How LiveRez Gets You More Bookings
LiveRez is designed to help professional vacation rental managers increase their bookings.
One of the key selling points of LiveRez’s vacation rental software platform is its ability to get professional vacation rental managers more bookings. Here are some of the ways LiveRez helps managers increase their bookings:
Rank Higher – LiveRez-powered websites are specifically designed to help you rank higher in search engine results. Simply put, ranking higher in your desired searches means more travelers visit your website.
- Read “Why SEO Should Matter to You”
Convert More Often – LiveRez-powered websites are designed to offer travelers the fastest and easiest way to book a property online. Through our 3-click booking process, travelers can search, shop and book a property – all in just three clicks. This proven process helps create extremely high conversion rates on all LiveRez-powered websites.
Book Online – Travelers want the convenience and security of booking their vacation online, anytime day or night. With a LiveRez-powered website, you can ensure that visitors to your website have the ability to close the deal online. It’s a common fact: once someone books, they stop shopping. LiveRez ensures that you never lose a customer because they couldn’t book online.
Public Relations as an SEO Strategy
Public relations can yield great results for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts through cultivating back links.
Public relations is an important component of business development. Getting your company publicity is a great way to connect with new customers and increase brand awareness. But, many businesses fail to realize its importance for search engine optimization (SEO).
Distributing press releases that includes links back to your website can help create back links, one of the most crucial components of how Google and other search engines rank your website in search results. The quality, quantity and relevance of sites linking to your website (called back links) help determine your own site’s authority in the eyes of Google and other major search engines.
News websites tend to have a lot of authority in the eyes of Google. A link to your website from an article on a major news website could give your SEO efforts a big boost. For example, if you’re a vacation rental business and you manage to score a mention in an article in USA Today’s Travel section, the back link you receive from the article would be rated highly by Google in terms of both authority and relevance.
But, getting into major newspapers is not easy. It requires great news judgment, solid news monitoring and the formation of working relationships with journalists. The good news is that you can start doing all of this for free, and get back links in the process.
Could Adding a Google +1 Button Help Your SEO Efforts?
Rumor has it, adding a Google +1 button to your website could help your SEO efforts.
Earlier this year, Google introduced its own social network, Google+ – believed by many to be the company’s answer to Facebook. While Google+ is not yet available for businesses (it’s coming soon, they say), businesses can still take advantage of Google+ right now by utilizing Google’s answer to the Facebook “Like” button.
You may have noticed that little “+1” button next to the results in your Google searches. Clicking that button is roughly the equivalent of liking that page (or result) and recommending it to the people you’re connected with through your Google account. As you +1 pages, your recommendations will be shared with the people you’re connected with via your Google account. The video below explains the concept more fully.
According to rumors in the SEO community, increasing the amount of +1s your website has will help improve your search engine rankings on Google. Therefore, as you seek to grow your vacation rental business, you’ll want to put a +1 button in all the places you would normally put a Facebook like button: on your website, on your blog, etc.
SEO Case Study: Cocoa Beach Best Condominium Rentals
Cocoa Beach Best Condominium Rentals experienced dramatic increases in search engine placement, website traffic and web bookings in just its first few months with LiveRez.com
When Sheila Hobart of Cocoa Beach Best Condominium Rentals signed up for LiveRez.com’s SEO/SEM service, she had a clear plan in front of her for the customer demographic she wanted to reach – she just wanted a little helping getting her company in front of them.
After working with LiveRez.com SEO/SEM Manager Sam Martin to nail down her target audience, Hobart let LiveRez.com’s SEO/SEM service design and execute a custom plan.
And, in just a matter of weeks, Cocoa Beach Best is starting to see results.
“Our website is hitting its targets, and our numbers look good,” Hobart said.
In just over one month with LiveRez.com’s SEO/SEM service, Cocoa Beach Best’s search engine placement for seven strategic keyword phrases increased by 316 percent. On May 19, Cocoa Beach Best had an average search engine ranking of 75 among those seven keyword phrases. But, as of July 1, its average ranking has increased to 18.
Want to Learn More about Adwords? Sign up for our Free Webinar
Are you getting the maximum level of efficiency out of your Adwords campaign? On June 29, LiveRez.com SEO/SEM Manager Sam Martin will offer some hints and tricks for maximizing your Adwords campaigns. Martin will provide tips on keyword strategy, ad copy, campaign structure and more.
Interested? Register here.
LiveRez.com’s SEO/SEM Service Helps Drive 115 Percent More Online Bookings for Partner
Want to increase the number of lookers coming to your website? Regina Berg of Cabin Rentals of Helen (RentHelen.com) had just that in mind when she signed up for LiveRez.com’s professional SEO/SEM service.
Administered by SEO/SEM Manager Sam Martin, LiveRez.com’s efforts for RentHelen.com yielded positive results for Berg in every category – and in just her first month with the service.
“My bookings in May have more than doubled from a year ago,” Berg said. “I know a big part of that is the great work LiveRez.com’s Sam Martin has done for our SEO and SEM campaigns. The quality and quantity of our website visitors has definitely increased since Sam began directing our efforts.”
Below is brief case study detailing those exceptional results:
With help from LiveRez.com's SEO/SEM Manager Sam Martin, Regina Berg and the team at RentHelen.com increased the traffic coming to their website and experienced a 115 percent increase in online bookings from one year ago.
GOALS
- Increase bookings
- Increase traffic to RentHelen.com
- Increase placement in key organic search results
- Increase efficiency of SEM Campaigns through elevated click-through rates
WHAT WE DID
- Completely analyzed SEO Strategy
- Redesigned SEM Campaign
- Implemented key off-site tactics
RESULTS
SEO
- Increased website traffic by 22.69%
- Increased organic placement in a number of key search terms across all major search engines.
SEM (pay per click)
- Clicks rose 56%,
- Cut Impressions by 24%
- Click-through rate (CTR) increased 65%
- Average Cost-Per-Click (CPC) decreased by 7%
- Average placement position of ads rose from 4.2 to 3.6
Online Reservations (May 2010 to May 2011)
- Bookings increased 115%
- Nights Stayed rose 93%
I’m a Believer, Convert Me!!!
In a world that is becoming more and more "web-based" and tech savvy, more people are turning the web for business; Including Vacation Rentals. Now more then ever it's crucial to put your business online. Is that enough? No. When it comes to the web there are 2 game to play: 1- Get People to your site, 2- Turn then into customers, or as we say "Turn Lookers into Bookers".
I would like to spend a few minutes talking about website conversion. Everyone has a site, but now there are some basic rules that apply to convert web visitors to customers.
1 - Click Count
How many clicks does it take for someone to enter their Credit Card info? The optimal # would be 3 or 4. Thus giving the guest less opportunity to get lost or leave your site. With LiveRez a web guest can usually book within 3 or 4 Clicks.
2 - Find the info you need
When someone visits your vacation rental website can they find what they are looking for quickly and easily? When someone lands on your site it should be point blank for them where to go and what do do. Notice below the difference in where your eyes attact to and where you want to click first. Notice that on the first site, you dont know where to click.. on the Second you know right where to go to get the info you need.
Not a Good Example - Notice you don't know where to Click.
Notice that you know right where to Click - A LiveRez Site
____________________________________________________
3-Make a Pathway
One very common theme that we are seeing is website leading. Instead of just letting people land on your site and pick to do whatever they want, many people are creating pathway. They do this but getting the web guest to click on what they want and then leading them down a path, creating value and options for there product before eventually selling it. You can do this by using good site structure but also color colors and layout engineering. If you follow a LiveRez Built site, we put web guest in a path to give them all the info they need and eventually asking them for a booking!
Website conversion is not an easy task but is obtainable. Directing your guests into the right direction can really help increase your website conversion and also your sales. To learn more about online bookings visit our Vacation Rental Software site and see what LiveRez can do for you to Build you an amazing site with an amazing Reservation System
Thanks!
Tyler Hurst
http://www.LiveRez.com
Know the Travelers to Your Vacation Rental Destination
How much do you know about the visitors to your destination? Not just your guests, but the general travelers to your destination area. This information should play a vital part in your marketing efforts as it will tell you about your target market and what you should emphasize.
57% had been to Kissimmee before
14%
10%
18%
21%
19%
7%
Use Survey’s to help your Online Vacation Rental Presence
Ever watch Family Feud? Survey says, "............." People, in general, like to know what others are thinking, doing, or have an opinion on. That is where collecting survey information can help you attract more travelers to your site - create some material that is interesting to them, news that they want to read......Top 10 List, Why Travelers......great hooks to get people to your site and fantastic SEO content.
That is one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is that you can learn tremendous information by analyzing the responses you collect from guests, prospective guests, and 'just looking' browsers.
One part I like about surveys is that there are some great tools out there that you can use on your website and through email marketing. I have recommended Zoomerang and Survey Monkey before. Today I ran across a new one Surveygizmo.
Surveygizmo allows you to engage visitors and find out how they feel about your site experience by asking them directly. SurveyGizmo does just that. You can structure your surveys in many ways, including polls, quizzes, landing pages and even mobile marketing campaigns. Extensive analytics and reporting features are included.
A basic account was available at no cost. This is an actual working account (not just a test account) that allows you to gather 250 responses per month on an ongoing basis. Pricing for larger surveys is available at the site.
Another tool and strategy to look into to enhance your vacation rental business. It is FREE and can provide you excellent data, as well as new guests.
Ralf
LiveRez
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How Commenting on Blogs and News Articles Can Help with SEO
Most blogs and news articles have a place at bottom where you can comment. This USA Today article uses a social plugin from Facebook that actually lets you comment on the article from your Facebook account. Make sure to include a link back to your website when you comment on blogs and news articles. It can help your SEO efforts.
Adding comments to news articles (and blogs) related to your industry is a quick and easy way to give a boost to your SEO strategy and create awareness about your company. Commenting on these articles will help you create back links (links back to your website) for both SEO and marketing purposes.
You can find these articles through searches or just keep tabs on them through a comprehensive Web monitoring strategy. Once you find the article, scroll down to the bottom. Many news articles will have a place where readers can leave comments. They might request that you sign in and create an account. Once you’re approved, draft a comment that is related to the story and make sure to include a link back to your website.
But make sure your comment is adding value to the conversation or else your post might come across as comment spam (and the moderator might not approve your comment).
This strategy works equally well for commenting in a forum. Just make sure you include a link back to your website in your signature.