If you have a vacation service, such as pony rides, a bus tour, or accommodations, then you should self-promote yourself in a big way with your own website. You will be surprised just how many of the B&B accommodations there are in tourist spots that do not have a fully functioning website.
You should self-promote your bed & breakfast or hotel with your own website. This is only common sense, in the same way that making your website mobile-friendly is common sense. It does not cost a lot of money to start your own website, and you can learn how to use content management systems such as Blogger or WordPress so that you can write your own website.
Above all, irrespective of the advice you read here and elsewhere, you should remember that you are selling a holiday and not a short-term stay. The stay at your bed & breakfast or hotel is incidental because if you explained to people how they could have a great holiday camping in your area, then they would do that instead. Your target consumer is looking for a great vacation, and that is what you should be selling to them.
Tell Them What They Can Do In Your Area
Remember that you are selling a holiday and not just the building people are going to stay in. That is why you need to tell people about what they can do around in your local area. If you have a website, which you should, then it should feature all the local attractions, sights, experiences, amusements, and just about everything else you could imagine. Give them the details of the hottest new bars, the best restaurants, and places they can stay in past midnight. Give them details of the most child-friendly places, and the most adult places.
Do Not Tell Them About Competing Services
What you do not do is give them details of any other hotels, hostels or bed & breakfast or hotel companies. Other websites are going to give details of the local area, especially if it is a tourist destination. They are also going to give details of places people can stay in your local area. The difference with your website is that you only give people details of your bed & breakfast or hotel. Do not try to run down your competition because in many cases your customers are completely unaware of your competitors. In fact, whenever you mention your competitors in a negative way, it is often the first time your customers have ever heard of them.
Give People Smaller But Important Details
Show people where they can go to catch a bus, and local phone numbers of taxi firms. Show them where the train station is on your map and give them directions there. Tell them the things they can do in your bed & breakfast or hotel and tell them what times things such as your bar are open until. Tell them if you have a smoking area in the garden and if it is covered. You have to make sure your potential customers know everything they can do in your local area.
In addition, within your website, you need to link to each of your own pages with very natural pieces of anchor text. You can spell out your links if you like, as it will give you a natural anchor text profile, just avoid things like saying, “Click Here” because it will not make your website any easier to use, or any more search engine friendly.
Make Your Website A Guide To Your Local Area
What is more important is that your website becomes a resource for information of things to do in your local area. It means people start looking at your website instead of other people’s websites, which means your competitors get less coverage (as obviously you do not promote your competitors on your website).
Put Your Bed & Breakfast or Hotel At The Center Of The Website Map
This may seem like a dumb trick, but it has a powerful effect on your customer. Let’s say you have a map on your website and it shows your hotel, the local town/city center, and shows all the attractions, pubs, amusements, events, etc. that surround your accommodation. The biggest mistake you can make is to use something else as the center point for your map.
Many people use the center of the town/city as the center point for the map. Their hotel or B&B is often nestled somewhere in a corner. This is a big mistake, as all you have to do is put your bed & breakfast or hotel in the center of the map, and people assume all the attractions revolve around your establishment. It makes it look as if your bed & breakfast or hotel is smack-bang in the middle where all the action is. Be sure to get yourself on the Google My Business listings because it will help your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a great deal.
Get Yourself Listed On Other Peoples/Companies Websites
As mentioned above, other websites give guides to your local area/tourist destination. You need to get yourself listed on those websites. Contact the webmasters personally and get your bed & breakfast or hotel included in the website as part of the “where to stay” guide. You can even offer to write up your own section where you explain what your bed & breakfast or hotel is all about and what you offer. Do not forget to go looking for local publications that are willing to mention your company or service for free.
If the website is using an affiliate program where the user books holidays through the affiliate ads, you need to find out what affiliate advertising they are using and sign up yourself. Maybe they are arranging bookings through a bigger/more established travel agency. If that is the case, then you too should be working with that travel agency to get more customers from the websites in question.
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