Site Reference Forums

simontour · 2006-12-15 01:36:51

Hi, here,

Can somebody here tell me how to promote a travel website online --- not CPC, I am almost broken by this.

Thank you,

Simon

Roxane · 2006-12-15 01:53:07

simontour wrote:
Hi, here,

Can somebody here tell me how to promote a travel website online --- not CPC, I am almost broken by this.

Thank you,

Simon

Why don't you google "travel directory" and see if you can find some good industry specific directories to submit your site. It will be time-consuming but you may come accross 1 or 2 directories that are worth it.

simontour · 2006-12-15 02:45:51

Thank you very much!

aknet47 · 2006-12-15 10:39:56

Travel directories, good idea, but most of the free directories have travel-categories too.

Try to get listed there as well. This will influence your search-result position (in the big ones: msn, yahoo, google,) for your site in a positive way.

You may have an idea what phrases people will use to search for your service. Try to optimize your site for those key phrases. Target one keyphrase per site and try out wordtrackerhttp://www.wordtracker.com.
Google likes 2% keyword density, I read, but I´m not sure about that. (there are free tools on the net to check the keyword-density).

Last edited by aknet47 (2006-12-15 10:48:51)

Nic · 2006-12-15 10:46:00

why not search the online and offile travel world and try to contribute where ever possible

this may include writting reviews for journals, sites, travel publications, newspapers, etc

basically where ever you can get your name and url displayed

TA · 2006-12-15 11:39:52

Simon - where is your travel site? I've been running mine since 2002, and have a Travel Message Board where you can post articles ... you're not allowed to post links to your site there, other than in your signature file; something to think about.

MrStitch · 2006-12-15 11:56:02

Gotta give us a little more to work with here guy. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure nobody here has a printed manual on SEO for Travel Sites.

How 'bout a URL?

If not willing to share... I understand completely. But your time will be better spent reading through many of the fine articles SR has to offer, pay attention to the posts, and ask lots of questions.

We're all willing to help out the best we can.

MrStitch · 2006-12-15 11:57:27

Rephrase that.... in your case, I believe your looking for SEM.

Thought I'd better say something before Gypsy shoots me. blinka

simontour · 2006-12-16 06:52:12

travelagent wrote:
Simon - where is your travel site? I've been running mine since 2002, and have a Travel Message Board where you can post articles ... you're not allowed to post links to your site there, other than in your signature file; something to think about.

Thank you for your kindness!

Well, my website is a China related small business. It operates in Xian. China, and hosts in USA. It is www dot simontour dot com -- I am not intending to break rules here but just let you know that.

Can you let me know a little bit more about your Travel Message Board?

Thanks again,

Simon

simontour · 2006-12-16 07:19:38

aknet47 wrote:
Travel directories, good idea, but most of the free directories have travel-categories too.

Try to get listed there as well. This will influence your search-result position (in the big ones: msn, yahoo, google,) for your site in a positive way.

You may have an idea what phrases people will use to search for your service. Try to optimize your site for those key phrases. Target one keyphrase per site and try out wordtrackerhttp://www.wordtracker.com.
Google likes 2% keyword density, I read, but I´m not sure about that. (there are free tools on the net to check the keyword-density).

It is a nice website you provided here.

simontour · 2006-12-16 07:27:38

MrStitch wrote:
Gotta give us a little more to work with here guy. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure nobody here has a printed manual on SEO for Travel Sites.

How 'bout a URL?

If not willing to share... I understand completely. But your time will be better spent reading through many of the fine articles SR has to offer, pay attention to the posts, and ask lots of questions.

We're all willing to help out the best we can.

What is SEM? search engine marketing, right?---- sorry, I know little about those special terms.

simontour · 2006-12-16 07:35:15

Nic wrote:
why not search the online and offile travel world and try to contribute where ever possible

this may include writting reviews for journals, sites, travel publications, newspapers, etc

basically where ever you can get your name and url displayed

Can you share me with some more details about your idea here? thank you.

TA · 2006-12-16 09:05:08

simontour wrote:
Well, my website is a China related small business. It operates in Xian. China, and hosts in USA. It is www dot simontour dot com -- I am not intending to break rules here but just let you know that.

Can you let me know a little bit more about your Travel Message Board?

Simon

Simon - I visited your site briefly; does your site relate to small business, travel, or specifically what? My message board is primarily geared for those who wish to write articles about their travel experiences anywhere in the world.

laurie_m · 2006-12-16 13:14:59

G'day there, Simon. Welcome to the forum. blinka

1) I see you're keen not to break any rules and are careful not to be link spamming. Relax a bit, Mate! Go to the profile page ane fill out all the boxes. You'll get a signature link. That will be fine. It will also make it easier for us to look at your site and see what's going on. tummenupp

2) I see you already have a heap of well written entries on relevent free sites. You've done well and don't need the advice you are being given.

3) You could do a good bit better in the SEs (search engines) by improving your titles. You start off every title with Simon Tour. I'd be putting Simon Tour last with the keywords first. Instead of "Simon Tour - China Spring Festival" make it "China Spring Festival - Simon Tour".

Or maybe even leave Simon Tour out of your title and put it near the beginning of your description: Travel with Simon Tour to the China Spring Festival with .........

By putting the keywords that you are targeting on a given page, first in the title, you'll give them the most keyword weight and this will improve your placement in the SERPs (search engine results pages), for that keyword.

4) There are many successful web business people on the forum who will help you. I think you need to give more information about what stratergies you already have in place and your level of success. Then the people will have a better idea of what advice you are looking for. From your post, it seems as if you know nothing of search engine marketing (SEM), but a bit of a look around shows this to be clearly not the case. glad

Regards,
Laurie.

Last edited by laurie_m (2006-12-16 13:17:19)

laurie_m · 2006-12-16 13:59:02

Oh Simon! I've had a look at your site now. roll Looks to me as if it's been built for you and you won't be able to impliment the SEO (search engine optimization) advice that you are given.

I'd say that the job has been done by a person with a good grasp of graphic design but little idea of SEO.

The site is as slow as a wet week, loading and looks terrible till it fully opens. In my view, for the site to be attractive to someone doing a search for a suitable tour guide, the site needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The content is fine but the site is not user friendly because of the heavy use of images and some flash.

I don't know where you rank in the SERPs but I suspect that in such a competitive and big dollar industry you would not be doing very well. Please correct me if I'm wrong. There are four things that need to be fixed:

1) Already mentioned the title.

2) You have no description in the head.

3 and 4) you have no h1 and h2 which are the page heading and subheading

Fix these four things and you should rise a bit in the SERPs, given that you've done some other good, off page SEO. blinka

Let's see what others say, huh? blinka

Regards,
Laurie.

graecille · 2006-12-18 15:45:06

Hi Simon,

I agree totally with Laurie here, I looked at several pages and no description on any. (I assume the rest don't have either)

I stopped after that as the Title (also mentioned by several people) appeared basically the same on every page (should be different on every page) and still no Descriptions tag (also different on every page). So take Laurie's advice here and clean up those two areas first. "Simon Tours" is not as important as real "travel" related keywords as far as the Search Engines are concerned. I know everybody likes the sound and look of their own name, but if it is not an everyday word that people will serach for, then there is no place for it anywhere near the front of your title - or possibly even in it.

I also notice you don't appear to have a DOC declaration at the top of each page, and I would also suggest getting your CSS and all that Java Script off the pages and use the one line referral to it. That way the spiders can get to the meat easily without wading thru hundreds of lines of code. They can't see the wood for the trees at this stage.

Good luck rock

Merlin · 2006-12-18 16:05:25

Hi Simon,

I am no expert - far from it....

But some things that I have noticed from your site and some things that I have done, which have prooved pretty successful on my travel site...

THINGS I NOTICED, WHICH I WOULD CHANGE:
.......................................................................................

Your Keywords , you have about 50 Keywords roll ....you need to to certainly look at that, far too many and unessary words and phrases - needs to be chopped right down. You would be better off writing content rich individual pages with the keywords you omit as Page Titles , and also mention them in the text of the page....

Add more pages to your site........content rich , on topic.........

..................................................................................................................................................................................

SOME THINGS I HAVE DONE WHICH HAVE WORKED
..................................................................................................

Get a Blog, if you havent already got one, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG - it works......link back to your site on the Blog topic.....

Link to other travel sites..........only travel sites.......or related topics about China, etc.....

....................................................................................................................................................................................

If I have more time in the next week or so, I will post some other things I have done.......

Just before I go, one more thing that will work for you, but, you will have to put some more educational content pages on your site.....then write to Universities and colleges who specialise in or have a department in Oriental Studies or such like, and ask them for a link to their department website/college/University website.......It works.....and with these sort of links, your traffic and search rankings will storm...... cool

laurie_m · 2006-12-21 18:19:33

G'day Simon.

I thought we'd offended you and you'd vanished. I see from your other post that you can't open the post.

I think you mean that your post has dropped over the end of the index and you can't find it. This should help. For another time, click on "Index". At the bottom of the page you'll find "Show Your Posts". Click on that and you'll be right. Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Laurie.

matte · 2006-12-21 19:39:48

I also notice you don't appear to have a DOC declaration at the top of each page, and I would also suggest getting your CSS and all that Java Script off the pages and use the one line referral to it. That way the spiders can get to the meat easily without wading thru hundreds of lines of code. They can't see the wood for the trees at this stage.

Interestingly, on aninterview with a Google person they said the code/text relationship did not matter at all....

savedeborah · 2006-12-22 15:18:34

Hey Ya'll,

I need to get in on this conversation, my site is not a tarvel site but I am having the same issues that Simon is having. I need to drive more traffic to my site. So I'll read the previous post and also look forward to any post that can help me out.

Thanks,
SaveDeborah

Last edited by savedeborah (2006-12-22 15:20:40)

Sponsored Results

Site Reference Forums

#1 2006-12-15 01:36:51

Online promoting

#2 2006-12-15 01:53:07

Re: Online promoting

simontour wrote:

#3 2006-12-15 02:45:51

Re: Online promoting

#4 2006-12-15 10:39:56

Re: Online promoting

#5 2006-12-15 10:46:00

Re: Online promoting

#6 2006-12-15 11:39:52

Re: Online promoting

#7 2006-12-15 11:56:02

Re: Online promoting

#8 2006-12-15 11:57:27

Re: Online promoting

#9 2006-12-16 06:52:12

Re: Online promoting

travelagent wrote:

#10 2006-12-16 07:19:38

Re: Online promoting

aknet47 wrote:

#11 2006-12-16 07:27:38

Re: Online promoting

MrStitch wrote:

#12 2006-12-16 07:35:15

Re: Online promoting

Nic wrote:

#13 2006-12-16 09:05:08

Re: Online promoting

simontour wrote:

#14 2006-12-16 13:14:59

Re: Online promoting

#15 2006-12-16 13:59:02

Re: Online promoting

#16 2006-12-18 15:45:06

Re: Online promoting

#17 2006-12-18 16:05:25

Re: Online promoting

#18 2006-12-21 18:19:33

Re: Online promoting

#19 2006-12-21 19:39:48

Re: Online promoting

#20 2006-12-22 15:18:34

Re: Online promoting

Active Discussions

Review Requests and Introductions

Board footer