Article #4

Welcome to the fourth article in a series about “Building Digital Momentum for your Property”. In this series, we will explore many aspects of the digital world and how it relates to small to mid-sized properties. This article is about Promoting Your Website and includes some great tips.

Building Digital Momentum for Your Property Part 4: Promoting Your Website

Your website is a 24/7 shop front for your property and it is extremely cheap to run. If designed well, it should provide all the information your customers need about your property and give them a really easy way to book with you. To achieve this you want to have as many people as possible see your website. Here are some tips on promoting your website:

1. Get listed well with search engines like Google.

More than 50% of your web traffic will most likely come from Google and other search engines. Read our earlier article “Building Digital Momentum for Your Property Part 3: Improving Your Property’s Google Ranking” for some really useful tips.

2. Promote your Website Address

Promote your website address on all your stationery and advertising – with a catch phrase like “Visit www.dubboinn.com.au for our best rates”. This should also be in your email footers and on complimentary give-aways like pens, note pads and local area maps.

Guest Thank You Emails

When a guest checks out, automatically send them a thank you email and make mention of your web address and that they can easily book online directly with you. Remember, these bookings are commission free.

Marketing Special Offer Emails

Send personalised special offer emails to your regular guests with a link back to an information page on your website. Remember, you need their permission to market to them.

Build Up Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites back to your website. Backlinks help you in a number of ways. Firstly, they add credibility to your website (it’s like word of mouth). Secondly, they help with your search engine ranking. Finally, they direct traffic to your website as people click on these links. The types of websites you should get backlinks from are:

Your local tourism / visitor information websites
Any groups you are a member of (e.g. AAA, Chamber of Commerce etc)
Anyone you sponsor (e.g. local sporting group)
Anywhere you advertise (e.g. directories, newsletters etc)
Local businesses that will exchange links with you (e.g. local restaurants, clubs etc)
Free online directories (e.g. True Local, Hot Frog etc)

The more backlinks you have, the better. Some people set themselves a target of getting one new backlink a month. If you do a Google Search for accommodation + your town, see what sites come up and approach them. You should avoid web services that offer to create hundreds of backlinks for you. These are junk and in no way help your listings with Google.

Setup Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free service that lets you know how many people are visiting your website, where they come from, how they found you and what they looked at on your site. With Google Analytics, you can see which pages are popular and which pages people spend the least time on. With all of this information, you can tune the content on your website. For example, if you notice that lots of people are finding your website because of the local events you list, you would want to list even more events (even ones in nearby towns).

The Internet is a constantly changing world. You need to keep a close eye on what works and what doesn’t. Google Analytics is perfect for this.

How can GuestPoint® help you with promoting your website?

GuestPoint® has some great features that can help you promote your website including automated Thanks You emails sent to guests after check out, personalised, broadcast email capabilities and WebPoint® - an online booking page that is optimised for Google.

For further information, please call Centium Software on 1300 236 848 or visit www.centiumsoftware.com/guestpoint/intro for more information.

We look forward to talking to you soon.

“Building Digital Momentum for your Property” series topics include:

Part 1: Website Basics
Part 2: Online Sales Channels – which ones work and how to set them up
Part 3: Improving Your Property’s Google Ranking
Part 4: Promoting Your Website