Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
Rich44
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:12 am

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Post by Rich44 »

Hi All

For those of you that run your own websites advertising your properties, I wondered if you could give me any advice about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), how to do it, if there are any reputable and cheap companies that will do it for you and any tips in general please?
Looking to move to Devon in early 2017 and doing some homework on the holiday letting market for when I buy one.
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

Hello Rich44,
You will find crucial information on setting up your website on the "stickys" on this forum on the website thread and other sections.

Depending on which model of website you use, you can get further help with SEO. If you are interested in a Promote My Place template which many of us use, I could pm you a discount code. The PMP staff can also undertake the SEO for you for a small additional fee.
Rich44
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:12 am

Post by Rich44 »

Thanks Zebedee

It is likely my choice will be a pmp website and I saw that they charge for SEO (seems like a reasonable amount) but I dont really know what they do for that and if there is anything additional I can do myself, to further optimise. I guess I am saying I dont really understand what SEO actually is/does and naturally, when the time comes, I want to make sure my website is promoted as well as it possibly can be.
Thanks for the offer of the discount code but I wont be ready to do it until early 2017, so am guessing it will expire before then.
Looking to move to Devon in early 2017 and doing some homework on the holiday letting market for when I buy one.
User avatar
Mouse
Posts: 7277
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:47 pm
Location: Balearics
Contact:

Post by Mouse »

Hi Rich....I was in the same position as you, and with a very competitive place name (ibiza).
I sort of asked the same thing a month or so ago as I too was thinking of using pmps seo services. I didn't get any helpful replies so crashed on with using PMP.

Basically they do an analysis of possible keywords. In their reply they said the problem with ones I'd use is that they are all highly competitive (I thonk I knew this). This means I haven't got a cat in hells chance of getting my web page to come up for searches for ibiza villas, Ibiza holiday villas etc.

What they have done is give me a list of key words that I have a chance with. Like you I know nothing about seo so I'm assuming that I need to spread these liberally throughout my text. I did think I would get a but more hand holding from them....so I'm trying to find someone who can explain to me what I need to do next.

One of the key things they say I need to do is get my web address on to other websites to generate traffic. But apart from LMH and OD I really don't know any others....so I'll have to think about that.
Was it worth it? Probably not for anyone who knows how or has the means to analyse keyword useage.
Hope that helps.

Sometimes I wish I was placed in a less popular (search wise) place!

Mousie
x
p.s. if you're interested in the report I had I can probably give you the link to it. I've yet to look at it in detail yet as we're in our very busy period of moving out of the villa and getting it all prepped.
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
User avatar
kevsboredagain
Posts: 3207
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:32 am
Location: France
Contact:

Post by kevsboredagain »

Mouse: something you can do yourself to improve SEO is give your images meaningful names. They are all numbers. How will Google make sense of the numbers?

I often get found by people spelling "skis" incorrectly. Why? Because I also made the same mistake in naming the image so I left it the way it is. Search for "skiis" and I'm on page 1 :lol:
User avatar
Mouse
Posts: 7277
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:47 pm
Location: Balearics
Contact:

Post by Mouse »

Thanks for the tip Kev....how do I do that?
Do I title them in my own files and then upload them again to the website or can I do something on the website?

Sorry if that's a dim question :oops:

Mousie
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
User avatar
kevsboredagain
Posts: 3207
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:32 am
Location: France
Contact:

Post by kevsboredagain »

Mouse wrote:Thanks for the tip Kev....how do I do that?
Do I title them in my own files and then upload them again to the website or can I do something on the website?

Sorry if that's a dim question :oops:

Mousie
x
No idea :D Did the images have numbers for names before you used them, ie. from your camera? Other PMP sites don't use these numbers so I'm assuming the owners renamed the files before uploading them.
Enaid
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 3:28 pm
Location: Cotes d'Armor, Brittany

Post by Enaid »

Mouse, I can't believe I am able to answer a website question!! But having just done it, I know how to do it.
When you upload your photos they appear on the working page with 'Add caption' or 'Remove' under them. After you have added your caption, it changes to 'Edit caption' in case you later want to change it.

Edited: I've just looked at your website, and they do have captions, so now I'm confused! (Back to my normal state :lol: )
User avatar
Nemo
Posts: 7062
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:15 am
Location: Norfolk

Post by Nemo »

Mouse, you will need to rename the file/photo before you upload it to the site. The numbers are what your camera have titled the file/photo so you have to change that at source.

Rich in your shoes, what would I do? I would get a website up and running now. Just a basic one with one page saying that you are searching for a property, what area, your plans etc. Then once you have the property you can add details, so by the time you come to actually rent it out your website will have been live for months. Quite a few people do that with a property they refurbish.
User avatar
Mouse
Posts: 7277
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:47 pm
Location: Balearics
Contact:

Post by Mouse »

Ah thanks nemo....sounds like I have a lot of work ahead of me! Yes Kev...I assume the numbers are from the the camera. I didn't rename...well maybe one or two but not for seo.

Mouse
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

Mouse wrote:Ah thanks nemo....sounds like I have a lot of work ahead of me! Yes Kev...I assume the numbers are from the the camera. I didn't rename...well maybe one or two but not for seo.

Mouse
x
Cripes I didn't rename mine before uploading to pmp and giving them captions - I had no idea that would make a difference.
User avatar
Ben McNevis
Posts: 846
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 10:07 am
Location: Scotland (for) The Brave
Contact:

Post by Ben McNevis »

I have 2 bits of advice on SEO:

1. It's probably from this forum that I originally picked it up, but that was a long, long time ago: There's a free program called TrafficTravis which does the analysis of your website, keeps stats, compares with competitors and gives you some pointers as to whether your SEO is working and if not, why not.

2. There's a guy who writes a very readable SEO blog that explains, I think, everything that you could need to know: http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/ but be warned: you could end up spending the rest of your life doing this.

3. I know I only said 2, but this isn't SEO: If you don't mind spending some money, you can use Adwords. It's quite easy to set it up but also quite easy to bleed money. If you do it, you have to monitor it carefully and adjust, adjust, adjust until you are getting useful hits. For example, I use it solely to aim at French guests using phrases like "Gite Ecosse". Using strange combinations of keywords give you the ability to be seen by your niche market for a low bid price.
Cheers, Ben
www . scotland-cottage.com www . scottish-cottage.com


Visiting Glenrothes? It's one of your Fife-a-day
Rich44
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:12 am

Post by Rich44 »

Hi Mouse - thanks for that. Good tip from Kev- I was also going to say you need to name your photos when you are saving them onto your computer, so when you upload them, they have a name - go onto your photos and click once on the file number and it will give you the change to delete the file number and add a name like "party ibiza"

Nemo - thats a great idea about doing a website now. I did know it can take 3 months or so for the search engines spiders to "find" the website (or so I was told). Not sure what type of content I would put on there to start with but am sure I can think of something that wont make me look like a weirdo advertising a house I havent bought yet - though I wonder if it may yield some enquiries from people wanting to sell theirs.

Ben McNevis - thanks a lot for those tips. I will look into them now. I was aware of adwords but didnt actually think about using them for my website. I know you can limit the budget and control all sorts of things, though never actually used them before myself, so could also be useful.
Looking to move to Devon in early 2017 and doing some homework on the holiday letting market for when I buy one.
Jenster
Posts: 454
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:24 am
Location: Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Jenster »

If you don't mind spending some money, you can use Adwords.
I am interested in Adwords but am unsure how it works. Can you enter as many phrases as you want or is it limited? And can you use it for, say, a couple of weeks in peak booking season, or is it more of a long term thing?

Thanks for any info!
Rich44
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:12 am

Post by Rich44 »

Jenster wrote:
If you don't mind spending some money, you can use Adwords.
I am interested in Adwords but am unsure how it works. Can you enter as many phrases as you want or is it limited? And can you use it for, say, a couple of weeks in peak booking season, or is it more of a long term thing?

Thanks for any info!
As far as I recall (my old company used them about 6-7 years ago, so it may have changed) you can set a budget that you want to spend, it could be £1 a day up to whatever you want it to be, so that it automatically doesnt run away with your bank balance. You can choose which days you want to use them, even from what time to what time and how much you want to bid in order to able to be positioned where in the search results. For some words, it may be you can get top spot for 1/10th of a penny but it is unlikely it would be that cheap for anything to do with holidays, unless you have a very niche selling point or location with no other properties around you.You only pay that money if the person clicks on your link.

As I say, its been a few years since my company were doing it and I wasnt actually invloved with it, I just heard how it was explained at the time and of course, it may have changed or I may be mis-remembering.

If you go on google (or whatever search engine) and type in "adwords" - the box comes up and below it it says "how it works" and "costs". I would imagine its fairly simple and you only pay for what clicks you get and you can set a limit to whatever your budget is.
Looking to move to Devon in early 2017 and doing some homework on the holiday letting market for when I buy one.
Post Reply