subject: Bed And Breakfast Website Design - The Missing Secret Ingredient [print this page] The internet is becoming crowdedThe internet is becoming crowded. Your bed and breakfast website design might look good, but is it showing up where it matters - in the search engine results? If the answer is no, or you're about to set up your first site, I have a "secret" ingredient that could spell the difference between success and failure.
Stating that something is the difference between failure and success is a pretty strong statement, but the effect of the world wide web on your bed and breakfast, guest house, country inn, gite or chambre d'hotes is going to be enormous. You might not have noticed it much yet, but every day thousands more people use their mobile phones or gadgets like the ipad to book where they're going to stay. If your website isn't doing its job you're going to have a lot of empty beds!
The internet is increasingly competitive. More and more owners realize that a website is vital to the future of their business.
Yet the majority of bed and breakfast website design is stagnant. Frankly, it's just not working. You might spend a thousand dollars or more and still not appear in the first couple of pages of search engine results. That's where you need to be, because most of the time people aren't looking any further than page three. If you're searching Google for something, how many sites do you go through? Being in the top 100 sites might sound good at first, but really, what good is being on page four or five, let alone page ten?
So how can you change that - without breaking the bank?
By making sure you give your potential guests the opportunity to find you in as many ways as possible. How do you do that? Using the secret ingredient of course...
A blog.
Maybe you know something about blogs, maybe you don't. There's a lot of misinformation around. The fact is that a properly set up blog will vastly increase your visitor numbers at remarkably little cost. If you already have a website you could add a blog for free. If you're just setting up all you have to invest is around $10.00 a month. In return you'll get a professional set up with everything under your control and the most powerful tools in the business.
What a blog gives you is a platform for you to share information with your guests - and potential guests - whenever you like. The problem with traditional bed and breakfast website design is that you get a site that is "finished". It changes little. Most people think that's what you are supposed to do, but the secret is, that's just what Google and the other search engines don't want.
What the search engines want is a site which is active. One that is lively and continuing to grow. One that is full of valuable information. A blog allows you to do all this, any time you like. Each short blog post is seen by search engines as another page on your site, adding to your importance, your "authority". It gets better. Once set up this isn't something that will demand you are glued to the computer 24/7, an hour or two a week is all you need.
Don't make the mistake of confusing professional blogging with those "gossip" blogs you might have come across. Most people can't even tell what is technically a blog and what isn't these days.
Traditional bed and breakfast design isn't working anymore so you need something else. Fortunately the "secret" is not only something you can do yourself, it's quite simply the most cost-effective way there is to fill those beds!
Bed And Breakfast Website Design - The Missing Secret Ingredient
