January 22, 2009 16:14
in SEO by fabie (admin) ::
Optimising your tourism website for search engines is one thing, but optimising your website for local search needs a slightly different approach
Where are local tourists coming from?
If we look at the Queensland state of Australia, 90% of the overnight annual visitors for the year ending September 2008 are domestic (16,7 million) and 70% of the domestic visitors to Queensland live in Queensland.
Now looking at the Daytripperrs (people visiting a tourism region for one day only and going back home to sleep) we realise that there were over 28 million of them in 2008 in Queensland. That is almost two times the number of domestic overnight visitors.
Annual visitation to Queensland State Australia by origin
Looking at the pie chart above, I hope its obvious to all of us that the daytripper (local) market is HUGE in Queensland, and that the majority of overnight visitors in Queensland come from Queensland. Guys, most of your visitors are just from “down the road” (further research reveals that down the road means a 300km radius for small and medium Australian toursim businesses) .
In conclusion, the local market is the bread and butter of many Australian tourism businesses.
So I got you convinced to look further…
How to optimise your web presence for local search?
But what is local search Fabie? It means showing up for a search on the Internet which includes your location or area in the search phrase. For example, the image belows shows the search results for “bed and breakfast Coffs Harbour” - in the orange box are the local search results with the integration of the Google map. The integration of maps and photos to search results is often referred to as Universal Search.
The ins and outs of how Google organises the results on the map will always remain a mystery. However, there are some steps that you can take that do seem to make a difference:
Register with local search engines
Below is a list of Australian local search icons that you should consider registering with. When you do so it is crucial that you always use the same business name, address and phone number as this is how Google is going to understand you are the same business.
Ensure that you leverage of your free listing with the above engines and directories to the max. That means include relevant descriptions of your services (please no copy and paste, search engines are no fans of duplicate content), images, videos and visitor reviews.
Search engines like Google and Yahoo will tend to list your business more often in their search results if they see that it is listed with relevant local search directories.
Set a reminder in your calendar to monthly check your position with these engines and make improvements to your description and encourage clients to leave reviews as this will influence your position within local search results.
Tourism specific local search
If you are based in South East Queensland, you are lucky because of the strength of OurBrisbane.com - I have recently met with these guys and they offer free and listings of your business within the content of their website (not just on a links page <– avoid this at all costs).
In Sydney you have DiscoverSydney.com.au. For other cities, why don’t you do a search on “what do do in (your city)”.
Being appropriately listed within these mammoth local info portals should give your local presence a real boost. But remember, what is key on the net is new content. If you have nothing relevant to say (and Google tends to see blatant advertising as nothing relevant) then you will lose search engine’s votes. Set yourself up with a strong yet sustainable local search strategy and stick to it.
Local search strategy for Australian tourism businesses
Preparation time: 3h per week
Cooking time: 1 to 2 months
Ingredients: computer, Internet, photos, customer email addresses, common sense
Extra (for enhanced taste): Video
Week 1:
Monday 6am: Register with Google local business center (US English spelling I know - it’s not a typo)
Wednesday 6am: Register with Yahoo! Local search
Friday 6am: Google using the keywords mentioned earlier in the post to find your city’s most active local portal
Week 2:
Monday 6am: Register with TrueLocal
Wednesday 6am: Register with AussieWeb
Friday 6am: Call the guys you found on Google last Friday and ask them how you can contribute to your listing with sending them quirky stories about how your visitors enjoyed their activities in your region (region, not at your b&b/tour/attraction).
Week 3:
Monday 6am: Register with Local.com.au and AussieLocal
Wednesday 6am: Register with Local Business Guide and Rave about it
Friday 6am: Take a piece of paper and write down all your login and passwords for all these sites and directories.
Week 4:
Monday 6am: Print all these site’s logos and make a nice JPG image of them all. Put it on your counter and say something along the lines of “did you love us, hate us? leave us a review!”
Wednesday 6am: Train your reception staff to keep or pull a report of all the people who stayed with you over the past 7 days. Prepare an email to thank them and let them know about your efforts and that they now have the possibility to comment online about their stay
Friday 6am: Send the email.
Over the next month:
Write the steps you did in week 4 in your business operation’s manual and train your customer relationship (reception) staff to repeat the last 2 steps every week.
Watch your number of online reviews grow and your local search rankings shoot to the top.
And make sure to comment and let everyone know about other local search engines you may have found!