CONTRIBUTOR || YVONNE HALLING
with Yvonne Halling
WHAT IS SEO? And how does SEO help you boost direct bookings?
Yvonne Halling is the awardwinning founder of Bed and Breakfast Coach. com and creator of the B&B Money Maker Business Transformation program.
Simply put, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the strategy of getting more visitors to your B&B website, by attracting people who are using search engine sites like Google, YouTube and Bing to find and choose a B&B to stay in. In a nutshell, SEO is a set of strategies to boost how often your website features in the search results. The more often you feature in the top listings in Google (for example), the more visitors you’ll get to your website. And who doesn’t want more of that? So how do you use SEO to increase the number of visitors to your site? Let’s look at the two types of SEO – “On-Page” and “Off-Page.
In 2001, Yvonne opened her B&B in the Champagne region of France, running her B&B for 17 years. She now offers owners and managers in the B&B industry helpful training and masterclasses.
On-Page SEO relates to all the elements on your web pages that impact your search engine rankings. The goal of On-Page SEO is to inspire the search engines to list your site as one of the leading sites with high-quality, relevant content when people search for B&Bs and related information that you might have on your site (e.g. places to see in your local area). Google has a set of detailed rules that determine how well your website will feature in the results for searches like these. They all boil down to an assessment of how well someone searching on Google (as the main search engine) and then visiting your website will quickly and easily find what they’re searching for (based on what they typed into Google before clicking the search results to visit your website). First, determine what your potential guests would need to know before they book with you. If you’re relying on search terms such as “accommodation in Torbay” then you’ll be in a very competitive market, especially with the OTAs. But if you can create blog posts or articles around reasons to come to your area (i.e. things to see and do and the advantages of the area), then you’ll be in a different arena. You’ve probably got a list of questions your guests usually ask you when they’re staying, such as: • Where’s the best place to eat in (your area)?
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On-Page SEO • •
What time do main attractions (in your area) open? What can I do in (your area) if I only have one day?
You could easily turn each one of those questions into blog posts of 300 words or more with an image or two, correctly labelled to match the topic you’re writing about (and not for example: IMG.1234.jpeg) and put these articles and images on your website. Also, divide up your website into pages dedicated to each set of questions a visitor to your website might have, and create a smooth, easy path for them to book with you as and when they get answers to their questions. And although Google prefers you having lots of pages on your website, so no one page is too crowded (making it hard to find what the reader is looking for), keep your site structure as simple as possible. Keep your website menu simple and clear, again with an easy path for your site visitors to book with you.
Titles and Headings The title and subheadings of your page help Google determine what your specific page is all about. Think about what potential guests will see when they land on one of your web pages. They’ll likely scan through the subheadings first and make a quick
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