Central Motel in Port Fairy gets a Website Makeover
Peter and Linda from the Central Motel in Port Fairy recently engaged us to give their old website a makeover. The usual goals:
- Make a Good Presentation of their Accommodation, Central Motel is an attractive accommodation with a great location in Port Fairy. It was easy to make improvements to the old website simply using new images and layout.
- Improve Search Engine Results, keywords like Great Ocean Road and Port Fairy have been emphasized along with basic terms like accommodation and motel.
- A Flexible Website that can be easily Managed, we’ve used BurgundySky again to make this website as it consistently provides great results. We’ve used Google Maps, embedded video hosted on YouTube and Online Booking to simplify sales.
At the same time we updated their website, we also looked at inbound links, additional sales channels and opportunities to improve online bookings.
Tags: accommodation, BurgundySky CMS, Google Maps, motel, SEO, websites, YouTube
Alice Springs Airport Motel Gets New Website
Airport Motel in Alice Springs recently engaged Web Reservation Systems to set up a new website and develop Internet Marketing strategies that would help to attract more bookings. Gary and Karen wanted a website that was fresh and fun looking to reflect their business and the work they’ve done to renovate and improve. At the same time we’ve been working on websites, we’ve been updating their Local Business Listing in Google, developing Global Distribution options to attract inbound tourists and travel agents and working with local agents to develop new sales channels.
Alice Springs Airport Motel offers affordable accommodation in the heart of the Northern Territory. Whether you’re flying in to Alice Springs to tour Uluru (Ayers Rock) or driving through Australia’s Red Centre for business or pleasure – the Alice Springs Airport Motel has the well appointed accommodation conveniently located 5 minutes from the town centre.
All rooms are fully air-conditioned with all the amenities. Our Standard first floor rooms with balcony views of the MacDonnell Ranges and we offer interconnecting rooms for families and friends. Premier rooms have courtyard gardens. Relax by the pool and barbeque area after a day of exploring the many natural wonders of ‘The Alice’.
Airport Motel has a Tour Desk staffed by locals happy to share their knowledge of the local area and major attractions such as Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kings Canyon, Historic Hermannsburg with one of Australia’s oldest missions, Alice Springs Desert Park and the Alice Springs School of the Air. We can provide transfers to town, the railway station and airport.
Airport Motel in Alice Springs: phone +61 8 8952 6611 for international calls or Toll Free 1800 896 124 for calls inside Australia.
Tags: accommodation, Airport Motel, Alice Springs, Google Local Business Centre, motel
Are links from Facebook and Twitter valued by Google
Matt Cuts (Google’s spokesman) has provided a pretty good explanation about how Google values inbound links from Twitter and Facebook.
It’s a natural question. If you have inbound links that is good. If you have inbound links from highly ranked websites that is better. Facebook and Twitter are obviously very highly ranked although you must consider the value of the page and not just the value of the website, i.e., a link from Facebook’s Home page would be more valuable than a link from a fan page.
I actually start to think that a well crafted Facebook listing for an accommodation is a good thing, but not for links. I think it’s possible to create a fan page that would allow guests to make comments on what they think of the property and area and use that to make recommendations to their friend – a classic social networking model.
But for inbound links…. doesn’t look like it will have much effect.
Tags: accommodation, SEO
New Website for Bear Gully Coastal Cottages
I’ve been working with Jill Butterfield, owner of Bear Gully Coastal Cottages in Walkerville Victoria for many years. I’ve always been fascinated by her business because it looks like such a nice place to stay. Recently Jill mentioned that she was feeling the impact of the ‘economic slowdown’.
Jill went to a Travel Show in Sydney and had the devil of a time with agents because none of them knew the geography of Victoria well enough to understand where she’s located. If I wasn’t in this business, I wouldn’t know either. Bear Gully Coastal Cottages are located between Walkerville and Cape Liptrap. They are beach front on the Waratah Bay looking across the water to Wilsons Promontory. The Region is known as Gippsland.
In fact, Wilsons Promontory is an amazing National Park on a peninsula that is Australia’s Southern Most Point (not including Tasmania or other islands). It is about 2 1/2 hours by car from Melbourne. It is one of those Australian Destinations that is spectacular, amazingly beautiful, pristine nature, etc, etc. But, few people know about it.
Finding one of these great places can make for a very rewarding holiday. Figuring out how to do the marketing to get found is a nightmare. Jill has done all the right things: featured in travel shows like Getaways, spreads in newspapers and travel magazines and she’s won Victorian Tourism Awards for excellence.
So, our mission is to build a website and Internet Marketing process that will attract people to this little known destination and make them aware of Bear Gully and all that it has to offer. That will include a new website, linking and marketing strategies and a Pay-per-Click campaign with a small budget.
Tags: accommodation, BurgundySky CMS, Google Maps, holiday houses, Victoria
Google Favourite Places and User Reviews
Google…. these guys never stop coming up with new stuff. Now, they have something new called Google Favourite Places. In fact, this could have a really big impact on business as it places easy to reach user reviews at the door step of every business.
It ties together being in a physical location, smart mobile phones and user reviews. Naturally, it loops into Google Maps and Local Business Centre as well with a liberal does on general net-connectivity in your pocket.
The video does a pretty good job of explaining. You’ll apply for a placard through Google Local Business Centre. The placard will have a barcode and manual code to make it fast and simple for the smart phone to bring up your reviews. You will (hopefully) read favourable things about the business and want to enter.
One could also assume that Coupons that can be added to your Local Business Listing would also be accessible. Therefore, someone standing on a corn with 4 restaurants would not only be able to see reviews, menus, pricing – they would also be able to access a coupon that would offer them special advantages such as discounts or extra services.
TripAdvisor and other Reviews:
At the moment, it would appear that Google likes a few review services. For Accommodation, they always include TripAdvisor reviews. ATDW has also created a document called ‘Tutorial 29 – Customer Reviews And TripAdvisor‘. So, more than ever – we need to start following what people are saying about us. It’s not always easy and it’s not always fair, but like it or not User Reviews will begin to affect your business.
How will Google Favourite Places affect Australian Accommodation?
Clearly Google is not moving as fast locally here in Australia as they are in California. Do we have the smart phones and connectivity to do all that – I would say yes. The number of Smart Phone users will only increase (dramatically).
Still, we need to get the Placards and we might find that Google does not issue them outside of select regions.
Are you safe from bad reviews if you don’t display a placard??? Of course not. Anyone can make reviews now. Anyone can find these reviews now. The placard just makes it easy and by logically assumption the confidence to display a placard must also mean the business is confident that their customers are getting good value.
Hmmm…. Good Service is important.
Tags: Google Favourite Places, Google Local Business Centre, Google Maps, internet enabled mobile phones, Mobile Search, TripAdvisor
Running an Internet Business in Australia
I’m fascinated by how things are changing with the Internet. Changes that alter how we learn, politics, quality of life, entertainment and more. From a business prospective, the question is how to use change to attract more customers, transact business and share information.
Just because it is possible doesn’t mean you can do it here in Australia. Clearly, the Internet works differently from place to place. There are technical issues as well as social issues. For example, Internet Speeds are 100 times faster in some countries – did you know the average speed of broadband in South Korea is 100 megabytes?
Bing, the new search engine from Microsoft – is an example where you can see wrong information in their Live Maps, but when you try to log in to fix them – you must have an address in the USA to get started. Why give the link to manage your account and then require the address to be in the USA? Don’t you just hate that!
A recent post described the Android Phone where you can get traffic predictions to plan your route through a city. The phones even know the colour of traffic lights as you approach – will we ever see that in Australia? One must assume so, but when.
I’ve just gotten a Kindle from Amazon. It is an eBook reader. It will store 1500 books and wirelessly load and update newspapers and magazines the instant they are published. I’ve already read a couple of books and find it to be a very pleasing way to read. But, not all book titles can be purchased here in Australia even though they are delivered electronically. If I change my account details to display another country, I immediately get 30% more book titles to choose from including Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. Why can’t I get the same books just because I live in Australia?
I heard a prediction that the average kid’s iPod will hold 85 years of video. Then, the question is how do you watch it all? But, when you have these amazing libraries of video – is the goal entertainment. Perhaps instead you have a reference library that tells you everything from CPR to how to repair a toaster. Or, will toasters come preloaded with repair videos?
Even though I feel at times a little hard done by when my Internet speeds drop to 100k even though I’ve been sold 8 megabytes (yet to be seen in reality) I do take heart in the fact that things could be worse.
Convergence of Moblie Phones, Car Navigation and Internet
Clearly, when you get total convergence of Mobile Phones, GPS, Highspeed Internet, quality Internet knowledge databases that link together with real time information – you’ll have a very powerful device. Something that will truly change the way we do things. As you might guess – Google is busy setting the stage with their new Android development platform.
Already, it’s pretty unusual to look for a pay phone to make a call or to look for services and phone numbers in the Yellow Page paper directory. All of a sudden, things just slip out of use without much fanfare until you hear an announcement like Kodak will stop making film for cameras.
Living in Australia, we get a glimpse of changes happening in other places thru the Internet. Unfortunately, we don’t always get to use these cool new services because the infrastructure and demographics of Australia don’t always support change. But, sometimes it does and sometimes by watching development unfold in other places we can get prepared ahead of the competition.
Google’s Android Phone System will lead to some interesting new phones with amazing convergence. Looks like Google will give a lot of technology away for free as they always do and that Android more of an operating system and open source style network than a specific product.
Here’s an example of what it will do:
Our focus is Accommodation Marketing. As you can see this Android phone will have a big impact upon how people find accommodation as these phones replace maps, guide books like Lonely Planet and NRMA.
I can easily imagine driving from Melbourne to Adelaide and asking the car computer to suggest places I can stop in a 1/2 an hour. The phone would look at my location, travel direction and speed to judge where I could stop for food, and a night’s sleep. How do service providers develop or optimise their presentation to get maximum results?
It all sounds so ‘Star Trek’, but at the same time as networks get faster and the organization of information gets better – it is a progression that make sense and will arrive.
Of course, Apple’s iPhone will offer options, and Microsoft will try to develop something off the back of Bing. But, Google looks like a juggernaut that will be hard to stop. The fact that Android is being developed as an Open Source project that will feed into phones from suppliers like Nokia, Samsung and all the others is very compelling. That should lead to an amazing array of products and services coming from a broad community.
So far so good. Google has brought me so many really cool new services and features. Looking forward to Android and all the changes.
Beam Me Up Scotty!
Tags: Android Phones, Google Maps, Mobile Search
How to create a “My Map” in Google Maps
I came across this today while looking for something else – How to create a “My Map” in Google Maps. The purpose of MyMaps is to make it easy to create personal content related to Google Maps. In the video, they show examples of making a walking tour of San Francisco.
In the accommodation industry there would be a lot of ways a map could be useful – walking trails, tourism features, pictures of the area, recommended restaurants, etc. The possibilities are limitless.
But, what’s the point? Why bother doing that when you could do other things? Is it better to create things that are made public, or keep them private for our own personal use?
- Better Ranking in Regular Google Maps – Recently, I uploaded a MyMap for Golden Chain Motels. I uploaded the location of every Member with some images, links to the Member’s Page on Golden Chain Motels website and a link to make a booking with a source id to tell us when the booking came from Google Maps. The result was surprising. We started getting bookings and we noticed the Motels seemed to show up higher in ranking for their individual search results.
- Interesting User Content – it seems pretty clear that we can upload some interesting material that can later be linked to our websites. That’s always good. While we want to rank high and sell more – we also want to create a good impression.
Have a look at the video to see how easy it is>
Let me know if you make anything with this because it would be interesting to highlight examples.
Tags: Google Local Business Centre, Google Maps, SEO
Using Jing for Screen Capture Video
There are a number of good products to make screen capture for both video and still images. The advantage of doing a video screen capture is that you can make a quick and dirty instructional video. Perhaps it is something to explain something to a single customer or something to add to your help files for everyone.
In this case, I am trying out Jing, which is a free service. For a little bit more, you can have the Pro version that may have some additional benefits for simple upload to YouTube and they remove the branding. So, here’s my second attempt to use Jing – it’s also my first attempt. What happened was I recorded a video, but forgot to turn mute off – so the first video did not capture any sound. So, I made a second video where I captured the first video and talked while it played. I would guess that quality improves when you do it right the first time. 
Set Up Directory Listing for Come On Aussie (click to view original size video)
Making this video was very easy. Uploading it was also very easy. Whether I’ve been able to make something easy to watch is another question, but certainly Jing is very easy. The limit on video capture is 5 minutes. I suspect if you upgrade to Pro for $14.95 per year that limit may go away.
Oh yes, use Come on Aussie
New Website for Goulburn Motel – Lilac City Motor Inn
Lilac City Motor Inn – a motel in Goulburn NSW; has just added a new website using Burgundysky’s latest free-form template. This template is slightly different from the others because you have a wider array of design options. You can set backgrounds, widths, navigation styles, banner images and site images.
Lilac City Motor Inn has engaged us to build a website, as well as working on local search optimization – hope to see it coming up soon at the top of search results. With any new website, it requires some work to develop links and get the Search Engines to index pages and rank them in results.
I just happened to be passing Goulburn, so I made a ‘quick and dirty’ video with my camera. The sound could be a lot better. We’ll probably upload a better video when we get one. I’ve both embedded this video object on the home page and linked it to the motels Local Business Centre. Adding an embedded element is said to give a web page better search results and certainly it helps wth ranking in Google Maps. I’ve also Geo-located the video in YouTube so that it will display for Google Earth.
Tags: accommodation, Goulburn NSW, Lilac City Motor Inn, Motel Website, YouTube