Using Search Engines to Market your Tourism Service on the Internet

Its all about keywords. Your website needs to have text that is rich in content which uses the keywords you think will get you the targeted traffic to get you potential customers from search engines. You will need one page per keyword and if you are in doubt then build another page. You will find that the more pages you have the more visitors you get. Its that simple

Researching Keywords
Before any copywriting or search engine optimization tasks can begin, it's necessary to conduct thorough keyword research to identify the strategic keyword phrases that lead to better positioning and visitor conversions.

site-build-it is a product that is perfect for everyone who wants to have an internet presence for their tourism service. It lets you build the site affordably yourself without having to understand the technology. If you can surf you can build your own site.

Researching keywords is a reason to buy site-build-it as it comes with a program that does this for you. Its a clever thing that not only finds relevant keywords for a product but also sorts them out if they are worth using or not.

Your keyword phrases are used both in visible Web copy (headers and body text) and non-visible HTML code (title tag, meta description tag). It is the selection of the right keyword phrases, coupled with skillful copywriting in using these terms, that makes your site relevant for both search engines and visitors, so choose your words carefully.
- Brainstorm to create a list of keywords describing your offerings. Identify search terms that potential customers might use in a search query to find you. Get feedback from as many sources as you can.
- Enter these keywords into a keyword suggestion tool like WordTracker or the Overture keyword suggestion tool. These Web-based tools provide ideas for expanding your keywords by identifying popular keywords within a keyword database. It reveals the number of users searching for specific keywords on major search engines indicating how popular these keywords are with competitors.
- Select search terms that aren't overused but remain fairly popular. Look for uncommon combinations. Expand your list to include plurals and misspellings.
- Then there is the brainstorm tool that comes with site-build-it. This is what I now use exclusively as I have not found anything that compares
Use several strategic keyword phrases to write the copy for each page. Search engines work with text, not graphics, so ensure that your home page includes at least 200 to 250 words. Repeat your keyword phrases at least three times, possibly more if copy is longer. Use keywords in headlines and sub-heads. If it helps readability, bold a few keywords to stand out. Create a new page for each topic.
Ensure that the content on every page includes strategic keywords accurately describing your offerings. Keywords in meta tags should match content on the page. If you use graphics, place keywords in your alt tags to accurately describe your images.

Most pages you create should have a few keywords in it that pertain to locality. these are strategic keywords like South Africa, North Coast etc. By inserting these words in the page you enable a far more targeted search for you service.

Optimizing Keyword pages for Better Positioning

Once your copy is written, it's easy to create the meta tags that help boost search engine rankings. The most important tags are the Title Tag and Meta Description Tag. Others are optional.

If you use site-build-it then all this optimizing is done for you automatically. The product even has a "Analyze" button which tells you in plain English what need to be improved on the page. Like "you have not used your keyword in the first 90 characters" You just fix it and reanalyze

Title Tag - Write an HTML title tag for each page. This should be the first tag on the page in the Head section. Use compelling words to draw visitors to your site. Use questions if possible. Start with important keywords first. Begin with a capital letter and use sentence case for readability. Good title tags read like a one-line ad that solves a problem and shows urgency. Don't use your keyword phrase more than once in a title tag.

Meta Description Tag - This HTML tag is important because it's often used by search engines as your site description in search results. It's also used by search spiders to summarize Web sites when indexing. Make your description compelling and relevant to attract potential customers. Copy should contain several strategic keywords from the page. Place essential copy in the first 150 characters as copy is sometimes limited (150-400 characters).
Meta Keywords Tag - Most search engines have stopped supporting the meta keywords tag but Inktomi and Teoma still use it, so it can't hurt if you have the time. This tag should contain your most important keywords for each page, up to 1,000 characters including spaces. Place your most important keywords first, with or without commas.
Alt or Image Tag - The alternative text attribute tag requires text to be placed in the tag within quotation marks. Some search engines index alt tags, so it never hurts to describe your images with a keyword message.

Submitting your site to the Search engines

Once you've focused on the above, the crawler search engines will find and rank your site. You can submit manually from the "add URL" link, or invest in paid inclusion for faster indexing and more frequent refresh. At the same time, customers searching your keywords will find what they're looking for, making favorable decisions due to smart copy. The submitting your site to search engines can become a pain as each has its own rules about how often you may do this. If you use site-build-it this gets done for you automatically and it does make life seem easier.

More resources about building an internet marketing strategy for tourism services using the internet

Marketing your Tourism Service on the Internet

If you have any questions about any of this then drop me a mail or give me a ring 036/3523143 and I will see if I can help you. I am not an internet expert or an internet provider rather a tiny guest house owner in the foothills of the Drakensberg. All I can give you is a wealth of information on how to go about promoting your tourism service by building a website yourself affordably.

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