Web Site Promotion Checklist.

At StayTech one of the most frequent questions we get is "how do I improve traffic to my web site?" 

We have put a huge amount of thought and time into this and have provided you with all the tools we can in order to help you make the most of your site and assist in getting even more visitors to your site. And lets be frank about this, more visitors equals more bookings!

In this article we will give you a basic overview off all the various tips and techniques that we can to promote your site. We have also expanded on a few of these points in other articles which you will find linked to below. 

So lets kick things off with your web site promotion checklist. All of these will boost the exposure and traffic to your site. 

• Site Content & On-Page SEO
• Adding Blog Articles
• Making the Most of Email Broadcasts
• Landing Pages
• Holiday Idea Pages
• Destination Pages
• Social Media
• Pay Per Click 
• Third Party Web Sites (Commission, Paid & Free)
• Backlinks
• Google "My Business"
• Reviews & Testimonials

So let's look at these in turn...

Site Content & On-Page SEO

By far the most important part of any site is the content on the pages themselves. Not only is this vital to get right for a good search presence but far more importantly, if your content is no good then you are guaranteed to lose sales because potential customers will leave your site if they can't find what they want or don't understand what you have written. 

On-page SEO is the practice of optimising individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic on the search engines. "On-page" refers to both the content and HTML source of a page that can be optimised, as opposed to "off-page SEO" which refers to links and other external signals that search engines use to rank your site. On-page SEO has changed over the years (and continues to do so), so it's important to keep up with the latest practices. 

For a more detailed look at this topic please see the following help articles:

• https://help.staytech.co.uk/article/47-how-to-write-great-content-for-your-staytech-web-site
• On page SEO - What is it and how does it work?

Adding Blog Articles

Blogs have gained a reputation as having the potential to boost your search rankings, but it's important to understand what a blog does and why it helps. A blog is nothing more than a collection of articles, generally appearing on a website in reverse chronological order — meaning the newest posts show up first. The key phrase there is "nothing more than a collection of articles." That's right, a blog is not some magical thing that will score you all kinds of love from Google; it's nothing more than a collection of articles.

The key here is understanding that it is both WHAT is in the articles and then knowing WHAT TO DO with them after you have written them.

If you're reading this, I assume you're either considering adding a blog to your StayTech site or have already done it. Good for you! Just remember, that a little bit of preparation and understanding of the process can go a long way to ensure you reap the maximum benefit. Obviously, blogging isn't a magical cure-all for your SEO woes, but done properly, blogging can have a significant impact on your bottom line. Now get out there and start writing!

See our full article on adding a blog to your StayTech site.

Making the Most of Email Broadcasts

Broadcasts are a great way to send emails to large audiences. StayTech allows you to send broadcasts straight from your admin to your current subscribers. There are a number of ways for people to become subscribers:

• All previous guests
• Sign up from the contact page
• Added as part of an uploaded subscriber list

A well maintained mailing list can become the cornerstone of future and repeat business.

See our help article on  How to Create and Send Email Broadcasts for more details.

Landing Pages

Holiday Idea Pages

In order to improve discoverability in search engines you can put together Holiday Ideas to group together properties by features, availability and more. Examples of Holiday Ideas could include; beach holidays, romantic holidays, walking holidays etc. Holiday Ideas come together as pages on the front-end of your website that list out the properties that they target alongside the content and images you provide. Holiday ideas are a powerful tool in generating unique landing pages to help improve search engine exposure for your website. We have written a little  more detail on Holiday Ideas in this article.

Destination Pages

In order to improve search engine exposure for your website you can supply your own content to describe the area around your property. For example, in order to increase your search visibility for terms such as ‘Holiday properties in Somerset’. You could create a destination page for Somerset.  These pages will add valuable new landing pages to your StayTech site. 

Take a look at our  Destination Pages guide.

Social Media

We all know that social media is a must these days and that a massive and ever growing number of businesses are using social media as part of their marketing strategy, but for those that aren’t yet on board; what are the real benefits of investing in social media?

1. Social media helps improve customer service - Twitter is often a first port of call for many customers who have pre-sales question or query. Real-time communication helps to make happy customers - being active on social media really is a great way of positively influencing sales.
2. Social media drives your brand - Social media makes it easy to improve brand awareness and build your brands identity. 
3. Social media helps you to manage your reputation - Managing your reputation online is a critical part of any marketing strategy and social media provides you with a fast and effective way to do this. 
4. Social media helps increase trust - With so many to choose from, customers are often overwhelmed and want an easy way to authenticate a business that they are dealing with for the first time.
5. Social media reveals real customer insights - Social media makes it quick and easy for you to obtain feedback from your customers, which will give you a clearer idea of brand sentiment and help you identify common pain points you can address.
6. Social media is a great way of promoting your content - Help increase awareness of each new blog article or news post that you publish, by sharing them on social media.
7. Social media helps you keep customers engaged with you - Social media is a great way of keeping your business or brand in the mind of your customers. 
8. Social media will drive website traffic - Successful social media activities will always improve the amount of traffic referrals your website receives, playing an essential initial role in your sales funnel.

• Setting Up Your Facebook Page
• Adding Facebook Pixel
• Setting up a Twitter Account For Your Property
• Setting Up Pinterest For Your Holiday Property
• Creating a Google+ Page For Your Property

Pay-per-Click 

Third Party Web Sites (Commission, Paid & Free)

• Commission - These websites will advertise your property for free. You pay nothing unless they take a booking on your behalf. When they do, a sales commission (anything from 1% - 30%) is deducted at source and the balance paid to you. The main advantage of these types of site are obvious, there are no up-front fees, you only pay when you make a sale and it is in their interest to sell your stays otherwise they earn nothing either. The disadvantages are that if they become very successful and you come to rely on them then you could be losing a huge chunk of your potential earnings. They are also usually very protective over allowing you direct access to the client (to prevent them from dealing with you directly) and in some cases will contractually insist on exclusivity, pricing and even decor and housekeeping! 
• Commission + Booking Fee - There is a version of the above that not only charges you, the owner, a booking percentage but also charges the guest a percentage based booking fee. Basically allowing the site two bites of the cherry. The downside here is that in order to be competitive your pricing needs to allow for this additional guest cost and usually that just equates to you earning less. AirBnB and Home Away both use this model.
• Paid - On a paid listing site you pay just to appear on the site. The advantage of this is that you may well, for a relatively small annual fee (typically between £50-£300), find yourself receiving multiple bookings and enquiries. Just 1 booking would typically cover the annual fees many times over. These types of site very often pass the guest directly to your website, which if you have a nice website is great news as it gets the users eyes away from your competitors. The disadvantage of this type of site is that a) you may never receive an enquiry or (more commonly) b) it is very difficult to be sure if you received an enquiry from the site - thus making it very hard to demonstrate your return on investment. See our list of third party listing web sites for some examples.
• Free - Believe it or not there are a number of sites out there that will allow you to advertise your property absolutely free of charge. Some of these sites offer a free service alongside a paid premium service, some don't. The advantages are obvious, in that it's free! The only downside is that many of these sites are poorly funded and thus poorly maintained - which can lead to a very unprofessional first impression of your business. Some sites will ask for reciprocal links or banners in return for your free listing, we would recommend against this. See our list of third party listing web sites for some examples. 
• Hybrid Model - It is worth mentioning the hybrid model here. In these cases you not only pay a membership fee but also pay commission on every booking and in some cases so does the guest! The only sites who even attempt to get away with this model are the very largest and most powerful. 

Google "My Business"