Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing Ideas’ Category
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
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
What is Better – 1 Website or Many Specialty Websites for Multiple Themes?
Today I received a question from Kim at Cradle Mountain Highlanders in Tasmania asking how we might improve results for Members in Tasmania (BTW: I’m the webmaster for Golden Chain Motels).
I also made some suggestion to Judy on a Tasmanian website for Tassie members only. Tassie is a destination itself as a whole state and we could have a single site where potential Tassie travellers can organise their trip accommodation. I will have to talk to the other members about this when I see them.
Anyway, thanks and regards, Kim
Let’s Look at Results
When I search for ‘Motels in Tasmania‘, Google replies with ‘about 200,000 websites found for motels in tasmania. (0.14 seconds)’. The Golden Chain site is listed in the 18th position and the link goes to a member page for Swansea Motor Inn. A good, or bad result depending on prospective. 1st position for every relevant search would be our ideal goal.
In general, websites get 70 to 85 percent of visitors from Search Engines. So, when we want to make improvements we usually think about changes in terms of how they affect Search Engine Results. If we create a specialty website for Tasmania, will it out perform the main website?
In fact, every web-master is faced with the same question, ‘If I have many websites, will I get a better result than having one big website?”. Why not create a lot of specialty websites; each with a different focus on every region and topic relevant to Golden Chain.
What’s Going On with Search? Possible Solutions
Google has a process called ‘Page Rank’ (named after founder Larry Page). It is a well guarded secret that Google uses to sort and rank results. There are a lot of theories on how to ‘work’ Google. Google would like to say that their results from us building the best and most relevant websites.
Content and Keywords
Search Results start with the most basic element: Are the words from the Search on the Website. Then, Are the Words Emphasized on the Pages to indicate strongly that the content is related to the Search. If we were to increase the Content on the Golden Chain website with more content about Tasmania that is keyword rich, unique and interesting to read – that could improve results a lot. Writing info that is unique and relevant is a task that could be managed for a reasonable cost if Members would contribute.
Inbound Links
Once we’ve done our best to have unique and relevant content, there will still be hundreds or thousands of websites with similar content. Google then looks off the website for other factors to determine ranking. Most important is inbound links. Having a really big website already gives you lots of inbound links because links within your own website count for something, albeit not a lot. The best links come to you from other websites – especially highly ranked ‘authority’ websites.
Getting inbound links is where the One Big website theory makes sense. With One Big website, you get inbound links from all over the country and the cumulative affect is very good for everyone. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work on locality specific strategies to get inbound links. In fact, we want links to our internal pages and not just the Home Page. We can get links to ‘Motels in Tasmania’ that link to our Tassie section. That will raise our position in results.
Watch Out for Reciprocal Links
By the way, Google likes one-way links better than reciprocal links. You might think it would be important for all Members to link to the Group website, but I believe we do Members a better service by linking one-way to the Member’s website. The Group should use it’s muscle to get inbound links from other sources. Then, we not only raise the Group website in search results, but we also transfer positive value to the Member’s Individual website.
But, creating a second Tassie Specific Website Could Have Advantages
Undoubtedly, a second Tassie Specific website could be tailored to a specific message Tasmanian message. It might be advertised in a different way. Perhaps web masters in the world would be quicker to give it free inbound links because they just like the content more. The domain name would also be more targeted to the subject.
As a group within the Group; Tasmania Golden Chain Members might see this as an opportunity to buy ads together. You could have targeted landing pages and content that would improve Pay Per Click Advertising. Also, since the Tassie Members are paying for the ads, they would get more exclusive advantage from the results.
Conclusion
My opinion is that for the extra costs to make and maintain a specialty Tassie website, you would get better outcomes spending that money on ads. I would buy ads with links on major travel websites relevant to Tasmania. With more inbound links pointing to your Tasmania pages on the Group website, visitors will increase. At the same time, I would work as a group to develop unique content about Tasmanian towns and regions, and thinks to do. Uploading content to the website is easy, it is gathering the information that is hard. Perhaps you could hire a travel writer?
Is there a Duplicate Content Penalty from Google?
Duplicate Content is when the same words are repeated on multiple pages or urls. The problem with Duplicate Content is that Google tries to eliminate these repeated pages so that users get a variety of results rather than a lot of repeats. On one hand that is good, but for people who need their content to be ranked highly it could be bad. When a page is considered by Google to be a duplicate, it does not display in the natural result. Instead, you must click a link to ‘view omitted results’.
I’ve linked to a video below with Greg Grothaus, an Engineer at Google Search Quality. Greg says Google does not ‘penalize’ websites for duplicate content, but not displaying is a form of penalty. Worse, he makes some vague statements about whether content that is a duplicate of another website is spam. He gives examples such as Wikipedia. I wonder how they know where the original content came from because a lot of people updating Wikipedia would just cut and paste snippets from other people’s websites.
Interestingly enough, we find many Motel Owners demand that we use duplicate content. Let me explain. Motels often have snippets of official descriptions that they want to use on every website. They think it keeps their message consistent – sort of like a branding statement. If you didn’t care about Search Engines that might be good logic.
Our goal as search optimizers is to display as many different web results as possible for each motel we service. So, if we add a listing to a regional website it is necessary to mix up the text so that it reads well and keywords are employed. We want search engines to display every instance of the motel’s web advertising as unique and relevant to users. Making something different for every website is tricky. How different is also a question that can be hard to determine. Certainly, if you are adding new listings, try to say something that is fresh.
Here is Greg Grothaus’ video on Duplicate Content. It’s a bit technical at times, but interesting.
Tags: duplicate content, google search results, YouTube
Setting up a New Website for Accommodation in Robe SA
My good friend Bruce Henderson rang me today to share ideas on how to improve ranking for regional travel websites. Bruce runs a very successful website about Warrnambool on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road.
We could have discussed for hours the ways to optomize around how people mis-spell ‘Warnambol‘, but this time we were scratching our heads over how to plan new website for Robe Australia. Bruce has just started a new website called Robe Accommodation Guide. Here, you have to ask the classic question, is it better to extend the Warrnambol website to include Robe or to build 2 websites?
Physically, Robe is 6 hours drive from Warrnambool. It’s in another state and another travel region. It has a different type of visitor.
So, does it make sense to build a new website or build upon an existing website? The jury is still out. For now, Bruce has done both. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Tags: reciprocal links, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, websites
Do Google Links Help your Page Rank?
I thought this question, ”Do links in Google websites are actually provide in-bound link value to your website” was a very interesting subject. Unfortunately, the answer comes from Matt Cutts who is the Google spokesman about the mystery of how to build websites that are favourably ranked in Google Search Results.
Unfortunately because Matt sort of answers questions like, “If I told you I would have to kill you, because that’s a State secret”. Google tries to hide what works because they think our attempts to rank well are a perversion of the result.
Anyway, as you start using all things Google: Analytics, YouTube, WebMaster Tools, Google Profiles and most certainly Local Business Centre – you also start to add links to your websites. Why wouldn’t these links effect results?
My opinion (everyone has one you know) is that they have an effect, but it may not be obvious. If nothing else, they deliver traffic indirectly. Certainly, Local Business Centre is huge. My jury is still out on YouTube.
Matt suggests they don’t, but then if he told you he would have to kill you. 
Tags: Google Local Business Centre, Inbound Links, Matt Cutts, Search Engine Optomization
Marketing Tours and Adventures with ToursToGo.com.au
We have many websites that target holidays and accommodation sales. Mostly, they are commission oriented and relate to clients using Web Reservation Systems. Recently, we’ve been looking at new ways to gain income from our Holiday Guide websites. We use AdSense from Google to include relevant ad links in our pages which has been ok.
A new option that seems good is Tour Bookings. Tours, Adventure Services and the like all compliment our client’s accommodation bookings. Tours in many ways seem like they could be sold through Booking Centre, but we have found that tours are just different enough from accommodation that it doesn’t work well.
So, I’ve started a new relationship with a company called ToursToGo. They have a booking engine that the tour operators can maintain and an affiliate system that allows us to link to any product in their database.
Online Tour Booking with Tourstogo.com.au
I’ve just updated the page on Australia Holiday Guide about Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. It will be interesting to see how it goes. Commissions for bookings are attractive: 5% on most products. The guests can book direct with the operator and there is little to do as the affiliate… other than get interested buyers to the website.
Please let me know if you come across other products that compliment a travel website.
Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Airlie Beach, Online Tour Booking, ToursToGo.com.au, Whitsunday Islands
Using YouTube for Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing – sounds like you could get sick.
No seriously, how can you play the social media game and get exposure to your website for a small investment? YouTube is turning into an interesting option.
Here’s an example where the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam made a humorous video poking fun at their facilities. This video has turned out to be very popular with over 25,000 views.
Does this help you sell more accommodation?
I guess humor is always a risky proposition – but if you’re lucky enough to catch people’s attention it can certainly work. Despite the video, Hans Brinker has a lot of guests checking in because they want to stay with people that have a good sense of humour. If nothing else, they’ve done something worthy of a post and got an inbound link. I think they are brilliant!
You may find that just a simple video about your property and location is good enough. It gets you listed in a new type of distribution with links back to your website. Your videos start to display in Google Earth and more.
Making and uploading videos to YouTube are not that hard. I highly recommend it!
Tags: accommodation, hotel, Marketing, YouTube
Motels in Portland, Portarlinton and Horsham
Location, Location, Location
The old saying holds true for website optimization. Accommodation is always very location specific, but what do you do when a location shares a common name with other popular destinations around the world? How does this affect our websites ranking when people do a generic search to find us?
Example:
- Victoria Lodge Motor Inn – motel in Portland Victoria
- Swansea Motor Inn – motel in Swansea Tasmania
- El Toro Motor Inn – accommodation in Liverpool NSW
- Portarlington Beach Motel – motel in Portarlington Victoria
- Stephanies – Bed and Breakfast in Williamstown, Victoria
- Mid City Court Motel – motel in Horsham Victoria
In all these cases, searches with the city name lead to other locations. In some lucky examples, the websites still come up on top, but when you are up against cities with hundreds of accommodation suppliers it makes it all the harder to get top search ranking.
To combat that problem, you need to realize it’s also apparent to the person searching that all the results are for the wrong place. So, they are going to refine their search result by adding the state or country to qualify their query. Now, you need to make sure you’ve optomized your location because Google will start showing results for the qualified search.
How Do You Qualify Your Location?
There are some basic steps everyone should take to assure Google knows your location.
- Use it in Page Titles,
- Put your address at the base of every page,
- Use Google Webmaster Tools to set your location,
- Use Google Local Business Centre to manage your map location,
- Try to get a domain that identifies your country. For Australia, our domains end in .au
- Host your website in your own country
- Use inbound links, like the ones above, to communicate your location through keywords. Google uses the anchor text from those links to determine what those websites are about.
If you’re the Countryman Motel in Biloela you probably don’t have to worry about people finding the wrong Biloela, but you certainly won’t go wrong doing good optomization.
Tags: El Toro Motor Inn, Google Local Business Centre, Horsham Victoria, Liverpool NSW, Mid City Court Motel, motel, Portarlington Beach Motel, Portland, Stephanies Bed and Breakfast, Swansea Motor Inn, Tasmania, Victoria Lodge Motor Inn, Williamstown