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Prepare for the Summer Travel Season Your Website May Need a Spring Cleanup
20 March 2006 Believe it or not the first quarter of 2006 is almost over. Many hoteliers I spoke to had high ambitions for increasing their online reservations this year and have now found themselves at the same place they were at the start of the year. It's time to take a hard look at your website and online marketing campaigns and evaluate if they have met your expectations so far this year?
Now you just can't blame lack of activity on your site, or the low season, or Google and its algorithms you have to take responsibility for continually improving and optimizing your website. Ask yourself what have you done this first quarter to improve not only traffic but conversions on your website?
Let's look at content first. Everyone loves fresh content; search engines love it as well as consumers. When was the last time you updated your website message? Are you providing a reason for customers to return often to your site? Hoteliers with only a Brand site are the worst offenders. Too many brand owners feel once they have filled in their hotel information form, that they can cross that item off the to-do list and wait for the brand to do the rest.
As the season begins to change and travelers begin their summer vacation research, what message can you provide that will make you stand out in this highly competitive season? Have you looked at your competitors sites lately? Like a clothing store, do they have the new "spring fashions" on the rack while you are still showcasing your winter getaway? If you have your own website it is imperative you keep your content fresh.
What else can you do to drive new customers to your site? First, if you are a brand you should know your "friendly url" that has been assigned to you by the Brand. This makes your website address pointing to your brand page a simple address as opposed to typing in a lengthy cryptic URL. As a branded hotel, make sure you have taken advantage of all of the new optimization improvements as mentioned in "Is the Brand helping you with your Internet Strategy."
So you have freshened up your content, you have optimized your tags for Google and Yahoo, so now do you just sit around and wait for the summer travel season to hit? No -- now you must take action. If you have some interesting vacation programs available or festival season in your area is starting, why not use content syndication to attract more customers to your clean freshly updated site.
Building on your search engine optimization efforts, you might consider focusing some efforts on less traditional forms of advertising to move your message to the masses the new "word of mouth" - online press releases, articles, RSS Feeds and Blogs. If done correctly, you can move your website content very quickly to the top of the natural search results for the keywords that you are looking to be found for in your market. Remember, the search for the perfect summer vacation is about to begin, will your travel product be found?
Not unlike your own "spring cleaning" take some time this season to clean up the junk, put it on the curb and while you are waiting for trash pick up, go out and get yourself a 'Spring Website Makeover!"
Patricia Brusha is the co-founder of "A Couple of Chicks," an Internet Marketing, e-Distribution & Revenue Measurement Company. The "Chicks" specialize in using Creative, Distribution and Technology to bring clarity to marketing on-line.
To find out more about A Couple of Chicks Marketing and the tools and services available, visit
Source: theopenpress
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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