SEO 101 For Marketing Your Vacation Rental

It can be amazing to me how few people know how to really use SEO in their website content.  Just a few basic techniques can really help you get your vacation rental content noticed, both by search engines and humans. So, let’s take a mini course on SEO 101 for marketing your Vacaton Rental.

First of all, let’s define search engine optimization, or SEO for short.  It is the process of making your site friendly for search engines and people. Think about this: when you search for something on the Internet, what words do you use to find what your need?  Those searches are called keywords, and keywords are used by people and search engines to hunt for information. Combined with friendly design, SEO makes it  possible for people to find you, until word of mouth kicks in.

Second, here is your goal. You want your website to pop up on the first page of a search for a particular set of keywords that describe your site content. Few people look  past the first page of a search, that’s why it is the goal. Further, you want to be on the first page of Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Those three sites  pick up approx. 8 of every 10 search for anything on the Internet.

Keywords for a site on vacation rentals should include those words, plus a geographic location. For me, I would use something like vacation rentals ozarks missouri, or vacation rentals lake ozark.  Those few simple words tell you a lot about a website.

Now for some simple rules:  1)get your keywords into the title of the article or blog. 2)Use the keywords within the first 50 words of an article. 3) Use them again in the last paragraph. 4)Finally, use them every other paragraph. This way, you’ll get good SEO for search engines, without being considered a spammer. Spammers are those that use the keywords over and over again, ad infinitum.

Keyword density should be 3 percent or less. Here is how to figure keywords density:  let’s say my keyword phrase is vacation rentals lake ozark. There are 4 words in the phrase. Add up the total words for every time you use the phrase in an article or blog, then divide by the total words in the article. That is your keyword density. In a 400 word article, my saturation level is 12 words. So, I should only use my keyword phrase 3 times.

Finally, when you add  pictures to your article or blog, name the picture with keywords.  So, the name of my vacation rental lake ozark picture would be “Vacation Rental Lake Ozark Two Story A Frame.”  Get the idea? Don’t forget to put a link to your website in the picture, if you are posting your article somewhere else.

Well, there’s your SEO 101 Marketing for Vacation Rental Course. I hope you like it. Go back and look at this article, and see if you can find the ways I linked keywords in this article. Good luck!

Posted by on Jul 10th, 2010 and filed under Online Marketing, Tools and Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

7 Responses for “SEO 101 For Marketing Your Vacation Rental”

  1. Marisol says:
    July 11, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    Regarding your post, just want to recommend you a vacation rental website that really works for me. I travel a lot because of my job and a friend of mine recommend me this website who offers cheap and comfortable places around the world.
    http://www.guesthousenetwork.com

  2. jinx says:
    July 11, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    Hi All,
    I disagree with this post, I think that SEO is the wrong way to go. For a vacation renal owner the right way are free listing and paid listing website.
    Let them spend the advertising budget.
    For example a great free vacation rental websites is http://www.guesthousenetwork.com and there are othere.
    With paid websites I would go with VRBOor soething like that

    Hope I helped
    J

  3. Raymond Province says:
    July 14, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Thanks for the comment. The sites you mention in the article make use of these SEO techniques to market vacation rental sites for their customers. FYI

  4. villas to rent in Spain says:
    August 3, 2010 at 11:45 pm

    The reality is for most people it is easier to just put the details on a few sites which are already being found as the competitiion to rank on the first few pages is too tough or the term is not widely searched.

    Most of the hard work comes with the off page seo – things such as blog comments (especially if the blog is no follow ;( …. ) – although not all search engines pay attention to the no follow tag.

    Plus it is not just about ranking in the SE but it is about traffic and there are now many ways with social media etc. to drive traffic.

  5. Backlinks Outsourcing says:
    October 8, 2010 at 7:22 am

    Interacting in public forums and communities can be a great way to get backlinks to your site. Many people engaging in forums and blogs will post links to their web site in their signature or profile. As long as you’re contributing towards the community in a positive way and not just spamming.!!!. these links are generally well tolerated.

  6. Velimira says:
    October 27, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Here’s another great website in 8 languages that offers free listings: http://www.sunnyrentals.com

  7. Thailand holiday villa says:
    March 8, 2011 at 5:57 am

    Surely the most valid method of attracting interest is to ensure you have original content. We operate three unusual holiday villas for rent in Thailand. We aim to ensure vacatons at our Thai villas are fun, unusual, informative, relaxing and enjoable, with great Thai food and a genuine sense of place (the villas have superb countryside settings away from the tourist crowds). By offering unique Thaland holidays, the sites themselves become unusual and popular.
    Gecko Villa: http://www.geckovilla.com
    Green Gecko: http://www.thaivillarent.com
    Rice Paddy Villa: http://www.ricepaddyvilla.com
    And we are also listed on http://www.thailandholidayhouse.com

Leave a Reply