Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category
If you have a website, you probably already know that obtaining external links is very important. In fact, SEO experts always include link-building among the top 3 priorities in marketing a website. More quality links from 3rd party websites result in higher rankings for your website. Higher search engine rankings results in more traffic and more opportunities for you to increase earnings. So it’s simple. You need more links.
Instant World Booking already offers free links to your website
Free links display your webpage in a window on our page. When a user clicks the free link, they can see your website, but remain on our page. They are not directed to your website.
Paid Links for additional exposure and traffic
To maximize the profit potential of your website, Instant World Booking offers paid links. Paid links are better than free links, since they allow the user to be re-directed to your website. When users click a paid link on you property’s page, they are taken directly to your website. The value of direct links from quality sites like the 100+ Instant World Booking websites is significant. Paid links from Instant World Booking also bring highly targeted traffic, since users browsing your page on our website are ready to make reservations. Please note that Instant World Booking’s paid links do not transfer PageRank, and are created in complete agreement with Google’s guidelines on paid links. See: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66736&hl=en
Purchase Paid Links Now
Log in at Instant World Booking to add your links today. If you’re not already a member, get more information on what Instant World Booking has to offer: Work with Us
Important note: All paid links on our network are created in complete
For hotels, hostels, and B&Bs looking for some timeless advice on link building, see SEOBook’s 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity.
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The following is a list of calendar management systems currently linking to Instant World Booking. What this means is that these 3rd party systems, whether CMS, Channel Management systems, availability calendars, property management, or front desk software systems, provide an interface to automatically update your calendar on the Instant World Booking network.
If you are currently working with another 3rd party system like those described above, tell them you want to be able to feed your availability directly to Instant World Booking. Typically, services will respond positively to their clients’ requests of this type.
If you wish to check out one of the services listed above, please do so, and tell them you heard about them from Instant World Booking. Frequently, services will be happy to offer special introductory pricing if they know their partners are referring new business to them. So, it can’t hurt to ask.
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What is the lowest cost on the internet for a fully-customizable booking engine for your website?
We have the answer: 1.9%. That’s because Instant World Booking also offers a basic service option with the lowest price available anywhere. And, that still includes online bookings combined with credit card confirmation for your website.
In fact, we offer a range of pricing options starting at the industry-low of 1.9%, offering integrated bookings and credit card deposits all the way up to full collection of the reservation amount up-front. Contact us today to learn more about pricing options and an online booking solution that’s perfect for your business.
Get more about fully-integrated booking engines for your website.
Add your hotel today for online booking at Instant World Booking.
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Instant World Booking now features a great new service for free marketing of hotels, hostels and bed & breakfasts. You’re invited to post your videos on our blogs. This is an excellent way to maximize your online marketing presence, and yet another free service that Instant World Booking offers (boy, we love giving away free stuff). You don’t even need to have a listing on our service.
If you wish to post your videos on one of our blogs, it’s easy. Just decide which blog you wish to post to:
For hotels of all kinds:
- Instant World Booking (you’re here)
For hostels and budget lodging:
- HostelTraveler.com (go to the HostelTraveler.com homepage, and proceed to the blog)
For bed and breakfasts:
- BedBreakfastTraveler.com (go to the BedBreakfastTraveler.com homepage, and proceed to the blog)
Instructions for posting videos on our blog:
Our Blog allows you to share YouTube videos with ease, and supports the latest high quality video protocols (360p and HD quality 720p). It will even be viewable on iPod and iPhone.
Step 1: Register at our blog:
http://www.instantworldbooking.com/blog_iw/wp-login.php?action=register
Step 2: Submit a post about your property at the following page:
http://www.instantworldbooking.com/blog_iw/category/hotel-videos/
Step 3: Insert a video link in your post
To insert a YouTube video in your posts, paste the YouTube video URL directly into the text of your post with a prefix of httpv:// (notice the ‘v’).
Important:The URL should just be copied into your post normally and the letter ‘v’ added, do not create a clickable link (i.e., with <a> tags)!
Example: httpv ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKjgajXePd8
If you want to embed high quality video (for videos that have them) use httpvh:// instead (Video High).
If you want to embed HD Quality (DVD quality 720p) video use httpvhd:// instead (Video High Defintion).
To embed playlists use httpvp:// (eg. httpvp ://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=528026B4F7B34094)
- httpv:// - regular video
- httpvh:// - high quality
- httpvhd:// - HD quality
- httpvp:// - playlist
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Instant World Booking wants to introduce a major enhancement in service to our hotel, hostel, and B&B partners worldwide. Now, when you list your property with us, we translate the information you submit into 14 different languages. We then publish your property on 14 individual multi-lingual webpages, each featuring only your property.
This is a major level of service that only Instant World Booking provides for free to hotel and hostel partners. In fact, it’s a must-have service for any lodging who wishes to gain serious exposure on the internet. As always, Instant World Booking’s services are free for lodgings to use.
Consider that your hotel, hostel, or bed and breakfast can quickly and easily have 14 new pages, dedicated only to their property, in the most used languages on the web. Each of these pages is uniquely search engine-optimized to rank high for multi-lingual searches.
If you haven’t listed yet with Instant World Booking, this new level of service is yet another reason why no competing service offers more to hotels around the globe.
New also is the ability for you to submit your listing information in the language of your choice. If English is not your first language, no matter. You can submit your property information in any language you wish, whether it’s Spanish, Italian, Greek, Arabic, etc., Instant World Booking will then take the information you wrote, and translate it into 14 of the most widely used languages on the internet.
To increase bookings, you need to increase your exposure. Get 14 translated listing pages for your property up and running on the web now. List with Instant World Booking today.
For more information, and to list your property, please see:
http://www.instantworldbooking.com/listings/add_listing.php
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Doing business in the 21st century will eventually require every hotel or bed and breakfast to have a website in one form or another. Whether your site is interactive or simply informational, there are steps you can take to ensure you’re on the right track to creating a successful web presence.
1. Perform a Business Analysis
What is a business analysis? Simply put, review your business requirements and your objectives. What do you want to accomplish? How does your website fit into your overall business plan?
2. Perform some research.
Research your competition and other hotel websites. See what kind of competition is out there. What kind of marketing does your competition engage in? Take a look at how the current market works; develop a list of pros and cons about your competition and then make your web presence work better.
3. Develop a concept and a design.
Finally time for the creative stuff! This involves the selection of specific content, the layout of the site structure and navigation and the overall “look and feel” of your website. Remember to pay special attention to your navigational structure. If visitors can’t navigate your website or feel lost when doing so, your “pretty” site will have been a waste of time; don’t go there, keep the navigation simple and for SEO purposes, make sure your navigation is text based. Many hotel websites today feature Flash-driven introductions. Don’t use these unless you fell it’s absolutely necessary. These flash introductions usually take some time to load in browsers. Guests will quickly become bored with this, and simply bypass your site.
4. Develop your website.
When considering which technology to develop your website, think cutting edge technology, not bleeding edge. Make sure the technology you use, such as ASP, PHP, HTML, CSS, will be useful for the next three to five years. An SEO friendly CMS will utilize real URLs, not strange looking query strings with lots of strange characters and question marks. Search engines despise query strings and rank these site accordingly.
5. Choose a host provider and implement your website.
When deciding on a host provider, make sure the host is not only reputable, but has been in business long enough that you can be sure they will be in business next year. Also, ask about site uptime. If your site is down for any reason, this will not only affect your potential and current customers, but the search engines as well. If the search engines decide on a given day to spider your site and it is unavailable, it could cost you your rank.
6. Promote and market your website.
Register your site with the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Initiate other marketing activities such as an email blasts to prospective customers. Consider “Pay per Click” advertising with the major search engines and don’t forget about a long term SEO campaign to drive targeted traffic to your site.
7. Finally, maintain your website.
Probably the most important long term step is continuing to provide current and relevant information on your website. Keep your site content current to encourage return visitors and give them something to return for! Related to SEO, search engines just LOVE sites which provide new content on a regular basis and rank such websites accordingly.
Overall, remember, your website is not just a marketing tool, it’s a business tool, and it should be generating a constant flow of reservations from guests, and therefore a revenue stream for your business.
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Instant World Booking is working hard to continue to innovate and lead online booking technology around the globe. Our latest innovation is a simple one, but unmatched elsewhere for online reservation services.
Hotels and hostels who advertise on our network can now upload an unlimited number of photos to their listing. You heard right — Unlimited! This feature is free, and as always, maintaining a listing with the Instant World Booking is free.
So what does this mean exactly. We have a again pushed above the service level of competing booking services. Look at typical hotel pages on most services. You’ll see maybe 6 or 7 of a property’s best photos, in a small image barely larger than a thumbnail. This does very little to sell your rooms and beds.
If you’ve been advertising your hotel, hostel, or bed and breakfast on the web for a while, you know that photos sell rooms! And, the more photos you have the better. Don’t include just photos of your guestrooms, but of all areas of your property. Give a real sense of what it’s like to stay in your hotel. And what about your environment? Include photos of the surrounding neighborhood and views from your property. This really sells rooms.
To add your photos, simply sign in to your listing at Instant World Booking, and proceed to the MANAGE PHOTOS page. You can upload an unlimited number of images. And, you can submit images as large as 8MB! No more re-sizing and touching up your photos. Our enhanced system will handle that for you. As a bonus, don’t worry about the format of your pictures, you can now submit JPEG/JPG, PNG, and GIF images.
So get online today, and add your photos. Remember, good photos increase reservations. If it’s been awhile since you’ve refreshed your pics, get your camera out, and start taking new photos.
As always, Instant World Booking looks forward to seeing you on the web. To get listed with our network, simply go to:
http://www.instantworldbooking.com/listings/add_listing.php
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If you list your hotel, hostel, or bed and breakfast with Instant World Booking, or other online booking agencies, here is some advice for maximizing your reservation potential:
1) Ensure your listing is up to date and accurate. Include as much information as possible, not only about your property, but also about local attractions, restaurants, etc.
2) Make sure to spell-check your listing. Incorrect spelling signals to guests that the property is not professionally maintained.
3) Add photos. Listings with photos gain at least 4x more traffic than those without photos. Make sure your photos are large and complement your property and location.
4) Add a complete calendar of availability. Your calendar is important, since guests prefer instant booking over online requests. Make sure you have complete availability online, and at least 6-9 months of availability.
5) Include an accurate street address on your listing, as well as local directions. Guests will not book properties that they can’t easily find.
6) Use Instant World Booking’s low-cost options for accepting reservations on YOUR OWN website.
Remember, it can take several weeks to several months for Google and other leading search engines to effectively index your page on our network of sites. Instant World Booking has proven to be very successful in gaining top search engine rankings for its listed lodging partners. One last reason it is very important to use the instant booking method is that we use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to market your property on Google and other sites. Effectively use of a PPC campaign can cost you hundreds of US dollars. However, for our partners who use instant booking, we advertise your property in PPC campaigns for free.
One last note, persistence and patience is the key to success. Online marketing is “collective”. This means it is more effective to advertise your property on 2 services than 1. Persistent online presence is necessary to achieve online name (brand) recognition, and to gain higher search rankings for pages containing your property’s name. Advertising with Instant World Booking is an extremely valuable, and free, method of increasing your online presence.
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At Instant World Booking, our goal is to enhance the business and profitability of our hotel and hostel lodging partners. There’s no question a hotel’s website is at the core of any marketing strategy in tourism.
As a small hotel or hostel owner, SEO, or search engine optimization, is the most important element in building a successful online presence. Most people online have heard the term SEO, but it remains a mysterious process to many. One of the reasons SEO is so mysterious is that it can be a complicated process and search engines are constantly changing the way they rank websites.
If you have limited time and resources to devote to marketing your website, you should at minimum concentrate on Google. Google has set the standard for technology in search engine algorithms that can track the relevancy of a website to its content and SEO efforts.
For beginners to SEO, many think the only SEO tool they need is keyword density. While keywords are important, they are not the only means to an end. Back linking is another important component. While back linking remains one of the most successful ways to get your site to rank high on the search engines, it also has evolved. The type of link is important, so that search engines do not penalize a site for bad incoming links.
The term “back link” refers to an external link on another site that points to yours. In the past any link from another site would have a positive impact on your site by the search engines. Because there were so many gimmicks developed in the last few years to aggregate large numbers of back links, such as link farms, and irrelevant reciprocal linking, Google began to develop a way to weed out links that were purchased, or had little meaning or relevancy.
Even though back linking is used to manipulate search engine popularity there are many very legitimate reasons for using the system of back linking. Finding web sites that have a common interest to your own who are willing to place your link on their site can get you extra exposure. So, look for websites of local tour operators, transportation companies, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc., and see if they will place a link to your website on their own. When their visitors come to their site they will see your link and likely visit your site as well. Search engines work in somewhat the same manner.
Google works so hard to be sure that back links are really quality links, and not manufactured links. Your hotel or hostel website will get higher ranking on a search engine for a number of truly appropriate back linking partnerships. However, if the sites linking to you do not share any common information services Google will penalize you for the link. Google may even devalue your website if the site that links to you is considered of bad quality. Bottom line, it is important who you choose to link to, and also who links to you.
Probably the best way to obtain a back link to your site is through anchor text. That is when you have another website with content that is relevant to your own including your site in the actual content of their site with a hyperlink inside the text. These back links are valued much higher than a simple banner link as long as they appear in the text in a way that has a meaningful association with the content of the article. There are several ways to get such back links.
Providing articles about your location, city, or area tourist attractions to content sites with your link built into the article is one method. Also, if you write compelling content on your website, there is a good chance someone else with a similar site may wish to point it out on their own. They may put a link on their site back to yours. You may not even realize they are doing it unless they tell you about it. This is one of the main reasons it is important to keep an eye on who is back linking to you. While the majority of those types of links are wonderful and you should thank the site owner for their inclusion, if you feel the site that is linking to you does not meet your standards, have similar information, or the content is not relevant to your site you should definitely ask them to remove your link.
Back linking is an extremely important aspect of SEO development, which in turn is very important to marketing your hotel or hostel on the internet. It is therefore something you need to understand well in order to implement properly. There are many secrets and mysteries in the SEO world that diligent study can clear up. Keeping your hotel website in a good position with the search engines will ensure a vital and profitable future for your hotel’s online business.
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