Category Archives: SEO

Outsmarting OTA’s: Free eBook for Hotel Marketers

eBook, Hotel marketing, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, , , ,

Outsmarting OTA's Free eBook for Hotel MarketersOnline advertising agency Inbound360 have written a free eBook for hotel marketers in the internet age. The book gives a comprehensive overview of how hotel marketers can use online advertising and marketing channels to drive direct bookings.

The biggest challenge for hoteliers in the internet age is competing for bookings against the enormous klout of online travel mega brands like Expedia, Booking.com and Kayak. This 70 page guide written by John McElborough, the founder of Inbound360 looks at tackling that dilemia head on with stratagies for hotel marketers designed to outwit or outsmart the online travel agents and encourage more guests to book rooms directly on the hotel website – saving hoteliers on commission payments which are typically 15-20% with OTA’s.

Strategies discussed in the eBook include;

  • Conversion rate optimisation
  • Search engine advertising
  • Retargeting
  • Meta search
  • Mobile advertising
  • Search engine optimisation (SEO)
  • Social Media Advertising
  • Analytics & Measurement

The hotel marketing eBook [3.9MB] can be downloaded for free from the Inbound360 website. No email address or registration is required.

Why Responsive Web Design is Important

responsive web design, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design, ,

A Look at Why Thinking About Mobile Devices is Crucial

Photo by Mike Licht / Flickr

If you’ve not heard about responsive web design before, you really need to start doing some research. As more people begin to use smartphones and other mobile devices to access the Internet, it’s going to become even more important. We’re going to take a look at this important tool you can use to reach your customers on more devices as well as give you a short look at why you need responsive web design.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Basically, responsive web design refers to designers that use a grid for their design in addition to javascript that determines what type of device a person is using and gives them a different file that is setup to look good with that device – no matter the size of the screen. The best part is that it does all of this automatically. Once it’s setup correctly, there’s no extra work for you to have different designs that look good in different devices.

Benefits of Responsive Website Design

Here’s a look at just a few of the benefits of using responsive web design.

  • Fluid Web Design – The biggest benefit of responsive website design is the fact that it offers a fluid design. This means that no matter what a person’s image resolution is set to on their monitor, they will see all of your content. Not to mention they’ll be able to see your website on their mobile device clearly.

  • Save Time and Money – Instead of having to run two websites – one for the desktop Internet and one for mobile devices, you’re only going to have to worry about one website that will look good no matter what device is used to view it. This can save you time and money.

  • User Friendly – When you use responsive web design, your content is going to be more user friendly. This can do quite a bit to help you grow your audience. When people don’t have to worry about being able to read your content, they’re going to be more likely to check out your website.

What Next?

This is up to you, but it would be a very good idea to investigate more and see what you can do to make sure your website is showing up right on mobile devices – even ones with super small screens. The good news is that there are a lot of tools out there that can help you with this considerably. All you have to do is look around and you’re going to find something – a tool or tutorial – that will show you how to implement responsive web design.

Bio:

Sheila Kurdinger is interested in F&I Services online. She also likes to read about infographics online whenever she has some spare time.

How to Choose a CMS

SEO

Tips to Help You Find a Great Content Management System

Photo by Nektarios Sylligardakis / Flickr

If you’re in the market for a new content management system – aka CMS – you’re probably confused by all the options available. To help you out, we’re going to give you a short checklist of things you want to do before you make your decision. As a bonus, we’re going to give you a list of the three most commonly used CMS software online.

How to Choose a CMS

Here’s a simple list of the things you want to consider before you make a decision about what CMS to use.

  • Technical Knowledge – How technical you are when it comes to coding will have an effect on which choice you make. For example, if you’re good at coding, Drupal or Joomla may be a better choice to give you more options. On the other hand, if you want something simple, you should go with something like WordPress that doesn’t require as many skills to install or use.

  • Themes / Plugins – Each CMS will call these elements something slightly different, but it comes down to how your website is going to look and functionality. You want to choose a CMS that has a lot of options but at the same time worries about security and making sure code is safe for others to use on their website. Most major CMS platforms are going to have a lot of choices available.

Top Three Current CMS Choices

Here’s a look at three of the major CMS choices you can make.

  • Drupal – Based on PHP, Drupal has been around for a while now. Installing this CMS has gotten easier over the years, but you still have to do a lot of setup and install a lot of modules in order to get started with anything other than a basic blog website.

  • WordPress – The most popular CMS currently is WordPress. Downloaded and used by millions of people this is super easy software to install and use. All of the great themes and plugins for the CMS make it easy to have it do whatever you want.

  • Joomla – Based off of early Drupal code, Joomla has sprouted into it’s own tool. This is not easy to use, but it allows you to customize almost everything. This can be a bit overwhelming if you’re new to content management systems.

As you can see, a lot goes into which CMS you should choose. The fact that there are so many choices out there doesn’t make it any easier. Just remember that if you stick with one of the major three, you’re going to have a larger community of other users who can help answer your questions and more.

Bio

Sarah Jessica has been shopping for engagement rings for a while, trying to find the perfect one. Shopping online has helped a lot, allowing her to look at a lot of different samples.