ADEPT Marketing

You may have noticed sometime in the past 12 months that for “local searches” your website that used to appear on page 1 of google results has slipped back to page 2 (or gone from page 2 to page 3 etc). This is because Google now lists “Google Places” results first on page 1, with organic results following that -  often starting on page 2. “Google Places” is the google map based listings of businesses.

When I say “local searches” I mean searches that include a town or city name in the search for a business type e.g “Taupo Motels”. The impact of this has both positive and negative effects on small businesses. For businesses that fit the location and business type criteria it may mean you now consistently appear on page 1 of the results now. For others that had put a lot of effort into having a well optimised website with strong online marketing it may mean you have slipped down the list onto a lower ranked page.

So if this is now the case, what can you do now to influence your rankings? Here are some tips to get the most out of “local searches” and Google Places:

• Make sure you have a Google Places business listing AND you have claimed it as the business owner so you can edit the content.
• Once you have access to edit your google places listing, make sure you complete all aspects of the content – including an accurate location on the map and choose all 5 category types (e.g for a motel the categories may be: motel, accommodation, motor inn, family accommodation, conference venue). The categories you enter will determine what results your business will appear in so it’s important to make the most of these and pick them wisely. You should have a 100% completed listing, so add your own business photos and YouTube videos too.
• Google Places pulls in content from other websites too – like business content from finda.co.nz or reviews from Tripadvisor, even pricing and booking links from accommodation booking websites. So having a comprehensive online marketing strategy will pay off here too.
• Use the additional free tools on Google Places like the Offer Coupons to help your listing stand out more and provide a mechanism for deals.

You’re probably also wondering, why bother with SEO on my own website now if Google Places results come up first anyway? Well, don’t give up on SEO! It’s still vitally important to rank as highly as possible in organic results and local searches aren’t the only way people will find your website through google (not to mention Google isn’t the only search engine).

For those new to Google Places, this video below is a useful reference for the key areas to cover in the content.

Click on the image to enlarge

Interesting to see an article on the Mashable website yesterday about Google Testing Hotel Prices in Google Maps. This news, which was announced fairly casually on Monday on the Google Maps blog siting it as an “experiment”, will no doubt spark up interest among the Online Travel Agents (OTA’s) as a new way to advertise pricing and get click through traffic to their website.

For travellers it’s means they can use google maps to find accommodation with the ability to search on dates of travel to get real time pricing and then click through to the provider website to book.

From Google’s perspective it’s probably seen as an evolution of the maps business listings and another way to develop advertising revenues rather than a desire to become part of the online travel market, however it will no doubt have an impact on OTA’s and introduce a fairly competitive necessity to be included as an advertiser on the google maps.

Of interest to accommodation providers will be whether they too get the opportunity to be one of the listed advertisers to attract direct bookings or whether the pricing has to come through an automated feed from participating OTA’s or booking systems – if it’s a bidding model like Google Adwords then it’s likely the large global OTA’s will dominate this opportunity.

Potentially the effects of this will be lesser felt in New Zealand as many accommodation suppliers do not participate on the global OTA’s, leaving the opportunity open perhaps for more of the local accommodation booking websites and accommodation providers themselves.

So time will tell on how this will all work and impact on the market, we will keep an eye on progress of the likely roll out of this new feature. In the meantime, if I were an accommodation provider I’d make sure I’m listed on a selection of OTA’s.

Every business wants their website to rank well in google, and tourism is no exception – this is a very competitive industry and we all need to get found online.

Firstly, you should know that there are never any guarantees to getting your website ranking 1st for your desired key google searches because there are external factors (like the performance of competitor websites and how many direct competitors you have) that you can’t control, so any company that tells you they can guarantee it if you pay them are just doing a sales job on you.

Secondly, meta tags are just one factor used by google – but an important and easy one to implement. Despite that, I have noticed after doing audits on over 50 tourism websites throughout New Zealand in the last 12 months that very few have effective meta tags.

What Are Meta Tags?

• The meta tags are found in the html code of your website and can either be entered by your web designer or added in through your content management systems (CMS).
• Google (and all search engines) use meta tags to quickly find content about your website to include you in relevant search results.
• Meta tags for search engine optimisation are made up of Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions. Meta Keywords are no longer used by google.
• The meta titles and meta descriptions will be the text that is displayed in google search results, if the meta tags are missing Google will grab the first text content that is on each page (e.g. the page title and first sentence).

Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions

• A meta title should only be 60-70 characters (including spaces) and the meta descriptions about 150-160 characters – any text after this just gets ignored.
• A key thing to remember with your meta tags is to apply DIFFERENT meta tag content for each page which should be RELEVANT to the page contents.
• Avoid repetition of the same phrases. The idea is to include a variety of search phrases across your sites meta tags to increase the range of searches you will appear in.
• It’s also effective to use more specific search phrases rather than broad terms e.g. “Queenstown luxury apartment accommodation” instead of “Queenstown accommodation” so that you appear in results that reach your target market – there will also be less competition so a higher ranking is likely.
• Choosing the contents of your meta tags is important and often it can come down to how well differentiated your business is – what’s unique about it? Who are you trying to target? The answers to these questions will help define the content of your website and meta tags. The more unique you are as a business the more likely it is you will rank high in google for the target market you are trying to reach.

TIP 1: A good way to check your meta tags in your browser is to select the option in the menu bar to view the “page source” of each page on your website. This will show you the html code of the page and the meta tags will be located near the top of the page and look something like this:

<title>Using Meta Tags to Get Your Website Ranking Higher In Google</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”View some tips on how to improve your meta titles and meta descriptions to rank higher in google.” />

TIP 2: You can view what content from your website pages is displayed in google for quick analysis by doing this google search:

site:www.yourdomainname.co.nz

Now go and check your meta tags!

During a recession individuals and businesses cut back in spending borne out of uncertainty and necessity. As a business you still however need to attract new and retain existing customers. This means you need to become more clever and careful about how you spend the money you do have to market yourself.

Here are a few ideas to help with what you can focus on for your online marketing during a recession with cost effective strategies:

• Learn how to manage your own website so you don’t have to keep paying your web designer to do it. This means having a Content Management System that allows you to easily update text, images, add new pages and so on without knowing html code. The added benefit is that you can easily keep your website up to date and fresh.
• Make the most of all the free online marketing tools out there such as google maps, social networking, youtube videos and photo sharing.
• List on free business website directories like Made From New Zealand and websites related to your industry (see more about this here).
• Make comments on relevant and popular blogs about your area of expertise and even start up your own blog page that can be part of your website.
• Maintain relationships with your customers through regular email marketing initiatives and social media networking to keep them interested and hear their feedback…all for very low cost. These should also work in with content on your website to drive traffic to it.
• Make online “pay per click” advertising work for you and to suit your own budget using Google Adwords.

If you haven’t yet formed a strategy about online marketing for your business then the time to do it is now.

Time and time again businesses get emailed with some sort of offer to list on a website to promote their themselves with promises of better search engine rankings and increased website traffic.

My mantra when it comes to this decision is to only pay upfront for a listing which meets the following criteria:

• It is a well known and quality website relevant to your industry or target market.
• It provides a link back to your website.
• It can provide you with it’s monthly web statistics (unique browser visits) to measure it’s effectiveness.
• It ranks highly in search engine results for your business categories.
• It provides good value for money i.e. the upfront cost is not over the top and realistic for the profile it has and the content it allows you to add.

Know Your Stats!

For any listings you already pay for make sure you can track the traffic sources for your website through tools like Google Analytics, that way when it comes to decide whether to renew any listing you can find out how much traffic you’ve received and work out stats like the cost per click.

There’s a lot of value in checking and knowing your web statistics and traffic sources regularly. Free listings are the way to go for the bulk of your online listings, but there will be a selection of sites that are worth the money if they can give you quality website traffic.

[business:Adept Marketing]

Get your free $75 voucher now to try out Google AdWords. Only for NZ businesses who haven’t had an AdWords account before. Click on this link to request your voucher.

Google AdWords are the “sponsored links” you see in google search results and also on any website that displays google ads (the content network that uses Google AdSense). Like these ones below:

The offer expries 30 September….get yours and get an ad going!

Sometimes videos communicate better than words….make your own video to promote your business and publish it online with a You Tube Channel or on your website.

An invaluable way to promote your business and website online….set up a Google Map listing now.

Â

[youtube]hjeCmHwqVpU[/youtube]

[business:Adept Marketing]