Context

As marketers in the Ontario tourism industry, something we often get asked is, “How can I make my site show up on the first page of results when people search on Google?”

It seems like a simple question, but in fact, dozens of books and thousands of articles have been written offering advice and tips.

And while there are many techniques that will help you get on the first page, at the heart of it, there are two areas you want to concentrate on: the first two of The 5P’s for Success in Tourism E-marketing – Personae and Position.

Personae are the words and pictures that tell your story. It’s what marketers call “content”. Position is the focusing and organization of your content to attract the attention of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

These are the foundation for search engine success. All other techniques follow, and are built on the assumption that you’ve done a good job with your content.

Think like a search engine – content is king!
Search engines are trying to do one basic, yet difficult thing: find the best answers to the search term that someone put in the search box. To do that, they send out programs called robots or spiders which are constantly crawling around the Web to analyze, rank and index the content of a multitude of sites. Basically, the more frequently the subject is mentioned – in the right context – the greater chance the robot will recognize the site and the higher it will show as a match to a search word.

And quite simply, if it’s not on your site, the robot can’t find it. The more relevant content you have, the better your chances of being found. And the great thing about the Web is that unlike print, extra space is available at virtually no extra cost. So, the simple answer is to beef up the content on your site.

What should you write about and where can you find it?
Let’s say you’re a resort operator and you offer canoeing, water skiing and hiking. How much information do you have on each activity on your site? We’d suggest that you could easily have 5 pages on each activity. For example on canoeing, it could include a page on your equipment, a page on canoeing lessons, pages on routes for beginners, intermediates and advanced, guest reviews and photos.

Each page adds to your content and gives search engines more ways to find you.

We suggest you look at all aspects of your business. What information could you expand that would be of interest to site visitors and search engines?

Pay attention to details – search engines will reward you.
At the very fundamental level, search engines index the words on the sites. But in addition to the words, they look at how the words are being used to judge importance and relevance.

Read about some of the specific areas that are important to search engines:

Page Titles – The name of the Web page. It’s what comes up at the top of the browser window. For Web site programmers, these are known as title tags. Search engines look at title tags or page names as a key indicator of what that page is about. The strategic use of page naming is where many tourism sites miss the huge chance to score ranking points. Do your page names include words that searchers might use? Here’s a hint – very few searchers use the word “welcome” in their searches, yet how many times do you see it in a page name? Too often.

Headlines – Again, search engines are assuming that words used in headlines give a good indication of the content on the page. It’s worth reviewing your headlines to see that you’re using words that accurately describe the content of the page, and that they are words that searchers might use when they’re looking for a site like yours. Choose the words in your headlines carefully. They shouldn’t be marketing fluff, they are critically important to your competitive positioning.

Links and Navigation – Words used in links and navigation are also given a higher rating. Again, the search engines presume they are an indication of importance. Unfortunately, so many sites miss this chance to gain in the rankings. What are the most common words used for links? “Click here”! Completely useless, and a waste of an opportunity.

Word Density – Search engines assume that if a word is used many times on a page, it must be an indication of what that page is about. And yet so often, we come across tourism pages where the copy refers to the real information on the page by key words only once, and after that does not mention them again.

Naming and Describing Graphics – Search engines can’t see the content of your graphics but they see descriptions that you can provide. These are known by programmers as “alt tags” or the alternative text that describes the image. You should understand the correct use of alt tags to ensure they help your rankings. It’s another place to build your key word density.

An important tip on images
Search engines can’t read images. And yet on many sites, you’ll see text that has been rendered as an image. This may be because the designer wanted the text in a specific style that’s not available on the Web or just because they thought it looks good. While it’s OK to do it occasionally, just realize that the search engine won’t pick up that text. If for example, you render all of your headlines in graphics, you’re reducing your chance of being found.

The Tourism Marketer’s Bottom Line: Search engines live on content. To improve your rankings and draw more visitors to your site, add more content that appeals to visitors and is formatted for search engines.

How should you start improving your e-marketing efforts? Start with our offer of 3 hours of complimentary E-marketing Consulting. This will be three hours of practical, no-nonsense consulting about your site, your e-marketing efforts. We understand your business is unique, so this session will be about you. You’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned immediately and successfully. Imagine if your new e-marketing efforts could increase your business by 10, 20 or 50 percent. What would that mean to you?

After the meeting we’ll follow up with a summary report with suggested next steps. You’ll be able to take immediate action to start a high performance e-marketing initiative for your business. Contact Andy Strote to get started with our offer.