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media type="custom" key="19110660" ECHO Trails ECHO Trails may need to examine their use of keywords. ECHO Trails did well in their consideration of what English-speaking tourists would search when travelling to Switzerland. However, they use a lot of keywords, some of which do not pertain to their services at all.
 * On Page**

They may improve their keywords by adding words/phrases like ‘hotels in Lucerne’, ‘hostels in Lucerne’, and ‘bars in Switzerland’. This way when users search for places to stay or nightlife they will receive a suggestion of an activity they may not have considered before.

The title of the website should be changed. It does not pertain to what the company does or services that they offer. Grand European Tours, a European competitor of ECHO Trails, has a much more effective title. Also, they should make the meaning of the acronym bigger so that viewers of the site know what the company stands for.


 * Off Page**

The tour guide at ECHO Trails uses facebook as a medium to reach the public and make consumers aware of their service. However, the page has a weird name and is very hard to find. They should switch to a business page or fan page to make it easier to use.

They could link with travel sites like expedia, orbitz, bing, etc. and travel agencies. Possibly offer incentives to travel agencies to get them to mention ECHO Trails.

ECHO trails should use more social media to make their name heard. For instance, they could set up a facebook page for the organization where users can post about their experiences on the tour. They could also set up a twitter account, a linkedin page, a google plus page, and use pintrest.


 * Competitor Analysis**

TrekAmerica, a competitor in the United States offers two easy to use links on their page that go straight to facebook or youtube. The facebook page is full of pictures, testimonials from hikers that have taken these tours, updates by guides on new tours offered and and tour dates and times. The link to youtube shows 11 different videos of tours given by TrekAmerica.

TrekAmerica uses 4 metatag keywords. They are ‘adventure tours’, ‘north America tours,’ ‘trekamerica,’ and ‘usa tours.’ TrekAmerica uses fewer keywords than ECHO Trails. TrekAmerica’s use of keywords is optimal, because they use few specific keywords. However, they may want to include ‘hiking tours’ in order to generate more views.

ECHO trails should use Google, Yahoo, Baidu, and MSN/Live. These are the 4 most popular search engines in the world so it is very important that ECHO Trails make itself available through all of these portals.
 * Portals**

AS far as pay per click ads go, they should use pay per click advertisements on other people’s websites. For example, use the little ads on the right side of Google and Facebook.

It should also become involved in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Pintrest. Facebook has over 900 million users worldwide, Twitter has 140 million, and Pintrest has 10 million. Although some of these users are probably the same, that equates to a huge amount of people ECHO Trails could be reaching and isn’t. Using social media is an excellent way to get your name heard, both through page views and through advertisements. Plus, since a lot of these users are the same, people will see the ECHO Trails name repeatedly and thus will be more aware of the business.