"I was thinking about you all day today and what a great person you are."

"I wanted to be #1...After 2 months I reached the top position for my most popular keywords."

Read More...

The SEO Book

PPC Information

Need Links?

Need Traffic?

Use these Free PPC Coupons

SEO Tools

WordTracker - keyword suggeston

Google Update Austin: How to Keep Your Hotel Full

February 2004

Many of the sites most adversely effected by the recent changes to the Google algorithm are hotel, car rental, or other regional websites.

The World's Best Hotels

Its hard to have the best site for such a generic topic. In the long run, which of the following two sites will build more value and get more customers?

• Script driven worldwide site that offers no interesting features, but has lots of pages that can pick up traffic...YAWN
• Much smaller site which is focused on a specific location...YAY!!!

If you do not have the budget of Price line or Hotels.com you will need to throw in something extra. It's hard to make an amazing worldwide site that is better than everything else on the market.

My Austin Hotel

Many sites would do better focusing on a local area. For this example we will focus on the city of Austin, Texas. It is easier to do well with a local site since

• Less information makes it easier to manage.
• If you make a site about your local area you will be able to use knowledge others do not have.
• If you localize your site theme it typically will have less competition.

What is Special about Austin, Texas?

I don't know, perhaps everything is big down there. A person from Austin would know though. They could speak of their cultural events and favorite hangouts.

Making a small city guide full of historical information as well as current events would make it easy for a true Austin connesuir to make a site way better than the pages inside larger sites, which are not entirely focused on Austin.

Free Extras

Many large companies have schedules and budgets to keep. They can only commit so much to any given project or destination. A true fan of Austin can throw in many interesting things.

• Austin photo guide.
• Ratings and reviews of Austin restaurants.
• A brief history of Austin.
• Stories about the burrito bigger than your head.

Why Free Extras? Three main reasons!

First, people are more likely to buy off someone offering interesting information. People like to be able to learn. It makes you seem more honest if you have free local info. Would you rather buy off of:

• Buy NOW, ON SALE!!! RESERVE TODAY AND SAVE!!!
• This is what I have fun doing, consider giving it a try.

Second, people may want to link to your amazing pictures of the city. People may like your story about the history of Austin. These additional links will make it easier for a small operation to compete with large ones.

Finally, those looking up information on the history of Austin may be interested in helping you. Not only can you get free links this way, but these people may also want to stay at your hotel.

Why is Austin, Texas the Example?

I used the city "Austin" because that is the term may people called this last Google Update. Thus those looking for info on Google Update Austin will easily be able to find this article.

Me focusing this article on Austin, Texas does not make it any more relevant than other SEO articles on the topic of the recent Google Update. That creativity though will help give me another high ranking page for the term "Google Update Austin."

SEO is not a city. Your memories of your environment can paint a more vivid picture than my imagination. How can you use what you know to get your site where it needs to go? If you need any help with promoting your website feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email.

- by Aaron Wall

We Value Privacy

This article may be syndicated in whole are part. Simply provide a link back to the original article or http://www.search-marketing.info. Please note that I do not usually update articles over time and the date last modified on article pages is usually referring to a navigational change.