You must obtain a real domain name. Do not get free space that leaves you with a name that looks something like www.MyInternetProvider.com/free/MyCompany. This looks hideous. It looks bad on business cards; no one will remember it and you can be pretty sure the search engines (and everyone else) will not take you seriously. My favourite choice of domain name providers is GoDaddy.com. I have been in the business over 15 years and these guys do it all, they do it well and they do it at a good price.

A domain name will cost you less than $10 a year. This is a must.

Now….how to choose words for your domain that will help clients find you.

You have 3 best practise choices for a domain name:

1)      Your company name (ie: www.WindyPoint.com)

2)      What you do (ie: www.MontereyBayBedandBreakfast.com)

3)      A combination of the 3 (ie: www.WindyPointBandB.com)

The best choice is always number 2. If you can find a name that describes your service in ways that potential clients will search for you, you have a much better chance of ranking near the top of the Search Engine Results Pages. If you have potential clients planning a California coast vacation, who live in Cincinnati, they will not search for you with your company name – because they don’t even know you exist yet. You can always ensure your company name is well represented on the website so it will return good search engine results all on its own.

The second best choice is number 3. This gives some tidbit of information to the search engines when they are reviewing your site and also is there for the customers you have already met, the ones that actually know your business name. With proper SEO, this domain name can work very well at ranking high in the search engine.

The last best choice is number 1. This will only help you in the searches if clients know your name. Obviously fantastic for returning clients, but not so great for the family planning a reunion who lives in Calgary and has just found Monterey on a map for the very first time.

Ready to grab your domain name?

Of course not….you must…..

Continue on to part 2 – What Domain Name Extension Should I Purchase?

In order to be found on the ‘net, you need a website. Now…..those of you in the back that are giggling. I can relate. For the rest of you, here are the basics of what you will need.

I have had prospective clients come to me, wanting to get better internet results and when I ask about their website…they don’t have one. They have facebook, myspace, a listing or 9 in yellow page style directories, but no real website.

Maybe a day will come when you do not need a dot-com, but for now, you need something real. You must have a www.MyCompanyWebsiteName.com.

You must have some knowledge of web design, or be prepared to learn (or hire someone, but since you are reading this I will assume you are more of the learning type) Web design can be a complex issue and my recommendation is to get someone to build you a website, from there you can tackle the issue of search engine optimization. Don’t panic – read a bit further as we go into this in depth.

Please follow these steps for obtaining a website, ensuring that optimization can be applied and your website expanded as you work through the optimization procedures.

Step 1)      Get a real domain name. Do not get free space that leaves you with a name that looks something like www.MyInternetProvider.com/free/MyCompany. This looks hideous. It looks bad on business cards; no one will remember it and you can be pretty sure the search engines (and everyone else) will not take you seriously. My favourite choice of domain name providers is GoDaddy.com. I have been in the business over 15 years and these guys do it all, they do it well and they do it at a good price. Before you rush out and buy a domain name, be sure to check my article on “Choosing the best domain name for your travel business” 

Step 2)      Now you have your domain name, you need a website. You can build it yourself, get your computer gaming cousin to do it or hire a web professional. Any of these options will work, just follow these rules:

Rule 1 – Ensure the website is easily expandable and updateable. You should have an option to update the content and add pages yourself. Even if you think you will never do this, make the option available to yourself. You will thank me later.

Rule 2 – Ensure whoever is creating your website understands the basics of search engine optimization.

Rule 3 – Continue to read this blog. We will bring you the basics, the new ideas, the linking opportunities, the new technologies to keep you in the loop with everything to help improve your travel website, and to answer all your questions.

If you need recommendations for web designers, just send me a note. I have many I have worked with over the years that know exactly what is needed for even that most basic site.

leaving on a jet plane……

Jane
(we are real new here…why not leave a comment if you have a specific question about your travel website…we would be glad to help..and its free!)
isn’t free fun?

okay…that last question you won’t find answered here.

What you will find is a wealth of information for travel and tourism sites (and not the big boys either – this is for Mr & Mrs WorkHardAllDayLong)

This little instruction manual for optimizing small travel and tourism websites is written for the small travel business looking to get better online results.

It is written for the lay person, without a ton of technical jargon, without multi-syllable scary computer words and without pretence. It is written for small business owners, written for those without huge budgets and written for those who just might be a navigator, receptionist, tour guide, travel agent, or all of those combined within the last 10 minutes.

We will show you how to do this and it will be easy. Our goal is help you understand how your travel website can be noticed by the search engines and acted upon once someone finds you.

We promise not to tell you to do things that will break the budget (so much can be done without spending any money). We promise to give you our best advice so you can be confident that your online travel marketing budget (both time and money) is being best utilized.

How this works

Consider this an online learning course in website optimization. Each weekday we post another small article that can be easily acted upon to better your internet experience and work to gaining you new visitors and new clients.

How we make it easy

 We will be posting articles frequently that can easily be acted upon. We give clear instruction and help you from the basics to the more advanced techniques for search engine optimization. Each article is short, easy to understand and easy to implement.

And it’s all free. …Yup……Free.

I give this to you free in to advertise my small business and earn some residual income from serving ads. There you go, that was  lesson one.  Give away something free to entice visitors. Now, you can’t obviously give away a 14 day all inclusive tour to Churchill, Manitoba to view the polar bears (if that is not obvious to you I have my work cut out for me) but along our journey we will find compelling reasons for people to come to your site and to buy your travel products.

lets get em packin’….

Jane

(did i mention this was all free?)