YouTube is really an interesting way to extend the marketing of a website. On the one hand, video can make a website stand out and it delivers really interesting impressions of your accommodation or surrounding area. On the other hand, it creates new ways for customers to find you.
When you use Google, you can search for websites, maps, images and videos. You may also find your video linked in Google Earth. You can also link videos to your Local Listing in Google, which in theory could boost the ranking you get with maps. YouTube also seems to show up as a website with an inbound link to where videos are embedded.
No matter how you look at it, uploading video to YouTube is a winner.
Making a good video may not be easy, but the actual part of uploading and linking a video is easy. YouTube takes out all the hassles of hosting and bandwidth. They also provide simple steps to embed the video in your web pages.
Here’s an excellent example from Lamplighter Motels in Melbourne’s Oakleigh suburb. We’ve linked it on the main website as well as on their Golden Chain Melbourne Motels listing.
Here’s the embedded video.
About Mark
Founder of
Web Reservation Systems, focused on helping businesses in the Australian Accommodation travel sector get more value from Internet Marketing.
Originally, we opened up in 2001 as a supplier of Front Office Software linked to Online Booking facilities. That allowed motels and hotels to add booking buttons to their websites as well as sell through Global Distribution Systems. You could say this was an early 'Channel Manager' because it allowed the property manager to simply control price and availability for a diverse array of wholesale and retails websites.
Next, we started building websites to profile our customers (
Australian Holiday Guide). That lead to building websites for customers as a favour. Now do about 80 websites a year using BurgundySky and Joomla.
For small businesses I recommend using BurgundySky as it is very easy to start and manage. Joomla is also great, but harder to install and maintain for a small business. For a large website, Joomla is great - here's what we did for
Golden Chain Motels, Australia largest accommodation provider with over 335 locations.
Our business is based in Byron Bay, NSW. Byron Bay is a great place to live and work. I have 2 kids (12 and 14) who are both born here and my wife,
Shobhan Oliver)is a successful artist.
I agree, YouTube is a great resource. I would like to use it more, but it is hard to get everything organized. Lamplighter has obviously hired a professional service to do their video. YouTube also has so much amateur content. I wonder if that makes any difference?