste of at least $7,527.92 in ad spend since February.
• Deeper Dive:
  • The company saw 3,136 visits from these ads, with visitors spending an average of just :24 seconds on the site.
  • A staggering 11-18 seconds were wasted on loading, resulting in 2,626 clicks (or users) who essentially never viewed any site content.
  • Out of the total, only 278 (8%) users spent more than 30 seconds on the website.
  • A whopping 82% of all ad clicks were from mobile devices, which experienced the 11-18 second load time.
• Best Practices Ignored: The setup had one ad group per campaign, failing Google’s best practices. This company’s setup didn’t allow for keyword-specific ad copy which improves the quality scores and helps drive lower costs.
• URL Misdirection: 68% of ad clicks redirected users to a contact page with an 11-second load time, leading to a bounce rate of 92% for those who clicked to the home page. If the visitor saw anything it was a phone number, address, and contact form. They then left learning nothing about the business.
• Lack of Conversion Tracking: The agency failed to set up even a single conversion in Google Analytics, blatantly ignoring best practices.

SEO Red Flags

Good rankings can take time to build but can be ruined quickly. Don’t let a lack of cohesive strategy and proper planning tank your rankings.

• The Problem: The company’s organic traffic plummeted by 93%.
• Comparison: The website saw a mere 793 organic visits compared to 7,063 visits the year prior.
• Potential Reason: While it’s hard to pinpoint without more details, there’s a strong indication that they built fewer pages, leading to old pages with SEO value redirecting to 404 error pages. The new agency neglected the top-performing pages for traffic and failed to handle 301 redirects.

Conclusion

This case highlights a critical issue: recognizing when your marketing agency is not up to the task. A 93% drop in organic traffic and a massive waste in ad spend are not just minor setbacks; they’re glaring warning signs of incompetence.

Always stay informed, monitor your metrics, and never hesitate to question your marketing agency if the results aren’t aligning with your expectations. Remember, it’s not just about saving money; it’s about growing your business and ensuring your brand’s longevity.

We offer free audits of your digital marketing. We will closely look at your website and marketing campaigns and give you our honest, expert evaluation. You can give us a call at 772-266-3226 or send us a message.