March 19th, 2026
Magnet Proposal for Ocean City
full-service engagement
Prepared by Magnet Co, LLC · 1311 Vine St, Cincinnati 45202 · team@magnet.co
The Opportunity
OceanCity.com is the largest independent tourism site for Ocean City, Maryland, with 305K+ Facebook followers and a strong brand locals and visitors trust for webcams, hotels, dining, and events. With a Domain Rating of 52, over 20K backlinks, and 1,400 referring domains, it holds a foundation most tourism sites spend years building.
However, the outdated WordPress stack—heavy with WooCommerce, GeoDirectory, and many plugins—now limits growth. The team struggles with updates like schema tagging, leaving stale content, missing meta descriptions, and minimal structured data. The competitor, ococean.com, boasts a DR of 67, 408K backlinks, and a growing search advantage.
Analytics reflect the issue: OceanCity.com's 69% bounce rate, 43-second visit time, and 39/100 mobile PageSpeed lag behind ococean.com's stronger engagement. A restrictive robots.txt slows Bing's crawler, and 58% of sessions come from direct traffic—signaling major untapped organic potential.
Domain Rating
52
vs. ococean.com at 67
Mobile PageSpeed
39/100
significant headroom
Bounce Rate
69%
43s avg. visit time
We're proposing a three-phase engagement to close that gap systematically:
- Phase 1 fixes the low-hanging fruit immediately: on-page SEO, schema, performance, and a dedicated webcam SEO recovery plan to close the gap with OceanCityLive.com.
- Phase 2 rebuilds the front-end platform on modern infrastructure while integrating the existing BookRipe booking engine and the trails/Value Add model into a single, instrumented funnel. Hotels keep their GDS connectivity (TravelClick, iHotelier, Sabre) exactly where it lives today. Magnet designs the front end and tracking around BookRipe as the single source of inventory, not a second set of rates.
- Phase 3 shifts Magnet into a supporting role, enabling Ann's team to produce better-aligned creative and content with ongoing strategic guidance, while monthly reporting tells the full story: traffic to bookings, Value Add attach rates, and year-over-year revenue.
SEO & Performance
Phase 1 is a focused 60-day sprint to recover organic ground and eliminate the technical friction holding OceanCity.com back. No platform change required—everything works within the existing WordPress stack.
Technical SEO Audit
A full crawl of OceanCity.com covering indexability, crawl budget, page speed, Core Web Vitals, internal linking, and duplicate content. We'll produce a prioritized fix list with owner assignments and estimated impact per item.
- Resolve robots.txt restrictions blocking Bing and other crawlers
- Fix missing and duplicate meta titles / descriptions at scale
- Identify and consolidate thin or duplicate location pages
- Internal link audit — surface high-authority pages not passing equity
Schema & Structured Data
Structured data is one of the fastest levers for CTR improvement in travel search. We'll implement and validate schema across the site's key content types.
- LocalBusiness, Hotel, Restaurant, and Event schema across all listings
- FAQPage schema for top informational pages
- BreadcrumbList and SiteLinks markup
- Google Search Console validation and rich result testing
Webcam SEO Recovery
Webcams are OceanCity.com's highest-traffic asset and the entry point for repeat visitors. OceanCityLive.com has eroded this position. We'll build a dedicated recovery plan targeting webcam-specific search terms, embedding, and direct traffic re-capture.
- Keyword gap analysis: OceanCity.com vs. OceanCityLive.com
- Webcam landing page optimization (titles, H1s, structured data)
- Embed & share strategy to rebuild inbound links
- Direct notification / re-engagement plan for repeat webcam visitors
Phase 1 Deliverables
| Deliverable | Format |
|---|---|
| Technical SEO audit report | Google Doc + Notion |
| Schema implementation (all listing types) | Live on site |
| Webcam SEO recovery plan | Playbook + implementation |
| robots.txt and sitemap fixes | Live on site |
| Meta title/description templates + bulk update | CSV + implementation |
| Month-1 performance baseline report | Dashboard |
Platform Rebuild
Phase 2 replaces the WordPress front end with a modern, fast, and fully instrumented platform—while keeping every existing booking and GDS integration exactly in place. The goal is a conversion machine, not a redesign for its own sake.
Front-End Architecture
We'll rebuild OceanCity.com on a modern JAMstack architecture: fast by default, SEO-ready out of the box, and designed for the content team to update without developer involvement.
- Next.js front end with server-side rendering for all listing pages
- Sub-1s LCP target on mobile — eliminates the 39/100 PageSpeed problem
- CMS layer (headless) for Ann's team to manage content independently
- Full Core Web Vitals compliance pre-launch
- Redirects and URL preservation — zero organic equity lost in migration
BookRipe Integration
BookRipe remains the single source of hotel inventory. Hotels keep their GDS connectivity (TravelClick, iHotelier, Sabre) exactly as it is today. Magnet designs the front end and attribution tracking around BookRipe—not a parallel rate system.
- Embed BookRipe search widget natively into the new UI
- Custom booking flow design — on-brand, not iFrame default
- UTM and conversion tracking from organic landing page → booking confirmation
- Fallback handling and error states designed for user trust
Value Add Funnel
The trails / Value Add model is OceanCity.com's highest-margin revenue lever. Phase 2 makes it a first-class citizen in the booking funnel rather than an afterthought.
- Value Add offers surfaced at hotel search, listing, and confirmation stages
- Attach rate tracking per offer type and per hotel
- A/B testing framework built in from day one
- Trail / activity cross-sell integrated into the itinerary builder
Phase 2 Deliverables
| Deliverable | Format |
|---|---|
| Rebuilt OceanCity.com front end (Next.js) | Production deploy |
| BookRipe integration with custom UI | Live on site |
| Value Add funnel with attach rate tracking | Live + dashboard |
| Full migration: redirects, URL parity, sitemap | Live on site |
| CMS setup + content team training | Session + docs |
| Launch performance report vs. baseline | Report |
Ongoing Support
Phase 3 shifts Magnet from builder to strategic partner. Ann's team runs the day-to-day; we stay upstream—making sure creative, content, and reporting are all pulling in the same direction.
Content & Creative Direction
Monthly creative alignment sessions ensure every piece of content—from hotel descriptions to seasonal campaigns—is mapped to a search or conversion goal.
- Monthly content strategy session with Ann's team
- Quarterly keyword refresh and content gap analysis
- Campaign briefs for seasonal pushes (summer, fall shoulder season)
- Ad creative direction for paid amplification of organic content
Monthly Reporting
The full story: traffic to bookings, Value Add attach rates, and year-over-year revenue—delivered in a single dashboard with narrative context.
- Organic traffic by channel and page type
- Booking conversion rate and BookRipe revenue attribution
- Value Add attach rate by offer and hotel
- YoY comparison vs. prior season
- Top 3 priorities for next month
Investment
The engagement is structured across three phases with clear milestones. Each phase is scoped independently so Ocean City can proceed, pause, or expand based on results.
| Phase | Scope | Duration | Investment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | SEO & Performance | 60 days | TBD |
| Phase 2 | Platform Rebuild | 90–120 days | TBD |
| Phase 3 | Ongoing Support | Monthly retainer | TBD |
Detailed pricing provided in the confidential addendum.
Timeline
Week 1–2
Kickoff & Audit
Technical SEO crawl, baseline analytics report, schema audit. Align on Phase 1 priorities with Ocean City team.
Week 3–6
Phase 1 Implementation
Deploy schema fixes, robots.txt, meta templates. Launch webcam SEO recovery playbook.
Week 7–8
Phase 1 Closeout
Performance check against baseline. Phase 2 scoping, architecture decision, and design kickoff.
Month 3–5
Phase 2 Build
Front-end rebuild, BookRipe integration, Value Add funnel. Staging review with Ocean City team.
Month 5–6
Phase 2 Launch
Migration, redirect deploy, full launch. Two-week hypercare period. Launch report.
Month 7+
Phase 3 Ongoing
Monthly content strategy sessions, reporting dashboard live, YoY comparison begins.
Our Team
Magnet Co is a small, senior team. There are no account managers between you and the people doing the work.
Gavin
Strategy & SEO
Leads organic strategy, technical audits, and content architecture.
Design Lead
UX & Front-End Design
Owns the visual system and interaction design for the platform rebuild.
Engineering Lead
Full-Stack Engineering
Leads the Next.js build, BookRipe integration, and infrastructure.
Content Strategist
Content & Creative
Partners with Ann's team on content alignment and campaign briefs.
Next Steps
To move forward, we need three things from the Ocean City team:
- Confirm scope. Review this proposal and confirm Phase 1 as the starting point. We can begin within one week of agreement.
- Access. Google Analytics / Search Console read access, WordPress admin (read-only initially), and a brief with Ann on current content workflow.
- BookRipe intro. A 30-minute call with the BookRipe team to understand the API surface before Phase 2 scoping begins.
Ready to start?
Reach out at team@magnet.co or call +1 (424) 322-9059.
Private — for Ocean City only · Magnet Co, LLC · 1311 Vine St, Cincinnati 45202